Bill Chandler interview
Item
Title
eng
Bill Chandler interview
Description
eng
Microsoft Word document, 11 pages
Creator
eng
Chandler, Bill
eng
Montanez, Nathan
Relation
eng
Britto Club
Coverage
eng
Fresno, California
Date
eng
6/12/2015
Identifier
eng
SCMS_brto_00003
extracted text
>> Nathan Montanez: Alright then, well first of all, could you tell me
your name and spell it for me?
>> Bill Chandler: Sure Bill Chandler, C-H-A-N-D-L-E-R. B-I-L-L.
>> Nathan Montanez: OK. How old are you, Bill?
>> Bill Chandler: I'm 70, I'll be 74 in August. I'm 73.
>> Nathan Montanez: And I know we spoke about this beforehand right now
before the camera was rolling, but are you originally from the area?
>> Bill Chandler: Yes, right. I was born in St. Agnes Hospital in '41.
>> Nathan Montanez: OK. Now what is your, what kind of involvement do you
have with the Britto Duck Hunting Club?
>> Bill Chandler: OK. In, I'd heard about it before, and I, when I was in
school up in Sacramento, I used to hunt ducks up there. So when I finished
school and the service, I was farming in our area of Selma, and the fellow
that would have been the attorney for our family for many years and other
people I knew had hunted out at Britto. It, Britto's been there a long
time. I don't know if it was 1935 or when it started, but. So one of the
men had a son about my age, a little older, and he asked me if I wanted to
go out and go duck hunting with him, and I thought sure. I enjoyed it up
there, in Sacramento area and so that was my first time, and it was, I
would say that would have been October, November of 1975. And as a guest
and then shortly after I, he said, by the way. After a couple of times, he
said would you be interested in being a member here, and I said, well, as
long as it doesn't cost too much, I would be glad to. And the, he knew
there were older guys, you know, and there were a few young fellows. And
so this guy and I were about the same age. So it worked out real good that
I could go out there, and I said, well, sure, I'd be glad to, and I —- I —
- if it doesn't work out, I can always, you know, quit, but, I, you know,
maybe my son can hunt with me sometime or friends or whatever it is, and
that's basically what's happened since then. So the fellow that first told
me about it, Chappie Crossland [assumed spelling], he passed away about
four years ago, and many of the fellows that I first knew in there that
have passed away, there's a couple of them, and I think you're going to be
interviewing a few of the fellows from our club, but I, the last few
years, maybe the last, maybe eight years since I started shooting in 1975,
I didn't have a dog. And now I have, about eight years ago, I got a dog, a
Labrador, and that makes a whole difference in hunting, because you're
working with your dog, and it's, and the excitement of how well it or how
well it does in finding the ducks, and especially when you're out in the,
on the mud, and get stuck and fall down out there, let your dog run
through that mud and bring the duck back to you, that makes it a lot more
special or appreciated. But it's fun, I love animals, and that was another
thing that's kept me going out there. A few times, I'd say it's a long way
to drive out there. Takes me about an hour and a half from where we live
between Fowler and Selma to get out there, and, but that's pretty much Maybe a long story on what got me started out there, but it was the
enjoyment of duck hunting, and then just being out. I'm a farmer, and I'm
out all the time, but I -— it's different here. I don't know. Out where
all the, you know, really the wildlife and the early morning and when,
just before the sun comes up, and you see the ducks flying, and you hear
the sounds, that's really special. It's hard to describe that, and that's
the most fun. Whether I get a lot of ducks or not, I don't worry about it,
but it's enjoyment, and then the camaraderie with the other fellows that
you get to know.
>> Nathan Montanez: No problem. Step out for a little bit. Now, are there
any special, like, rites of passage you have to do in order to join the
club?
>> Bill Chandler: No, no, not at all. No. I think as much as anything is
that you behave yourself, you don't try to cheat the hunting regulations.
You know, I know there was one fellow that was shooting when we weren't,
and I didn't know it, but he was kicked out, and it was for shooting the
wrong variety of ducks, and he was, and he didn't care he was doing it. So
the guys said we can't have that. We don't want to have people over the
limit or shooting the wrong species. And some of them, whether it's, maybe
it's you can only get one hen, and maybe the limit is five, for example,
and he had a couple of hens and stuff like that, and we're trying to
preserve ducks and the wildlife. So stuff like that is —- is, if there's a
rite of passage, I think it's get along with people, and if you abuse
yourself as far as yourself of trying to take advantage of other people or
the rules and regulations of the hunting stuff I think.
[ Background Sounds ]
>> Nathan Montanez: What kind of things do you do at the club besides
hunting? I know we went out there a few times, and looked around.
>> Bill Chandler: Well, one thing that's been kind of fun, we have special
barbecues, and then there's one crab feed that there's a neighbor guy that
brings crab, and he's from the San Francisco Bay area. He's not in our
club, but one of the members in our club helped him with some legal work
and some borderline work, and so he appreciated that, and so we pay for
it, but for a while, when, that he would bring this crab, fresh crab right
from San Francisco, you know, when the season got started, and that was
special. Oh, we would have maybe barbecued chicken or tri-tip or something
like that maybe Friday night, and then if we're hunting Saturday.
Sometimes on opening weekend where the guys, and you could shoot Saturday
and Sunday. We don't, we shoot Wednesday, and it's kind of an unwritten
law. It's not anything that's written down in any hunting guidebook, but
we hunt Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, but not many guys hunt Sunday.
Sometimes I was training a dog, and I had to go out Sunday afternoon after
church and work with a dog where I was the only one out there to get it
used to the sound of the gun and retrieving. But, anyway, I don't know.
It's kind of a neat deal, and the reason we do those three days out of the
week, that sounds kind of funny, but it, but really it is so the ducks, if
you shoot every day, they're not dumb. If I was duck, I wouldn't hang
around there, either, somebody shooting at me. So it kind of helps the
ducks settle down, and because if it, if they feel a lot of pressure,
pressure being people shooting a lot and maybe killing themselves or their
friends, ducks I'm talking about, they're going to move to another area,
and so that's the reason. There's quite a few different other I'll say
clubs or hunting groups out that more or less abide by that, and, but
there's a few that said, oh, we'll come out whenever we able to, but most,
by rule, most of them do follow those three days out of the week that
they'll hunt and let those, rest days they call them.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now are there any particular reasons that you joined
in the first place or any ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah ->> Nathan Montanez: Thing that you really, really enjoy above all?
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah. The reason, alright, two things that I thought
about when they asked me that, you know, I love to eat duck. Whenever
there's, it's on the recipe, I'll order duck. The second time, I had fun
up in the Sacramento area where I was going to school, and I would have
pheasant, but I hunt duck. I had cousins that were, lived up in Yuba City,
Marysville, up in that Sacramento area, and they always talked about the
duck hunting and stuff, and I had heard about some of the duck hunting
over in the Los Banos area and from my -- I have one cousin that would
hunt out there, and as well as these friends that I knew from the Britto
Club that were hunting out there. There was, it was a really good hunting
area. So, number one, I love duck, eating duck. Number two, I enjoyed
being outside and being a part of it all, part of it all being that, you
know, shooting and being able to call the ducks in. You get so you, and
that's kind of fun. And you're just not out there just to kill them.
