Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-02-16
DUCK HUNTING ETIQUETTE.
COURTESY APPRECIATED ON
sFoRTsMEN'S PRESERVES.
Faiiacy of Long Shooting and Other
Misunderstanding Around Out of
Blinds Common and Bad Break.

shooting has undergone marked
change from the simple rule at every
man for himself that governed wild
fowl hunters twenty years ago. The
character of the sport itself has al
tered considerably. Not that the
ducks are not just as hard 30 get; a
careful comparison of the bags and
arms of those times with tire wonder
fully improved fowling pieces and nj
tro-powder ammunition of today ought
to prove to any man that the present
scarcity and wiidnsss of game birds
make the killing Of fifty as difficult
feat as was the slaughteriag of 200
then. The only difference in the
sporting feature of duck shooting is
that in days gone by half all quite oors
was big natural preserve, stocked
copiously with fowl, while now the
preserved ground is but a small por-
tion of the big marshes, and ducks
have decreased in the same proper
ton. Then, every man who cared to
shoulder a gun could make sure Of
his days sport; now the settling up
of the games Businesses, together
with the Incidental drainage of
marshes and the multiplication of
hunters that always comedies with
increase in population, has made it
q prime necessity for those who wish
sport to buy and maintain at great
expense large areas of suitable land
upon which the natural conditions
must be initiated and kept up. Not
alone this, but the members of these
corporations must deny themselves
many days in each year in order that
the game may multiply, and be left
part of the time undisturbed.
Taking the duck marsh as case
in point. present etiquette will be
found radically different from the kill
'em all any old way" policy that dom
mated most shooters of quarter
century ago. Then, if there were
enough gunners on Any given BIT OF
marsh to at all interfere with each
other, every man for himself was the
word. Now, owing to the high prices
of land and the sharp demand for
gun-cluD memberships, it is almost
invariably the case that several men
will be shooting within hail OF each
other, and in order to enjoy the sport
properly it is a prime necessity for
each to sacrifice something to the
common benefit Blinds are not al
ways equally good, and the object of
every field day on duck marsh is to
give all taste of the sport.
Rules are made by all clubs, and
they are broken as fast as they are
put upon the books, but there are GER
tain unwritten laws among veteran
knights OF. the trigger, unknown to
shg Younger shooters, or at least I'M
appreciated, which makes for better
sport to all, and conduce strongly to
the betterment of any given preserve.
One of the first bad breaks a young
shooter makes on duck marsh is the
common error of entering too good
an opinion of his gun; in other words,
shooting persistently at birds that are
out of range. This practice cripples
many ducks and benefits nobody but
the coyotes. owls and weasel3, against
whose work the hand OF every sports
man should be raised 1t invariably
exchanges a poor chance for half a
dozen forty-yard shots. makes birds
even wilder than usual. which is I'M
necessary, and consequence spoils evr
ervbody's sport Often persistent
long shooting IS born Of the gunner's
inability to judge distance. Birds can
be knocked over at sevenLy-nVe
yards-sometimes A good gun ought
10 make a duck sick 81 fifty yards
regularly, but the best pieces cannot
be depended upon much over that dis
lance, and many guns are not rellaDie
at eight rods. There are dozens OF
rules among shooters for telling when
a bird is close enough to shoot, but
an excited man forgats them all. In
general it is safe to let duck or
flock of ducks come UP just as close
as they will, they ere sure TO be
quite far enough away even then. All
the ducks one will spoil by shooting
them too close can be put in hat at
the end of The day.
Another charming habit men have
in some of the clubs is tEe pedestrian
fever which takes them out OF their
blinds upon long, aimless ramh'ings
over the march, after a winged spoon
bill. maybe; oItcner after nothing at
all Stopping at each blind TO pass
ir1d l-naninO
more or less continuous borubardment
at teal jumping out of range. the
hang out the unmistakable nothing
doing" signs for the feathered hosts
overhead, AMI naturally fe% ducks
can come down within range SO long
as the shotgun infantry is marching
and countormarching below. AZ
stated luIls in the fight everybody
can get out to pick up the birds, and
all might as well be doing it as any
one man. The habit some people
have of chasing every duck as soon
as 1t is knocked down is inexcusable;
another charge Of snot is FAR more ae-
curate and speedier as a stoppage OF
cripples.
rhe object hunting ducks is TO
Get as many high class birds as pos
sible. yet inexperienced hunters per
sist in taking long chances at spoon
hills or wiretails when the sprigs and
widgeon are circluing overhead Be
fore walloping g poor devil OF a
spoonie. most of the old-timers take a
souint around to see that no big birds
are in the air, or else chalk of the
spoonies altogether, though they are
worthy of more respect than the aver
age crack shot gives them
The psychological popularity which
prompts some men TO cop" out a
duck that does not belong to them
when they would scorn to appropriate
anything else not theirs, battles all
analysis. and is happily rather rare.
Equally misleading is the hallucina-