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Thread: The Weight of Loss (Loss of a duck hunter)

  1. #1
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    Default The Weight of Loss (Loss of a duck hunter)

    I don't know anything about Boss Shotshells but this is more than a subtle reminder of how things can go South on us as we focus on duck hunting versus our own safety. I believe this fella left behind a wife and two little ones. Sad day for sure.


    THE WEIGHT OF LOSS

    Heavy times these last few days, BOSSmen. We lost one of our own.

    When a waterfowler goes in the field, we all feel it. You try and tell yourself they went doing what they loved, but there’s little comfort there. It’s a soul-crushing loss and in piecing together all the moves leading up to a tragedy like this, reality tends to point a finger back at the guy in the mirror.

    Over the course of our waterfowling careers, an error in judgment like this coulda happened to any one of us, so an honest hunter shouldn’t place blame or ever make internet keyboard jockey comments on it. We’ve all pushed it too hard many times. What’s done is done. But there is a lesson to find alongside the lingering ache of missing a man in the prime of his life. Tony was one hell of a hunter who lived it as much as anyone. The only thing he loved more in life than divers were his two girls.

    Bitter Lake, South Dakota. Big water. Pre-dawn, with the throttle cracked wide open and three best friends navigating by headlamp. You’ve been in similar situations. It’s blowing chop outta the West and cold, and you’re pushing it in a small boat heavy with men, a Lab, six dozen dekes, guns and gear. Stoke level: Mega, ‘cause this is day three and these boys smashed ‘em on the two previous mornings.

    On the most-wanted list: Cans, Bluebill, Redheads and Goldeneye, in that order. The boat’s less than a mile offshore in 14 feet of water and it’s dark. Black dark, so they’re disoriented. Happens to all of us, so they’re spinning to port, then starboard and back again, looking for some sort of landmark in shadow. The boat’s wakes catch up to them and in seconds, there’s sub-40° water piling in over the transom.

    Two men jump forward to level the hull, but the floor drops out from under their feet in less than five seconds. You know the rest, no need for more detail. Two men make it out carrying a horrifying memory they’ll never shake. One doesn’t.

    Over judgment on this one would be purely hypocritical. On how many pre-dawn runouts did you soldier forward through impenetrable fog, deadheads and poor decisions when you should have turned around and went to breakfast? How many days have you ignored a building weather system and seen a calm, flat marsh stand up with angry rollers in seconds? How often have you not worn a lifejacket or a wading belt, or found yourself alone in spots too remote for any hope of help should something go wrong? The list is endless, and it proves no waterfowler with any history has a perfect past.

    Fact: The better you are, the more danger you’re in because you think you’ve seen it all. This story serves as a reminder there’s one thing you haven’t seen and you don’t want to. Last Saturday morning, two of the BOSSmen had to stand by his daughter, and sister as she told two 12-year old twins Dad wasn’t coming home. Ever.

    BOSSmen, we say this not as some scared straight scenario, but as a goddamned crucial lesson: We all push too hard sometimes, forgetting that at the end of any hunt someone’s at home waiting for you. No bird is worth that gamble.

    For your family, friends and future’s sake, let’s all try to be safer out there. All we ask.
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    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

  2. #2
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    Sad stuff
    Member of the Tenth Legion Since 2004

  3. #3
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    Prayers for the family.
    Quote Originally Posted by cajunwannabe View Post
    Man is merely a two legged locust, devouring wild lands, developing and prostituting wildlife and fisheries under the guise of "use of the resource" for tremendous profit and moving on. Will it ever end?

  4. #4
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    Perspective.

  5. #5
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    :lump in throat:

    I'd say that I have only put myself in mortal peril 4 or 5 times in the entire 41 years I've been duck hunting...every single one of those times was created out a sense that if I didn't "push it" I would miss out on killing a few ducks...

    The way I look at it now is that if I do 'push it" then I'm might miss out on a lifetime of killing ducks.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    :lump in throat:

    I'd say that I have only put myself in mortal peril 4 or 5 times in the entire 41 years I've been duck hunting...every single one of those times was created out a sense that if I didn't "push it" I would miss out on killing a few ducks...