You're out there to, well, yeah, to get the best variety of duck. Now some
taste better than others. So you try to get those kind, too.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now could you go through, like, a typical, I guess,
hunting outing for you?
>> Bill Chandler: Sure.
>> Nathan Montanez: What kind of things you do, personally, when you go
out there?
>> Bill Chandler: OK yeah. What I, when I first started, I did this kind
of routine. We'll go up Friday night, and then we'll -— I'll leave maybe
about, it takes me an hour and a half, let's say, OK. If there's not a
special barbecue or function there, we can, we have different living
areas. Some, there's some trailers or there's some old houses. That was in
an old house or shack. In fact, the shack came from the San Francisco
earthquake. There were a bunch of them made for people after that
earthquake, and so after that, they got things built up. They brought a
lot of those shacks for people just to have a temporary housing down in
that Los Banos area for housing for some of the duck hunters who would
drive out, let's say, from Fresno or down from San Jose or down from
Merced or Modesto. They'd have a place to spend Friday night, and then you
would shoot Saturday morning, and so that's what I do. I go out there
Friday night, usually about sundown or a little after, depending on the
work at home or on the farm. Sometimes I wouldn't get there until 8:00.
Other members would, some of the guys would maybe have gotten off at 4:00
or 5:00, they'd get there, you'd get your gear, and if you had a place out
there, you could leave like your waders and your rain jacket and your,
sometimes you leave your shotgun out there. Not always because you worry
somebody might get in there and steal the shotgun, but your shells and
stuff that you need and your hat and all those things. So you go out
Friday night, and then you get up about, oh, 4:30, 5:00. Depends on when
the sun comes up because you want to be out in the blind about a half an
hour before sunrise. So there, you can see in the newspaper when the sun
is supposed to come up. Maybe 5:45 or something like that. So you want to
get out into the pond -— out on the pond, into some of these blinds. Now
some of the blinds are in the tules that you can have a standup blind or
there'll be, like, a cement circular like we call, I could call it a, I'm
a farmer, like a stand pipe, but it may be about four feet deep, and you'd
have a little stool in it. So you could get down into that which would be
just about ground level. So, hopefully, the ducks wouldn't see it, but, or
you, so they would fly near you enough, close enough that you could take a
shot. Usually, they'll be two of those together, two blinds or two pots
for individuals to hide themselves down into. Now when I take a dog out
there, I had the dog lay on this little island. This is all on a little
island because you have water all around you, and normally if, there's
different things where you can try to hide our dog, put a camouflage vest
on the dog or have some tules on it because one time, I was with a friend
that was a member. We, he had a small plane, and we'd want, we had the
meeting in Sacramento. He said, well, I'll take you up in my plane. So we
went up, we came back, and we flew over Britto Duck Club. Looked down
there, and I could see that, this was in the summertime when there was no
water, but you could still see where those blinds were down on the ground.
So in reality, I thought, you know, you better have some tules or some
grass around because it's really easy for those ducks to see you down
there. You'll be calling them. Hopefully, first part of the season,
they're not too gun shy, and they're not watching for stuff like that. But
you get on a, you know, the season will start in the middle of October and
end at the end of January. So, you know, October, November, December,
well, a half of October. Let's say November, December, and January, those
three months, you get in January, and those ducks have been shot at. You
got the ones that didn't, weren't paying attention. You get, you usually
shot those already. So the ones left are pretty cautious, or a storm
brings them down. A new group that don't know the area, or know that, hey,
that's something I want to be careful of, but actually they've been shot
at from Sacramento, Oregon, and all these other places down. So it gets to
be kind of a, not a game, but it's a real challenge to —- to, I'll say
decoy or call those ducks in by getting proficient enough with your duck
call and enough camouflage so they don't see you. That they'll get close
enough, you know, that you can have a good chance of a shooting them. And
they do, some of them like the teal, that's a, that's one of the smaller
ducks that we shoot at that's legal. You can, whatever, and the limit each
year is not always the same. This year was five or seven. I think it was
seven this year, but there was enough that they do a duck survey in the
middle of the year before the hunting season, and then the Fish and Game
and the people in Sacramento determine how many ducks can be harvested. So
then, that without depleting the duck population. So then they can figure
out on a formula really what limit they can put on the hunters for that
year. If there's a lot of ducks, well, yeah, we had seven ducks a piece,
or when I first started in 1975, there were a lot of ducks then, and I
think the limit was 12 or 15. I was trying to remember exactly, but it's
something like that. Long time ago in the 40's there were so many they had
a limit of 25, but that, it really depends on the population of duck. Now
if there are not too many, and this year, I think with the drought, it's
going to be, maybe we'll be lucky if we have five. What happened last year
with the drought, for example, we only had half the water that we normally
would get. So the way we did that, the, all the different groups out
there, clubs I'll call them, they said, OK, do you want to have water in
the first half of the season or the second half of the season. So we took
water at the second half of the season. So let's say the season started on
October 15th. Well, we didn't start shooting until November 15th. And then
we, because we had water then, and the ducks are going to go where the
water is, where they can feed or settle down, and so it varies. I have no
idea what's going to happen this year. There may not even be a shoot this
year because of the drought, and, but there's a lot of conservationists or
people in recreation. I'm a farmer, and I feel a little guilty about
saying, hey, I'm going to take the water for the ducks, but not for the
melons in Mendota. That's where the water should go, and I know they've,
I've gotten calls. I said, number one, I'm a farmer. I want the water
first go to the farms. That's what's going to employ people and feed
people, and that, but I don't know. You, the environmentalists got a lot
of things passed that confuse me. So there we go. Like I say, I don't know
what the situation this year will be on the availability of water for
hunting ducks. I think there'll be some maybe, but if there isn't, well,
that's the way it is. Just like farming. If you don't have a crop, you got
to hopefully have enough in reserve to wait until next year.
>> Nathan Montanez: The entire time you've been in the Duck Club, have
they ever not had a shoot?
>> Bill Chandler: They, well, last year was —- my history with them was, I
think they've always had some shoot sometime during the season. Now they
cut it in half last year because of the water situation. I would be really
surprised, because of all the pressure with the environmentalists. Now I
can't understand why the environmentalists would say, well, you can't have
water down here, but we still want the water from Hetch Hetchy in the Bay
Area, and that's where all the votes are, in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
And so I'm kind of, maybe a different club member than some of the other
guys because I make my living in agriculture, and agriculture needs water.
So I'm more willing to give up water for the duck hunting than I am for
Ag. Now to answer your question, I don't believe we've ever had a time
where we haven't had an opportunity to shoot with water, without, you
know, with water. So we've always had water at some time. It may not be
the full, you know, whatever it is, 90 days or whatever number of days it
is of a normal season.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now when we were out there last time shooting, I think
it was Bob Johnson ->> Bill Chandler: Oh, yeah.
