Sept. 20, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
363 
Talk of an Old-Timer 
Y EARS ago, when ducks were plentiful and 
game laws not so restrictive as now, for 
many winters the writer headed a party 
of four that spent two months, January and 
February, each year, shooting in Texas waters. 
Morgan's Point, San Jacinto River, Trinity Bay, 
Galveston Bay and in different little lakes and 
landlocked harbors along the Gulf Coast. 
The party could not be called market hunt¬ 
ers, although they sold the game killed. Sold 
it sometimes for less than cost of getting it to 
market, but sold it so someone could use it. 
Many barrels of puddle ducks were sent to Chi- 
By EDWARD T. MARTIN 
Photographs by Verdi Burtch. 
trips, nor yet of any one of them. Simply a 
few points that the happy four would have been 
glad to know then, and perhaps may be useful 
to some shooter now. 
There was a- stretch of sand several miles 
long off the mouth of San Jacinto River: Sand 
that with a heavy southeaster blowing was four 
feet or more under water and high and dry 
when the wind came strong from the northwest, 
but whether dry or submerged, every day com¬ 
mencing about 10 o’clock and lasting until 2 
there was a steady flight of ducks across, com¬ 
ing in from the bay and going up river into the 
mainder coming sometimes closer than they in¬ 
tended, when a puff of wind would blow one 
or two within long range, and by using heavy 
loads and doing good work with the gun, fair 
bags were possible. Smokeless powder then had 
not reached present perfection, and the writer 
used six drams of F.F.F. black and one and one- 
eighth ounce of No. 7 chilled shot. Every effort 
was made to get some gun or some load that 
would reach a little further. A heavy six-gauge 
single barrel gun was bought. Loaded with 
twelve drams of black powder and two and a 
half ounces No. 2 shot would make a noise like 
PHEASANT’S NEST—BEFORE. SAME NEST AFTER FIRE—22 SPOILED EGGS. 
cago on which the charges, express, commission, 
ice and such would average $20 per barrel and 
the proceeds perhaps fifteen or sixteen dollars, 
but the party was willing to stand such loss 
rather than quit shooting, for the inviolable rule 
was, “Never kill anything that cannot be eaten." 
Destructive birds and animals of course ex¬ 
cepted. 
Start was made from Houston or Galveston 
on a small schooner, chartered for two months, 
and such a trip it was 1 Royalty never fared 
better. Fish for the catching, oysters for the 
gathering. Game for the shooting. Hundreds 
of miles of shore, sandbar, river, lake and inlet 
to shoot in. If there were no ducks at San 
Jacinto, the captain would move over to Trinity 
during the night. If report came the canvas 
were working over Sabine way, to Sabine the 
schooner would go, and until business called, or 
warm breezes of spring wafted the ducks to 
the colder regions up north, it was a happy 
crowd. This is not a story of the different 
marshes or pin oak islands for feed. It was a 
wonderful flight. Tens of thousands of canvas, 
mallard, sprig, gadwall, blackhead, widgeon, pro¬ 
portional in numbers about in the order named. 
For two years the writer tried to work that 
flight without much success. The sand was level 
as a ballroom floor, only a few stranded logs 
and a stump or two to break the monotony of 
many white and shining miles of it. The ducks 
would shy from any blind that could be built. 
There was too much quicksand to sink a box 
or barrel. Log blinds were built, brush blinds 
were built, grass blinds were built. Always the 
result was the same, and before the birds could 
have time to get used to anything new, high 
water would come, and work, taking days of 
labor, be washed out in an hour. So it settled 
down to hiding behind a log with 175 decoys 
set and doing a lot of long range shooting. 
Bunch after bunch of ducks would come to 
within a hundred yards of the decoys, split, half 
go down wind and swing very wide, the re¬ 
a cannon, kick like a mule, smoke like a house 
afire, and not have the effective range of the 
ten with No. 7 shot. It was sent to Houston 
and re-bored twice, with no improvement. All 
sizes of shot were tried in both guns, and the 
load first mentioned gave much the best results, 
probably because the sevens flew thicker, and 
every cripple could be gathered unless the water 
was very high. 
While the writer was having good sport, for 
it is a heap more satisfying to kill one swift 
flying bird that is so far away he knows he is 
safe and is laughing at you, than twenty in a 
baited pond where they come to decoys like 
chickens to corn. The others of the party were 
not doing so well, and experiments were con¬ 
stantly being made to get under that flight. To 
do so meant, even for a bad shot, sixty or seventy 
birds a day. At last, a week before going home, 
the difficulty was solved. An old weather-beaten 
piece of canvas was used for a blind. Some¬ 
thing so simple it was strange it had not been 
