The question must be asked, “Will the canvasback or can the canvasback ever recover and occurin numbers that would allow no closed seasons?”

It is doubtful, and if it does it will be through dedicated restoration efforts by transplanting and sowingthe seeds of wild celery, wapato, and a plant I haven’t mentioned for canvasbacks, the pondweed. In doing so, many depleted ducking wetlands can be restored and thus new ducking grounds can be created.

E64 LISTS 17 OF THE EARLIEST DUCK CLUBS IN AMERICA, ALL ORGANIZED BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS DUCK CLUBS SUCH AS WINOUS POINT, CURRITUCK SHOOTING CLUB AND MORE.

The evolution of the duck call began some 45,000 to 50,000 years ago or earlier and this episode takes you from that time frame up until E16 which was starts in 1854.

Year after year, waterfowl have followed the ancestral Mississippi Flywayand made their usual stops, where along the way they feasted abundantly in theforested White River bottomlands on acres of high-energy pinoak acorns andaquatic plants, like wild millet, Chufa, and smartweed.

Before rice production came to the Grand Prairie,ducks were found foraging in the small prairie wetlands, seasonal herbaceouswetlands, the vast flooded bottomland, hardwood forests of the White andArkansas Rivers, and other smaller meandering rivers and bayous.

Once rice had been plantedfor the first time in the first decade of the twentieth century in theeast-central part of the state, it spread rapidly throughout the Grand Prairie,mainly in the counties of Arkansas and Prairie and small sections in westernMonroe and eastern Lonoke during that decade and especially during the 1920sand the 1930s. Doing so, prairie lands, bounded by the bottomlands of four streams, the White andArkansas Rivers, Bayou Meto, and Wattensaw Bayou, could not exist and was converted tofarmland, so the prairies essentially vanished after 40 years.

Rice changed the flyway intwo ways. For one, it moved a lot of the waterfowl migration from theMississippi River westward to the rice-growing regions of Arkansas. Second, italso shifted lots of waterfowl from overflying Arkansas and going to the ricefields of Louisiana. No place in the Grand Prairie of eastern Arkansas prior tothe construction of reservoirs reaped rice’s benefit more so than the twinlakes of Jacob’s Lake and Pecan Lake in Arkansas County.

The day after Memorial Day, I reflected back to Vietnam and the loss of my best friend when out on night patrol. He had just been in Vietnam after going through basic training for seven days. On the seventh night, he was shot in the neck by a sniper and died. I miss him dearly and Memorial Day made me reflect back on life and what is important.

With their primary breeding grounds inprairie Manitoba, the eastern continental population of canvasbacks stagedduring the fall in the olden days on Lake Cristina and Heron Lake in Minnesota;the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and Saginaw Bay in Michigan; the IllinoisRiver in Illinois, in Iowa along the Upper Mississippi, and Lakes Poygan, Puckaway, Butte des Morts, Winnebago, Winneconne, and Koshkonong in Wisconsin. Lake Koshkonong was the countless hosts of migratory waterfowl which knew it from a time before a white man ever gazed upon its waters.

From its beginning, the Koshkonong marsh wascovered with from one to two feet of water and filled entirely with wild riceand in a few deep-water places wild celery grew. During the fall and springmigration, the marsh was literally alive with mallards, teal, and otherdabbling ducks with a few canvasbacks and redheads in a few deeper areas. Thenthe dam in 1851 was built which raised the water level enticing more wildcelery to grow and year after year it grew more and the canvasbacks came ingreat numbers. Then the dam was made higher in 1874, which raised the level ofwater even higher and once again more wild celery grew while the wild ricereceded closer to the shore. Then the canvasbacks came in greater number whichwas beyond computation and the mallards departed for the most part to thesurrounding marshes boarding on the sides of the lake. Furthermore, during summer,thousands of young canvasbacks could be seen as the result of the breedingseason unconscious of the fate that awaited them within a few months from thehands of sportsmen and market hunters.

But all of this changed with theoverharvesting of canvasbacks, the introduction of carp, the extended raisingof the dam, the onset of WWI, the Dust Bowl Years, pollution, the drainage ofthe numerous marshes which existed outside of the boundary of the lake and thedrainage of other small wetlands near the lake along with their ancient hangoutson the lake being covered with the dwellings of the white man which added extrahunting pressure on waterfowl using the lake and increased use of the lake forleisure motorboating which ran many waterfowl off the lake.