>> Nathan Montanez: He spoke a little bit about the history of Britto. Do
you know about background about it? Like do you learn things over time, or
are you just sort of >> Bill Chandler: You know. Well, for some of the older fellows, I
remember Bill Crossland, who was the father of the son, and the son was,
he was farming, and he was, but his dad was an attorney, and he, his dad
was with that club. Started out as an accountant, and it was —- it was
initially, I think it was Pinedale. There was something like a, it was a
plant that they built plumbing parts or something, and they, Miller and
Lux had a lot of land out there. Pardon me, with water. And so then they,
in the wintertime when they was flooded, they would lease that ground out
there to duck clubs for hunting, for people who wanted to hunt, or. And so
that's really how it got started, and how Britto got started out there. It
was Britto Land and Cattle Company. And they did run cattle in there.
There was other people who did, and I, reading in some history of the,
some of the history books, Miller and Lux people after they got some of
them, I don't know whether it was George Miller or which one, they, but
they got in debt. They were -- they had to start giving up land. So then
they started selling some of their property, and I think a group of these
folks, and it may have been this -- Maybe it was this group in Pinedale
that had the plant that was building these, after World War I or whatever,
these plumbing parts, they wanted a place to shoot, and so it was pretty
cheap, and it was close by, and they loved the camaraderie or whatever it
is along with the hunting, and so they bought it. Well, they got Bill
Crossland, the fellow that was really, helped get me in there as their
accountant. He was an attorney, and he was good with the, well, he wasn't
a CPA, but he was an accountant. And so they had him as their secretary.
And he didn't have to pay any membership fees, that, which I don't think
it was much then in those days. But that's how -- I thought that was kind
of interesting. And then they had more guys that were in the automobile
industry like Bob Johnson's father-in-law was a Chevrolet dealer. Bill
Crossland was an attorney, as I told you that was out there as their
secretary. He loved to hunt, but he was an attorney for a lot of the auto
dealers, whether it was in Fresno or Visalia or Merced or Selma. So they
got a lot of those automobile dealers in there. Now, I don't think there
are any automobile dealers. There may have been a farmer or two. One
fellow from Dos Palos was a member there. I think there were some other
farmers, and, but fellows that they knew in business and they enjoyed
being with. So really it was. So when I came in, I got, was invited
because I was a friend of this Bill Crossland of his son and he -- So, but
it was really, when I got in 75', there were, oh, golly. There was a
fellow had just Roth or Art Roth from Merced. He had a Chevrolet, they
were all Chevrolet dealers sort of, and then there was a guy from Selma.
He left, and so I got his membership, you know, and then there was a
fellow from Fresno, and that —- It was really car dealers mainly, not a
hundred percent, but that was what it was initially. And, you know, guys
that you enjoyed doing social things with or business with, and that,
those are the fellows that were really formed that group. Now, it's main,
now today it's mainly, there's more farmers. There's a lot of, it seemed
like insurance guys, and it's more varied. Golly, there's guys that, oh,
that, oh. One guy that's a member. I don't, Joe Weirick, you’ll be
interviewing him. He raises apples up in the area, and he has some
property that they lease down here in the Valley, but he has apples up in
the Meadow Lakes area. There's a fellow that drives, or is in charge of
the truck for Foster's chicken farm people. There's a guy that's an
insurance -- there's several insurance people there now. So it kind of
changes, too, but it's who you enjoy being with and get them to get along
with. And if you don't care for the guys up there that are going to give
you a bad time, well, heck, I don't need to do that. I can do something
else.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now they told me something about members. Are there
any women ->> Bill Chandler: No.
>> Nathan Montanez: Members within the club?
>> Bill Chandler: No, and I say no right off, and I think it was kind of
a, Bill Crossland told me. He said, you know, you don't have to worry
about any, anybody taking somebody, some lady friend out there that's not
somebody's wife. You don't want to have any problems with that, and so
they, maybe a long time ago, I don't know if they did. I never did hear of
women being out there, and that was one of the good things about it, I
thought. So, you know, I love my wife, and I love my, you know, my sister
and all that sort of, but sometimes it's just fun with being just guys,
you know. And, but I would hope that they can maintain that, and there are
some clubs that out that their wives love to shoot, and they, they are
members. But they have changed a little bit at Britto. They've said that
women can come out there Sunday and shoot Sunday morning, but they can't
spend the night there. We don't want any, you know, any excuse for whether
it's your wife, your girlfriend, or anything like that, you know, out
there at, spending the night. They can come out and shoot Sunday. So they
do have some ladies. Yeah, though they do now, and I think that started, I
don't know if it was three or four years ago. Maybe longer than that, but
it wasn't, it was pretty much just guys all together, but it. So you got,
you've Saturday, you've got the guys, and you've got Friday night, you've
got the guys. So anyway. You don't have to be as careful with your
language as much. Your swearing and stuff like that >> Nathan Montanez: When we were out there, it was, like, that. It was,
like, oh, yeah, I like it out here. It's, like, you could say whatever you
want and do whatever you want.
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah, and if you want to over in the bushes, urinate and
not have to go in there and find the toilet, you're alright.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now what do you see in the future for the club and
your involvement with the club?
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah. I hope it can continue. It's, as it is pretty
much. There's going to be some changes. Now that change of ladies coming
out Sunday afternoon because there were daughters or there were wives who
really, you know, gave their strong interest in coming out and were pretty
good shooters. So why not? I myself hope my boys can continue or that they
go out as guests, and then there's a waiting list for guys now. There's a
lot of different people that want to get in. So, but they still can come
out as a guest, and so that's great. Gosh, I don't know what, if it isn't
broke, why try to fix it, you know what I mean? I can't really, the only
thing I could see that would cause a change in the future is this water
deal, this water son of a gun is a, but, heck, we've had droughts before,
and we'll survive it, but we've never had so many people using so much
water today. Not only farming, but, you know, I mean with almonds. We use
more water now than we did before. Same way with grapes. To get a better
crop because it costs so much more to, for cultural practices, you need a
good, pretty good yield. So if you're not going to get that yield, well,
you pull it out and do something else. So, but this water thing, and we
have more people living. Look at the population of Fresno. Look at the
population of the Bay Area and the other cities in California. More people
are moving here because the houses supposedly are cheaper, and so I think
the water, the water's going to be a challenge. It sure seems that way
today. Now, maybe in a couple of years if we get some good rains and stuff
like that, but the, but that underground needs to be recharged, and it's
going to take more than a couple of years to do that. And why is that
important, the underground? Well, so that we can pump it if we have to.
There's, we don't use pumps or wells out there. I think there is one,
there was one that —- there's one for domestic use for the units out
there, that for the houses and the shacks. There's about whatever it is,
25 or something like that of people out there all total. I don't know how
many buildings are out there. One of the other fellows could be more
accurate with that than I can. I'd say maybe twelve or whatever it is.
