The Duck Tollers

Live decoy shooting was immortalized by writers such as George Bird Grinnell, Nash Buckingham, and Gordon MacQuarrie. It’s easy to understand why. Flapping and flying tollers that “lifted up their voices in sonorous calls” were irresistible to wild birds that often decoyed so close “one can see their eyes twinkle.” Before wingshooting was popularized, shots were taken on the water, in part to protect the live decoys, and because it “largely increased the count.” The outcome of a single discharge on swimming birds could be the destruction of the whole flock. Few serious gunners ever considered hunting without live decoys.

(Continue reading in the December/January issue of WILDFOWL Magazine, in R.K. Sawyer's feature The Duck Tollers.)

More Inside This Issue:

Diver Nirvana

A return an old waterfowler's haunts.

Southern Comfort

The joys of hunting Louisiana!

Eurasion Quests

The hunt for a bird on EVERYONE'S bucket list.