# Duck Hunting



## Boogity (Apr 23, 2005)

Great story, 3 goldens. Isn't it amazing how the breed just "KNOWS" what to do. I have a very similar story about our dear departed Woody. He was the most wonderful dog we ever had. I bet you'll always have fond memories and a slight ache in your heart for Scooter.


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

My 2 girls would rather hunt than eat. I am retired and hunt ducks this time of year at least 4 days a week. I alternate them. They sit and scan the sky for hours. I really dont even need to watch for the ducks because they will alert you when ducks are close...ears up and that intent look. My younger golden (Dixie) is my fourth in a line of goldens I have hunted over since 1974. I always get strong field lines and I spend lots of time in the off season training and competing in hunt tests and field trials. While some of it is natural, doing long 2 to 300 yard gliders, multiple falls, and teaching them to handle to ducks they didnt see go down takes many hours of training. 
While they are my hunting dogs, they are also my pets and best buddies. They are in the house every evening and ride in the truck to the grocery store or wherever with me. I still miss my first one and all have been very talented and unique.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

A zillion ducks winter here on the Texas coast, so there is never a shortage of them==just sometimes a shortage of a variety. On the last time I hunted with Ron and Scooter, we were not hunting from a blind, but just a little makeshift thing in some weeds on the shoreline. Ron got his limit of 2 redheads right away. But they kept coming in. I would see a drove coming from my end of the blind, and then recoginize them and just say "heads", and then Ron would see coming coming from his end--same thing. They just kept coming. Scooter could hear their wings and hear them land and he was just trembling and watching Ron--and couldn't understand why Ron's gun was not coming up. In about an hour's time there must have been 400 redheads come in and light out in and around the decoys (we had tedhead, bluebill, pintail and teal set out). Scooter could hear them not 10 feet in front of us, bills clacking as they fed and he was shaking so darn bad. He would stick his head out thru the weeds and few pieces of brush we had stuck in the mud, then pull back and look at Ron. Then he FINALLY did something no duck dog should do--he bolted out and right into the water. You should hav heard about 400 ducks getting up at once. What a sound. Be we couldn't not be mad at Scooter. he didn't understand all those ducks coming in drove after drove and Ron was not shooting.

We have found redheads to be the most stupid of ducks. Several times we were out picking up the decoys andScooter would be playing in the water and redheads would actually come in and almost land. Out of what we hunt, pintails seem to be the most leary.

Another thing, once a drove of redheads came in and Ron dropped two dead as doornails. But when Scooter brought the 2ed one back, it was a lot larger and it took us a couple of minutes to realize it was a canvass back, not a redhead. The most ovious difference is that sloped head of the canvass back. Is it common for canvass backs to travel with redheads? We had never seen it before. Another rareity was the time my brother was hunting with Ron and got a Mallard--which we call puddle ducks here as they do not usually come to the salt water.

Ron was so crazy about his Scooter. I think it was Scooter's 3red year to hunt and on the next to last day he cut his leg jut above his foot on sylster shell (we think that wsa what it was) and Ronnie rushed him home to get him to the vet. Ron had gotten 99 ducks and he wanted to hit over 100 for the year. BUT because Scooter could not hunt the next day, Ron would not go either as he didn't want to "hurt Scooter" by leaving him behind. 

Ron never allowed Scooter to ride in the back of his pick-up no matter how wet and muddy he was. And when we got home, Scooter got a warm bath in the bathtub to get the salt water and mud out of his coat (he slept in the bed with Ron at night). Scooter died in Aug. 1999 and Ron has never gotten over the loss.


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## shaneamber (Apr 20, 2005)

Ron was a lucky fella to have had a Golden like Scooter in his life.What a team they made.
I was allowed to go rabbit hunting when I was 10.They said when I could carry a shotgun all day and bag at least 1 rabbit,I could then go duck hunting with them.They gave me grandpa's 10 ga single shot.It had a long barrel made for geese.
I carried that monster around for a couple of hours when we heard the beagles bringing a rabbit right at us.They helped me load a shell,(high brass buck shot) got me positioned, and when I saw the rabbit I fired.It blew me back a good 5 feet and the only things left of that rabbit was a big stain and some fur.When they finally stopped laughing,they picked me up and carried the shotgun for me.My shoulder hurt for a long time,but I got a 410 for rabbit and used my Dads 12 ga for duck.
I haven't hunted for a very long time,too many other things I'd rather do.
Shane


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