FERRYVILLE, Wis. - Duck hunters, young and old alike, waddle into their home away from home for a week.

A few good 'ol boys head for the brandy and whisky bottles after a long morning hunt. The men peel off waders and hunting clothes, pat each other on the back, grab a few snacks, sneak a peek in the fridge and banter back and forth.

Welcome to the 40th annual Sam Marshall Trophy Shoot.

Regardless of their age, the hunters share three common threads - a love for Sam Marshall, a love for duck hunting and a love for one another.

Conversation eventually turns to plucking feathers, gutting, washing and freezing ducks to either take home or give away.

The hunters eat well and may sip an after-dinner drink.

Some hunters may bed down before the sun sets only to dream about another day in the duck marsh on the Mississippi River near Ferryville, Wis. Others may sit before a campfire and talk about the next day's hunt before pulling the bed covers over their head as stars twinkle above in the darkened sky.

The annual affair began with the passing of Samuel Benedict Marshall, who died in 1961. Sam lived in Ferryville. He was a river rat and a stump hunter, and "a damn good one," according to the late William G. Hiebing, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources game warden from Prairie du Chien, who was the group's historian before dying in 2001.

The story has it that Marshall, 56, was duck hunting on the Mississippi one day in the fall of 1961. Family and friends searched 11 days before they found him floating in the river, the victim of an apparent heart attack.

Many of Sam's friends, including Casey Bartlett of River Falls, Wis., and Virgil Holub of Swisher, Iowa, returned to the Ferryville and Stoddard areas to hunt ducks after Sam died. However, something was missing.

Bartlett, now 73, contacted Sam's son, Samuel Barton Marshall, in 1970 and said something else needed to be done to honor Sam.

The Sam Marshall Trophy Shoot is now in its 40th year. The hunt began last Monday and ends on Friday. Charter members Bartlett and Holub are the only two hunters to have participated every year.

The Marshall Trophy Shoot rules are simple. Each hunter weighs in his heaviest duck each day for five straight days. The hunter with the heaviest total weight is declared the winner at Friday night's banquet and steak fry.

As many as 15 or 16 hunters come from as near as Viroqua, like John Tryggestad, owner of the Viking Inn and Restaurant. Others come from Prairie du Chien and Muscoda, Wis., Chicago, Ill., small towns in Iowa and as far away as Texas.

Butch Hodges is a classic example. He not only has a distinct southern drawl but is a good story teller. He was working on a mechanical decoy early Monday afternoon but still had time to take a few verbal jabs at his huntin' buddies.

One hunter said there is lots of reminiscing when they gather for a week each fall, adding that many stories are told.

"There are a lot of stories that don't get told, too," said Hodges, laughing and pointing to one of his buddies sitting in the corner of the huge A-frame cabin on a bluff above Ferryville.

Samuel Barton Marshall, nicknamed "Bart," resides in Texas. Bart, 75, has missed three hunts since 1970 but was there in his dad's memory this week.

"Dad was really a student of ducks," Bart said. "Dad took duck hunting seriously. It wasn't about killing ducks but about his love for calling ducks and the enthusiasm of the hunters."

The winner of the annual five-day hunt decides where the next year's hunt is held. It could be previous spots in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, just upriver in Stoddard, Wis., or maybe right back in Ferryville on the Mississippi River where it all began.

One thing is certain. Friday's winner will lead the group in their theme song before departing Saturday morning, "Together Again," by legendary country music singer Buck Owens.