You might be Old School if.....

[Anatidae]

...if you ever......

• cut-up the cotton crab line that you used last Summer, to use as decoy lines
• used old spark plugs for decoy anchors
• only had 3 brands of decoys to choose from....Victor, Pascagoula and Herter's
• You had a full Herter's catalog in your bedside table (instead of Mack's)
• shooting paper shells with names like Ted Williams, Peters, or Sure Shot.

[tombstone]

I remember the red balls, and paying $33 dollars for the first gore tex gloves with thinsulate. That was alot of money for gloves in '80 or so. Herters catalogs and reloading hulls. Those hulls were ALL PLASTIC green hulls that had a green plastic disc that snapped over the end instead of a crimp. Anybody else remember those. I do remember points and lead. I remember coming home with a wood duck in hand and considering it a successful trip too.

[mfalkner]

Hmm. I was too "poor boy" to have a 3 wheeler back in the day, I remember those half-mile wade-in excursions in Skuna Bottom or Spring Creek bottom. Non-insulated waders and my dad's old army field jacket that weight 19 lbs before adding water.

Remember buying those cheap Fiocchi shells cuz it was cool to see fire shoot out your barrel early?

Remember blowing all your points on the wrong bird?

Remember we had like 7 old Flambeau dekes with seagrass twine and spark plug weights in a towsack.

Best thing I remember was my buddy Kerry having Hodgman waders which were 3" shorter than ours, and he couldn't get across a certain beaver ditch. Still, American ingenuity being what it is, and us having a sweet mallard hole in the woods - he found a belly boat/innertube deal. Gonna show us a thing or two. Nice cold morning, breaking ice going in. Randy and I crossed the ditch first, then we hear a strange noise and look back to see the (capsized) belly boat and two feets up in the air, kicking like a bug on its back. I guess if he hadn't stuck his gun barrel in the mud and flipped over he'd a drowned because we were helpless..... I laughed so hard I pi$$ed my waders and ended up as cold as he was.

[swamprooter]

Can was 100pts
greenhead was 25pts
susie was 50? or 75?
pintail was 10pts!!
gadwall was 25 pts?
coot was 10pts.
Canada was closed.
Snow goose was 2birds

can't remeber the rest

[GulfCoast]

Can was 100pts
greenhead was 25pts
susie was 50? or 75?
pintail was 10pts!!
gadwall was 25 pts?
coot was 10pts.
Canada was closed.
Snow goose was 2birds

can't remeber the rest

Redhead was 100 points

[MSDuckmen]

Can was 100pts
greenhead was 25pts
susie was 50? or 75?
pintail was 10pts!!
gadwall was 25 pts?
coot was 10pts.
Canada was closed.
Snow goose was 2birds

can't remeber the rest

Redhead was 100 points

Actually
Gads were 10
Teal were 10
Pintail were 10
Widgeon were 10
spoonies were 10
Scaup were 10
Red heads were 100
wood ducks were 75
Hen mallards were 75
Drake mallards were 25
black ducks were 100

That is how my journals show it back then. Things I can remember back then were we never shot a hen Mallard and loaded up on Gads and Widgeons.
Many times we would come out with 2 drake mallards and 7 10 point ducks as we always shot the mallards last. You could go over 100 but only if the last bird put you over.

Once I had 195 points as I took a black duck as my last duck when I was sitting with 95 points in ducks before the shot.

[swamprooter]

If you throw 1 hen decoy right by your blind and call it "your calling Hen" . I still do it
If you call a decoy a "da'-coy"

[ewd506]

You remember most the ducks and their Point Value----Thats old school

Shootin #4 lead-------full choke----smack down!!!

peach brandy

[eSJay]

If you throw 1 hen decoy right by your blind and call it "your calling Hen" . I still do it
If you call a decoy a "da'-coy"

+1
Also; you might be old school if you ever listend to Jim "Cowboy" Fernandez's duck calling instructional cassette tape. I loved that guy! "ever shot ducks in the butt?"

[Gumbo]

#4 lead would knock them on their backs....

[Denduke]

Still got my Jon'e and yentzen.
Wore canvas hunt coat with wrap around game bag and "jones" style hat.
Wood ducks in Arkie were protected when I was a kid.
Only had hip boots...then rubber waders that you patched tears by heating up rubber tape to repair.
Didn't use de coys till later on the coasts marsh, loud booty Victors; called and kicked the water in the pin oak flats.
Used an old Savage 12 that was built on a Browning A5 patent. Action was like slow mo...
No gun strap, face hood, duck strap....careful not to get shells wet..Neopreme came later and was for scuba suits.
Wouldn't have considered just breasting.
Grandma wanted feathers for pillars and beds.
The 7 1/2 Johnson had 2 part hose from tank.
Didn't have a clue about deer scrapes or thought about using scents...did see rubs.
Got caught home hunting during college by a Fed. Pop and G. Maw made that dude feel bad...youngin coming home to hunt Arkie and outa state, MS, fine $50.
Got throw in the drunk tank in Billyoxy dressed in WWII camo once with pard shooting dosgris leward of the shrimp fleet docked at Marvars. Fined $50 discharge in city limits. Judge was working on his boat as pellets rained down.
First year M'sipi state stamp ticket on Goula river and actually had kilt a wigin.. Ignorance is no excuse boy! $29 fine.
Had a helicopter 'bout blow us away running us outa Iwanta Co. of Delaware, east pearl, OS 5 day La. license $3.70

May not be too old school sounding but shorenuf budgeted and lil naughty....

[crow]

wrappin your sandwiches in wax paper, your thermos had a stopper and would break if you dropped it.

crow

[mudsucker]

Your screen name is Mudsucker..

I ain't "old school" just OLD!

[acornman]

These posts bring back many fond memories...let's see if I can add my share...

Red Ball hip boots were a luxury because they had some insulation.....others did not.

Glass lined thermos bottles were the best you could get, but you would drop it and break the glass liner before the season was over....guaranteed.

A charcoal bucket with the ceramic liner was the "heat source" of choice in the blind if you were gonna hunt all day.....but you did not light it until mid-morning because the smoke would flare the early ducks.

You could buy lead shot in 4's, 5's or 6's and it was perfectly legal; 50 yard shots were easy to make on a regular basis.

Airduk fiber and pitch bottomed decoys were standard fare.....way before plastic anything.

Either a model 12 or model 97 Winchester that was worn "shiny" was the mark of a serious duck hunter.

Keeping your head down was the way you were taught to duck hunt; face masks were not an option.

You had heard at least one live decoy or market hunting story from men who actually did it for a living.....I grew up on Reelfoot Lake where it was a way of life for many years.

You made your own push pole with a draw knife to get around in shallow water.

And finally....if you did not have an Olt's D-2 tied to the top button hole of your canvas hunting coat with a piece of masonry string......then you just were not a duck hunter; lanyards with multiple loops were not even invented back then.

Whoa......I am really dating myself....gotta go.

acornman

[Seymore]

.....you do not to blab your public hunting spots all over the internet and you wish others would do the same. Don't even mention the name 'cause every yo-yo with google is gonna be looking.