Bo, my hard-headed but reliable retriever, went to work. We've only been hunting two minutes, and three of you already have your limit. Since I couldn't tell who shot what duck, I instructed the hunters to determine among themselves who was still duck hunting and which three men were finished unless a goose wandered within range. They were stunned. Surely each of them could go ahead and shoot another duck or two, they presumed, so long as it wasn't another high-point hen.
Rules are rules.
None of us liked them much, but we liked duck hunting enough that we kept going even when regulations were tight and prospects weren't all that great. The point system ended in 1987 and was replaced the following year with a more restrictive but easier to follow three-duck daily bag. That, and a 39-day season with a sunrise shooting time. Lightweights took up golf, but the rest of us held our muddy ground and vowed to orchestrate change for the better. It was through that period and into the early '90s that waterfowl hunters took an aggressive, pro-active role in the recovery of critical nesting and wintering habitat across the continent.