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Show There. is no sport more enjoyed probably prob-ably than tho life in a duck hunting camp, especially is this so at the Hndy club to which some of the best ''fellows" ''fel-lows" in this part of the country be-lou-. The lasi big hunt, of the "e:ison took place the other day. The sloughs wore covered with :i layer of half an inch of ioo and the morning" air was tinged with jusr enough frost to nip tho ends of the hunters' lingers and toes. For over a mile the course of the hunters led through a largo slough. Tho boys took turns in breaking the ice as they left the club house. Jack Sharp, who knows more nbout. breaking ice and shooting ducks than any man in the United States, led the party of hunters to their respective blinds. The men who followed in single file were Carl Findniscn and his friend, Frank Slnrr, Winchester Boa, W. R. Sibley, A. D. Tobin, Harry Anderson, Wallncc Bransford. Lee "Din woody, Frank Fisher, Billy Fowler, Alex. Prin-glo Prin-glo and .1. II. Grinunctt. After plodding through tho ico for nearly a mile, Billy Sibley and Jack Sharp left the file' of march and cut across to the elbow, the best shooting grounds on the slough. Generally the boys draw for tho blinds at the elbow, but. Sibley and Sharp told the boys to go in the opposite diroction where they could find much better hunting. About the time the hunters got. stationed in their blinds it was time to shoot. For some reason only a few ducks flew across tho sloughs, but many invariably invari-ably came over the heads of Sibley and Sharp, who occasionally killed ono or two of the birds and drove the rest ro high in the air that (ho other hunters hunt-ers got absolntelv no shooting. Shar and Siblev kept their guns hot shooting and everybody thought that thev had killed Ihe limit, bur upon reluming to the flub house, it was found that Sharp had killed ten ducks, having shot 523 shells, and Siblev had killed fifteen ducks with 151.1 shells. John Boa. who used the right kind of shells, had killed six ducks with one shot; Findoisen killed a greenhead with two shots, whilo Frank Starr is still waiting to get a shot; "Billv Fowler tni.ssed fire on a spoonbill but scared ihe duck to death just the same and Fowler came in as proud as nny of them: Bransford said he killed a dozen ducks, but had left thcin at. his blind for decoys for the evening shooting. The big surprise came when Sharp and Sibley came in with only a few ducks after doing so much "shooting. The olhor members thomrht, thai the I two elbow hunters were, killing the limit for all Ihe boys at the club, but wore greatlv disappointed. Silling in the blinds, shivering with cold, the hunlers were grenlby annoyed with Ihe shootinc al the elbow. "T Link. Mr. Boa," said- Findeisen, I "rial vo have picked a poor spot to shoot ducks, ('hack and Billee aro pop-Tiering pop-Tiering dem ducks all ready yet at do elbow down nnd i pnlicvc ve should go down 11 ud help dem poys. Ve get not-ings not-ings here; J see daf already." Tust then a big greenhead camo up and nearly settled down on the end of Findeisen 's gun. The two-hundred-pound Gorman jumped up oul of his blind, stumbled and fell in tho water but managed to put a load in tho duck. Tho greenhead tlew about 100 yards and dropped with a broken leg. Findeisen Findei-sen was on the bird's track, and aftor a three-hour chase, returned to tho club house with the duck, but ho was so worn out that he could not eat his dinner. lie even refused a glass of beer',' On the way to the club house, about the noon hour, John Boa and Billy Fowler got into an argument as to the rapidity of shooting their guns. Boa contended that he could shoot his Winchester Win-chester pump faster than Fowler could shoot his Koiniugton automatic. This looked a "cinch" bet for Fowler. All he had to do was to pull tho trigger on his gun, while Boa had to pull tho iru?i:er and also work tho forearm to eject the shells. Tho men loaded their guns with six shells each and at tho word go they emptied their guns as quicklv as they could. Boa had emptied his gun wlicu Fowler was on his third shot. Fowler could not bclicvo his oars, lie had counted six shots, but did not bclicvo that Boa had fired them all off. To make sure that, he was right Fowler loaded Boa 's gun with six shells and then asked to try again. Boa beat him out agaiu and Fowler admitted that, notwithstanding that his great grandfather's great grandfather's father had beou a gunsmith, and that he himself started in tho business when only six years old. that ho had learned something that ho never knew before. be-fore. The boys had all gathered around n table upon which were large platters of porterhouse steaks, pork and mutton chops, and were enjoying a hearty din nor. Frank Starr wont out to got some water (?) that ho had bottled and placed under the Howintr well to gel cool. He eninc running back into Ihe club house and .yelled at the top of his voice that he saw something outside. Fvery hunter in the club grabbed his gun and there was a big iaiii at the door and pari of partition was taken down. Getting outside, the boys wanted to know what it was. "Veil, it looks shust like a vild dachshund, but is vide instead of brown und black," said Starr. "T'll bet it's a weasel." said Bransford. Brans-ford. "I'll bet, it's another skunk," said Pnngle. "Dor he is," shouted tho excited Gorman, and sure enough a weasel had climbed into ono of the buggies and was looking at tho crowd from under tho seat. Fverybody armed himself with a club and tho buggy was surrounded, whilo Frank l?udy got. on his horse to give chase providing the weasel got awny from Iho bunch. Closer and closer the bpvs drew to the buggy and the weasel became uneasy. un-easy. Finally it jumped out and Tobin hit il on the head with a two-by-four scantling and killed it. This proved the most exciting hunt, of the' day. Starr said he wished he was back in Chicago, whero he could shoot ducks without being scared nearly to death. Sunset brought the. hunt to tin end and the boys said they would put their guns awaj" for tho present seasou. |