As an individual reader of this booklet, you have a part to play in the
essential partnership between agencies and waterfowlers. Your part may
be small and may take various forms, depending on the circumstances, but
certainly it is there. Perhaps, having sent in one or two waterfowl
bands in the past and having experienced the initial novelty of hearing
where your birds came from, you now forget to report them. The next time
you have this choice between reporting or forgetting a band, remember
that its prompt recovery, with full data, might be the clue to some
missing fact to improve your future gunning.
Hunter bag checks indicate crippling losses in the Central Flyway run to
an average of about one quarter of the total kill. In certain marshes,
early in the season, crippling can greatly exceed the one quarter loss.
Shooting at birds on the fringe of effective killing range is a
crippling practice and, moreover, as you probably know from observation
is contagious. The usual effect of one “sky shooter” in a marsh is to
force other gunners nearby to attempt impossible shots which increase
crippling losses and soon ruin shooting for everybody. Controlling such
practices lies solely in the hands of individual gunners. With
large-gauge guns of modified bore, the shot-pattern that will produce
kills should be consistent up to forty yards, a distance well within
capabilities of the average gunner to hold and compute necessary lead.
Successful duck shooting is a matter of good judgment. To avoid errors
in judgment drive stakes in front of your blind at distances of thirty
and forty yards to indicate safe killing range. Hold your fire until the
feet of an incoming duck can be seen distinctly, for only then will the
bird be in range. Good sportsmanship in duck blinds and marshes is
equally as important as remaining friendly with your home neighbors.
Train a good retrieving dog, and add to your day’s pleasure by watching
him at work on downed birds.
Above all, remember that the future of waterfowling is partly in your
hands—that your good sportsmanship and cooperation are as necessary to
the work of the Central Flyway Council and its member agencies as their
activities are to you.