out to gather our reward
while the rest of us celebrated
with high-fives. We were retelling the story of what
just happened when we heard a “ping” and looked
out into the field. There was Jake finishing off a
bird that had not expired yet with his BB gun. To
him, he was doing just as us guys had… but we
knew he didn’t have any ammo. You see, when I
was a kid, my Dad had me carry an unloaded BB
gun on rabbit hunts to learn the safe way to handle
a firearm, and I was raising my son using the same
method.
Jake got the birds picked up and back to our
blind. A few minutes later we heard a drake mallard
whistle, acknowledging that he wanted to join the
party along with a dozen or so of his
friends. The wind was right and
those birds worked great. We
were fortunate enough to
take a few more mallards.
Now, this was not
intended to be a duck hunt.
We didn’t even have duck
decoys, but it was working.
The magic 9:30 a.m. was
quickly approaching and it
www.livethewildlifetv.com
wasn’t long till we heard a Canada goose
honk in the distance. “Flag ‘em,” I yelled
and everyone went on point, watching a group
of nine geese who had laid eyes on our decoys.
Here they came. I called softly as the geese weren’t
talking much, just a honk every once in a while.
These birds set their wings straight out front and
slowly glided into gun range. Once again, Dad gave
the signal and the volley rang out, “bang, bang,
bang… ping!” Three geese fell. “I got one!” Jake
shouted. You can imagine our laughter.
There sure wasn’t much for birds around, and
we could have been doing other things, but I
wouldn’t trade anything for that day in the field or
the memories made. It may not work as expected,
but the laughs, the good times,
and even some education was had
by all of us that day because we
didn’t count it out.
Jeff Faulkenberry is a
Professional Hunting and Fishing
guide working out of Bucksaw
Marina on Truman Lake, Missouri.
His expertise is waterfowl, turkey, and
all species of fish. To book a guide trip,
call Jeff (660) 351-5420 or Bucksaw Marina
(660) 477-3900.
31