There are in every sport remarkableindividuals that become legends, and thesport of trap shooting as we know it today belongs to three of the mostinfluential and remarkable marksmen in trap shooting history, in what I call TheThree Pillars of Trap Shooting: Ira Paine, Adam Bogardus, and Doc Carver. Thelatter two are in the Trapshooting Hall of Fame and certainly deserving of thehonor; Paine is not, Why? I don’t know, but, perhaps, it may be that historianshave recognized him more of a pistol and revolver shooter than a shotgun trapshooter, spending a great deal of his time as he grew older pistol and revolvershooting. But that doesn’t seem to hold much weight as Carver was certainlyknown as much for his rifle shooting as he was for his shotgun shooting, maybemore so for his exhibition rifle shooting.

Maybeanother reason Paine is not in the Trap Shooting Hall of Fame is that when hefirst started shooting and for several years afterwards, it was in the dayswhen they used black powder, shot muzzleloading shotguns at wild pigeons, from fiveunknown traps with shotgun held below the elbow until “pull” was called, thepurpose being to place the shooter in the same unprepared condition at the riseof a bird as he was supposed to be at the rise of a bird in actual fieldshooting. This was the modus operandi both in England and America along withshooting 21-yard rise from ground traps. Paine, William King, John Taylor,Miles Johnson, and Edward “Ned” Tinker were considered giants in those days ofwild passenger pigeon matches, attested to by their scores they made indifferent matches.

Andmaybe another reason is because he died at age 53, so his short life spanshortened his shooting career, while Bogardus was 80 at the time of his deathand Carver was 87. But he lived long enough to see feathers fly in akaleidoscopic dazzling shower when he broke his patented feather-filled glassballs as his eyes never forgot how to look along a shotgun barrel.

Thereare so many stories and incidents about Ira Paine’s pigeon, glass ball, andexhibition shooting career that it is impossible to relate all of them. Butthere are some which must be told to make this story complete, so I would liketo give you just a short summary of why I think he should be and needs to be inthe Trapshooting Hall of Fame.

A continuation of Part I and II of Trap shooting, with Part III covering the three great trap shooters of the time--Captain Adam Bogardus, Doc Carter, and Ira Paine. It covers the period of time when pigeon trap shooting had advanced from live pigeon shooting to glass balls to Ligowsky clay pigeons.

E57 is the history of trap shooting in the United States from its beginnings in the 1820s after the sport had cross the Atlantic Ocean from England. It goes from wild pigeon shooting to glass balls to clay targets, and listen as you will discover how trap shooting developed and progressed in America. E57 covers three famous trap shooters in the early days--Captain Adam Bogardus, Doc Carver, and Ira Paine. E57 picks up where trap shooting began in England. E58 will pick up where E57 leaves off and will be podcasted in the near future.

let me tell you about the origin of trap shooting, which began in England. Reporting on sporting events in England began in the 1710s and 1720s, this at a time when the population of England began to double between 1700 and 1800, and a new leisure class of titled, gentry and upper-middling groups emerged.

Wagering needed winners and losers, so wagering and gambling has long been ingrained in British society. Clearly hunting was a rural sport. But in pigeon shooting it attracted rural and city spectators, the landowning aristocracy and gentry, farmers, townfolks, and countrymen, even though the pigeon enclosure grounds could be a few miles outside a town. But it was innkeepers and tavernkeepers who contributed probably the most at its inception as they gained financial benefit form hosting pigeon shooting and they existed in taverns and inns up and down England for over a millennium, the best were located on turnpikes near large towns and cities, a turnpike being a road kept up in good shape by levying a toll on the user such as coaches and stages. In these establishments, wagering was generally associated with some form of sport such as horse racing, cockfighting, cricket, and pigeon shooting where the latter had an enclosure, along with their other functions of providing refreshments, food, lodging, meetings, and trade activities.

Realizing the potential for revenue that could be generated, inns’ and taverns’ keepers began promoting many contests. The two played a highly significant commercial role, often helping arrange, advertise, and host pigeon-shooting matches. London was the key center for pigeon shooting and contests, tied to the inn-and tavern subculture, and aristocratic gambling patronage, and crowds were often large.

