LAWRENCE
The best shot of Hunter Mickelson’s life came in a small pit blind in rural Arkansas, two best friends by his side, his father tasked with sending out the duck call. Hunter and his friends were young then, maybe 9 or 10, and they had journeyed out to hunt green-winged teal, a small breed of duck with a history of being a nuisance to even the quickest and most accurate marksman.
“They’re the fastest birds that fly,” says Hunter’s father, Darien Mickelson.
Hunter Mickelson was no novice in a duck blind. He had been around the sport most of his life, following his father, a local guide, around the rice fields and local farms outside Jonesboro, Ark.