Back in '99, I was not on my current deer lease, and spent a lot of time in Houston on business. As a result, I took some customers duck hunting at Garwood Hunting Club down in Garwood, TX. I really hit it off with Barry Mikulin the owner of the club, and wound up getting a membership to the club for customer entertainment.

At that time, my son Bobby was only 7 (almost 8), and he had been bugging me to take him duck hunting all season long. I waited until the end of the season, and picked a time during the week when I knew Barry would not have clients in the lodge. Barry and his staff are really good with kids, and really try hard to make sure kids have a successful and "busy" time in the duck blind. We set up and hunted on a flooded rice field and were hunting a mixed bag of ducks and geese. Our strategy was to let Bobby take a shot at a duck that landed in the spread. He was shooting a NEF single shot .20 ga. shotgun.

Early that morning a duck landed right in the spread, and the pressure was on! Bobby was not even tall enough to get his gun over the top of the blind, so we stood him up on the bench, and let him take the shot. I am proud to say he killed the duck, which turned out to be the nice Pintail drake you see him proudly holding. Unfortunately, that was the only duck he got a shot at on that hunt, but at that point, he did not care.

I will share one funny incident that  happened on the hunt. Later, after Bobby had killed his Pintail, a single Speckle Belly goose came into the spread. I raised up and shot the goose right overhead, and the goose crumbled....and fell........directly at our blind. It landed about a foot in front of Bobby and absolutely covered him in mud! I think at first his pride was a little hurt, but when we all started laughing hysterically he got over his embarassment.

We got Bobby's duck mounted, and we still talk about that goose almost landing on his head. Now he is less than a month away from his 16th birthday, and girls have reduced the number of hunts he takes with his old man, but I am patient. I know he will be back in full force in a few years.

Images and Files: View all 1 photos / videos here.