Hi Hunter Group: I lucked out today in my Saturday duck hunt in that my friend, Jay, invited me to take his place in pond 1 when he left at 8. I had been drawn last and was acting sad, I guess, when he told me that I could take his place when he left as long as it was OK with his pond partner, Craig. Craig said OK, so I slept in the car from the 6 to 8 time period when all the ducks are flying, and then took his place when he came out. He got 4 ducks, so I took his exact same spot, and Craig put more decoys in the exact same spot he had them so the luck would keep flowing. I put my chair behind a thorn bush I could see through and put a giant tumbleweed behind me. Then, I wrapped my camo canvas wrapping around the chair and alongside the thornbush to make myself as invisible to the ducks as possible. Right away, a teal charged me and Craig's son, so I shot and missed, just to get warmed up. I should have led him more. I need to write that on the side of the gun so I can remember it. Anyway, the duck didn't see me which is the important thing. Craig was fun to talk to all day, and he got off a few more shots, but I didn't get any chances until Craig left. I told him I would let him know that I got a limit of 7 after he left. I could tell him that but it would be a lie. I shot at and hit 3, but due to the tall weeds and the expansiveness of the neighboring marsh A, I was not able to retreive any. My first was a wood duck who took off from the water when I was touring the pond. He splashed down and started swimming at about 50 yards so I took careful aim and popped him in the water to stop his swimming towards the tall marsh cattails. My shot was right all around him, but he kept on swimming. I shot him again and he kept swimming and then entered the tall, thick plants. I quickly reloaded and splashed across the pond to see if I could get him before he got too far in. I crisscrossed the plant area many times and heard him dodging around me and I knew I couldn't get him without a dog. Darn! I went back to the other side and waited to see if he would come out so I could shoot him again. He didn't. While I was waiting, a coot whizzed over the water and I needed the practice so I downed him easily, only he fell into the same dense thicket and it was the same game, trying to find the birds. So, I gave up and went back to my chair on the other side of the pond. A gadwell cut across my corner of the pond and I stood up and led him perfectly and popped him at about 50 yards but he kept on flying so I shot again and he came down in Marsh A. No one was in it so I could look around to my hearts content, but he was nowhere to be found, on land or water. Maybe these birds have taken on too much shot in their lifetimes and sink when they are in the water. So, I spend a lot of time looking for and not finding the birds I shot. Craig would like to know that many birds flew right across his blind once he left and he would have had lots of opportunities to score. They were just outside of my reach or I would have shot his bird for him. Anyway, it was a real nice day. I stayed until closing time and got rained on a wee bit but it didn't hurt at all. I hope I get a good draw next week and can return Jay and Craig the favor of sharing my pond someday. Thanks again, Jay and Craig!
Bud.
Hi Hunter group: Yesterday was a very happy day of duck hunting for me. I hunted with Tommy and his daughter in the morning and with my daughter in the afternoon. We had hoped that our two daughters would get to hunt together again, but he had to go early and Julia was hung over from a birthday party the night before with a house full of teenage girls not getting much sleep amidst all the giggles and stories. We were lucky enough to get drawn a good blind. We actually had a tough choice; to take the one Dominic had advised us to take, or the one that Tommy had had good luck with before. We took F5 since it always has a lot of birds but they don't like to come close to the blind. We had better than good luck because Tommy put out 3 dozen decoys and the ducks were hitting on them all morning. The Spoonies like the Bufflehead decoys the best. We put his daughter close to the path of the ducks so she could get the most shots and since I have the mighty 10 gauge 3.5 magnum with BB shot at 1.5 oz and 1550 fps, I could bat cleanup in case both her and her father missed. A tumbleweed floated at 96 yards from us and I showed them how the 10ga could reach out and touch it. Actually, holding it right on at 100 yards on the water makes it hit at 70 yards due to gravity. It hits hard enough, but I need to allow for the drop. The plan turned out as planned, with them getting 3 and me getting 2. The one I got in front of the blind was with Tommy shooting in front of it to slow it down which meant I didn't have to lead it and nailed it dead center. It felt good to smoke a green-wing Teal at 60 yards. I also got a Spoonie close to the bank at 55 yards that flew on my side. We left at 10 and I picked up Julia at home to shoot the afternoon. No good blinds were open because it was a real nice day and the wind was blowing a bit hard at times which moves the birds around. After much self-deliberation, I chose Pond 1 because the ducks like to settle into the ponds with the 10 foot sides to keep sheltered from the wind. We sat for 1 hour which made Julia bored and sleepy so I decided to walk around and chase some birds back to her. As I crept upon the far side of the pond, I saw a duck sneaking around the bulrushes and shot at him just as he was entering the weeds. He didn't like that and waited a few minutes, then flew off into some weeds that were only 6 feet thick and only 2 feet high! This was my lucky day, I thought, so I snuck up on the duck across the water and he took off aerobatically twisting and turning at 100mph away from me. Fortunately I had practiced bunker the day before for 2 hours and this was a common shot for me. I traced his upward curvilenear flight with my barrel and moved slightly in front of it for the lead and slightly above for the drop in ballistic path, taking my time for the sure shot. Bam! he went down on the other side of the hill. I raced through the water to get him, keeping my eye on a distant mountain peak as a guide as to where he went down, thinking that maybe he went into the water in the marsh there. I looked around in the water and there were no bodies of ducks, and no ducks swimming away or swimming anywhere. I knew he didn't fly away because I saw his wing break, so I scanned the whole hillside looking for a running duck. No running duck anywhere. After much traipsing back and forth and back and forth, I gave up and thought that maybe I had been seeing things. I relayed my story to Julia and she said she could find it. Back we went and I explained how I had shot it over there, and had lined it up with the mountain top over there, and noted that it fell somewhere around here. I looked down and about 10 feet from me, there it was! So, I thanked Julia for helping me and we went back to get some more. It was very satisfying getting this Teal. I am thinking about writing about how duck hunting is real hunting, just as much as quail hunting or rabbit hunting is, with strategy, planning, practice, and becoming educated as how to do it better each time. Just as we were ready to go, I was picking up the decoys and a flock of 8 pintails flew over slow and easy. They saw me in the water and turned away fast but Julia grabbed my 10ga and emptied it at them. Now she is educated as how to not shoot at the whole flock hoping you will hit one accidently. You have to pick the lead bird and hope you hit the 3rd bird. Next time, Julia!
