I went to the Ducks Unlimited Banquette for the Kingwood/Humble chapter last night and I wanted to point out some highlights of the evening.
Door prizes were ok, quite a few gun cases, hats and other camouflaged things. 66% of our table won a door prize, including a member of the board at the chapter who won the first giveaway.
The raffle, silent auction and live auction items were pretty cool. There were a few knives that I bid on and a couple of pictures, ultimately I did not win because right as it was closing some guy went up and out bid everyone on almost every item. There were a few shotguns in the live auction, but there was only one listed as being auctioned. The first gun, a 28 Gauge over under, went for $4000 dollars. Immediately some members of the team went out and got every other gun they could find to auction because it sold for so much. The other guns went for anywhere between $1500 and $2000.
Also in the live auction was an 8 week old chocolate lab. I had decided early that I would bid on the dog because it came with some training and I thought it would be a good idea. I did talk to the trainer prior to the auction. I was the opening bid, and I bid up to $800, but then it got to rich for me. When all was said and done, the dog sold for $2600. I think it sold for so much though because some guy's escort decided she really wanted the puppy. Anyway, I didn't win the dog, but I talked to the trainer some more after and he gave me a lot of really good information, including, he was not the breeder for that dog and he was having some problems with it anyway. He suggested a few other puppies that he had and told me he had a litter coming in January.
The duck walk give away was a Benelli SuperNova. Our table bought quite a few entries for it, but none of us won, but there was quite a bit of negotiation going on at the table for the gun if any of us happened to have won.
For the most part it was a fun evening.