Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd share the screen in a playful, spiky war along a quiet lake, sparked by a protective instinct for a young duckling. The hunter inadvertently harms the duckling, prompting Daffy to step in, bandaging the chick and returning it to the water while issuing a firm warning: “If you shoot one more duck, just one more duck, you’ll be in trouble!!” This sharp warning sets off a comical escalation as Elmer wounds Daffy at point-blank range, stripping away feathers and triggering a full-blown vendetta.
Daffy declares war with a string of inventive, slapstick countermeasures designed to foil Elmer’s hunts. He dons diving gear and dives under the surface to drill holes in Elmer’s speedboat; the plan backfires when a leak forces him to surface, and Elmer shoots into the hole, sending Daffy scrambling back underwater. Undeterred, Daffy counters by reversing the drill and descending with the leak, only to be shot again when Elmer targets the exposed hole.
The feuds continue with a smoke offensive: Daffy releases a smoke maker that blankets the boat, slides in wearing a gas mask and wielding a mallet, and moves in for the kill. A timely breeze from a fan reveals a portion of the smoke, and Elmer fires, prompting Daffy to snap, “Smartypants,” and swim away.
Next up is flight warfare. Daffy climbs into a hot air balloon equipped with a bomb, hoping to drop it on Elmer’s boat. The fuse burns too quickly, the bomblike device detonates prematurely, and the balloon—along with Daffy—plummets, illustrating the ever-shifting peril of their battle.
In another maneuver, Daffy scatters a stick of dynamite into Elmer’s boat through a diving mask, but Elmer cleverly slips the charge into Daffy’s mask, detonating the blast in Daffy’s face. A toy battleship is launched as a decoy, its miniature guns firing a shot that lands right on Elmer’s face after he retrieves the vessel from the water.
Daffy then attaches a duck decoy loaded with gunpowder and a fuse to Elmer’s decoy string. A bungled knot traps Daffy’s thumb, though he frees himself in time; the explosive decoy still goes off, but Daffy survives the blast with feathers flying.
As Elmer nears the dock, Daffy hides beneath a bucket and plants a pack of dynamite nearby. Elmer notices the danger, muffling the threat with the bucket, but the dynamite explodes, leaving Daffy dazed and dragging himself away.
Tired of hunting, Elmer tries fishing and pulls up a miniature barracuda, only for a larger, more menacing barracuda to surface and threaten him with a warning: “If you catch one more fish, just one more fish, you’ll be in trouble!!” Amid the chaos, Daffy surges up from under Elmer’s hat and quips, “Strong union,” then hops and woos happily across the water.
> Smartypants
> Strong union
