Duck hunting group not about to stop
BACKUS - Seventy-three-year-old Rudy Salie and his buddy Alan Sheley, 69, not only go duck hunting, they have a passion for it.
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The two Backus men - mainly Salie - say they shouldn't go duck hunting anymore because of their age, but they can't stop. It's in their blood.
"We take good care of Rudy when we go hunting," said Sheley. "He's the one who got us into it. He's a great hunter and he has a great duck call."
Alan Sheley of Backus blew into one of his duck calls recently in Backus. Brainerd Dispatch/Jennifer Stockinger » Purchase reprints of this photo.
Salie said, "I'll keep going (hunting) until I die, even if I don't shoot anything. We all have a good time."
Salie and Sheley have been hunting waterfowl together for nearly 30 years. Their hunting group they grandfathered has ranged over the years of up to nine members that consists of three generations, which includes Kent Eveland, 51, Backus, who loves the entire duck hunting experience. Eveland's been hunting since he was in his early 30s. He said when he first began hunting with Salie and Sheley, they didn't want him to come, but he did anyway. Eveland is Sheley's boss. Sheley joked that they had to take Eveland in so they could miss more work to hunt.
Kent Eveland (left), Alan Sheley and Rudy Salie posed for a photograph in front of their duck hunting gear in Backus. The trio along with about five others were planning to take off shortly to North Dakota for the duck opener that was Oct. 3. Brainerd Dispatch/Jennifer Stockinger » Purchase reprints of this photo.
Both Salie and Sheley hunted when they were children, but their passion for the sport developed as adults. Salie's father took him duck hunting in North Dakota at age 7. Salie shot his first duck at 9, the season before his father died.
"Hunting is what we did," Salie said when asked why he hunted. "We just did it. When my dad died I went hunting with my grandpa. We hunted duck, deer, we hunted everything."
Sheley said his father was killed in the war, but he still got into hunting as a child because he loved the outdoors. Sheley's first waterfowl was a goose. He didn't shoot a duck until high school.
Salie and Sheley and their group have shot numerous waterfowl, including duck and Canadian and snow geese over the years. On average, the group hunts for eight days for geese and 15 days for duck. Sheley said he goes duck hunting more by himself or he finds another friend to hunt with because he loves it so much.
"I try to talk Rudy into going hunting more but he can't," said Sheley.
Salie said he can't hunt like he used to because his arthritis is tough on his hands, which makes hunting dangerous, and his body can't take the frigid temperatures. Salie said they don't hunt on the water anymore because of the cold water and it's too hard for him to get in and out of the boat. They now hunt in fields and on small potholes and ponds.
Sheley said, "If it was up to Rudy we would only hunt on the fields. For me, God gave me so many steps and I'll do more if I can. I still go a lot by myself in the boats to duck hunt. It's a lot more
work and it's harder for me to do it physically, but like I said I have the passion to do it and I'll go until I can no longer go."
The Backus men have faced tragic times when duck hunting over the years, but that has not stopped them. Six years ago this October, they lost their buddy, Steve Fisher, who fell out of the boat and drowned on a duck hunting excursion.
"Rudy wasn't with that time," said Sheley. "Steve had the passion for duck hunting like we do. Steve was Kent's brother-in-law and was one of my best friends."
Sheley said on another hunting trip he and one of his friend, who was 75 at the time, fell out of their boat and nearly drowned in Brockway Lake in Backus. Sheley said, luckily, one of their grandsons and nephews were able to pull them out of the water to safety.
"My friend's wife wouldn't let him go after that incident," said Sheley. "But it didn't stop me. We (Sheley and Rudy) almost leave our jobs and (Rudy's) wife to go hunting."
The hunting group has many good memories too, ones they can laugh about today anyway. One spring, the group was hunting for Canadian geese in Nebraska. They made homemade blinds and set out their hunting gear the night before near a pond. During the night it rained and when the hunters arrived the next morning they found their blinds, guns and all their electrical equipment underwater.
The group was not happy, but they were true hunters. They went to the store to purchase new hunting gear and went back out.
Another memory is when they were hunting for geese in a cornfield in North Dakota. The hunters were in position, when Sheley walked to the pond when all of a sudden a massive amount of mallards flew near them.
"There were 100s of them," said Sheley. "We could have shot them but we didn't because we were goose hunting. We weren't thinking about ducks."
Sheley, Salie and Eveland could have gone on about their hunting excursions, but there was not time as they were planning to travel to North Dakota to go duck hunting for the opener which was Oct. 3.
The Backus hunters each had some advice for the younger hunters to help make it a safe hunting season. Eveland said hunters need to learn how to handle their guns correctly and know how to shoot them. Sheley said hunters should target shoot each year before the hunting season to make sure they keep their shooting eye.
Salie's advice for hunters was to go hunting and to enjoy the time while they can.
"You don't have to shoot your limit to have fun," said Salie. "Just go out and enjoy yourself."
JENNIFER STOCKINGER may be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5851.