"So It Really is the Luck of the Draw - part 1 - by Rick Daughtry"

Well as everyone anticipated, the opening day of the MS season was a mad house at most public areas across the state. Arriving early, Alan and I realized we had never seen so many trucks at the office - even past openers.  Luckily, we were in on the "pre-draw".  You could hardly squeeze through the mass of hunters to get to the sign in table. Finally we did, and shortly thereafter, the draw began.There were so many folks the the local LEO did not know how to handle it.  I actually made the suggestion that everyone go outside except for the guys that were actually goint to draw the numbered pegs.  Realizing this was probably the best move, he quickly agreed, and everyone went outside to wait, except the 53 guys drawing - which is still crowded.  Anyhow, I was the third hunter out of 53 to pick, and as luck would have it, I drew "25". Now, let me remind you there are only 26 units open to hunt - NOT GOOD.  We wind up with a unit that I have killed many birds in, but with the new 5am draw, it did not leave us much time to get there.  As matter of fact we didn't get finished setting up until after shooting time.  This may have cost us a few shots, but honestly, there were just very few birds using our unit.  The particular unit we were relegated to only had a few inches of water, most of which could be found in the drainage ditches and few potholes.  Again, NOT GOOD.  Conditions for the hunt equated to a cold, hard wind and as stated, little to no water in the unit.  This equated to high flyers giving us no effort to come to our calling.  Luckily, we did have a group of 3 mallards come within range, and we managed to kill the greenhead.  Those were the only shots to be fired that morning.  Had we hunted from layouts, we may have been able to move and have more shooting opportunities, but as the LUCK of the DRAW would have it, that was the end of the MS opening day at Mahannah for Magellan.  Sorry ole boy, but I'll make it up to you.

CHECK BACK FOR PART 2 OF MAGELLAN'S TRIP TO MISSISSIPPI PUBLIC LAND WITH RICK