The San Francisco call., 1910-02-13

The close season for wild ducks,
black sea brant and all shore birds,
with the exception of snipe begins
Tuesday and hunters who have not al
ready retired, satisfied or otherwise,
with sport as they found ii will have
their last lookin at the shooting re-
sorts today. 1t is possible that a con-
tinuance of fine weather will furnish
an excuse for some gunners to remain
on the shooting grounds tomorrow and
Tuesday, but as far as the city dwell
ing members of the shooting frater-
nifty are concerned the season will
practically wind up with today. Snipe
shooting Will be legally sanctioned I'M
I'll the end of next month, though no
one around the bay counties interested
in shooting seems to know why it
should be. These dainty game birds
are already mating and should be ac-
corded the same protection as other
wild fowls, in this region at least. AS
the preservation and propagation of
game of all kinds is of great import
ance to the state, it is hoped that the
snipe shooting season will be shortened
at the next session of the legislature.
SPORT ON LAST LEGS
on its last legs for the last two weeks
or so. conditions having been such that
shooters seldom had anything to en-
thuse over Only in rare instances
were limit bags killed, results being
slim as a rule with the most expert
marksmen, because of a scarcity of
game at the shooting resorts. In fact,
If the weather had not taken a turn
for the better last week the season
would 8 G C1
The preserves on the Suisun marsh
were even quieter last Sunday than on
the few preceding shooting days, that
region having been deserted by most
of the hunters who maintained head
quarters there early in the sea son.
Several of the Volante club members
took a run UP to the preserve and had
q nice days sport. among them being
Jim Maynard, who had Clarence Haight
along as his guest. They bagged
number of snipe and quite few OF
the broadbills, but their ducks cost
them more than one she'll each. II.
Blatchley and Pete Howard also had
fair shoot, killing joint bag of about
20. Maynard and Haight were up to
the grounds again Wednesday with
Ned Bosqui and George Uhl and found
sport much better than on the previous
visit. The quartet's joint kill included
two limit strings, teal predominating
in the bags.
Sport picked up little in the Los
Banos country during the week. H, w.
Gray killed limit bag of teal ard
spoonbills down that way recently, and
Doctor Key had a good shoot on the
Gustine club preserve last Sunday.
Otto Feudner was in receipt of letter
from G. Huber of Newman during the
week. The writer said that ducks were
plentiful but they did not seem in
clined to leave the river and it was
hard to say whether shooters could
connect with them. This is usually the
condition of affairs around Newman
and Gustine toward the close of the
season.
RAIN SPOILS SHOOTING
About the best sport for the week
was had on the bay shores, particu-
larry on San Pablo bay. There were
more hunters on the west San Pablo
shores last Sunday than at any time
for several weeks past and the shoot
ing was good until the rain commenced
falling late in the afternoon.
Henry Crocker of San Rafael, Ray
Mecehi, Bill Cuneo and Harry Obertz
shot from the tules near Ignacio and
had from fair to excellent sport with
teal, cans and bI1ebills. Jack Nc
Govern and julius Eruns had an en-
joyab1e outing on the west shore Tues
day. Ihey shot from the doat1ng
blinds of Vigorit for few hours and
got 19 ducks, mostly bluebills, be-
tween them.
The inclement weather cut down the
attendance of shooters on the east
shore of the lower bay on the first day
of the week. There were very few
shooters on the AIvarado marsh and
ducks were none toe plentiful. George
Franzen was out. with two friends and
the trio connected with about Is each,
some of which were thoroughly satu-
rated with OIL John Biller and Ed
Kerrison bagged 10 and Is respectively
before the rain checked their shooting
activities. Kerrison IS one hunter who
expresses himself rs being well salts
fed with the seasons sport. In ii
a total of ESQ ducks, an average of 20
trip. This comes near to being the
seasons record for east shore shoot
ing.
ELKHORN PRESERVE POOR
Only seven members of the Empire
preserve last Sunday and they were
hardly repaid for their trouble and the
expense their outing entailed. Charles
d. Laing and w. o. Cullen were high
guns for the day, their team work net
ting them bag of 15 birds. The best
the others in the party could do was to |
bag an occasional stra ggler.
1t looks as though the trap shooting |
season will not begin until late this |!