The Contest

One year when we were having a really great year, I decided to have a little contest the last day of the season. Part of the reason for the contest was to entice my son Kevin to come out to the blind and hunt with me. He used to hunt with me a lot, but as he has grown older he prefers other types of hunting. Deer first, then rabbit, then squirrel then probably duck hunting, and he prefers to be on the move. Sneaking and jump hunting suits him better than sitting in a blind. Also, the reduced limits on Bluebills, when the limit is much better on almost all other species, tends to send him elsewhere when he decides to duck hunt. My other son, Mike, just likes to shoot and with Bluebills being virtually a sure thing, he goes to the blind with me whenever he can. Of course, Kelly is fairly new to duck hunting and 95% of her shooting has come from a blind, so you can't hardly run her off. Blizzard, thunderstorm, cyclone, she is always there banging away at the Bluebills.

On to the contest. I had shot plenty of birds that year so I said I would be the "caller". The 3 of them would sit in the blind with their hands on their knees and whenever a single came by that I thought was killable, I would say "go". Then they would race to see who could kill the bird the fastest. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea. Mike always was a fast shot, but that made him even more conscious of it, and he hurries so much that he 'short shucks' his 870 about half the time. Kelly gets wildly excited by any competition, so she went crazy. Kevin was always a great shot, but just a touch deliberate (like Whit) I thought. I was wrong. When he needs to shoot fast he is as quick as his brother. I would clean up any cripples, or if all 3 of them missed I would shoot the bird just to show them it was in range.

So the contest went well. They all shot at every bird and all argued over which one of them had killed it. It was a blast. By playing the little game we stretched a measly 3 bird limit into a whole days shooting by me only calling the shot on singles. Made for a great way to end the season.

We also got a couple bonus ducks that day. I was out working the dog and maybe Kevin and Kelly were both out of the blind at the time doing no one knows what. The ever vigilant Mike was manning the parapet when a nice drake Redhead came right in. Actually a small flock came by, but only the one was in range. At the time it was the only Redhead we had ever killed at Rhodes Point and Mike's first one.

Need to interject a little background info at this point. A couple days before this, Kelly and I had seen a hen Bluebill with white wings. We saw her twice that day, or else saw 2 of them that looked the same. We hadn't been able to get her over the decoys but it was sort of neat to see an oddity like that. So on into the afternoon we had a pass of Bluebills and I wasn't going to call it since there was a whole flock of them. At the last second we all saw a drake Bluebill with white wings and Kevin killed it. I guess he would have to be crowned champion for the day, because when it really mattered, he was the quickest shot. The bird turned out to be a Bluebill X Bufflehead cross. Big patch of white in each wing, pink feet, pink lower bill and strangely enough, a white ring around it's neck.

Kelly had a Bluebill mounted from her birds that day, Mike had his Redhead mounted and Kevin had the BuffleBill done. So, the "contest" turned into a fine day all around.