Duck Hunt Success!
Last Wednesday, Jason and I awoke in the wee morning hours and headed down to the chain lakes to try our hand at duck hunting. After a half-hour drive, we were loading up his 13 foot canoe and heading into the darkness. Now, let me tell you, starting a paddle up a deep river, at night, in December, in a SMALL canoe rated at 450 lbs max, is a little scary. Every time I blinked, the canoe would LURCH to the side and make me feel like I was going over. Let's just say I was glad to be done with that 1/4 mile paddle! (Makes me appreciate my large, 3-keel scanoe even more!)
After walking to a pit blind he found, we hurriedly threw out some decoys and collected some brush to beef up the camouflage. After that we sat. And sat. And sat. We were hoping for snow and clouds to keep the birds down, but it didn't pan out. Everything was just too high. Well, after three hours we got kinda cold and frustrated, so we went exploring. It's great country down there and one of the first mornings I've spent in a marsh in six years. It's always nice to be there to watch the world wake up and listen to everyone singing out at the sun.
At one point we heard some shooting up ahead of us and saw a flock of mallards coming at us and in range! We had a strange little conversation at that point. Jason said, "Well Tom, what do you think?" "I don't know, are the in range?" "I think so....what do you think?" And now, Jason's side of the story is funnier, because he said later, "All I heard was your safety coming off and thought, well, I guess Tom made up his mind!" Jason shot once leaning over backwards and I picked out another drake and pulled on him. One shot stopped him in mid-flight and he HOVERED there. TWO MORE shots, and no bird. I can almost positively say I never felt my cheek on the stock. It just seemed like there was no way I could miss! Alas, I'm still good at educating birds.
Well, the morning drug on and we packed up. Ended up at Killarney Lake and went on a little walk down a dike. We got to a place we were going to turn around after not seeing any birds when a hen exploded at our feet. While I fumbled with the sling on my shotgun, I saw Jason pull up and knock her out of the sky. She landed across a slough and started running! Turns out his shot just hit her wing...so we both went over there and gridded until we found her hiding under a tussock of grass. Kinda sad, but it ended quick.
Now that brings us to Saturday morning when we decided to try it again! This time the canoe ride went better and since I knew where we were going, I felt better about the whole set up. This time I was able to enjoy paddling up a river at night. There's nothing like being on the water in the dark, it's very soothing and calm. It makes you use all your other senses (rather than your eyes) and in a marsh...that keeps you pretty busy!
Well, we had to break about an inch of ice from our pond and then threw out the decoys. Yet again, all the birds were really high and never gave us a second glance. SO, on our way out, we decided to hit a hillside to try and get a better view of the country upriver from us. We were trudging up there when I whispered at Jason, "Jason! What IS that?" It really looked like five black clumps of grass. That's when one moved! He said, "I think those are turkeys Tom! I have a tag, do you?" Well yeah! So, our duck hunt quickly became a turkey-stalk. It was pretty loud and crunchy with all the ice, so by the time we got around a little hill, the birds were gone. Hmmph...I'll bet they ran up the hill on private land. JUST as soon as we said that, we walked around the hill and there they were...about 20 birds up in the cottonwoods like they were roosting!
Again, we had a brief conversation that went like, "OH. THERE they are. Here we go." And with that, I watched Jason shoulder his shotgun and decided to follow suit. I picked out the closest bird to me and hauled off twice. The second shot wasn't really needed, but it turns out it didn't hurt anything at all....I'm pretty sure the first shot was a head shot, and while he was falling out of the tree...I hit him again. Meanwhile, Jason was loosing off all his shells and reloading. The birds kinda flew off one by one, but all the branches were blocking his pattern, so he had to walk away empty handed.
I was able to find my first turkey ever in about 2 minutes...those critters sure do blend in with the brush! Well, we checked him out and talked about how strange the morning went, but how fortunate. I never thought I'd say it, but packing a turkey out of the woods (err, marsh) is actually kind of a pain. But it was a pretty pleasant one. The sun was still hiding behind some clouds, the fog was still nestled in pockets, and it was beginning to lightly snow. Huge flights of geese were overhead honking contentedly, and the whistling of duck wings overhead added to the moment.
All I can say about it, is that it was a perfect morning. And of course, I had to get a couple photos down by the river...just because we were DUCK HUNTING.
Happy Tom and his first turkey!
Now isn't that a nice looking morning!?
After I got it home, everyone had a good time checking it out. Actually Lucca and Sarah had a good time checking it out...the cats didn't want anything to do with it. I hurriedly dealt with it, noticing that it didn't have a beard yet and it's spurs were JUST starting to form...which, in talking with Jason, meant it was probably a young Jake from this year. Should be good eating!
