*Saving the tundra one truckload at a time *Finale*

[iron grip]

[duckamateur]

[Double R 2]

[Spoonallard]

[Double R 2]

The Waterfowler and Co wrapped up the sping snow goose CO without me....momma let me hunt nearly 90 days since September and I guess I really needed to stay home...you gotta kindof ease them into these things, a step at a time!

Pretty interesting, left to right: Ross, Blue/Ross' hybrid, Ross' and Snow/Ross' hybrid! all out of the same flock!


This weekend 5 guns shot 200 geese and called it quits...kills are being reported in South Dakota already, the southern pipeline is all but dry. The club killed 3,195 light geese this year...


It was a big year to say the least, daily, weeekend, and season records were broken. Already looking forward to next year, which starts for some of us in 6 short months!

[duckamateur]

Looks like a great time Ramsey!!! I agree with an earlier post! I think this may be one of the times when we show these pictures to our kids and grandkids, and they think HOLY CRAP, the "Good Old Days!!!" I hope I am wrong and my 5 year old can get in on one of these shoots! Look forward to getting a few shoots in with you next year of vice versa!!

David

[MUD DUK]

[RedEyed Duck]

[Double R 2]

I'm glad y'all apreciated it, redeyed duck and others...that big picture has been EVERYWHERE...I've had it sent to ME several times after it made the loop via email, and it's been posted on many waterfowling or hunting/fishing related websites...though an obvious minority, there were more than a few that found the picture(s) "sickening" and unnerving and have had our ethics, respect for wildlife, personal character, palates, credibility (we "obviously photoshopped it") and blood lineage (neaderthalesque backwoods redneck killers, which I can't fully deny) assailed from other hunters, or persons nonetheless claiming to be so. We have near singlehandedly, as opined by some, provided ammo to the PETAs of the world with which they will be triumphant in their quest to end hunting globally! While some critics seemed to suffer profoundly of penis envy (it's liek my friend the waterfowler says: winners laugh and tell jokes, loser yell deal cards), many are simply appalled, shocked, at the site of that many dead birds which, despite being perfectly legal and encouraged as serving the true intent of the Conservation Order must somehow be - wrong! - especially if time is taken to arrange the animals for a photograph and actually *gasp* show them!!

The true intent of the CO is to kill LOTS (i.e., a million plus) breeding snow geese (adults birds) - it's not about us spending additional quality time afield with our friends and family. FWS would never have endorsed it, Congress would never have authorized it on that merit alone. FWS surmised that to reduce the population by such practices as egging breeding colonies (at an estimated $1 Million per) was cost prohibitive, and degredation to the ecosystem would be to the derision not only of snow geese themselves but to a myriad of other arctic-dependent migratory bird species (shorebirds). So they hatched a plan whereby those with the skills, smarts, determination and ambition to do something about it because it was FUN - waterfowlers - could do so legally! Hard work? Sure! Fun? You betcha! Why the hell else would we drag out of bed away from momma in the middle of the night, trek across wet environs and go through the effort of hunting ducks - when on the best days we kill a whopping 6 birds - in climatic conditions generally characterized as "the colder the better"? Because we enjoy it!

Why do we photodocument the events of our lives, hunting or anything else? Because in the flicker of a moment we create a tribute to the events, people and places that give our lives meaning. Might not every single hunting photograph in your photo album be described as a "tribute to the hunters, the hunted and the hunt"? And what about PETA and the 80% sitting on the sidelines? If such photos as 1029 might fuel the flames of antihunting, might it be safely reasoned that hunters will be heralded for having curbed an environmental crisis if the CO succeeds? Probably not. So I ain't letting that tail wag this dog, boys!

Here's the way I look at the CO folks: for a brief time in history, an opportunity to extend the sport you love for an additional 2 months has been made available. In participating in it you're actually contributing to the perpetuity of a wildlife species, participating in an honest-to-God wildlife population mangement agenda....and having FUN while you're doing it. Whether the CO succeeds and the population is curtailed, or it fails and the population crashes, it will come to an end one day - so get it while the getting is good; create those Kodak moments that decades from now will be looked upon by your waterfowling grandchildren as the real, real "good old days". No apologies, no regrets.

[mudsucker]

Tell it Brother

[duckamateur]

TTT

[Double R 2]