But, I'm very concerned about water and what the future, because they'll
start saying, hey, listen, you know. And I told you already. I'd rather
see the water go for agriculture than I would see it for duck clubs. Now,
up in the Sacramento area, they've got an abundance of water, and Suisun
Bay, they've got a lot of water. So maybe that's where the duck clubs will
be. It may not be out there. Because they've, the water is so much cheaper
and available. They have plenty of it supposedly. So I think that's the
future right there. The what, I think it'll be the same, pretty much the
same as far as maybe there'll be. I think the duck number as far, they're,
they do a really good job of controlling the population of the different
species by keeping track, and they check them from Sac, I mean, Canada,
Washington, Oregon, and everything else to see what at different times of
the year what the population is. So that we're not overhunting these
things, and we're not making the extinct by just being game hawks, you
know. But it's, I'm concerned about water.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there anything else that you think we should add?
We pretty much good?
>> Colby Tibbet: I’m trying to think about the day we were out there.
>> Nathan Montanez: I know they wanted to cover women members and they
wanted to cover the water ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah.
>> Nathan Montanez: -- And different things like the camaraderie.
>> Bill Chandler: Sure. The camaraderie is great, and you get, it's sort
of like a family. If somebody dies or, you know, we all go to their
funeral, and they sometimes their weddings or birthdays or something like
that. Depends because they're all scattered around. They're not just right
next to each other. There's a few guys live close enough to one another,
but that –- that -— that's kind of special. But, you know, we have Rotary
clubs, and we have these other things, too. It's, that helps satisfy that
human need of fellowship.
>> Colby Tibbet: Do you have relationships with the other clubs?
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah, we do. There's some where they'll shoot over at
theirs, and they'll shoot with us a little bit, but we keep, we
communicate with them to see how their shooting is doing, meaning if
they're getting more ducks, how come, you know. You know, what are they
doing that we're not doing, you know? And we think we have a particular
spot that's, where's there's usually plenty of water, and the way the –the
-— the terrain or the foliage or the growth of tules and stuff kind of
encourages ducks to come to our spot. And we have a lot of open water
where they like to, they feel safe in landing. So we check other clubs
that have the similar characteristics, and normally, you know, you, you'll
have a guest over from another club, or we'll go to their club, that, but
we've pretty, you know, gee. You're paying dues. So you normally go to
the, where you're spending your money, you know, or where you're having to
pay. So we don't, you know, we communicate, and we get together, and
they'll come over and talk to the guys that they know in our club that we
don't, you know, that their friends in other clubs, they'll come over, and
we'll, maybe have dinner with us or whatever it is.
>> Colby Tibbet: As far as the, their called the, shoots? Is that what it
is? The shoots? >> Bill Chandler: Yeah.
>> Colby Tibbet: In your room, you had a board where you pick your number
->> Bill Chandler: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ->> Colby Tibbet: Do you have a lucky number or a lucky shoot --
>> Bill Chandler: No ->> Colby Tibbet: Everybody was talking about, like, they might have a
favorite one that they go to ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah ->> Colby Tibbet: Do you have a lucky shoot ->> Bill Chandler: A special blind or something ->> Colby Tibbet: Yeah, or a blind or something ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the way they handle it, and
I guess that, you know, they draw, it's like a bingo thing. You draw the,
you get these numbers. So if you get number one, well, I'll take, let's
say, whatever, blind number twelve, and it may be in the center of this
pond. Sort of like the hub of a wagon wheel. So all the ducks more or less
are going to go by your site. Or if it's a windy day, you'll know over at
blind number ten or something like that. It's just the way the bank is or,
and there's a protected area that the ducks will go into. So you'll try to
choose that one. If you have the number one choice, and there may be
twelve, fourteen guys or sixteen guys choosing, and so I may be number
sixteen, and you never know. Sometimes I may have the last choice of what
blinds that haven't been chosen. Sometimes number sixteen will get his
ducks just as fast as the one who chose number one. So you never can
guarantee, but you always think, well, yeah, that blind is, it's easier to
walk out to. There's not any potholes or anything you're liable to get in
the mud and fall down and stuff like that. But, or you're going to go to
certain blinds where there's a lot of mucky, I mean, sticky mud. You'll go
that one with your dog. If you have a dog, you go there. If you don't have
a dog, I'm going to stay over there where it's kind of grassy, and I can
walk easier if I'm trying to get a cripple or a duck that I've shot. But
as far as a lucky number, yeah, there's about three or four blinds out
there. If you have the number one or two or three or four choice of those,
you'll take those. But some guys have maybe a number 31, that's their
favorite, and, you know, I'll pass up. You can have my blind. Yeah, I got
number one choice. If you want to have it, go ahead. I've been shooting
out here quite a bit. You haven't been out here very much. Why don't you
take that choice if you want to go to 31. That'll happen, too. The guys
are really, really pretty decent with each other. They want everybody to
have fun, or they won't come out, you know, and you want quite a few guys
out there because if there's just one or two on that big lake area, the
ducks are going to land way over on the other side. If there isn't anybody
over there shooting or hunting that area, they'll stay over there. They'll
feel safe in that water whereas if there's somebody over there, they may
not hit them, but at least they'll keep the ducks flying, and they may
come by you, you know. So that, that's the reason you like to have at
least quite a few guys showing up to hunt.
>> Nathan Montanez: I think that’s pretty much it. We covered all our
bases. If this anything else you'd like to add?
>> Bill Chandler: Oh, gosh, I think it's kind of neat you guys are doing
this. I really do. It, you know, I can't remember who it was I showed.
There's, I've got this big book. It's, "I Came to Shoot", that's the title
of it, and it's of all the duck clubs in the state of California. And it
started down in San Diego and it goes up in the Bay Area, all the way up
to Humboldt County, up through Sacramento area, and I think one of the
ladies was going to get it, but I had. But it was really interesting. A
lot of those clubs in that book are no longer there, but they're on the
Bay Area and how guys would go out, you know, and they would, they
wouldn't have just Wednesdays, Saturday, and Sunday they would shoot. They
would shoot whenever they had the free time to do it. And —- and -— and,
but of the history of those guys doing it, when they did it up in Suisun
Bay or up in, on the San Francisco Bay, over by the mud flats, over by
Palo Alto area, up in Marin County, in San Pablo Bay, all the way up into
Humboldt area, that was real interesting to me. I enjoyed that. But, yeah,
the Britto's been there a long, it's one of the older clubs, but there,
there's, gee. I guess you saw that map. There's a ton of clubs out there
now, and, but it’s —- it’s who's going to get the water, you know, for,
and it's in Grasslands Irrigation District. And so most, but to spread it
out to be equal to everybody, that's what that irrigation district really
try’s they're. I think there's maybe, I don't know how many acres that
whole district is made up of, water district, but I think there's only
maybe a couple of farmers in there. The rest of them are all duck hunters.
But there's some other irrigation districts up in that area, but they're
more for Ag. But that one was made up really primarily now for duck
hunters. So —>> Nathan Montanez: I think we’re good.