With much of the afternoon remaining, I threw my stuff together and met Rod out at the trap club. I was able to shoot one box of shells with my new shotgun...coming away with a 17...first time out. Not as good as I was hoping, but again, talk about a fun day!
Oh, and after getting up at 3:30 in the morning and spending the entire day out in the cold....I slept like a ROCK that night!
After walking to a pit blind he found, we hurriedly threw out some decoys and collected some brush to beef up the camouflage. After that we sat. And sat. And sat. We were hoping for snow and clouds to keep the birds down, but it didn't pan out. Everything was just too high. Well, after three hours we got kinda cold and frustrated, so we went exploring. It's great country down there and one of the first mornings I've spent in a marsh in six years. It's always nice to be there to watch the world wake up and listen to everyone singing out at the sun.
At one point we heard some shooting up ahead of us and saw a flock of mallards coming at us and in range! We had a strange little conversation at that point. Jason said, "Well Tom, what do you think?" "I don't know, are the in range?" "I think so....what do you think?" And now, Jason's side of the story is funnier, because he said later, "All I heard was your safety coming off and thought, well, I guess Tom made up his mind!" Jason shot once leaning over backwards and I picked out another drake and pulled on him. One shot stopped him in mid-flight and he HOVERED there. TWO MORE shots, and no bird. I can almost positively say I never felt my cheek on the stock. It just seemed like there was no way I could miss! Alas, I'm still good at educating birds.
Well, the morning drug on and we packed up. Ended up at Killarney Lake and went on a little walk down a dike. We got to a place we were going to turn around after not seeing any birds when a hen exploded at our feet. While I fumbled with the sling on my shotgun, I saw Jason pull up and knock her out of the sky. She landed across a slough and started running! Turns out his shot just hit her wing...so we both went over there and gridded until we found her hiding under a tussock of grass. Kinda sad, but it ended quick.
Now that brings us to Saturday morning when we decided to try it again! This time the canoe ride went better and since I knew where we were going, I felt better about the whole set up. This time I was able to enjoy paddling up a river at night. There's nothing like being on the water in the dark, it's very soothing and calm. It makes you use all your other senses (rather than your eyes) and in a marsh...that keeps you pretty busy!
Well, we had to break about an inch of ice from our pond and then threw out the decoys. Yet again, all the birds were really high and never gave us a second glance. SO, on our way out, we decided to hit a hillside to try and get a better view of the country upriver from us. We were trudging up there when I whispered at Jason, "Jason! What IS that?" It really looked like five black clumps of grass. That's when one moved! He said, "I think those are turkeys Tom! I have a tag, do you?" Well yeah! So, our duck hunt quickly became a turkey-stalk. It was pretty loud and crunchy with all the ice, so by the time we got around a little hill, the birds were gone. Hmmph...I'll bet they ran up the hill on private land. JUST as soon as we said that, we walked around the hill and there they were...about 20 birds up in the cottonwoods like they were roosting!
Again, we had a brief conversation that went like, "OH. THERE they are. Here we go." And with that, I watched Jason shoulder his shotgun and decided to follow suit. I picked out the closest bird to me and hauled off twice. The second shot wasn't really needed, but it turns out it didn't hurt anything at all....I'm pretty sure the first shot was a head shot, and while he was falling out of the tree...I hit him again. Meanwhile, Jason was loosing off all his shells and reloading. The birds kinda flew off one by one, but all the branches were blocking his pattern, so he had to walk away empty handed.
I was able to find my first turkey ever in about 2 minutes...those critters sure do blend in with the brush! Well, we checked him out and talked about how strange the morning went, but how fortunate. I never thought I'd say it, but packing a turkey out of the woods (err, marsh) is actually kind of a pain. But it was a pretty pleasant one. The sun was still hiding behind some clouds, the fog was still nestled in pockets, and it was beginning to lightly snow. Huge flights of geese were overhead honking contentedly, and the whistling of duck wings overhead added to the moment.
All I can say about it, is that it was a perfect morning. And of course, I had to get a couple photos down by the river...just because we were DUCK HUNTING.
Happy Tom and his first turkey!
Now isn't that a nice looking morning!?
After I got it home, everyone had a good time checking it out. Actually Lucca and Sarah had a good time checking it out...the cats didn't want anything to do with it. I hurriedly dealt with it, noticing that it didn't have a beard yet and it's spurs were JUST starting to form...which, in talking with Jason, meant it was probably a young Jake from this year. Should be good eating!
With much of the afternoon remaining, I threw my stuff together and met Rod out at the trap club. I was able to shoot one box of shells with my new shotgun...coming away with a 17...first time out. Not as good as I was hoping, but again, talk about a fun day!
Oh, and after getting up at 3:30 in the morning and spending the entire day out in the cold....I slept like a ROCK that night!
posted by geotracker12 at 7:57 AM
1 Comments:
Awesome job Tom! Very jealous.
Z
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