Canned Duck by Dr. Paul Bambara

A trio of mallards swooped down the wooded embankment in front of blind, swung out to the right and circled low over our decoys directly in front of blind, “Picture Perfect “. Six shots later, 2 ducks lay on the water and the 3rd was coming back for another look at all those ducks sitting on the pond and quacking enticingly at him. My partner and I frantically stuffed more shells into our empty guns just in time to open fire once again and produce a third duck for Tom’s Labrador to fetch back to our blind. As we added these latest ducks to our growing pile, we just couldn’t stop laughing. That morning, 4 of us would go on to shoot 38 mallards, going through almost 200 shells in the process, and having more fun than should be legal. Before you do the math and call the authorities, you must realize we were at a wonderful shooting preserve only 2 hours drive from New York City.

I had always been against canned duck hunts, having grown up adjacent to a marsh that I duck hunted in virtually every day of the season from the time I was 12 until I moved away for college 6 years later, and we had long seasons back then. I would get up, walk out the door, shoot the dawn flight, go to school, come home and shoot the sunset flight. Since I also ran a trap line at the same time, this was a daily occurrence. That kind of access to quality duck hunting is not available to the average person in the East anymore. A few years ago, we decided to try a hunt with Tom Mackin at TMT preserve in the beautiful Hudson River Valley north of New York City. To say I have a new appreciation for a quality preserve duck hunt is an understatement. We now have every Election Day booked for the foreseeable future. Friends beg to come along, but the original 4 almost never say NO!

Kevin C Paulson
Founder and CEO
HuntingLife.com
http://www.HuntingLife.com

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