Don't Shoot the Decoys: Original Stories of Waterfowling Obsession

Waterfowlers may be passionate-even obsessive-about their sport, but at least they don't take themselves too seriously. That's because duck and goose hunting is so often a humbling experience. In that respect, these 20 stories by Doug Larson are like the classic wildfowl tales of, say, Gordon MacQuarrie-that is, they celebrate the sport of waterfowling while tickling the funny bone. But while Larson is in many ways a traditionalist when it comes to waterfowling-and storytelling-his voice is refreshingly new. Larson's subject, in fact, is the modern hunter's struggle to come to terms with the past while living fully in the present. For instance, while he expresses a love for the hardy duck chasers in canvas coats who humped dozens of cork decoys through mud and mire to secret blinds, he also admits "adapting" to the comforts and conveniences of four-wheel ATVs, portable blind heaters, hollow-body plastic decoys, and polyester "fleece" parkas. On the other hand, he takes pokes at the modern trend to overcomplicate the sport. "Whatever happened to throwing rocks?" he asks in a chapter on motion decoys. Though the book finds humor in the "small" moments associated with duck and goose hunting, it occasionally delivers a real zinger that will bring tears to the reader's eyes, as in the hilarious chapter titled "Concrete," in which Larsen discovers what can happen when a son takes his non-hunting dad waterfowling for the first time. Read more