It was wagering most especially the high stakes “wagers” between wealthy individuals on sporting contests that generated media coverage, wider spectator interest, a larger betting market, and growing numbers of events, increasingly on a commercial basis. Wagering encouraged the development of pigeon shooting rules and regulations in which to create “fair play” in gambling terms and to avoid subsequent disputes.

For spectators, wagering provided a strong form of identification with the shooters and the sport. The wagering of the wealthy also gave real impetus to the emerging sport of pigeon shooting. It was a sport that required matching and eventually handicapping, which were attempts to equalize competition and create an uncertain outcome that encouraged wagering. In pigeon shooting, matching shooters was part of the ritual surrounding contests, encouraging status, honor, prestige, dignity, and respect.

So, this preamble hopefully gives you the listener of my podcast some idea of the origin of pigeon shooting, of how it all started, along with its earliest development in England. And, in doing so, I believe you will marvel at how well they shot with the old, clumsy, untrustworthy, smoothbore, muzzleloading flintlocks using black powder, for when the shooter fired, there was an appreciable moment of time between the instant of pulling the trigger and the instant when the shot left the muzzle, and if the priming was damp or blown away by the wind, the gun could not be fired at all, and with black powder, which they used, shooting with a double barrel on a windless day, the smoke would hang in front of the muzzle and blind the shooter on many occasion preventing him from firing his second barrel. If that wasn’t enough, they had to hold the butt end of the gun below the elbow until the pigeon was on the wing. It seems a miracle that pigeon shooters could manage all these inferior weapons so effectively.

let me attempt to tell you about the origin of trap shooting, which began in England. Furthermore, I must be forthright and tell you that the exact time when pigeon shooting and matches came into vogue that I have found no authentic records verifying such, as newspapers did not begin reporting on sporting events in England until in the 1710s and 1720s, this at a time when the population of England began to double between 1700 and 1800, and a new leisure class of titled, gentry and upper-middling groups emerged.

Wagering needed winners and losers, so wagering and gambling has long been ingrained in British society. Clearly hunting was a rural sport. But in pigeon shooting it attracted rural and city spectators, the landowning aristocracy and gentry, farmers, townfolks, and countrymen, even though the pigeon enclosure grounds could be a few miles outside a town. But it was innkeepers and tavernkeepers who contributed probably the most at its inception as they gained financial benefit form hosting pigeon shooting and they existed in taverns and inns up and down England for over a millennium, the best were located on turnpikes near large towns and cities, a turnpike being a road kept up in good shape by levying a toll on the user such as coaches and stages. In these establishments, wagering was generally associated with some form of sport such as horse racing, cockfighting, cricket, and pigeon shooting where the latter had an enclosure, along with their other functions of providing refreshments, food, lodging, meetings, and trade activities.

Realizing the potential for revenue that could be generated, inns’ and taverns’ keepers began promoting many contests. The two played a highly significant commercial role, often helping arrange, advertise, and host pigeon-shooting matches. London was the key center for pigeon shooting and contests, tied to the inn-and tavern subculture, and aristocratic gambling patronage, and crowds were often large.

It was wagering most especially the high stakes “wagers” between wealthy individuals on sporting contests that generated media coverage, wider spectator interest, a larger betting market, and growing numbers of events, increasingly on a commercial basis. Wagering encouraged the development of pigeon shooting rules and regulations in which to create “fair play” in gambling terms and to avoid subsequent disputes.

For spectators, wagering provided a strong form of identification with the shooters and the sport. The wagering of the wealthy also gave real impetus to the emerging sport of pigeon shooting. It was a sport that required matching and eventually handicapping, which were attempts to equalize competition and create an uncertain outcome that encouraged wagering. In pigeon shooting, matching shooters was part of the ritual surrounding contests, encouraging status, honor, prestige, dignity, and respect.