>> Colby Tibbet: Right on.
>> Bill Chandler: Thank you guys. Good luck.
your name and spell it for me?
>> Bill Chandler: Sure Bill Chandler, C-H-A-N-D-L-E-R. B-I-L-L.
>> Nathan Montanez: OK. How old are you, Bill?
>> Bill Chandler: I'm 70, I'll be 74 in August. I'm 73.
>> Nathan Montanez: And I know we spoke about this beforehand right now
before the camera was rolling, but are you originally from the area?
>> Bill Chandler: Yes, right. I was born in St. Agnes Hospital in '41.
>> Nathan Montanez: OK. Now what is your, what kind of involvement do you
have with the Britto Duck Hunting Club?
>> Bill Chandler: OK. In, I'd heard about it before, and I, when I was in
school up in Sacramento, I used to hunt ducks up there. So when I finished
school and the service, I was farming in our area of Selma, and the fellow
that would have been the attorney for our family for many years and other
people I knew had hunted out at Britto. It, Britto's been there a long
time. I don't know if it was 1935 or when it started, but. So one of the
men had a son about my age, a little older, and he asked me if I wanted to
go out and go duck hunting with him, and I thought sure. I enjoyed it up
there, in Sacramento area and so that was my first time, and it was, I
would say that would have been October, November of 1975. And as a guest
and then shortly after I, he said, by the way. After a couple of times, he
said would you be interested in being a member here, and I said, well, as
long as it doesn't cost too much, I would be glad to. And the, he knew
there were older guys, you know, and there were a few young fellows. And
so this guy and I were about the same age. So it worked out real good that
I could go out there, and I said, well, sure, I'd be glad to, and I —- I —
- if it doesn't work out, I can always, you know, quit, but, I, you know,
maybe my son can hunt with me sometime or friends or whatever it is, and
that's basically what's happened since then. So the fellow that first told
me about it, Chappie Crossland [assumed spelling], he passed away about
four years ago, and many of the fellows that I first knew in there that
have passed away, there's a couple of them, and I think you're going to be
interviewing a few of the fellows from our club, but I, the last few
years, maybe the last, maybe eight years since I started shooting in 1975,
I didn't have a dog. And now I have, about eight years ago, I got a dog, a
Labrador, and that makes a whole difference in hunting, because you're
working with your dog, and it's, and the excitement of how well it or how
well it does in finding the ducks, and especially when you're out in the,
on the mud, and get stuck and fall down out there, let your dog run
through that mud and bring the duck back to you, that makes it a lot more
special or appreciated. But it's fun, I love animals, and that was another
thing that's kept me going out there. A few times, I'd say it's a long way
to drive out there. Takes me about an hour and a half from where we live
between Fowler and Selma to get out there, and, but that's pretty much Maybe a long story on what got me started out there, but it was the
enjoyment of duck hunting, and then just being out. I'm a farmer, and I'm
out all the time, but I -— it's different here. I don't know. Out where
all the, you know, really the wildlife and the early morning and when,
just before the sun comes up, and you see the ducks flying, and you hear
the sounds, that's really special. It's hard to describe that, and that's
the most fun. Whether I get a lot of ducks or not, I don't worry about it,
but it's enjoyment, and then the camaraderie with the other fellows that
you get to know.
>> Nathan Montanez: No problem. Step out for a little bit. Now, are there
any special, like, rites of passage you have to do in order to join the
club?
>> Bill Chandler: No, no, not at all. No. I think as much as anything is
that you behave yourself, you don't try to cheat the hunting regulations.
You know, I know there was one fellow that was shooting when we weren't,
and I didn't know it, but he was kicked out, and it was for shooting the
wrong variety of ducks, and he was, and he didn't care he was doing it. So
the guys said we can't have that. We don't want to have people over the
limit or shooting the wrong species. And some of them, whether it's, maybe
it's you can only get one hen, and maybe the limit is five, for example,
and he had a couple of hens and stuff like that, and we're trying to
preserve ducks and the wildlife. So stuff like that is —- is, if there's a
rite of passage, I think it's get along with people, and if you abuse
yourself as far as yourself of trying to take advantage of other people or
the rules and regulations of the hunting stuff I think.
[ Background Sounds ]
>> Nathan Montanez: What kind of things do you do at the club besides
hunting? I know we went out there a few times, and looked around.
>> Bill Chandler: Well, one thing that's been kind of fun, we have special
barbecues, and then there's one crab feed that there's a neighbor guy that
brings crab, and he's from the San Francisco Bay area. He's not in our
club, but one of the members in our club helped him with some legal work
and some borderline work, and so he appreciated that, and so we pay for
it, but for a while, when, that he would bring this crab, fresh crab right
from San Francisco, you know, when the season got started, and that was
special. Oh, we would have maybe barbecued chicken or tri-tip or something
like that maybe Friday night, and then if we're hunting Saturday.
Sometimes on opening weekend where the guys, and you could shoot Saturday
and Sunday. We don't, we shoot Wednesday, and it's kind of an unwritten
law. It's not anything that's written down in any hunting guidebook, but
we hunt Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, but not many guys hunt Sunday.
Sometimes I was training a dog, and I had to go out Sunday afternoon after
church and work with a dog where I was the only one out there to get it
used to the sound of the gun and retrieving. But, anyway, I don't know.
It's kind of a neat deal, and the reason we do those three days out of the
week, that sounds kind of funny, but it, but really it is so the ducks, if
you shoot every day, they're not dumb. If I was duck, I wouldn't hang
around there, either, somebody shooting at me. So it kind of helps the
ducks settle down, and because if it, if they feel a lot of pressure,
pressure being people shooting a lot and maybe killing themselves or their
friends, ducks I'm talking about, they're going to move to another area,
and so that's the reason. There's quite a few different other I'll say
clubs or hunting groups out that more or less abide by that, and, but
there's a few that said, oh, we'll come out whenever we able to, but most,
by rule, most of them do follow those three days out of the week that
they'll hunt and let those, rest days they call them.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now are there any particular reasons that you joined
in the first place or any ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah ->> Nathan Montanez: Thing that you really, really enjoy above all?
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah. The reason, alright, two things that I thought
about when they asked me that, you know, I love to eat duck. Whenever
there's, it's on the recipe, I'll order duck. The second time, I had fun
up in the Sacramento area where I was going to school, and I would have
pheasant, but I hunt duck. I had cousins that were, lived up in Yuba City,
Marysville, up in that Sacramento area, and they always talked about the
duck hunting and stuff, and I had heard about some of the duck hunting
over in the Los Banos area and from my -- I have one cousin that would
hunt out there, and as well as these friends that I knew from the Britto
Club that were hunting out there. There was, it was a really good hunting
area. So, number one, I love duck, eating duck. Number two, I enjoyed
being outside and being a part of it all, part of it all being that, you
know, shooting and being able to call the ducks in. You get so you, and
that's kind of fun. And you're just not out there just to kill them.
