Baiting was legal, if not within a certain distance. You absolutely could not shoot over top your bait. When I came along it was 250 yards and men were complaining about just a few years earlier, when it use to be 100 yards, things were better. Its always better in the old days. What you would do is put your bait up a small gut on either side of your blind, 250 or more yards away. It kept ducks in the marsh and kept them moving from stash to stash. Again it was legal. But people abused it, some would sneak up on the spot and shoot a few ducks when they wanted to. Others just killed too many ducks I guess. So they made it 500 yards and later any bait within a mile was not allowed. This was state, not federal law. But I never saw a federal game warden growing up. I sure saw enough state ones.

People have a misconception that if you bait you will kill every duck which ever eats your bait. You get a very small percentage, if any. Ive fed many a bird which migrated away before I ever shot them. Most will eat and move on long before you ever see them. But we were not the only ones feeding ducks. I bet there were several thousand baited places all up and down the Chesapeake Bay. The entire area held healthy, well fed, fat birds.

My Grandfather, who delivered the mail, bought a used Oldsmobile, 28 or 29 about 1931. He said he killed more rabbits with that car than any shotgun he ever owned. They would be sitting in the grass, along the side of the road. When that car came by they would jump or run. I think he aimed his wheel at them and ran many a bunny down. Some got hit by the tire and some got hit by the underbody if the car. It does not take much to kill a rabbit. If not hurt too bad hed throw them on the floor in the back seat to take home to feed his family. If the were tore up hed stop and offer them to one of the colored families. Half or more would be in good shape so even a bad one had a fair amount of meat. People were hungry and glad for a bit of free meat.

When I was a boy I often took a rabbit, duck or squirrel to a poor person we knew. All were glad for the bounty. Miss Mary, a colored, now called a black lady, often asked me to save all the muskrat heads when I was trapping muskrats. Id give her a couple rats and a dozen or more heads. She would cook them up and eat for days. Cracking those heads with a nutcracker to get those brains out.

My father would sometimes kill a dozen chickens just before they were to be sold for market. Most ended up in the freezer. Id be given the job of taking a bird here and there to neighbors who were not too well off. Neighbors took care of each other and you learned young that others had it much harder than you did.

One of the things wrong with this country is we stopped doing that. We expect the government to do it for us. That and they wont let me bait within 250 yards of my blinds. God what Id give for a limit of six, fat, corn or bean fed ducks. A Mallard, a Black, a Canvasback and a couple teal, wood ducks or grey ducks. That was good eating. Along the way Id check my muskrat traps to see if Ive got any blacks, or if all browns this year. Black hides fetched 25 cents more most year. I guess JOe was right, I am getting old.