    The way I look at it now is that if I do 'push it" then I'm might miss out on a lifetime of killing ducks.
    Well put.
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  7. #7
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    Man that's rough. We've all been there before and it could happen to any of us. Good reminder.


    I still wake up in a cold sweat from a situation I got myself in during a St. Helena sound solo hunt many years ago! You just as easily could have read about me back then.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Black Bart View Post
    Perspective.
    This.

  9. #9
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    Default The Weight of Loss (Loss of a duck hunter)

    4-5 different situations I’ve put myself in over the years could have easily ended this way. Last year we had a situation and at the ramp I said this is how those stories began, we decided to go to Waffle House instead. The only thing I love more than killing ducks is my wife.
    Last edited by Woodiewacker82; 10-25-2019 at 12:41 PM.

  10. #10
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    Very sad.
    I’ve become much more cautious the last few years. I might look ridiculous, but I wear my life vest every time I’m out there hunting. I’ll even put it on if I’m hunting big water when I go to pick up birds or pick up decoys. I’ve sunk my boat too many times! Luckily I was in shallow water.
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  11. #11
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    I almost lost on of my sons like that when he was 11- that day changed how I did everything around the water.

  12. #12
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    Safety first. Godspeed waterfowl. Prayers for his soul and for the ones he left behind.

    Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
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    Delta in a nutshell: Breeding grounds + small wetlands + big blocks of grass cover + predator removal + nesting structures + enough money to do the job= plenty of ducks to keep everyone smiling!

    "For those that will fight for it...FREEDOM...has a flavor the protected shall never know."
    -L/Cpl Edwin L. "Tim" Craft

  13. #13
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    That is as well said as it gets. I wonder how high his transom was...I had an xpress with a low transom, and I put that thing on the bottom of the sipsey river in alabama while launching. Sold that boat and went with a high transom Duracraft, Can someone explain why anyone makes or even wants a low transom boat?

    Anyhoo, we've all done it, and the more experienced we get, the more we think we've experienced all the dangerous shit not to ever do again...so we let our guards down regarding the dangerous shit we've yet to experience. I'm hoping that I'm finally getting to the point where I'm starting to anticipate the possible unknown dangers. On the recent trip to a lake-on-mars spot at 7200' in the Laramie Mountains, just before getting out of the truck and heading out in the 40-70+ MPH snowy winds, I had that uneasy feeling that danger was close at hand. After a brief ponder, I laid out some rules for the three of us...if anyone starts shivering, they were to immediately head to the truck while signaling the others to head that way also; no one was to retrieve any duck that fell in the water until all three of us were there no matter how shallow the water appeared to be; if any of us got too uneasy for any reason whatsoever, we would all head to the truck without question.

    When you are young, you will take chances, and there is little anyone can do about the tragedies that happen to those who think they are bulletproof. What's scary is being older and trying to be safe and finding yourself in trouble that you never thought about. I damn near didn't make it 300 yards to my truck last year across a wet grass field because I started hunting in 53 degree weather in 40 degree clothes, and the temp dropped to 35 and winds picked up to 25-30 with a driving wet snow. I was shooting ducks and getting wet and colder by the second, and before I realized it, I was hypothermic and thinking really stupid thoughts that I was lucky to identify as really stupid thoughts. Twenty more minutes of hiding in the pond in my waders and hunting would have likely resulted in me dying in the middle of a grass field less than 200 yards from my truck and less than 5 miles from my house in above freezing temps.

    Be safe as possible fellas, and listen to that uneasy feeling when it stirs in your gut.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Black Bart View Post
    Perspective.
    great word
    tough lesson
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Relentlous View Post
    Very sad.
    I’ve become much more cautious the last few years. I might look ridiculous, but I wear my life vest every time I’m out there hunting. I’ll even put it on if I’m hunting big water when I go to pick up birds or pick up decoys. I’ve sunk my boat too many times! Luckily I was in shallow water.
    I'm with you, I'm not interested in drowning.
    \"Free your mind, your ass will follow\"

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