Committed

Bear with me... I'll git to the point right directly...

For the most part, waterfowl huntin' involves a lot of down time. When the birds are flyin' though, there's a lot goin' on.

You're callin'. Tryin' not to call too much, but call enough to keep 'em interested.

You're hidin', tryin' to "Git yer damn face down!!!" (ol' man quote since forever).

While you're keepin' yer damn face down, you're also tryin' to watch the show. Hard to do.

If one ain't established yet, you're tryin' to figure out who's gonna call the shot.

There's almost always a brief flurry of panic while you reassure yourself that you have shells in the gun.

Meanwhile, the birds are in the air, and they might come in, or they might decide to git lunch elsewhere.

So the birds are workin' there way around, and you're still not sure exactly what's gonna happen just yet. You're tryin' to abide by all of the above rules, doin' your best to keep your composure in the process. The guys on either side of ya are callin'. The birds are squawkin' all around ya. Sometimes it's calm, sometimes it's pandemonium. Then, all of the sudden, it happens. They commit.

Once they commit, it's like your body goes on auto-pilot. You grip your gun a little tighter, pick out the bird that's in your position to shoot, assessin' their speed so you can figure your lead out right. When Tater or Dad calls "Take 'em!", all Hell breaks loose for a few seconds.

But anyway, back to the point.

There's a moment that occurs just before the guns go bang. It's just a fleetin' moment, but it never leaves you disappointed.

That moment is the brief point in time when the birds stop dickin' around and decide that they've committed. Sometimes, it happens so quick that you almost miss it. But it's the best damn fleetin' moment in all of the huntin' world. It's the elation that happens between the anticipation and the auto-pilot. It's the moment that leaves ya wantin' more, and keeps me comin' back to the field time after time.

It's hard to describe, so I hope I explained that somewhat coherently.