You're out there to, well, yeah, to get the best variety of duck. Now some
taste better than others. So you try to get those kind, too.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now could you go through, like, a typical, I guess,
hunting outing for you?
>> Bill Chandler: Sure.
>> Nathan Montanez: What kind of things you do, personally, when you go
out there?
>> Bill Chandler: OK yeah. What I, when I first started, I did this kind
of routine. We'll go up Friday night, and then we'll -— I'll leave maybe
about, it takes me an hour and a half, let's say, OK. If there's not a
special barbecue or function there, we can, we have different living
areas. Some, there's some trailers or there's some old houses. That was in
an old house or shack. In fact, the shack came from the San Francisco
earthquake. There were a bunch of them made for people after that
earthquake, and so after that, they got things built up. They brought a
lot of those shacks for people just to have a temporary housing down in
that Los Banos area for housing for some of the duck hunters who would
drive out, let's say, from Fresno or down from San Jose or down from
Merced or Modesto. They'd have a place to spend Friday night, and then you
would shoot Saturday morning, and so that's what I do. I go out there
Friday night, usually about sundown or a little after, depending on the
work at home or on the farm. Sometimes I wouldn't get there until 8:00.
Other members would, some of the guys would maybe have gotten off at 4:00
or 5:00, they'd get there, you'd get your gear, and if you had a place out
there, you could leave like your waders and your rain jacket and your,
sometimes you leave your shotgun out there. Not always because you worry
somebody might get in there and steal the shotgun, but your shells and
stuff that you need and your hat and all those things. So you go out
Friday night, and then you get up about, oh, 4:30, 5:00. Depends on when
the sun comes up because you want to be out in the blind about a half an
hour before sunrise. So there, you can see in the newspaper when the sun
is supposed to come up. Maybe 5:45 or something like that. So you want to
get out into the pond -— out on the pond, into some of these blinds. Now
some of the blinds are in the tules that you can have a standup blind or
there'll be, like, a cement circular like we call, I could call it a, I'm
a farmer, like a stand pipe, but it may be about four feet deep, and you'd
have a little stool in it. So you could get down into that which would be
just about ground level. So, hopefully, the ducks wouldn't see it, but, or
you, so they would fly near you enough, close enough that you could take a
shot. Usually, they'll be two of those together, two blinds or two pots
for individuals to hide themselves down into. Now when I take a dog out
there, I had the dog lay on this little island. This is all on a little
island because you have water all around you, and normally if, there's
different things where you can try to hide our dog, put a camouflage vest
on the dog or have some tules on it because one time, I was with a friend
that was a member. We, he had a small plane, and we'd want, we had the
meeting in Sacramento. He said, well, I'll take you up in my plane. So we
went up, we came back, and we flew over Britto Duck Club. Looked down
there, and I could see that, this was in the summertime when there was no
water, but you could still see where those blinds were down on the ground.
So in reality, I thought, you know, you better have some tules or some
grass around because it's really easy for those ducks to see you down
there. You'll be calling them. Hopefully, first part of the season,
they're not too gun shy, and they're not watching for stuff like that. But
you get on a, you know, the season will start in the middle of October and
end at the end of January. So, you know, October, November, December,
well, a half of October. Let's say November, December, and January, those
three months, you get in January, and those ducks have been shot at. You
got the ones that didn't, weren't paying attention. You get, you usually
shot those already. So the ones left are pretty cautious, or a storm
brings them down. A new group that don't know the area, or know that, hey,
that's something I want to be careful of, but actually they've been shot
at from Sacramento, Oregon, and all these other places down. So it gets to
be kind of a, not a game, but it's a real challenge to —- to, I'll say
decoy or call those ducks in by getting proficient enough with your duck
call and enough camouflage so they don't see you. That they'll get close
enough, you know, that you can have a good chance of a shooting them. And
they do, some of them like the teal, that's a, that's one of the smaller
ducks that we shoot at that's legal. You can, whatever, and the limit each
year is not always the same. This year was five or seven. I think it was
seven this year, but there was enough that they do a duck survey in the
middle of the year before the hunting season, and then the Fish and Game
and the people in Sacramento determine how many ducks can be harvested. So
then, that without depleting the duck population. So then they can figure
out on a formula really what limit they can put on the hunters for that
year. If there's a lot of ducks, well, yeah, we had seven ducks a piece,
or when I first started in 1975, there were a lot of ducks then, and I
think the limit was 12 or 15. I was trying to remember exactly, but it's
something like that. Long time ago in the 40's there were so many they had
a limit of 25, but that, it really depends on the population of duck. Now
if there are not too many, and this year, I think with the drought, it's
going to be, maybe we'll be lucky if we have five. What happened last year
with the drought, for example, we only had half the water that we normally
would get. So the way we did that, the, all the different groups out
there, clubs I'll call them, they said, OK, do you want to have water in
the first half of the season or the second half of the season. So we took
water at the second half of the season. So let's say the season started on
October 15th. Well, we didn't start shooting until November 15th. And then
we, because we had water then, and the ducks are going to go where the
water is, where they can feed or settle down, and so it varies. I have no
idea what's going to happen this year. There may not even be a shoot this
year because of the drought, and, but there's a lot of conservationists or
people in recreation. I'm a farmer, and I feel a little guilty about
saying, hey, I'm going to take the water for the ducks, but not for the
melons in Mendota. That's where the water should go, and I know they've,
I've gotten calls. I said, number one, I'm a farmer. I want the water
first go to the farms. That's what's going to employ people and feed
people, and that, but I don't know. You, the environmentalists got a lot
of things passed that confuse me. So there we go. Like I say, I don't know
what the situation this year will be on the availability of water for
hunting ducks. I think there'll be some maybe, but if there isn't, well,
that's the way it is. Just like farming. If you don't have a crop, you got
to hopefully have enough in reserve to wait until next year.
>> Nathan Montanez: The entire time you've been in the Duck Club, have
they ever not had a shoot?
>> Bill Chandler: They, well, last year was —- my history with them was, I
think they've always had some shoot sometime during the season. Now they
cut it in half last year because of the water situation. I would be really
surprised, because of all the pressure with the environmentalists. Now I
can't understand why the environmentalists would say, well, you can't have
water down here, but we still want the water from Hetch Hetchy in the Bay
Area, and that's where all the votes are, in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
And so I'm kind of, maybe a different club member than some of the other
guys because I make my living in agriculture, and agriculture needs water.
So I'm more willing to give up water for the duck hunting than I am for
Ag. Now to answer your question, I don't believe we've ever had a time
where we haven't had an opportunity to shoot with water, without, you
know, with water. So we've always had water at some time. It may not be
the full, you know, whatever it is, 90 days or whatever number of days it
is of a normal season.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now when we were out there last time shooting, I think
it was Bob Johnson ->> Bill Chandler: Oh, yeah.
