344 
FOREST AND STREAM 
August, 1921 
A BLIND FOR THE SNEAK SHOOTER 
THE DUCK HUNTER, ANTICIPATING THE SPORT OF THE FALL, SHOULD 
PREPARE NOW TO BUILD HIS RIG AND BLIND FOR SHOOTING DAYS TO COME 
By PAUL F. BARTLING 
T HE majority of duck hunters who 
go to the bays, lakes or marshes for 
a week-end or a week or two of 
hunting in the fall usually follow the 
line of least resistance and confine their 
kind of shooting to Jump, Pass or Point, 
according to the layout and location of 
their shooting ground. The three meth- 
ods named are really the simpler ways 
of duck shooting and from which the 
duck shooter graduates, as he becomes 
more proficient, to the more difficult 
forms of hunting, provided, of course, 
he cares to go to the trouble and ex- 
pense. 
The other methods I have in mind are 
known as “Layout” and “Sneak” shoot- 
ing. Neither of the last mentioned meth- 
ods are used until after the river or 
lake ducks come down from the North 
which, usually, in the lower lake region 
of Michigan, is around October the 
twelfth or fifteenth. Mallards and other 
marsh ducks will not decoy well enough 
in open water to make it worth while to 
hunt them, though I have had mallards 
decoy to a layout “set” just as prettily 
as any red-head or blue-bill, and have 
killed quite a number that way. Widgeon, 
too, will swing over close enough for a 
shot and will often decoy well. 
Jump shooting is good sport. About 
all that is needed is a good, light punt 
and a gun. A dog is often of good serv- 
ice in retrieving cripples or dead birds 
that fall in the high grass or rushes. 
Good jump shooting can be had on 
large wild rice beds early in the season 
or, in fact, any time and place when 
ducks come into the marshes to feed. 
Pass shooting is usually done early in 
the morning or just before dusk, favorite 
places being channels connecting lakes 
or points in the line of flight used by 
ducks coming in or leaving the marshes 
at dusk or early in the morning. Good 
shooting may also be had on stormy 
days when the ducks are kept moving 
and are flying low. 
Point shooting over decoys is probably 
well enough known to most hunters to 
need but little comment. It is probably 
the best and easiest method of shooting 
ducks. Having a good point with the 
proper wind and in the line of flight, one 
can usually get a good day’s shoot and 
gather in a good bag. 
The only objection to point shooting 
is that, after a short time, they are 
usually “burned out.” Hunters, good, 
bad and indifferent will be after the good 
points every day and after having been 
shot at every day for a week or two the 
ducks learn to give the points a wide 
berth. Also, it may happen that after 
the first severe frost the rushes on the 
points are so broken down by the hunt- 
ers and storms as to no longer afford 
good cover. This is especially true of 
points that are formed from rushes grow- 
ing out in the water. On land points it 
is not at all difficult to build a blind that 
is not too conspicuous; and in making 
blinds always remember that the blind 
must not be in too great contrast to the 
surroundings. 
Perhaps you are hunting from a shore 
that has no good shooting points but 
where the ducks feed some distance out 
in the bay or lake. It is at this time and 
under the conditions just named that 
layout and sneak shooting really come 
into their own though they were as ef- 
fective, and probably more so, when the 
shooting was good on the points. But 
why go way out into the lake to hunt 
when you can get the ducks to come to 
you on the points? I do but very little 
Gathering a double 
outside shooting until the ducks start to 
shy the points. 
Shooting from a layout is great sport 
but a man must be quick to rise to a 
sitting position and in getting his gun to 
bear on the birds. 
Layout boats, built specially for the 
purpose, are narrow, box-shaped affairs 
with the deck extending from six to ten 
inches beyond the sides and built so as 
to be nearly flush with the surface of the 
water. The weight of the gunner brings 
Ihe underside of the deck even with the 
water. On stormy days a canvas comb- 
ing is raised to keep out the water which 
may wash over the deck. 
This method of shooting requires two 
men and a larger boat or launch to 
carry the hunters and decoys to the 
shooting ground which, depending on lo- 
cality and general conditions, is some- 
times a good distance out in the lake or 
bay. But at best, a rowboat is necessary 
to carry the decoys and tow the layout. 
The man in the rowboat must also 
anchor at a distance from the gunner in 
order to pick up dead birds and to chase 
cripples. 
Before setting out decoys for layout 
shooting it is always a good policy to 
get a line on thel flight of the ducks or 
to set out where the ducks have been 
feeding or bedding. Arriving at the se- 
lected spot the layout boat is anchored 
in position and the decoys are thrown 
ahead to form a crescent, bringing the 
ends in toward the boat on each side. 
This method of setting will give the 
shooter a better chance at the birds that 
“swing the ends.” 
Until recently there was no limit to 
the number of decoys that could be set 
out in Michigan waters. The law now 
says you may use only fifty and it is, 
therefore desirable that they be placed 
to the best advantage. When properly 
set, the boat should lie from twenty to 
twenty-five yards away from the ends 
and centre of the decoys. When it is 
possible to use more than fifty decoys 
they can be set close in and around the 
front and sides of the boat. Ducks will 
decoy better to a larger flock of decoys 
and will not notice the boat so readily, 
though it seems that on certain days they 
wouldn’t decoy if you had a thousand de- 
coys out. I have never been able to 
understand why this is. In fact, I think 
that any one who can figure out just how 
ducks reason is a wonder. 
When coming in to the decoys there is 
no doubt but that they see the boat but, 
apparently pay no attention to it, they 
being intent on finding a place to light 
in the flock or, at least, giving them 
the “once over.” All of this when the 
ducks are in a mood to decoy. Other- 
wise, about the best you can get is a few 
shots at the birds that swing the ends 
with, occasionally, a single that sails 
right in and has it’s wings all set to 
light when, if you are quick enough, you 
finish the operation for it with a load 
of number fives. 
I have done layout shooting in a fif- 
teen-foot boat of good beam, setting 
about twelve inches above the water. 
Most of the layout shooting on the lower 
part of Saginaw Bay is done from the 
larger boats. The ducks seem to decoy 
as well and one can carry his own de- 
coys and pick up his own ducks. 
O P the utmost importance in layout 
shooting is that the gunner lie per- 
fectly still until the ducks have 
come in as close as they will or have set 
their wings to light. The shooter should 
then be able to rise to a sitting position 
and to bring his gun on the ducks in 
one motion. No time can be lost as the 
birds sure get “in high” when a man bobs 
up from an innocent looking boat that, tc 
them, as they are flying, probably ap- 