So, this preamble hopefully gives you the listener of my podcast some idea of the origin of pigeon shooting, of how it all started, along with its earliest development in England. And, in doing so, I believe you will marvel at how well they shot with the old, clumsy, untrustworthy, smoothbore, muzzleloading flintlocks using black powder, for when the shooter fired, there was an appreciable moment of time between the instant of pulling the trigger and the instant when the shot left the muzzle, and if the priming was damp or blown away by the wind, the gun could not be fired at all, and with black powder, which they used, shooting with a double barrel on a windless day, the smoke would hang in front of the muzzle and blind the shooter on many occasion preventing him from firing his second barrel. If that wasn’t enough, they had to hold the butt end of the gun below the elbow until the pigeon was on the wing. It seems a miracle that pigeon shooters could manage all these inferior weapons so effectively.

let me attempt to tell you about the origin of trap shooting, which began in England. Furthermore, I must be forthright and tell you that the exact time when pigeon shooting and matches came into vogue that I have found no authentic records verifying such, as newspapers did not begin reporting on sporting events in England until in the 1710s and 1720s, this at a time when the population of England began to double between 1700 and 1800, and a new leisure class of titled, gentry and upper-middling groups emerged.

Wagering needed winners and losers, so wagering and gambling has long been ingrained in British society. Clearly hunting was a rural sport. But in pigeon shooting it attracted rural and city spectators, the landowning aristocracy and gentry, farmers, townfolks, and countrymen, even though the pigeon enclosure grounds could be a few miles outside a town. But it was innkeepers and tavernkeepers who contributed probably the most at its inception as they gained financial benefit form hosting pigeon shooting and they existed in taverns and inns up and down England for over a millennium, the best were located on turnpikes near large towns and cities, a turnpike being a road kept up in good shape by levying a toll on the user such as coaches and stages. In these establishments, wagering was generally associated with some form of sport such as horse racing, cockfighting, cricket, and pigeon shooting where the latter had an enclosure, along with their other functions of providing refreshments, food, lodging, meetings, and trade activities.

Realizing the potential for revenue that could be generated, inns’ and taverns’ keepers began promoting many contests. The two played a highly significant commercial role, often helping arrange, advertise, and host pigeon-shooting matches. London was the key center for pigeon shooting and contests, tied to the inn-and tavern subculture, and aristocratic gambling patronage, and crowds were often large.

It was wagering most especially the high stakes “wagers” between wealthy individuals on sporting contests that generated media coverage, wider spectator interest, a larger betting market, and growing numbers of events, increasingly on a commercial basis. Wagering encouraged the development of pigeon shooting rules and regulations in which to create “fair play” in gambling terms and to avoid subsequent disputes.

For spectators, wagering provided a strong form of identification with the shooters and the sport. The wagering of the wealthy also gave real impetus to the emerging sport of pigeon shooting. It was a sport that required matching and eventually handicapping, which were attempts to equalize competition and create an uncertain outcome that encouraged wagering. In pigeon shooting, matching shooters was part of the ritual surrounding contests, encouraging status, honor, prestige, dignity, and respect.

So, this preamble hopefully gives you the listener of my podcast some idea of the origin of pigeon shooting, of how it all started, along with its earliest development in England. And, in doing so, I believe you will marvel at how well they shot with the old, clumsy, untrustworthy, smoothbore, muzzleloading flintlocks using black powder, for when the shooter fired, there was an appreciable moment of time between the instant of pulling the trigger and the instant when the shot left the muzzle, and if the priming was damp or blown away by the wind, the gun could not be fired at all, and with black powder, which they used, shooting with a double barrel on a windless day, the smoke would hang in front of the muzzle and blind the shooter on many occasion preventing him from firing his second barrel. If that wasn’t enough, they had to hold the butt end of the gun below the elbow until the pigeon was on the wing. It seems a miracle that pigeon shooters could manage all these inferior weapons so effectively.

A True magazine article that chronicled Herb’s accomplishments tagged him as the “Showman Shooter” and the moniker stuck.

On the way to an exhibition, Herb would stop at a supermarket where he collected what he called his "groceries." He bought oranges, grapefruit, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and several dozen eggs. Wherever he went, the town’s people were about to witness one of the greatest shooting exhibitions of all time—a combination of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Annie Oakley, Doc Carver, P.T. Barnum and a Vaudeville comedy routine.

In 55 frenzied minutes, Herb typically shot, non-stop, more than 15 Winchester firearms 52 different ways at more than 800 targets, scoring 99 percent on them. The ones he missed, he said, were “hens.”

Herb was hired in 1929 by Winchester to be a salesman for the Mississippi territory. Winchester advertisements from the era called Herb the “Winchester Wizard.” He came to epitomize the idea that being good with a gun was a way to become a better man, and nothing could better illustrate just how valuable our Second Amendment really is to all Americans. Upon Herb’s early passing in 1959 at age 51, he had been a Winchester man for 30 years. His love of hunting and shooting was only surpassed by his devotion to family and church.

