When
I awoke on December 12, 2012, I was as excited as a child on Christmas morning!
That day was the day I was going to take my sister Tara on her first duck
hunt. She had been deer hunting for many years, but had never been on any
kind of bird hunt. It was approximately a 4 hour drive for us to reach
Gregory, Arkansas…just 20 miles from Stuttgart, the world-famous duck capital.
As we were driving down the last rural county road to the lodge, we began
to see the bean fields covered with feeding flocks of ducks. This got us
excited for what would lie ahead!
When
we arrived at the beautiful lodge for Bust-A-Duck guide service, we took a few
minutes to play fetch with the owners dog while awaiting the arrival of the
other ladies who would join our hunt. As everyone made their way in, we
introduced ourselves and visited near the bonfire that had been prepared.
We discussed our expectations and excitement for the days that lay ahead.
Tara and I gravitated to a lady hunter named Amy, from Georgia, as this
would also be her first time duck hunting. This of course helped my sister Tara
not feel alone in her inexperience.
We awoke that next morning at 4:30am, ate a
small snack for breakfast, then began the long process of layering our hunting
clothing and struggling into our neoprene waders. As anyone knows who has
done this, it can be quite a task! Finally everyone was dressed and ready. We
loaded up the big, camo, 1980-something suburban (which we called the mud
chariot) with our blind bags, snacks, and guns. Just the idea of riding
in that beast made us all smile!
As
we drove the fields through water and huge mud holes, the excitement was
evident on everyone’s face. Upon reaching the blind, we exited the doors into
knee deep water, grabbed our blind bags, removed our guns from the cases, and
headed towards the blind through the mud. What a perfect experience for
first time duck hunters!
As
we were getting situated in the blind, we watched our guide Matt place the
decoys strategically in the water. Waiting for shooting light, we told
stories and educated each other on the sport of duck hunting. At dawn, we
could barely see the silhouettes of the ducks flying in the morning light. We
were all very anxiously awaiting for our Matt to say “Ok ladies, load your
guns”. When he finally uttered those words, it was the best noise we
could imagine. The clink of shells being loaded into 12 gauges…that makes a
woman smile!
Finally
the time came, and we had a good group of 5 or 6 ducks flying in. They
committed to land and the guide Matt says, “Shoot, Shoot!” . The blast of
shotguns and smell of gunpowder filled the heavy air. As the flock flew
off, it became apparent no ducks were hit! Tara, my sister, decided
she’d shoot at a straggler duck that was flying away from her at approx 40
yards. One last 12 gauge blast, and our guide Matt exclaimed “Who shot
that duck? That was awesome!“. Tara quickly confessed to shooting the duck
through big smile on her face. I knew at that moment she would be hooked for
life!
Our
day only got better… By 11:00am we five ladies had shot our limit of 30
ducks. We had such a great success rate and excellent team work that day.
Smiles spread across everyone’s face as we arrived back at the lodge with
our trophies from the day to warm food, great memories, and conversation for
hours.
As we loaded up on the last day and said our goodbyes
to the great women we had met and made friends with, I knew this would not be
our last trip duck hunting. All Tara talked about on the ride home was duck
hunting and what a great time she had. I could not help but smile knowing
that she had such a great experience and that I got to share that moment with
her. I know one thing for certain, Tara and Amy will be members of the duck
hunting community for the rest of their lives. There is no greater
feeling than seeing the joy and excitement on a new hunter’s face as ducks
descend through golden morning light into gun range!
NOTE: Shoot Like A Girl teamed up with Babes Bullets and Broadheads to put on this duck hunt!
