The Ethical Ways of Old Waterfowling

Long gone are the days of market hunting and barrels of canvasbacks shipped to the high-end restaurants of Chicago and New York City. The era of market hunting and the rise in wildfowling for sport was more than just punt guns; it was an evolution of how hunting was undertaken. While times and technology have changed since the late 1800s, attitudes on how waterfowl are shot have also changed, but for the better?

There is a plethora of great reading in the offseason from Nash Buckingham, Van Campen Heilner, and George Bird Grinnell, plus you can find collections of early stories from hunters. Collections like the three volumes of Old Wildfowling Tales have been compiled and edited from the early printed pages by writer Worth Mathewson. The hunting stories written by white-collar "sports" of the big cities, some more well-to-do than others, share their tales of adventures.

It was a time before there was such a thing as "outdoor writers." Their tales of renting, or in some cases, owning a rail car to load their guns, shot, powder, food, and other supplies. The rail company would then be contracted to haul the rail car and leave on a spur of the main rail lines. The sports from the big cities would stay there for a week or two as their base camp, journeying through the surrounding area to hunt. Many of the rail lines were laid in such a fashion to have spur lines like this and station stops near popular geographic features for waterfowl shooting. The shooting that would take place: pass shooting.

I’ll Pass

"Pass Shooting"—many of us think of this term when birds are passing overhead. However, the term was also used when birds were passing through a geographic funnel. Those in the West are familiar with driving through a mountain pass; well, much like the wagon trains of old, birds moving from roosts to feeding sites to loaves and back around use similar passes. The traveling hunters of the day would scout to recognize these flight patterns for their day’s shooting.

As recounted by one article in Old Wildfowling Tales Volume III: “High or long shots should seldom be attempted here, as misses beyond fifty or sixty yards are common, and scores of birds are struck whose wounds prove fatal only after long-suffering.” Over 100 years later, hunters still abide by the same ethos.

In today’s outdoor world, the term "pass shooting" has been used for "sky-busting," and inaccurately so. Ramsey Russell, who many of us know for his podcast “It’s Duck Season Somewhere,” has hunted all over the world with hunters from all walks of life and in as many different hunting scenarios as you can imagine. One of the scenarios is the traditional form of pass shooting.

Ramsey recounted, “I shared a video of a spot in Mexico, hunting blue-wing teal as they travel between freshwater and saltwater. You wouldn’t believe the comments I received online! Folks saying that it ‘isn’t sporting’ or ‘it isn’t fair.’”

As he remarked, "pass shooting" done in this way is the same way you read about from the first sporting ventures 100 years ago.

“To me, there is not much real sport in this style of shooting (jump shooting on slough banks) though the game is large and fine; it lacks the excitement of the ‘pass’ shooting, and many birds are lost by falling into the matted reeds and grass where the dogs have great trouble finding them,” is what a “Wildfowler” wrote from his travels in Minnesota in 1877.

Many hunters view pass shooting with their noses turned up and fingers pointed in scorn; however, it was one of the most "sporting" ways to take waterfowl in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

Where It Lays

Modern technology has enabled us to have some of the most realistic decoys and calls since the days of live decoys.

“Trained mallards would call and behave like wild ducks and as you can imagine, they were irresistible. They were shackled with a weighted leather pouch attached to their feet to keep them from flying away during the morning hunt. This practice was outlawed in 1935 by the USFWS as it proved to be outside the bounds of fair chase. One could say spinning wing decoys of today may fall into the same category but that is a discussion for another day,” stated Brent Birch, writer and Arkansas waterfowling historian.

Being on the ‘x’ and the decoys of today are fantastic magnets. But when do you pull the trigger?

If you have watched the old Duck Men videos of the Robertsons’ pre-Duck Dynasty days, you’ve heard Phil Robertson discuss letting the birds land. It is the ultimate fooling of the birds. A product of scouting the right spot, proper calling, and bringing them all the way to finish.

Talking with Ramsey Russell, he recounted a hunt with one of the many old-timers he has shared the blind with. On this particular day, they hunted a popular WMA of the time in Mississippi, where the old-timer had hunted since the end of World War II. After finding their way near a spot they wanted to be, they set the spread and waited. “Shortly after we got ready, the mallards floated in just like you dreamt of. I unloaded and after the flurry ended, I looked over at my companion and asked how many he dropped,” said Ramsey. “The old-timer turned to me and said, ‘I’ve never shot a flying duck in my life and I’m not about to start this morning.’”

Brent Birch has dug to the depths of waterfowling lore and shared the blind with many old timers as well with his book “The Grand Prairie.” As Brent stated, “Getting ducks all the way to the water emits a certain sense of accomplishment for many hunters. And rightfully so, given the duck is a wide ranging, wild animal with varying logic as to what it likes one day to the next. I’ve been fortunate to hunt numerous famed clubs in Arkansas and have seen two extremes to shooting decoying ducks in the flooded timber. One will not shoot mallards that have made it all the way to the water. In their words, the ducks have “won” at that point and deserve to fly on to see another day. Another appreciates a more sporting shot and passes on ducks fluttering just above the water for a more challenging but ethical shot on the trailing ducks not quite down into the hole or on their way up and out. Granted, this style is best tackled by skilled shooters to prevent cripples and the like. Both locations typically have enough ducks using their properties to be this selective and I can appreciate the thought process between the two.”

Might As Well Jump

Some other dirty words in today’s waterfowling world that stir mixed emotions is jump shooting. We’ve all done it, and some of us still do. It is likely the first way some of us have shot ducks. Sneaking around the creek bend around Halloween. The leaves are still on the trees and turning colors that hide your approach to the mallards or wood ducks feasting on beaver slough acorns.

The woodsmanship and stealth required to do that were the envy of early sport shooters in outdoor hunting stories. Today, jump shooting conjures up images of road-hunting snow geese or blasting hundreds of ducks off of a roost.

Think jump shooting was only done by land? The old punt gunners of the market hunting era were effectively jump-shooting in the open waters of bays. Sneak boats were used for sculling their way within range of the rafts of “broadbills,” redheads, and canvasbacks. The Outlaw Gunner by Harry Walsh, whose father was one of those market hunters, is one of waterfowl historian and collector Ryan Graves’ favorite books to read.

As Ryan said, “The skiffs, punt, and scatter guns they used showed that they were very creative in their techniques used to harvest fowl to make money. Their purpose of hunting back then is much different than it is now, but it shows that hunters have always gone to great lengths to be successful.”

Within the law, duck hunting is subjective; be it jump shooting, decoying, or pass shooting. Even dry field hunting has not been a ‘thing’ until recent history. While you read about the early 1900s journeymen goose hunting the Dakotas from hand-dug pits, they are hunting the passes between roosts on lakes as they fly to and from grain fields to feed.

There is no crystal ball to predict how hunting will change over the next 100 years, but we hope our kids and grandkids continue to pursue waterfowl. Chances are they will have their own opinions on how we shoot birds. 

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