Meant to post this in January but life got in the way.

Around October of last year I decided it was time to propose to my girlfriend of 3 years, but I couldn't really decide how I would do it. After talking it over with some buddies, I decided that I wanted to do it while on a hunt. My plan was to have everyone in on it, but her, and when the birds worked in I would call the shot. Right then everyone would stand up, and shoulder their gun, but she would be the only one to fire. Once she dropped a bird, I would send my lab to retrieve it, and once the bird was back in hand, I would slip the engagement band over the foot, and tell her that it was "banded" all while a buddy was filming. In theory this was GOLD to me, unfortunately I made one small miscalculation... Her shooting skills. I never pushed her to go because I didn't want her to get suspicious, and she went a solid, 8 or so times throughout the season. However every time I said the code word for my buddies not to shoot, she came up empty. Finally the last day of the season one of my buddies had a pond in his back yard that he had been saving to hunt all year. It was covered in mallards, and he told me to go ahead and put her on a hunt. After several missed opportunities, I began to get frustrated, of coarse she couldn't understand why. Just when I was about to give up a pair of gadwall came in, and landed at 15yds. I told her to shoot one off the water, but she said not till they jump. She hollered at them, and they got up... Boom...Boom..........Boom. On her third shot at HAILMARY+++ yards she dropped the drake. I followed through with my plan, and she said yes. It was a memory I'll never forget.

Congrats

That's a great story to tell the grandkids!

Congrats.

Pretty cool story.

There is a lot of win in this post

Well done on the proposal...

Preciate' it guys! The story of how many times I checked my pocket paranoid that I lost the ring throughout the season is a whole different story in its own!

congrats man! That's the best band you can get out there.

Thats a really cool story man glad everything worked out! Congrats!

That's great, but which cost more the ring are the waterfowl loads for all the missed shots? LOL... Neat idea and even cooler that you stuck with it. This shows dedication to a long-term plan. Surely she appreciates that. Oh, and congrats! Best of luck to the both of you.

nice! congrats!!!

Nice work sir. Congrats to the both of you.