With the end of War World II, Olin leased from Crowe in 1945 some 1,880 acres, of which 1,100 acres was timber in Prairie County, approximately six miles southeast of Hazen. It was immediately christened the Greenbriar Club, so name by John Olin’s younger brother Spencer, who was, besides being a duck hunter, an avid golfer and his favorite golfing course was the Greenbriar Club in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Over the years, however, the locals knew it as the “Winchester Club.”

John Olin was the president of the Olin Company and Winchester-Western small arms and ammunition company, while his brother Spencer was vice president.

Having no clubhouse, Olin rented two floors of the Riceland Hotel in Stuttgart. Olin always boarded in room 410. He had a number of famous guests over the years, including Herb Parsons, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Nash Buckingham, General Nate Twining, General Jonathan Wainwright, Richard Bishop and many others.

Olin often brought along Walter Siegmund, who was general sales manager of Olin Industries. He was also a great sportsman and judge for the National Duck Calling Championship.

Having no clubhouse, Olin rented two floors of the Riceland Hotel in Stuttgart. Olin always boarded in room 410. He had a number of famous guests over the years, including Herb Parsons, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Nash Buckingham, General Nate Twining, General Jonathan Wainwright, Richard Bishop and many others.

It was at the Greenbriar Club where Olin's Lab, King Buck, retrieved his first duck and his last duck over a five-year period.

King Buck successfully completed an unprecedented 63 consecutive series in the National Championship Stake and was the National Retriever Field Trial Club champion for two successive years, 1952 and 1953, in a feat not to be duplicated for nearly 40 years. Overall, King Buck finished 83 national series out of a possible 85.

His royal name was given its due, when, in 1959, it was decided that the federal duck stamp for that year should commemorate the work of retrievers and their contribution to waterfowl conservation. And so, for that occasion, the single time that the Migratory Waterfowl Stamp has ever been other than a duck, Maynard Reece painted a portrait of perhaps the greatest duck dog of them all: King Buck.

In 1955, Olin built a one-room clubhouse with a fireplace to replace staying at the Riceland Hotel. In the early 1960s, the IRS disallowed his business deductions for the club.John sold his Prairie County duck paradise to multi-millionaire Robert “Bob” Brittingham, of Dal Tile of Dallas, Texas, and a hunter of great refute. A magnificent lodge was built in 1983. Today, the club is still in existence, and owned by three brothers of the Kemmons Wilson Company (Holiday Inn fame) and two other individuals.

Three thousand duck enthusiasts slowly gathered around the stage at 2:00 p.m. to watch some of the best: Art Beauchamp, Chick Majors (1945 Word Champion), Tom Burge (Missouri State Champion), Carl Zieglowsky (Iowa State Champion), and W.C. Cross (winner of the championship in 1957 and 1958). Then there was Daryl Cates, of Memphis, the youngest ever to enter at 13 years, having won the TennesseeState title.

Dressed in their best hunting togs, forty men, with testosterone flowing, tooted, and chattered four calls – the open water call, woods call, mating call, and the comeback call. However, one contestant – number 13 – dressed a little different, strolling to the stage in a band outfit. Although unusual, many in the audience thought it might be divine guidance, especially after 50 or more ducks passed overhead when the Arkansas State Teachers College band played earlier during the day.

Contestant number 13 was a high school senior, 17, proficient with a clarinet and a caller, having captured five previous calling titles – the first at age 12. Each year thereafter, a trophy was added to the trophy case. Nevertheless, this was the first entry in the world championship.

Hopefully, someone can unravel the two great mysteries of this extraordinary and historic relic--a monstrous three-barreled punt gun: where is and what happened to this Holy Grail of a unique and unusual monstrous punt gun and who was the gunmaker Lizerad? ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Many gave him the sobriquet the “Rocket Man,” the one who developed the Saturn V rocket that put six teams of American astronauts on the moon from 1969 to 1972. He was the father and superstar of our space program.

