The Stories a Hunting Coat Tells

In a recent edition of Gun Dog Magazine, editor Kali Parmley writes, "It's bad luck to wash one's field jacket, you see. That fabric holds memories of long days spent hunting behind good bird dogs. Why wash them away?"

This past Thanksgiving, I sat in a duck blind wearing a familiar Redhead brand hunting jacket hoping to blend in new memories with new friends. It was the first time I had booked a guided duck hunt over a dry field and was hoping for a new experience with my chocolate lab, Dawn.

Months previous, I had met Army Veteran Trent Dirks of Iowa and his service dog, Tracer. Trent would be my guide on a two-day hunt with Waterfowl Assassins Guide Service in Maryville, Mo., and Tracer would also serve as his hunting dog. JR Borchelt has the guide service and had us set up in a disked corn field somewhere near the Missouri River.

We got a few birds the first day, but the unusually dry, warm weather didn't have the birds working in our favor. The following morning was better, though. Fog made sighting ducks a little more difficult, but when they did appear, dozens at a time, they were already fairly close.

I managed to drop a hen and a drake mallard in an hour or so, making good along with other guys in the blind. At one point, I dropped a mallard drake that fell perhaps 100 yards out in the field.

Dawn was actually in the blind with me and saw the bird go down. She was about to blow a fuse to get back out of the blind and retrieve another bird, so I lifted her up and dumped her on the ground, which was mostly mud, and she took off as though her tail was on fire!

Dawn has a great ability to mark a dummy or even a downed bird, but this was farther than anything she's retrieved yet. She made a great mark only being off by a few feet. She caught wind of the bird and pounced as if to congratulate herself. When she finally got back to the blind, we set aside the drake mallard for a taxidermist, as it was a fine-looking bird and would be a way to remember her first long retrieve.

When my hunt was over, I talked with Trent while I cleaned my birds. We talked about waterfowl hunting, service dogs, the weather, Tracer making great retrieves. As we were getting ready to say good-bye until another day, I said of all that went on those two days, my dog making that retrieve will be what I'll remember most.

As I write this column, I'm sitting on a comfortable couch at Bootheel Lodging in Holland, Mo., just north of the Arkansas border. The lodge takes in travelers coming to the area to waterfowl hunt or to be guides for people like me.

In the morning, I'll be taking Dawn on her second guided duck hunt but will have a different clothing set up this time out due to the weather. Regardless of what I wear, I see no reason to wash my hunting clothes. The dirt, cockleburs, feathers are all part of my outdoor experience. Though I take a number of photos on hunts, having a well-worn hunting coat helps preserve memories, as well. Life is too short to not make the most of it.