doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ot fO jO, Grand pappy & mammy thread.

Dang you must be over a hundred years old...

So he was a kwar.


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Death by nostalgia: It isn�t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice�there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork and the other is nostalgia. When you compute the length of time between �The Event� and �Nostalgia for The Event�, the span seems to be about �a year less in each cycle�. Eventually, within the next quarter of a century the nostalgia cycles will be so close together that people will not be able to take a step without being nostalgic for the one they just took. At that point everything stops. Death by Nostalgia. Frank Zappa

JOe, nearer that hundred than that zero. I started duck hunting as a wee lad. Started going with my grandfather at age four. No gun for me at that age. Killed my first duck at six. A big fat black duck. Used Grandpaws 12 double with a little help from him. He used a hand to take most of the weight but I got to swing the gun. Rolled that black duck out of the air about 20 yards away. I was hooked on hunting, duck hunting and doubles.

Boat rides were always great at any age. We had hard marsh which was easy to walk. Before WWII they ran dairy cows out on it. Within the five family farms on the creek there were a dozen blinds. Setup so direction of wind or tide level never kept us from having a prime place to go. As a boy it was heaven.

Half that land is now a state owned refuge. Might as well be a parking lot at Walmart for all the ducks it now holds. But 50 years ago I could show you ducks. Wood duck, teal and local summer ducks early season, then mallards, grey ducks and black ducks. Out near the mouth of the creek we had couple blinds for red heads, divers and cans. I still have wood duck nesting boxes but rarely see any ducks on the creek anymore.

Great story Jon: Love the baiting "situation" How did the wardens figure the 100 yards, 250 yards- etc. baiting zones on the Bay? Sounds a bit like Nash Buckingham's description of the "baiting zone" on Doves in Deep Dixie. Here in MI- if you are shooting near a "baited area", even if you didn't set out the bait yourself, you are in violation.

The mailman route and the quail remind me of a Havilah Babcock story- substitute a railroad man for the mailman and you have the whole enchillada- Nobody could write about Dixie Dawgs and quails and doves like the lates: Buckingham and Babcock--RWTF

RWTF,
In Alabama( part of the deep south) if it is part of normal farming operations, it is not baiting.
Mike

That's the way it is in TN also, but running a wheat drill over a field without the coverers engaging the ground is "NOT" normal agricultural practice, which a Hoard of TN dove shooters from a few years back can attest to. The Farmers scattered the wheat, with a drill, in a wheat field. He then charged for shooting over the field, but the shooters paid the fines, the "Baiter" got off free because he wasn't shooting, just collecting the money.

They were sowing the field per Normal Agricultural practice once for the crop, then making sure there was plenty of exposed wheat on top of the ground for the Shooter Crop. That second sowing was not Normal Agricultural practice.

And that's another thing I like about the South- to quote the late Phil Harris-- I once hunted a private farm here in SW MI corn taken off about 2-3 days before we did our morning set-up-- nice 80 acre field, woodlands and a good sized pond, several valleys and drain ditches-

We were all legal- waterfowl stamps, steel shot, plugged magazines- and my companions were fellow DU guys- just as legal shooting opened and a few geese headed our way, a DNR jeep pulled into the lane where we had parked the trucks and the trailer for the field decoys-

We had been checked before, so we held off until the "Raccoon Rangers" did their thing-- After we were checked and passed, the younger of the two walked around and told us, our decoys were set in a "baited field" !! WTF?? The residue from the corn picking scattered on the ground was, in his mind- an illegal bait- so we had 2 choices- (1) Give up the hunt, or (2) clean up all the scattered corn and husks- then and only then would be not in violation of the "No bait" rule-- Figure that one out, if you can.. RWTF

Baiting was legal, if not within a certain distance. You absolutely could not shoot over top your bait. When I came along it was 250 yards and men were complaining about just a few years earlier, when it use to be 100 yards, things were better. It�s always better in the old days. What you would do is put your bait up a small gut on either side of your blind, 250 or more yards away. It kept ducks in the marsh and kept them moving from stash to stash. Again it was legal. But people abused it, some would sneak up on the spot and shoot a few ducks when they wanted to. Others just killed too many ducks I guess. So they made it 500 yards and later any bait within a mile was not allowed. This was state, not federal law. But I never saw a federal game warden growing up. I sure saw enough state ones.

People have a misconception that if you bait you will kill every duck which ever eats your bait. You get a very small percentage, if any. I�ve fed many a bird which migrated away before I ever shot them. Most will eat and move on long before you ever see them. But we were not the only ones feeding ducks. I bet there were several thousand baited places all up and down the Chesapeake Bay. The entire area held healthy, well fed, fat birds.

My Grandfather, who delivered the mail, bought a used Oldsmobile, 28 or 29 about 1931. He said he killed more rabbits with that car than any shotgun he ever owned. They would be sitting in the grass, along the side of the road. When that car came by they would jump or run. I think he aimed his wheel at them and ran many a bunny down. Some got hit by the tire and some got hit by the underbody if the car. It does not take much to kill a rabbit. If not hurt too bad he�d throw them on the floor in the back seat to take home to feed his family. If the were tore up he�d stop and offer them to one of the colored families. Half or more would be in good shape so even a bad one had a fair amount of meat. People were hungry and glad for a bit of free meat.

When I was a boy I often took a rabbit, duck or squirrel to a poor person we knew. All were glad for the bounty. Miss Mary, a colored, now called a black lady, often asked me to save all the muskrat heads when I was trapping muskrats. I�d give her a couple rats and a dozen or more heads. She would cook them up and eat for days. Cracking those heads with a nutcracker to get those brains out.

My father would sometimes kill a dozen chickens just before they were to be sold for market. Most ended up in the freezer. I�d be given the job of taking a bird here and there to neighbors who were not too well off. Neighbors took care of each other and you learned young that others had it much harder than you did.

One of the things wrong with this country is we stopped doing that. We expect the government to do it for us. That and they won�t let me bait within 250 yards of my blinds. God what I�d give for a limit of six, fat, corn or bean fed ducks. A Mallard, a Black, a Canvasback and a couple teal, wood ducks or grey ducks. That was good eating. Along the way I�d check my muskrat traps to see if I�ve got any blacks, or if all browns this year. Black hides fetched 25 cents more most year. I guess JOe was right, I am getting old.

Stan, when did your granddad's house get electricity? A lot of the rural south wasn't electrified until the 1930's. City folks had it, though. Gil

I bet they had to pipe the sunshine in...