Ernest Hemingway- circa 1939, when he gave a eulogy for Gene Van Guilder, Sun Valley Resort (Ketchum, ID) who was shot in a tragic canoe duck hunting accident, and died, leaving a wife and a young daughter--
The Oct/Nov issue of Field&Stream has a version of these lines- "Best of all, We love the Fall" and as Oct. and Nov. are my all-time favorite months of the entire year, I made the connection to my most favorite writer/sportsman of all- "Don Ernesto".
The accident occurred in late Oct 1939- Taylor Williams, head guide, was paddling the canoe (his shotgun unloaded and cased), Gene was in the bow, his shotgun ready for jump shooting at flushed ducks, and they had stopped and picked up Sun Valley employee Dave Benner, who sat in the middle, with his shotgun loaded (huge mistake)--Apparently, when ducks flushed from a backwater and Gene stood up to shoot (big mistake, as canoes are tippy, and the recoil on a standing hunter can affect balance way more than if he had remained seated-- and Dave, seeing multiple ducks flushing, fired, just as Gene rose up-- The full load of shot caught Gene in the upper back- he did not survive.
Taylor Williams saw the entire tragic accident- years afterwards he was still criticizing his failure to have Dave unload his shotgun before he got into the canoe--
I mention this, as being an avid waterfowler, and in past years, did a fair amount of river "jump shooting" from my camo-ed Grumman canoe-- ONLY the hunter in the bow has the gun (I also tied off the paddle with a length of rope, so I could drop it and pick up my shotgun, in case of flushing ducks--
So, with that line on the cover of F&S in mind, and surmising that many of us on this website are hunters, let me remind all of us, that safety is always a first concern, whenever we take to field, marsh, rivers- in the best time of the year- stay safe, "All the pheasants ever bred, won't repay for one man dead". RWTF
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 10/05/19 08:40 AM.
