Robertson Willie - American hunter : how legendary hunters shaped America

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Copyright 2015 by Willie Robertson and William Doyle

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible, which is public domain.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Howard Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Howard Books hardcover edition October 2015

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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

Jacket Design by Faceout Studio

Front Jacket Rifle Photograph Courtesy NRA/NRAMuseums.com

Front Jacket Willie Robertson Photo by John Hafner

Animal Images by Shutterstock and Istock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Robertson, Willie, 1972

American hunter : how legendary hunters shaped Americas history / Willie Robertson, William Doyle.First Howard Books hardcover edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

1.HuntingUnited StatesHistory. 2.HuntersUnited StatesHistory.

I.Doyle, William, 1957 II.Title.

SK41.R575 2015

639'.10973dc23

2015027766

ISBN 978-1-5011-1133-4

ISBN 978-1-5011-1135-8 (ebook)

To the American Hunter

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:19

B e still!

Phil whispers the command as he looks to the sky, gripping a twenty-gauge shotgun loaded with birdshot.

My brother Jase, Uncle Si, and I are crouched beside him, along with three of our buddies. Were hidden in a duck blind on our property in Northeast Louisiana near the Ouachita River. A duck flying overhead would never spot us. Were toting shotguns and wearing full duck-hunting camo. Our faces are smeared with black face paint and our ears are protected by plugs.

Its a good morning for duck hunting. The sun is burning off the mist and all is quiet except for the buzzing insects and the random sounds of the woods. Its nature in its purest form. Waiting, waiting, waitingwe do a lot of that.

Weve had our morning coffee and biscuits that we cooked up in a little stove we keep in the back of the blind. Peggy Sue, our black Labrador retriever, stands inside the edge of the blind, every muscle straining to pounce into action.

My brother Jase blows on a duck call we made in our shop. Most people would just hear your basic quack, quack, quack. But the call has been handcrafted with precision and sounds more like a duck than most ducks do. In duck language, it sounds like Hey, howre you doing? Come on down here! This pond is a great place for ducks to hang out with other ducks and do fun duck things. Our hand-painted decoy ducks are bobbing in the pond, a friendly party invitation.

Beauty of the hunt, 2008 (P AT H AGAN, US F ISH & W ILDLIFE S ERVICE )

One good ol boya poet named Ogden Nashsaid this about us duck-hunter types: The hunter crouches in his blind, / Neath camouflage of every kind. Thats ussix men versus a couple hundred juicy little birds.

Our guns are Mossbergs, made to our own specifications and under our own name. Theyre made in America, just the way we like. I prefer hunting with a twenty-gauge shotgun. Its lighter and you can swing it out a little more. Its not as powerful as some other guns and doesnt have as much range, but its good for ducks and quail, even doves. Its easier to handle and gentler on my shoulder than the impact of ten-gauges and twelve-gauges, the really powerful guns.

When youre ready to fire, your brain makes complex calculations based on years of shooting and muscle memory. Its always different. You never know exactly where the animal will come from or how it will move. Youve got to get out in front of those ducks and shoot ahead of their flight path so your shot hits them. Once you pull the trigger and fire, after your load travels thirty to forty yards, the bird drops.

Thats with a twenty-gauge. The whole idea with a twenty-gauge is to get the ducks to come in as close as possible so you can get a good clean shot. A twelve-gauge will reach out farther and you can take perhaps a sixty- or seventy-yard shot; youve got the power and the load to make it there. With a smaller-caliber gun, youd never take that shot; it wouldnt have enough range to reach its target.

I see a couple of big bass flipping around the pond and want to throw out a line and reel them in. But it would be risky to start fishing; I could totally lose the ducks.

Its September, early teal season in Louisiana, the time of year when enormous flocks of blue-winged ducks migrate during the Grand Passage from breeding grounds in Canada to below the border, as far south as Peru. Lots of them stop to take a break on our property. Like many other people, we are folks who look at ducks as a great food source. Ducks are eaten by many creatures, and were just another one in line.

Its the time of year when Phil busts out nuggets of backwoods wisdom, like The Grand Passage, it comes and then they go back. Most humans are totally unaware of it; theyre oblivious to it. Its happening right above their head. But they never look up to see it. They miss a lot. He says this kind of thing at the beginning of every season. The blue-wings on the move, the Grand Passage has begun. Brush your blinds. Grab your gun. Lets go kill some ducks, boys. Were an old-school farm to table family, or, in this case, sky to table.

The duck blind were hiding in is one of nearly seventy duck blinds on our thousand-acre property. Ducks are a lot like airplanes; theyre going to light (land) into the wind. So we position our blinds to capitalize on whatever direction the wind is blowing to get the ducks when theyre coming down. We have blinds where you can only hunt well on a south wind or a north wind, and we have one big open water blind where you can only hunt well when it rains.