1st Place - "Twins"

by Britt Beaver

The photo is of my 4 year old twin sons – Ray and Trace with their lab Max, while on their first duck hunt with my father and I.  The photo was taken on January 9th, 2006 at a duck impoundment in South Carolina.  The title is simply “Twins”.  This photo shows the importance of introducing children to hunting. 

by Bear Harrell

My son is 2 years old and this is his first duck hunt.  As you can see, he has already mastered the 2nd most important thing to do in a duck blind. Pic was made on November 30, 2005 near Harrisburg, AR.

by Stephen Barrett

Taken on January 19th, 2006 in North East Texas.

It started off as any normal morning would for me, coffee pot coming on at 5:15, as well as the alarm clock. I rise with much anticipation of this mornings hunt, excited about the day as I have ever been because it was to be his first.

The morning was slow and was kept entertaining by target practice on the decoys but we did have a pair of mallards come in. At the signal from me to "Git 'em" we both rose to shoot...me with my trusty A-5 and my son with his time tested Red Ryder BB gun. I must have missed my first shot because after my second shot had rang out, Colton proclaimed that he had shot the greenhead and that I must have shot the hen. He then pondered the situation a little more and had nearly decided that I had missed with both shots and that he had shot a “Scotch Double”. When I explained to him that a scenario of that sort of double, with a BB gun, might not fly at the cafe and that we better just stick to keeping the story at a bird apiece, he obliged and "allowed" me to save face and claim the mallard hen. He was proud of his efforts, none the less.

Colton is 4 years old.