Here we are in the lull season where only a few things are happening in the Outdoor world, especially here in Laramie, WY. One, if the ice is thick enough there may be a few people trying to catch a fish, Two, everyone is looking for a reason to get away from the grind of school, and Three the outdoors men are chomping at the bit to get into the next hunting season while living out last season with story after story of the 2014’s hunting season’s successes and failures.
Everyone knows about the big game hunters that are here. The Elk, Deer, and Pronghorn hunters can be seen during the respected seasons as they storm through town for a quick meal before they have to head back into the open range to fill their tags. The one thing that people rarely see in this area are Duck hunters. This breed of human is a force to be reckoned with. The determination and the preserving attitudes of these men and women can be put up against the hard-hitting stories that Ducks Unlimited publishes. The number of ducks that are taken here will not be in any fashion close to those of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and the other states that flourish in the water fowl industry.
I had the honor and privilege to hunt with a group combined of men from Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado. We as a team put down 273 ducks before the season for us closed. I say this because just as all duck hunters know as soon as the water turns to ice then the ducks find the fastest air current they can and head south for the winter. Well that seems to come early for us every year, so making the most of the days to hunt starts with making a routine that looks something like this. Look at the classes that are offered at the university and compare it to duck season, there goes any morning classes, and fill the rest of your day with just enough classes to get you by. The keep is to make sure that you have enough classes to fill a full-time student and still make the grades to keep the parents happy.
The mornings that it’s so cold that the trucks don’t start, are gifts, those are the days you can sleep until noon because the sleep deprivation makes finals week look like a joke. Then there are mornings that seem to fly by. Those six man limit days when it is all you can do to pack up and get to class, those are the days when everyone knows that crazy runs in your blood. The looks are priceless from your peers, but the best are the professors. It’s almost as if they see the painted face of a duck hunter and they seek you out all class. When they ask you a question and through the camo paint, blood stained hands, and zombie like stare you muster up an answer that makes their jaw drop in astonishment. That is the moment when they can read your forehead that says, “YES Ma’am/Sir I do pay attention in your class and I am active student, why don’t you ask someone else that needs to be called out in class? That person over there in the corner sleeping looks like a good target.” It only takes once for the proper effect to be achieved.
These boys lived for those moments. Morning after morning of fighting frozen waders, firing pins, calls and the lack of ducks, never once did we have a bad day. That is something to be proud of, and the fact that this happens here in this small “non duck-hunting town” says something. What does it say? It says that the coverage of stories in fields such as this are pitiful. Was this a year that was just off the wall for this group of men? Maybe. But the challenging hunting here is worth hearing and the story will be told. They just need to be heard by the right people. Let the stories roll across the land and see what can come of checking out rumors that are so far-fetched that they can’t be true or are so off the wall that they must be true. It might surprise you. Pictures and stories of these are there you just have to go out and find them. That’s my job. I just need the outdoorsmen and women to read what is here to be read.
Leonard Scott (Scottie) Melton Jr. 