>> Nathan Montanez: He spoke a little bit about the history of Britto. Do
you know about background about it? Like do you learn things over time, or
are you just sort of >> Bill Chandler: You know. Well, for some of the older fellows, I
remember Bill Crossland, who was the father of the son, and the son was,
he was farming, and he was, but his dad was an attorney, and he, his dad
was with that club. Started out as an accountant, and it was —- it was
initially, I think it was Pinedale. There was something like a, it was a
plant that they built plumbing parts or something, and they, Miller and
Lux had a lot of land out there. Pardon me, with water. And so then they,
in the wintertime when they was flooded, they would lease that ground out
there to duck clubs for hunting, for people who wanted to hunt, or. And so
that's really how it got started, and how Britto got started out there. It
was Britto Land and Cattle Company. And they did run cattle in there.
There was other people who did, and I, reading in some history of the,
some of the history books, Miller and Lux people after they got some of
them, I don't know whether it was George Miller or which one, they, but
they got in debt. They were -- they had to start giving up land. So then
they started selling some of their property, and I think a group of these
folks, and it may have been this -- Maybe it was this group in Pinedale
that had the plant that was building these, after World War I or whatever,
these plumbing parts, they wanted a place to shoot, and so it was pretty
cheap, and it was close by, and they loved the camaraderie or whatever it
is along with the hunting, and so they bought it. Well, they got Bill
Crossland, the fellow that was really, helped get me in there as their
accountant. He was an attorney, and he was good with the, well, he wasn't
a CPA, but he was an accountant. And so they had him as their secretary.
And he didn't have to pay any membership fees, that, which I don't think
it was much then in those days. But that's how -- I thought that was kind
of interesting. And then they had more guys that were in the automobile
industry like Bob Johnson's father-in-law was a Chevrolet dealer. Bill
Crossland was an attorney, as I told you that was out there as their
secretary. He loved to hunt, but he was an attorney for a lot of the auto
dealers, whether it was in Fresno or Visalia or Merced or Selma. So they
got a lot of those automobile dealers in there. Now, I don't think there
are any automobile dealers. There may have been a farmer or two. One
fellow from Dos Palos was a member there. I think there were some other
farmers, and, but fellows that they knew in business and they enjoyed
being with. So really it was. So when I came in, I got, was invited
because I was a friend of this Bill Crossland of his son and he -- So, but
it was really, when I got in 75', there were, oh, golly. There was a
fellow had just Roth or Art Roth from Merced. He had a Chevrolet, they
were all Chevrolet dealers sort of, and then there was a guy from Selma.
He left, and so I got his membership, you know, and then there was a
fellow from Fresno, and that —- It was really car dealers mainly, not a
hundred percent, but that was what it was initially. And, you know, guys
that you enjoyed doing social things with or business with, and that,
those are the fellows that were really formed that group. Now, it's main,
now today it's mainly, there's more farmers. There's a lot of, it seemed
like insurance guys, and it's more varied. Golly, there's guys that, oh,
that, oh. One guy that's a member. I don't, Joe Weirick, you’ll be
interviewing him. He raises apples up in the area, and he has some
property that they lease down here in the Valley, but he has apples up in
the Meadow Lakes area. There's a fellow that drives, or is in charge of
the truck for Foster's chicken farm people. There's a guy that's an
insurance -- there's several insurance people there now. So it kind of
changes, too, but it's who you enjoy being with and get them to get along
with. And if you don't care for the guys up there that are going to give
you a bad time, well, heck, I don't need to do that. I can do something
else.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now they told me something about members. Are there
any women ->> Bill Chandler: No.
>> Nathan Montanez: Members within the club?
>> Bill Chandler: No, and I say no right off, and I think it was kind of
a, Bill Crossland told me. He said, you know, you don't have to worry
about any, anybody taking somebody, some lady friend out there that's not
somebody's wife. You don't want to have any problems with that, and so
they, maybe a long time ago, I don't know if they did. I never did hear of
women being out there, and that was one of the good things about it, I
thought. So, you know, I love my wife, and I love my, you know, my sister
and all that sort of, but sometimes it's just fun with being just guys,
you know. And, but I would hope that they can maintain that, and there are
some clubs that out that their wives love to shoot, and they, they are
members. But they have changed a little bit at Britto. They've said that
women can come out there Sunday and shoot Sunday morning, but they can't
spend the night there. We don't want any, you know, any excuse for whether
it's your wife, your girlfriend, or anything like that, you know, out
there at, spending the night. They can come out and shoot Sunday. So they
do have some ladies. Yeah, though they do now, and I think that started, I
don't know if it was three or four years ago. Maybe longer than that, but
it wasn't, it was pretty much just guys all together, but it. So you got,
you've Saturday, you've got the guys, and you've got Friday night, you've
got the guys. So anyway. You don't have to be as careful with your
language as much. Your swearing and stuff like that >> Nathan Montanez: When we were out there, it was, like, that. It was,
like, oh, yeah, I like it out here. It's, like, you could say whatever you
want and do whatever you want.
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah, and if you want to over in the bushes, urinate and
not have to go in there and find the toilet, you're alright.
>> Nathan Montanez: Now what do you see in the future for the club and
your involvement with the club?
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah. I hope it can continue. It's, as it is pretty
much. There's going to be some changes. Now that change of ladies coming
out Sunday afternoon because there were daughters or there were wives who
really, you know, gave their strong interest in coming out and were pretty
good shooters. So why not? I myself hope my boys can continue or that they
go out as guests, and then there's a waiting list for guys now. There's a
lot of different people that want to get in. So, but they still can come
out as a guest, and so that's great. Gosh, I don't know what, if it isn't
broke, why try to fix it, you know what I mean? I can't really, the only
thing I could see that would cause a change in the future is this water
deal, this water son of a gun is a, but, heck, we've had droughts before,
and we'll survive it, but we've never had so many people using so much
water today. Not only farming, but, you know, I mean with almonds. We use
more water now than we did before. Same way with grapes. To get a better
crop because it costs so much more to, for cultural practices, you need a
good, pretty good yield. So if you're not going to get that yield, well,
you pull it out and do something else. So, but this water thing, and we
have more people living. Look at the population of Fresno. Look at the
population of the Bay Area and the other cities in California. More people
are moving here because the houses supposedly are cheaper, and so I think
the water, the water's going to be a challenge. It sure seems that way
today. Now, maybe in a couple of years if we get some good rains and stuff
like that, but the, but that underground needs to be recharged, and it's
going to take more than a couple of years to do that. And why is that
important, the underground? Well, so that we can pump it if we have to.
There's, we don't use pumps or wells out there. I think there is one,
there was one that —- there's one for domestic use for the units out
there, that for the houses and the shacks. There's about whatever it is,
25 or something like that of people out there all total. I don't know how
many buildings are out there. One of the other fellows could be more
accurate with that than I can. I'd say maybe twelve or whatever it is.