Werhner von Braun and three others flew from Huntsville, Alabama to Walnut Ridge AFB, where they drove to Jonesboro on December 26, 1959. The four traveled to Wallace Claypool's legendary and famous Wild Acres, located near Weiner, Arkansas, where Claypool told Von Braun they would hunt tomorrow in his favorite hole: “Hot Spot.”

Monday morning at the clubhouse, von Braun said with so much anticipation and eagerness, “I can hardly wait. This will do us some good. Let’s get it done. It will be shooting time before we know it.” Von Braun, Wallace Claypool, “Miss Sally,” Wallace's wife and also manager of the clubhouse,” and Claypool’s Lab George went to the green-timber hole Hot Spot, later painted by the famous artist Maynard Reese. The other eleven hunters split into three groups, each with one of Claypool’s and Miss Sally’s Labrador retrievers—Ike, Rip, and Buck, the latter being the son of Winchester-Western John Olin’s Buck on the 1959 Federal Duck Stamp, the first and only time a dog ever appeared on a U.S. duck stamp.

Beneath a clear blue sky with a morning temperature of 39 degrees, Claypool’s and Miss Sally’s calling had the ducks helicoptering down through the timber, where Von Braun made some very skillful and tough shots among the limbs. His shooting with his Browning Auto 5, 12-gauge was “uncanny,” knocking down a limit of four mallards with his first four shots. Soon thereafter, Claypool and Sally got mallard limits, shooting Winchester Model 12 pumps, while the others returned with their limits.

At the clubhouse, he remarked earnestly, “I had more fun shooting today than ever before. This hunt was fantastic. Getting away to Wild Acres, which has become famous across the nation, you just leave all your stress behind. This couldn’t have come at a better time. We have been so busy that there has been no occasion where we could escape from the pressure. I can’t wait until our hunt tomorrow. Miss Sally is one of the finest shooters and duck callers I have ever been around. ‘Clay’ taught her well.”

Mud flats of the river islands and the sandbar inlets were where sports found Canada geese during the olden times. All along the Mississippi River and its tributaries were located numerous islands and sandbars that were the feeding and wintering grounds for Canada geese for many years immemorial, and since pioneer days it was noted for the goose shooting it afforded.

In the olden days, there were comparatively few goose hunters, because goose hunting was no sport for the novice. Hunting ducks was considered child’s play compared to getting the Canadas within the range of the shotgun. The duck hunter might hide behind almost any kind of blind and scatter his decoys out over the water in almost any old fashion, not so with the goose hunter. He usually selected a long mud flat or sand bar and dug in. That is, dug a pit deep enough to hide himself and fellow hunters. A tarpaulin or some other covering was usually used to cover the opening of the pit. Goose decoys had to be placed out properly according to the way the wind was blowing, or the geese would not be enticed within range of the hunter’s gun.

Today, not one single pit will be dug on any sandbar or mud flat on the Mississippi River, as the hoped-for return of ten thousand Canada geese to Wapanocca and the Southland remains a dream, and Canada goose hunting, a very ancient and respected occupation in the olden times, is no more!

 With the situations that exist today and which will continue into the future, the best historical information we have indicates that waterfowl populations can only be preserved by regulating the number of shooting days and bag limit. We should rejoice that this has been effective in the past and that the means is within reach of our hands and determination, and we should not close our eyes to it. Waterfowl live by three tenets: where can we get food, water, and rest with the least amount of pressure. They have lived by these three for thousands of years.

The weather patterns have shifted and so has the migration. It will be a difficult task to reduce the number of days and the limit as businesses and organizations will demand that their money-machine keep running, and waterfowlers will be reluctant to give up days spent in a blind. We better do so, for the waterfowl are giving us a warning and telling us that the changes are already here. The question is will we respond and resolve.

A TIME TO REFLECT

When the shadows from the hills have gown longer, caused by the departing sun, kindly reflect of your days spent amid the solitude of Mother Nature, which were the sweetest enjoyment to you.

Sometime, somewhere, in that undiscovered paradise high in the heavens whose scenes are painted by His hand, shall you find a happy hunting ground where the axe of the lumberman has not penetrated; where the solemnities of the immense woodland—its brooding calm, its sequestered depths, its flickering lights and beckoning shadows—remain unchanged year after year; where the sky is filled with countless wild geese and ducks; where, with the shades of shotguns whose like are made no more, and with pointers and retrievers whose like dwell not now upon this earth, shall you hunt the ghosts of wildlife that has no closed season.

