I'm with everybody else. You did the right thing. That first band is forever etched in your mind. It will be yours forever stored in there.
I agree, keep the kid interested instead of leaving a sour taste from arguing over a bird. I have duck / goose hunted for years. Took a friend from work for his first hunt and the first mallard he shoots is banded. He picks it up and comes to the blind looking scared to death. I ask what is wrong and he says the bird is banded.
I tell him to call the number and give the band number. We find out the bird had been banded on Wed. at 3pm 25 miles north of the Artic Circle and was then harvested on Sat. 7:30am on the Gulf Coast 60 miles south of Galveston. He must have had one HELL of a tailwind.
30 years later, he still carries that band and is my best hunting and fishing partner and I have yet to retrieve a banded bird.
Well done, Porter. be proud and hunt on.
I tell him to call the number and give the band number. We find out the bird had been banded on Wed. at 3pm 25 miles north of the Artic Circle and was then harvested on Sat. 7:30am on the Gulf Coast 60 miles south of Galveston. He must have had one HELL of a tailwind.
30 years later, he still carries that band and is my best hunting and fishing partner and I have yet to retrieve a banded bird.
Well done, Porter. be proud and hunt on.
I guess I am not that familiar with duck hunting. What is the significance of the band and what is the importance placed upon them?
Birds are banded up North with an aluminum leg band. The band has a number on it. Once the bird is harvested, the hunter can notify the banding agency and see where and when the bird was banded. Helps the banding agency with migration info. There are some bands that are green as well, which are reward bands......the only one of those I've seen was worth $50. It was on a mallard drake, shot by Nash, OK in late November, it was banded earlier the same year in Saskatoon, SK.
You did the right thing man. You probably already know that though. Takes a man to give up something he has been chasing for that long for the sake of a child.
Now if that kid would have been 18 we would have been rolling on the ground for it. Maybe depends on how I felt that day. The older I get the memories are worth ten times what the keepsakes are. Besides the story sounds way better the way it went down than the other way. You could not ever re-tell the alternative story with out sounding like an ass. Merry Christmas Porter, you are a fine example of a sportsman. This sport is lucky have people like you around.
Now if that kid would have been 18 we would have been rolling on the ground for it. Maybe depends on how I felt that day. The older I get the memories are worth ten times what the keepsakes are. Besides the story sounds way better the way it went down than the other way. You could not ever re-tell the alternative story with out sounding like an ass. Merry Christmas Porter, you are a fine example of a sportsman. This sport is lucky have people like you around.
You made a great decision bud. Although it hurt you did what you felt was right and can look at yourself in the mirror each morning. I'm also a firm believer in the Biblical principle of "you reap what you sow". I believe you'll get that band soon enough...
My first band was a reward band. Took 7 years to finally shoot it. There were three of us. I knew good and well I killed the goose. Last flock flew in, we all three shot. 4 geese fell and one of the guys with us said "well good work guys, I didn't hit squat"
We picked them up and sure enough one was banded. I knew good and well that I killed it as I was on the outside edge and the bird was dead 20 yards to my side. My buddy threw a stink and said we had to flip a coin for it. I just said "how about we split the bands. I get the one band and you get the other" he went for that and we split them. Even though I knew good and well who killed the goose, it just wasn't worth fighting over.
Bottom line is that you did the right thing. Since that first shared band, I have been blessed with 7 other migrant bands in the last 6 years of hunting. 3 $100 rewards on mallards, three Canadas and a speck.
These days I hunt with #4's when goose hunting and won't be afraid to skin a goose to find shot as I don't have many friends that hunt with 4's.
We picked them up and sure enough one was banded. I knew good and well that I killed it as I was on the outside edge and the bird was dead 20 yards to my side. My buddy threw a stink and said we had to flip a coin for it. I just said "how about we split the bands. I get the one band and you get the other" he went for that and we split them. Even though I knew good and well who killed the goose, it just wasn't worth fighting over.
Bottom line is that you did the right thing. Since that first shared band, I have been blessed with 7 other migrant bands in the last 6 years of hunting. 3 $100 rewards on mallards, three Canadas and a speck.
These days I hunt with #4's when goose hunting and won't be afraid to skin a goose to find shot as I don't have many friends that hunt with 4's.
Good job what goes around comes around. You will be rewarded in time.
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