Bud.
Hi Hunters: Today was one of the best. I spent all day through wind, rain, cold and hot and did OK. I got 5 and should have gotten 10 more except that 7 ducks is the limit anyway, so it is just as well. I was picked last and had to choose between B5 and A3. Luckily, I picked B5 because I had been there before and knew the lay of the land. I started off great by downing 3 ducks with 3 shots. The first was when it was hardly light enough to see and a teal streaked by at 55 yards from left to right. I traced his path with the barrel of my mighty Remington SP10 10 gauge 3.5 with the 1550fps/BB 1.5 oz steel shot and moved in front a mere 6 inches and squeezed the trigger as he flew. He crumpled instantly so I knew it was instant death for him so I decided to let him stay there while the other early morning birds were darting around and I wanted to get them too. But good fortune was not with me on this one. Even though I had seen him fall lifeless from the sky, I saw a lot of wave movement from the area where he fell on the other side of the pond weeds and then I saw genuine wave wake markings on the water and I knew that he was getting away! I bolted from the blind, waded briskly into the water which was about crotch deep by the blind and tripped on the steeply rising bank which was only 1 foot deep. I fell on my 10 gauge and since I usually have my finger on my safety for speed shooting reasons, I pushed the safety off as I fell on the gun. Then, with the gun at the bottom of the 1-foot pond, I picked it up out of the mud and pulled the trigger and shot it underwater. I guess the myth about if you shoot a gun underwater it will blow up the barrel is not true because I did it. Also, I found out that a lot of bubbles come up and that the water acts as a great silencer. Now I know that I can take my 10 gauge scuba diving as a protection against sharks and other divers. Back to the story. I found my teal stone dead as I had known all along, and discovered that the waves had been made by a surprised coot that had had the downed teal land on him! Excuse me! The second teal came when I got up to change my wet shirt to a dry one and noticed a number of decoys had been placed about 20 yards behind my blind. Then, I noticed that they sure were lifelike. I wondered who would put their decoys there? Then, one moved a bit and I realized that they were ducks who had snuck in while I was out swimming. At that moment, they realized I was a hunter and not a swimmer and started to fly away. I should have gotten all 4, but only had 3 shells in the gun and besides, I had to shoot the first one twice to stop him and by that time I missed the other one. Again, I missed the world’s easiest shot when 2 slow spoonies approached the blind right over the top of me. I laughed to myself as I said, “watch me get a double on this one!” After I missed three times I wasn’t laughing and am still wondering how I missed. George thinks it is because I was leading them too much. Floyd thinks I should have it written in Braille on the side of my gun, “Shoot in front of the bird.” I don’t know why he thinks it should be written in Braille. I got a double widgeon when I took my chair out to the center of the pond and sat down in the 1-foot water in the shadows of the pond plants. My strategy was to have the big weeds to my right and small ones to my left so I could hit the right to left ones going by me but see the left to right ones in time to get ready to aim. Sure enough, the right to left pair of widgeon flashed by me faster than I could pounce out of my chair and pounce on them. I was mad at myself for being so slow, but, luckily, they turned around and made a long, slow, wings cupped landing right in front of me. I had plenty of time to slowly stand up and take careful aim and pop both of them. My secret the whole day was to have no decoys. This time of the season the birds have learned to not trust decoys. I keep so perfectly hidden and perfectly still that I am surrounded by coots all day long, which make the best decoys. The hunters in the big pond, B2, were up walking around and talking the whole day. They only got 1 and B1 only got 2. When this season is over, I plan to keep my skills sharp by shooting the bunker every week. It sure has helped me already.
Bud.