“If a man could be born when he’s old

 And gradually grow young,

 The wisdom he’d gain and the lore he’d attain

 Are not easily said or sung.”

There lived in Chicago an Italian about 40 years of age in 1890, who kept a little fruit store on Wabash Avenue, and was known in the game market and among Chicago sportsmen by the sobriquet of “Plover Joe” or “Italian Joe” as he was interchangeably called. His real name was Joseph Paoli. He was considered the authority on one particular bird of passages, having hunted golden plovers since 1868, at age 18. He hunted for the market, and except for a rare outing at jacksnipe, woodcocks, and ducks, he never hunted anything but golden plovers.

In 1890, there were plenty of Chicago men who would wager that there was no man on this green earth who could compare with Plover Joe in the art of plover shooting. That was his business and had been for 22 years, ever since he was old enough to shoot. He sent to the Chicago market more plovers than all the other Illinois shooters. They did not know how to hunt them, and he did. He killed upwards of 1,500 plovers in a week, three hundred in a day, and 9,000 in the spring of 1891. A bag of 40, 50, or 60 per day did not satisfy him, even at $1.50 to $1.75 a dozen, which the big hotels and markets paid him for all he would bring.

He had many friends and no foes and lived by market-hunting birds. He was an authority on every game bird that flew and the only man in Chicago who seemed to thoroughly understand and love the work of plover shooting. Through the winter, Joe sold fruit, but he longed for the warm days and the green fields, and April saw him afield early. For 20 years, he had lived in a modest hut, built entirely of shingles, at the edge of a swamp near Summit, a favorite resort of plover shooters. He lived only with a beagle hound and the best double-barreled shotgun.

It is common wisdom that most everyone believes that the punt or stanchion gun, also known as the big gun, saw its beginning in England. In the podcast, I give some history of the punt/stanchion/big gun along with a few of my thoughts on why, how, where, and when the punt gun originated and the general area where it originated.

With this podcast, it surely looks like that big guns were being used for waterfowling as early as 1734 in the colonies. However, I find no more mention of big guns being used for waterfowling until some 60 years or so later. Maybe, some of the reasoning why is because the colonies were in the Seven Years’ War from 1755-to 1764. Whaleboats with smoothbore swivels were the model gunboats of the Seven Years’ War in North America, while wall guns were also utilized. The whaleboat smoothbores and wall guns were utilized in almost every action in the interior. Following this came the American Revolution, with trouble brewing between England and the colonies, beginning in 1765 when members of the American colonial society rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them without colonial representatives in the government. During the following decade, protests by colonists—known as Patriots—continued to escalate until the American Revolutionary War started in 1775 and lasted until 1783. Like the Seven Years War, wall guns and whaleboat smoothbores were used. After the Revolutionary War, the colonists were extremely busy forming a new government and drafting a constitution with its bill of rights. Certainly, not much waterfowling was done from 1755 until the start of the nineteenth century.

Hearkening back to the Pleistocene epoch, symbolizing good fortune, fidelity, and longevity, the distinctive large winged, long necked, and long-legged sandhill cranes with crimson foreheads are known throughout the world for their mesmerizing courtship dances, their calling, oftentimes heard for three miles away and described as bulging, rattling, or croaking, their longevity, shyness, and being the most unapproachable of the long-legged fraternity. They are also known for their aerial flight maneuvering. They often gain altitude by circling tightly in rising thermal air currents when conditions permit. When sufficient altitude is reached, they glide on extended wings as they descend to an adjacent thermal, where they are again lifted high to repeat the process.

The courtship dance, demonstrated every spring, begins with the bird extending its wings, then leaping into the air and may also throw sticks or other nesting material, and upon landing bows its heads and then struts around stiff-legged, all to impress his mate. If no admirer happens to be available, it will sometimes dance to its own shadows. They have at least ten different types of dances and as many calls.

Once upon a time, before the Grand Canyon had been carved out of its rock, an extraordinary bird walked and flew the earth in the area we now call Nebraska. They are the most ancient bird species on earth since primordial times, arising as a group more than 60-million years ago. Eminent ornithologist Paul Johnsgard explains it this way: “Cranes are among the oldest of living bird groups, and the sandhill crane in particular is the oldest currently existing bird species.” They are described by others as ancient fossils.