If you thought duck hunting wasn’t much of a competitive sport, think again.
And frankly, with this kind of competition I would willingly concede… and then run, very fast, and very far.
Kevin Stipe and Cass Couey, the owners of the PRO HUNT Navigation App, met up with their competition earlier this month while duck hunting in Leesburg, which is in central Florida.
I’m sure Floridians are used to seeing alligators, but as a city dweller in central Canada, I don’t have that kind of experience—which I think is a very good thing.
From the video Couey shared to his Facebook, it seems the two might be behind a blind, which I will explain.
For those who have no idea what a blind is, here is a quick Duck Hunting 101.
I will try to keep this as simple as possible since there are probably many of you who would rather not know the finer details.
Assuming you are not one of those people, and you have no problem killing something, whether it’s for food or not, duck hunting is said to be a social sport. Hunters will often work together, as they tend to spend hours of time in marshlands. You could do that alone, but probably much more fun with a friend.
Find the right spot to hunt is also imperative. You need to be where the ducks are, right? And maybe a spot where the alligators aren’t? But I’m guessing Florida plus marsh probably often equals gators.
Now, circling back to the bit about Couey and Stipe being behind a blind in the video.
When it comes to duck hunting, camouflage is necessary. You don’t want the ducks alerted to the fact they are prey and you are a hunter. So hunters will not only wear camo, they hide behind—this would be the blind.
Unlike other hunters, who must wear that lovely bright orange that screams their presence, duck hunters wear clothes and create a blind to hide behind that matches their environment. Apparently, ducks aren’t stupid, so if you are somewhere with lots of greenery, you build a blind out of greenery. Just like what Couey and Stipe have done, as you can see in the video.
It was just another day on the marsh.
The two men had spent the morning hunting and had downed a few ducks, but they were having a problem when it came to retrieving some of them.
Fox 5 reports this was because a 13-foot long alligator was eating them before they could retrieve them. Which makes me wonder how they were retrieving them. If they had a dog, I guess they should be happy it was dead ducks getting chomped to bits and not the dog.
And this happened more than once.
In the Facebook video, they seemed fairly resigned to what was happening. As they watched the dinosaur-like creator glide toward their duck, you can hear one say,
“Here we go, Number 2 of the day.”
I don’t know if it’s natural for gators to go for the easy meal, but that is exactly what this one was doing. Remarkably, there are other ducks in the water nearby, seemingly not troubled by the carnage. The alligator seems to ignore them entirely, completely focused on the one he doesn’t need to fight with to eat.
Regardless, it has it’s meal, and we again hear one of the men speak.
“Ok, you’re fed, now get out of here.”
The two men are completely at ease and calm as they watch what’s happening. And that could be because, as Couey told Fox 35 News,
“It was just another day in the swamp for us.”
Note to self. Do not ever visit a Florida swamp.
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