Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-29
DUCK HUNTERS EAGERLY AWAIT
OPENING DAY
FIRST GUN WILL SOUND THE
SIGNAL
Club Houses In Marshes Filled with
Eager Shooters, Who Are Making
Grand Preparations for Be-
ginning of Season

ducks on the opening day of the season.
October /. Ducks are reported to be
abundant in all the club preserves and an
exceptionally good season is contem-
plated. There are twenty-seven clubs
near Los Angeles whose membership is
made up from residents of this city. ALI
the clubs together have a membership of
366 persons.
A large majority of the members will
be present on the club grounds for the
opening shoot of the season. One hum
dred and efghty-three men are preparing
to leave Los Angeles today and tomor-
row to be on the hunting grounds when
the season opens, Tuesday morning.
During the past two weeks nearly
carload of shells loaded with duck shot
have been distributed among the members
of the various clubs through the agency of
the various sporting goods houses In this
city. These establishments have been SO
crowded during the past week they have
had to take in extra help and work over
time to walt on customers. Hundreds of
new guns have been sold during the last
few days, and will go down with the
hunters to the various duck clubs
Work at the camps
Today and tomorrow members of the
various clubs will gather at their club
observation-disclosures which will break forth
at 6 o'clock on the morning of the 1st.
Decoys will be repainted and oiled to
make them stand up in the water. Old
hunting clothes will be washed out and
summed, preparatory to the seasons work
Blinds are being repaired and put In
shape to hide the hunters while they sit
during the wee hours of Tuesday morning
waiting for sunrise to announce the OPEN
ing of the season.
In most of the clubs signals have been
agreed upon and no man will begin to
shoot until the signal is givea by first
gun" This will give them fair chance
at the start, while the birds are tame.
Most of the clubs lie in two main
groups. The marsh back of Playa del
Rey is the home of number of clubs
The larger portion of the clubs, however,
lie among the marshes and ponds be-
tween Long Beach and Balboa. Many OF
the clubs have had the ducks fed during
the past two weeks in order to attract as
many as possible for the opening day.
| The game keepers in this section report
a great abundance Of birds on the wa
! ters.
| Birds Are Plentiful
| In some places water had to be pumped
| to fill the ponds and marsh holes where
| the ducks swim. Wells dug for the pur-
pose have been busy during the past
month, and all the pools are reported
well filed Everything points to an ex-
cellent season. judging from the amount
of ammunition laid in for the ducks. Be-
sides the ammunition. quantities of food
supplies have been laid in, to say nothing
of liquid refreshments, the latter to pre-
vent members from taking cold when
they get wet. Needless to say, all hunt
ers will be very cautious not to fall into
the water or get their feet wet.
One of the most popular clubs and the
one having the largest acreage under wa
ter is the Bolsa Chica club, composed Of
leading business men and financiers of
Los Angeles. The club has over forty
members and about half of these intend
to take part in the first days shoot. e.
J. Marshal, C.lP. Morehouse, James Slau-
son, John Lambert, William Bayly and
T. ]. Lendrum are going down for the
first days shoot. Jaro Won Schmidt, pres
ident of the club, will be there, as viii
also M. j. Connell, W. e. Dunn, H.: l..
Story and H. T. Kendall, E. w. Kerckhoff.
Edward r. Hull, John S. Cravens and o.
p. Posey. The grounds of the club are
located near Huntington Beach. They
are plentifully stocked and all the blinds
are in excellent condition, waiting the
coming of the members. The club house
of the Bolsa Chica is the most commodi-
Gus and one of the best appointed of any
of the local Southern California gun club
buildings.
Gather at AIamitos
At Alamitos a small and select crowd
members of the Alamitos Gun club and
Alamitos Annex Gun club, will gather
Monday to be ready for the Tuesdays s
bombardment. These two clubs are sep
arated only by wire fence and the mem-
bers of the two use the same club house,
which is located on the dividing line. The
grounds of the Alamitos Gun club belong
to Fred Bixby of Long Beach, +. p.
Burch, e. w. Hopperstead and 8. ]. My
rick compose the membership of this or
ganization, and all of these will be on
hand for the first days shoot. J. w.
Bixby of Long BeaclH Jim Jeffries of Los
Angeles, j. e. Fishburn and d. G.. Garri-
son compose the membership of this Ala
mitos Annex Gun club. All of these will
be present at the club house Monday and
Tuesday except Mr. Garrison, who Is in
Kansas City, and will not return in time
for the initial shoot.
The game keeper has been feeding the
ducks on the ponds of these joint clubs
for several weeks, and water has been
pumped for over a month from the two
pumps which supply the ponds and la
goons The members of this club expect
to get the limit early in the day. and
duck dinners are on the program of the
vAsious families Of the members for Tues
day evening.
From the Chico Land and Water Com
pany club Fred Maier, Ed Maier. Simon
Maier, Ed Golfer, Percy q. Schumacher,
Chris Hemphill. Henry Koch, M L. Koch,
Will Fox and Bob Golmer will go down
to the grounds of the club Monday. This
club has about nineteen members in all,
but a number of them are out Of the city
ct the present time and will not get in
on the initial shoot of the season.
At the Canvas Back
%. A. Featherstone of the Canvas
Back club, located near Bay City, will
take number of his fellow members
down in his automobile, They will
leave the city Sunday and stay until
the day of the shoot. Ed Hedderly,
Louis Denker and perhaps Samuel
schenck will go down with Mr.. Feath-
erstone.
Five members of the Centella Gun
club are planning to leave for the club
grounds either today or tomorrow. G.