"Magellan on the David Spiars Memorial Hunt"

The notation at the top of the journal page reads "The Donation Hunt: David Spiars Memorial" and under that "The Band, the Black and the Snow".  Everyone at MSDUCKS lost a friend when we suddenly lost David.  At one point, he posted on just about every thread, always kept a level head, and was quickly promoted to a moderator.  I never had the pleasure to get to know him that well, but by all accounts from those that did, he was a great person.  When he passed away, the forum members jumped in and donated hunts, calls, and pretty much everything under the sun for an auction.  The money raised was then donated to an educational fund for David's children.  Here's one of those hunts, which took place on some of David Melton's duck hunting ground.

DATE: 12/12/2010
TEMPERATURE: 31 degrees and falling
LOCATION: the "Bull Pen" in Prichard, MS
WEATHER: WNW winds at 20 mph with snow flurries
KILLS: 19 malllards (10 drakes, 9 hens with one being banded), 1 BLACK DUCK, 1 Gadwall, 3 Greenwing Teal, 11 shovelers
FRIENDS: Jeff "GH22" Estes, Josh "Quackers" Ates, TJ "Dukbum" Penick, Chris Williams, Richard Williams, Chris Woods, David Melton
DOGS: HR Hunter, Bull

This was probably one of the top 3 coldest hunts that I've ever been on, and by for the best of them all.  We were getting hammered by birds some 10 minutes before shooting time.  Once shooting time arrived, it was "game on".  That 20+ mph wind was hitting us dead in the face, thus forcing the birds to work the outter edges of the spread.  We had to make longer shots, but we did pretty good.  We had 10 mallards in the first 20 minutes of shooting.  Somewhere during these vollies, we managed to kill a black duck without realizing it for almost 2 hours.  A solo greenhead comes over, and everyone but me cuts loose.  This allowed me to see who actually killed it.  TJ called the bird when he fell, but Bubba had the last shot and made it count.  Bull brought the bird back and the argument began, which I was able to quickly settle.  More fun began around 9 a.m., when the snow began to fall.  Killing mallards in a snow storm is a great site to see.  We ended the hunt by working on the shoveler population a bit, "breaking weak" trying to wait out for some more green.

photo below:

 

Photo courtesey of Jeff Estes

 

Photo courtesy of T.J. Penick



MANY THANKS to the MSDUCKS crew for a fine recount of a great hunt!

Keep checking back, we've got some great hunts and historical locations coming up!

-Justin