Christian Suttle is old enough to be protecting our country via the uniformed services, but it was not until a Christmas 2009 visit back home that he was able to partake in his first duck hunt in the Santee Delta near Georgetown. A trained marksman, Suttle was somewhat humbled by the flights of teal that blitzed his blind. His tale about his 'first duck' is as follows when Suttle said, "Through out the day, we had our fair share of misses, hits, a top gun type fly by, ducks on some kind of kamikaze mission, and laughs. I finally got my perfect hit. I merganser headed straight towards me, going maybe 40 hit hard left 20 yards out. I popped up, sighted down, ex-hailed, verified by lead, easing the trigger and then snap. The merganser turns into a rock. He lands about 150 yards away. I had to go hop into the boat to go get him. It was a glorious moment. I felt like George Washington crossing the river being at the front of the boat. I stood up with anticipation and seeing my merganser around the corner I turned around and Howard gave me a high five. Victory. We had been clipping feathers all day, but finally I got my kill. Coming back I could hear Jake, the dog, whining because he wasn't able to go fetch the duck. He jumped up on me and gave me what seemed to be a hug. He didn't try to get the duck, he just sat their and looked at me. I think Jake knew it was my first. Finally we head back. All in all, it was an unforgettable experience. One that I will always treasure."
PhotosProvided: Christian Suttle in the duck blind over Christmas, Jake the very happy black lab, Suttle's first duck came in the form of a merganser which was fitting snagged by a crab dip net
J.D.
ReplyDeleteWhat a piece of creative "Top Gun/Sniper" writing! You may want to use spell checker on your next blog. Howard always tells a good story and I have never seen a merganser " drop like a rock" 150 yards away from the blind! If it dropped like a rock, wouldn't Jake the Dog have had the opportunity to make a retrieve? Sounds like chasing a cripple to me? Congrats to the proud hunter and serviceman!
Anonymously Yours
Cripple or not, the dip net photo does not lie, and that bird is now migrating toward the taxidermist!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteI will shed some truth onto this story. Unless this is Terry. The duck was flying really high to me. 35 feet or so. The merganzer was flying from the 3 to the 9. I put a lead of one head on the duck, so if I had any errors I would secure a body shot. I hit the duck center mass, and once it was hit it did travel some ways due to glide physics. It travelled maybe 60 yards but Jake would have been too tired to go and retrieve it. So I went. Also, once last note. Humans don't run at 30 mph, they run at 6, and I wasn't shooting from 500 meters away. It was a new challange and I loved every minute of it! Thanks for the post Jeff.