But, I'm very concerned about water and what the future, because they'll
start saying, hey, listen, you know. And I told you already. I'd rather
see the water go for agriculture than I would see it for duck clubs. Now,
up in the Sacramento area, they've got an abundance of water, and Suisun
Bay, they've got a lot of water. So maybe that's where the duck clubs will
be. It may not be out there. Because they've, the water is so much cheaper
and available. They have plenty of it supposedly. So I think that's the
future right there. The what, I think it'll be the same, pretty much the
same as far as maybe there'll be. I think the duck number as far, they're,
they do a really good job of controlling the population of the different
species by keeping track, and they check them from Sac, I mean, Canada,
Washington, Oregon, and everything else to see what at different times of
the year what the population is. So that we're not overhunting these
things, and we're not making the extinct by just being game hawks, you
know. But it's, I'm concerned about water.
>> Nathan Montanez: Is there anything else that you think we should add?
We pretty much good?
>> Colby Tibbet: I’m trying to think about the day we were out there.
>> Nathan Montanez: I know they wanted to cover women members and they
wanted to cover the water ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah.
>> Nathan Montanez: -- And different things like the camaraderie.
>> Bill Chandler: Sure. The camaraderie is great, and you get, it's sort
of like a family. If somebody dies or, you know, we all go to their
funeral, and they sometimes their weddings or birthdays or something like
that. Depends because they're all scattered around. They're not just right
next to each other. There's a few guys live close enough to one another,
but that –- that -— that's kind of special. But, you know, we have Rotary
clubs, and we have these other things, too. It's, that helps satisfy that
human need of fellowship.
>> Colby Tibbet: Do you have relationships with the other clubs?
>> Bill Chandler: Yeah, we do. There's some where they'll shoot over at
theirs, and they'll shoot with us a little bit, but we keep, we
communicate with them to see how their shooting is doing, meaning if
they're getting more ducks, how come, you know. You know, what are they
doing that we're not doing, you know? And we think we have a particular
spot that's, where's there's usually plenty of water, and the way the –the
-— the terrain or the foliage or the growth of tules and stuff kind of
encourages ducks to come to our spot. And we have a lot of open water
where they like to, they feel safe in landing. So we check other clubs
that have the similar characteristics, and normally, you know, you, you'll
have a guest over from another club, or we'll go to their club, that, but
we've pretty, you know, gee. You're paying dues. So you normally go to
the, where you're spending your money, you know, or where you're having to
pay. So we don't, you know, we communicate, and we get together, and
they'll come over and talk to the guys that they know in our club that we
don't, you know, that their friends in other clubs, they'll come over, and
we'll, maybe have dinner with us or whatever it is.
>> Colby Tibbet: As far as the, their called the, shoots? Is that what it
is? The shoots? >> Bill Chandler: Yeah.
>> Colby Tibbet: In your room, you had a board where you pick your number
->> Bill Chandler: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ->> Colby Tibbet: Do you have a lucky number or a lucky shoot --
>> Bill Chandler: No ->> Colby Tibbet: Everybody was talking about, like, they might have a
favorite one that they go to ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah ->> Colby Tibbet: Do you have a lucky shoot ->> Bill Chandler: A special blind or something ->> Colby Tibbet: Yeah, or a blind or something ->> Bill Chandler: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the way they handle it, and
I guess that, you know, they draw, it's like a bingo thing. You draw the,
you get these numbers. So if you get number one, well, I'll take, let's
say, whatever, blind number twelve, and it may be in the center of this
pond. Sort of like the hub of a wagon wheel. So all the ducks more or less
are going to go by your site. Or if it's a windy day, you'll know over at
blind number ten or something like that. It's just the way the bank is or,
and there's a protected area that the ducks will go into. So you'll try to
choose that one. If you have the number one choice, and there may be
twelve, fourteen guys or sixteen guys choosing, and so I may be number
sixteen, and you never know. Sometimes I may have the last choice of what
blinds that haven't been chosen. Sometimes number sixteen will get his
ducks just as fast as the one who chose number one. So you never can
guarantee, but you always think, well, yeah, that blind is, it's easier to
walk out to. There's not any potholes or anything you're liable to get in
the mud and fall down and stuff like that. But, or you're going to go to
certain blinds where there's a lot of mucky, I mean, sticky mud. You'll go
that one with your dog. If you have a dog, you go there. If you don't have
a dog, I'm going to stay over there where it's kind of grassy, and I can
walk easier if I'm trying to get a cripple or a duck that I've shot. But
as far as a lucky number, yeah, there's about three or four blinds out
there. If you have the number one or two or three or four choice of those,
you'll take those. But some guys have maybe a number 31, that's their
favorite, and, you know, I'll pass up. You can have my blind. Yeah, I got
number one choice. If you want to have it, go ahead. I've been shooting
out here quite a bit. You haven't been out here very much. Why don't you
take that choice if you want to go to 31. That'll happen, too. The guys
are really, really pretty decent with each other. They want everybody to
have fun, or they won't come out, you know, and you want quite a few guys
out there because if there's just one or two on that big lake area, the
ducks are going to land way over on the other side. If there isn't anybody
over there shooting or hunting that area, they'll stay over there. They'll
feel safe in that water whereas if there's somebody over there, they may
not hit them, but at least they'll keep the ducks flying, and they may
come by you, you know. So that, that's the reason you like to have at
least quite a few guys showing up to hunt.
>> Nathan Montanez: I think that’s pretty much it. We covered all our
bases. If this anything else you'd like to add?
>> Bill Chandler: Oh, gosh, I think it's kind of neat you guys are doing
this. I really do. It, you know, I can't remember who it was I showed.
There's, I've got this big book. It's, "I Came to Shoot", that's the title
of it, and it's of all the duck clubs in the state of California. And it
started down in San Diego and it goes up in the Bay Area, all the way up
to Humboldt County, up through Sacramento area, and I think one of the
ladies was going to get it, but I had. But it was really interesting. A
lot of those clubs in that book are no longer there, but they're on the
Bay Area and how guys would go out, you know, and they would, they
wouldn't have just Wednesdays, Saturday, and Sunday they would shoot. They
would shoot whenever they had the free time to do it. And —- and -— and,
but of the history of those guys doing it, when they did it up in Suisun
Bay or up in, on the San Francisco Bay, over by the mud flats, over by
Palo Alto area, up in Marin County, in San Pablo Bay, all the way up into
Humboldt area, that was real interesting to me. I enjoyed that. But, yeah,
the Britto's been there a long, it's one of the older clubs, but there,
there's, gee. I guess you saw that map. There's a ton of clubs out there
now, and, but it’s —- it’s who's going to get the water, you know, for,
and it's in Grasslands Irrigation District. And so most, but to spread it
out to be equal to everybody, that's what that irrigation district really
try’s they're. I think there's maybe, I don't know how many acres that
whole district is made up of, water district, but I think there's only
maybe a couple of farmers in there. The rest of them are all duck hunters.
But there's some other irrigation districts up in that area, but they're
more for Ag. But that one was made up really primarily now for duck
hunters. So —>> Nathan Montanez: I think we’re good.
>> Colby Tibbet: Right on.
>> Bill Chandler: Thank you guys. Good luck.