“nash buckingham”

There is a happy ending to a story that began Dec. 1, 1948, when beloved outdoor writer and legendary waterfowl hunter (apparently you can be both) Nash Buckingham accidentally drove off without his custom shotgun, "Bo Whoop." It would be 58 yearsbeforethe gunPhil Bourjaily has described as "probably the most famous waterfowl gun ever" would be seen again.

Among all the duck-hunting haunts up and down the Mississippi Flyway, a spot in the middle of a water-filled woods just south of Tunica, Miss., between the Mississippi and Coldwater rivers provides wingshooters with a glimpse of Southern tradition. This is Beaver Dam Lake, made famous not only by its fabulous fowling but by one of the South’s prominent sporting scribes, Nash Buckingham.

It is this time every year when the struggle with Duck Depression begins—a battle wingshooters will wage until fall's glorious return ushers in a new waterfowl season. Kyle Wintersteen offers a few ways to combat it, with these five must-read books for the duck hunter.

In the adventurous world of hunting, there are many great stories and books to make us all gasp, laugh, cry and more. If, as a hunter, you are a reader, odds are your life has been influenced by some of them. If you haven’t yet read enough of them, find them, read them, then pass them on to an aspiring hunter.

When the weather is more suited to sunbathing than waterfowling, hunters must adapt or get burned.

On Arkansas’ Grand Prairie mallards are cause for celebration and calling brings ’em in close.

Wingmead is a name of Scottish origin that means “meadow of wings,” which is what the Grand Prairie of Arkansas becomes each year when ducks migrate here.