Scottish Duck Hunting

Hi Buck.

It is your new Scottish friend here Iain who lives in New Zealand.

Well, opening day has come and gone and we had a great time. As you can imagine the level of ribbing regarding the duck calling reaches biblical proportions on opening day. I was accused of sounding anything like a duck! but it was later admitted that some of my calling was good. During the quiet periods I kind of worked out that I was using too much voice and not really blowing. At least I think so, because when I had a go later on, and blew more my mates said it was good but it sure as hell did not sound right to me. Anyway I will persevere and I have enjoyed the challenge. The call coach is really good especially for the cadence and I use it as I walk along the beach.

The weather on opening day very much favoured the ducks with the sun splitting the skies and there being no cloud cover. The ducks were up really high and there was no wind to speak of.

My mate Trev managed to run over his dog after he was driving back form the hide (Called Mai Mais here) and had to dash to the vet straight away. It transpired later that the dog was ok but it was left with my young dog who is a pointer and who was having her first outing to step into the role. She was not to great to begin with but soon got the hang of things and was fine for about three hours.During this time she got several ducks that were injured in the willows which was a real bonus. She then decided not to work anymore and did the same on Sunday. However I have been working away with her and she did two awesome retrieves yesterday in the river which was running pretty fast.

But on with the story. We had the usual flurry of ducks at first light and things were steady up until about 11am then picked up in the afternoon.Trev arrived back about ten and informed us the dog was going to be ok. You can imagine the level of ribbing he took! We got a few more in the evening and by the end of the day we had shot around 30 ducks. We bagged about another 10 on Sunday morning.The bag limit here in Southland is 20 on opening day and 15 thereafter.As usual there were some spectacular shots and some bloody ordinary ones!

During the day we have a plentiful supply of food. There is usually some seafood chowder at lunch and other seafood . We have breakfast cooked for us, including home kill bacon by the guy whose land we shoot on and a buddy comes in and joins us for tea. Steak and venison! So you can see how rough things are! On Saturday we were back home at 7.30 to watch the Rugby and tucked up by around 10 dreaming of doing it all again on Sunday.

Overall it was a great weekend and we were down a bit from last year but it is the camraderie of the occasion that is important. The season is open for eight weeks and I get out quite a bit but most guys don't bother after opening weekend!

Well Buck, that is roughly our story . I will attach a few pictures for you to have a look at and I would love you to come and have a shoot with us sometime. Opening day is always the first Saturday in May. I did notice some of you products on sale in a local store and could not resist buying one of your Tall Timber2 callers which I have been practicing with. Why not come on a promotional tour? Either way you would be most welcome.

I hope we can stay in touch and wish you all the very best with your business and with your hunting.

Yours in friendship.

Iain MacCallum

Duck Hunting Baseball Players in Jackson, TN

Dear Mr. Gardner,

Thank you so much for the autographed pictures, stickers and duck calls for our senior baseball players. These boys have played really hard this year, finishing in the regular season with the best record in our district. This past week, we have been playing in the district tournament and finished third tonight. I chose tonight to give the seniors (they graduated last night) each a packet of the stuff that you sent.

The history of these boys is that they have played baseball together since they were little and played at Liberty High School for four years together and not only that, they all duck hunt and have some of your duck calls. When I mentioned this to Jason, I had hopes that you would send them something special because I believed that it would bring a smile to all of their faces (win or lose). I was right!!

Walking off the field, I asked the seniors to please stick around; that I had something for them. I told them that my husband had a friend who was a really good man and I had somthing special from him that I wanted to give them. In this picture you cannot tell that they had played their last high school ball game... they had just received something so special from a man they all know and admire. They gladly lined up at the fence, wrapped their arms around their friends, and gave me a smile... I didn't have to say cheese... they were so excited, smiles just came naturally!

You made their night! From the bottom of my heart, I truly thank you (and your staff). You will never know what this meant to me and what this meant to these five wonderful boys with such a great future ahead of them. They are very close and have wonderful parents and they are so full of talent. These boys all make good grades and work hard for what they have in life and I would have never asked for something like this from you if I didn't know that they deserved it and that they would appreciate it. I is rare that I could give them all the same gift and that would be because every single one enjoys duck hunting!! I can bet that the buper stickers are already on their vehicles and that they are still talking about their picture from you. One senior said " You couldn't have picked a group of boys that will appreciate this as much as we do."

It takes on special man to take time out of his busy schedule and actually do a favor so quickly. It worked out just perfectly. I will never forget what you did to make such a special moment happen; one that we all can treasure for the rest of our lives. I knew by listening to Jason that you were a wonderful man but now I have actually seen it for myself.

You being who you are and giving to people makes life so special. I could never repay you for this night! Thanks for making our seniors smile and thank you for being such a good man. My mother always told me that a good reputation meant so much in God's eyes and you definitely have one. You should be proud of your name and your accomplishments in life and I know that you are. I hope that one day, when life is not so busy, that I can meet this special man who cares so much for people.

I'm sorry for the long-winded email (I like to talk) but words cannot express my thanks, only the picture can show you just what you made happen! I was so glad to see their smiles!

God bless you, Buck Gardner! You are definitely a Champion of Champions!

Kim Patterson (Jason's wife)

ProStaffer Wins In Contest

Buck,
I sent this to you from my work email but it said that it didnt go through, so you might get this email twice! I just wanted to shoot you a few pics from this weekends contest in Easton, MD. I was lucky enough to bring home a couple of third place plaques in the Open meat duck and the two man duck. I was using the Double Nasty XL. I also made it to the second round of the Open Goose contest with my SS2. There were 15 callers in the Open duck and 23 in the Open goose on Saturday. Thanks for the tips you gave me while I was at the shop! I appreciate it.

Cory Dukehart