BAND TALES: A Banded Drake Mallard Shot in Iconic Arkansas

“The morning was cool and crisp, which made perfect weather for the ducks to be flying. We had five hunters in the blind that day when a group of mallards flew into our set. My gun came up fast, and both myself and the hunter next to me shot almost simultaneously,” Darrell Sterling says about a hunt he enjoyed in the “duck capital of the world”—the famous Stuttgart, Arkansas. After the first two shots, the rest of the guns from the blind roared to life. And as luck would have it, the bird that fell was banded!

“Everyone, of course, thought that they had shot the duck. I was unsure whether my shot was the one that landed first or not, but I know myself and the other hunter were the first to fire. I knew one of of us took down the bird, but because the two other hunters also fired we decided the best way to decide who would claim the banded duck would be to put four spent shells into a hat with a feather in one so everyone would draw to see who would win the band.”

Luck was on Darrell’s side, because he drew the magic shell and got to claim the banded bird. “I thought it was only fitting, as I really believe that I took down the duck, but when two guns go off almost at the same time, you never really know,” he says. The famous saying in sports, the ball don’t lie could be changed here to: The spent shotgun shell with the duck feather in it, don’t lie.

Sterling continues, “It was interesting following this duck’s history, as it was hatched in 2018, and banded in 2020. The mallard was from the Arkansas area.

Sterling says it was an honor to shoot a banded mallard in such a storied location, and it isn’t something he will soon forget

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