Phil Bourjaily

Our parents and grandparents hunted ducks and geese with walnut-stocked,  fixed-choke shotguns without complaint. Those old guns keep you in touch with waterfowling’s past in a way that a plastic-stocked, camo gun never can. Hunting with older guns is like hunting with hand-carved decoys—it’s a...

Out of necessity, I started my waterfowling life as a jump shooter. It’s the simplest, least gear-intensive form of the sport, and all I had was a shotgun, $10 PVC barn boots, and a taste for wild duck. I also had ponds and creeks on our farm that held wood ducks early and mallards late. I’d make a...