Duck hunting, a passion that knows no bounds: Riccardo talks about his experiences passing from Rome to Montana and Alaska.
You fall in love with the duck hunting never by chance, but for a genetic predisposition. I was struck by love at first sight during a vacation at the home of a dear friend from school. At that time I was still in university and in order to escape from the books we really did everything. Alberto took me to what has now become a wonderful natural park in Fogliano, just south of Rome, with his father who initiated me into that form of hunting that few know: in barrel or from the basket as he liked to call it. The shed it was called a basket as it was made up of branches carefully positioned on a wooden platform. Everything was left on the water and could only be reached with a small boat. You can imagine my discomfort when they asked me to get on that small boat: I live in the mountains and I rarely see the navigable water.
Put that my sense of balance was precarious, put that the darkness was pitch-black and that the boat went with unexpected speed, the fact is that I still remember that moment with great emotion. The shed was well hidden, but Alberto's father knew that lagoon like the back of his hand: he left us in the shed and devoted himself to the disposal of a hundred molds and calls vivthe. Fast was that man fast, perhaps caught in a frenzy that he managed to hide very well. The game was not long in coming and although that was not my habitat, I managed to bring home some satisfaction, but I got that bad disease that is the uncontrollable passion for duck hunting.
To pursue it, I went everywhere, even in the United States. At that time in Montana very few were dedicated to this kind of hunting, but in that distant country for work reasons, I just couldn't resist.
I have to tell you, hunting there it was much simpler: it was enough to get close to one of the many natural lakes in the area and it was not even necessary to do who knows what to hide. I remember whole mornings spent counting mallards, pintails, teals, gadflies: certainly things don't have to be like that anymore even in Montana, at least from what friends in the area tell me, but in my memory United States they will remain for me the dream of every hunter.
Le ducks catching a glimpse of me, they naturally snapped and flew over my figure with surprising speed. Learning the art of patience was fundamental: if I had fired at that moment they would never come back for at least a few days and I would have transformed them into more than suspicious creatures. It was much better to find a small hidden corner, build it if necessary and wait: they never made me wait more than twenty minutes.
They came back a little at a time and at that moment my hunting instinct was awakened: those were undoubtedly the most frenetic moments of the whole hunting day. In those moments you don't have to get caught up in enthusiasm: excitement is fine, we are hunters but still human, and yet you have to keep your feet on the ground. The legal game bag should not exceed 7 specimens, and if all went well, in half an hour I was able to bring home a nice booty. In the early days, I didn't even let the dog accompany me for retrieving: the currents did most of the work, and the ducks that I just could not recover personally, were brought home thanks to the use of a very comfortable fishing rod, which did the dirty work.
The rule I imposed on myself was simple: never go to the same place two days in a row. You have to take care of the hunting places and respect its specimens. I always tried to leave one or two weeks off at each location, like that ducks they were not too frightened and my hunting days passed quietly.
The work a few years later brought me in Alaska: yes it is cold, it is very cold and hunting ducks is not at all easy. THE hunters certainly not lacking and the ducks with the passage of time they have rightly become suspicious. Yet I do not lose hope: when I can I go to the bends of rivers or mouths, because there are not many accessible lakes here, but I will tell about this next time.