ESPN Hunting

SHAWANO, Wis. — Just when you think you've heard everything, some guy at the back of the room wins a gun, and starts celebrating a little too much. So to move him along, his friend tells him, "Finish your drink and go get your gun."

As out of place as that may seem in today's American mainstream, it seemed oddly OK in the duck hunting culture of the Mississippi Flyway. In this culture a night at a Ducks Unlimited banquet is about as common as coffee on opening day. It was only a matter of chance before the Duck Trek would cross paths with one of hundreds of these banquets that take place during duck season.

They have become as much a part of the season as retrievers and neoprene waders. Some might say, these banquets that actually get away with mixing a friendly drink with a free gun are the reason many of us are still able to hunt.

The guns and other big-ticket items — deer cams, bows, a deer stand — didn't used to be the centerpiece of the Ducks Unlimited banquets here in this town of 8,000 people about 35 miles northwest of Green Bay, Wis. But after some other conservation-minded organizations began offering firearms to the members and donors who showed up at their events, DU needed to keep up.

The rub is, among the many auction and raffle items — bronze statues, kitchen knives, duck calls, framed artwork, a football signed by the 2008 Green Bay Packers — on the block this rainy November night, a veritable arsenal of more than 40 guns, as well as a couple of compound bows, were going out as door prizes.

That worked out to one free gun for every three attendees, who could pay $110 for a package of tickets that would give them a chance at every Remington, Mossberg and Benelli on the racks at the back of the room. Winners are required to register their new weapons with the state at a table near the fire exit.

One DU volunteer present, a retired Post Office employee named Barry Fredrich, hunted ducks in Wisconsin for 45 years. He grew up in the north-central part of the state — "that was God's country, right there" — and remembers as a boy, with his father and grandfather, gazing out at the bounty of birds in a valley near Shoal Lake.

"The sky was just black with them," Fredrich says. "But those days are long gone. With all the help they get these days, you'd think there'd be a lot more ducks."

He's afraid the basic math of growth has something to do with that.

"Since I was in the eighth grade," he says, "the population of Wisconsin has doubled."

It's now up to more than 5.5 million people, which, any way you cut it, makes for lots of farms and housing tracts and roads and — well, lots of guys with guns, out shooting ducks.

Oddly, though, in the estimation of Chris Anderson, DU's regional director here, there aren't just a ton of duck hunters among the cops, lawyers, paramedics, mechanics, restaurateurs and other working dudes (and it is almost all dudes) at this banquet. The chance to win firearms (and a deer stand) helps bring together folks of all stripes. Heck, the name of the location for the fried chicken and pork loin dinner: "The Gathering."

But all along the Flyway, it is duck hunters that turn out in full force when a banquet is set. They spend the evening perusing items that they might like to have on their desk at their office, on the wall at home and especially hoping for an opportunity to walk out the door with a premium item like a free gun.

"We get together with our friends, have a few drinks, have some fun, and talk a lot of duck hunting,'' Anderson said. "We come from a lot of backgrounds, but we all agree on our purpose when we walk through the door."

It's all for the ducks. This DU chapter has raised just shy of a million bucks for the national organization since 1974. The national organization, in turn, has improved 87,000 acres in Wisconsin for game birds and other animals. And it begins one free Ruger 7mm bolt action rifle at a time.