Currently snowing outside and a slight breeze blowing as well.  Forecast calls for off and on rain/snow mix until later tonight and then all snow through tomorrow.  Sounds like a great day to head off into the swamp and try a hand at shooting some ducks.

Edjukateer is expected here about 2 p.m. and we will head out until quiting time or we run out of shells, Get our limits, or Run out of shells, whichever comes first.

Knowing us, we will run out of shells first.

A full report will follow later on, don’t expect anything until after 7 mst.

Bears Butt

November 9, 2012

UPDATE

Wow, what a great evening for a duck hunt!

We arrived at the swamp and got set up about 3 p.m.  Loads of ducks trading back and forth.  Almost all of them Mallards and Pins.

Suddenly the wind picked up just a bit and the clouds decided it was time to teach us a lesson about snow and cold.  The sky opened up and the snow pelted us really good with heavy wet white guys.

A brace of Sprigs came winging in from the West, straight in and set their wings for a perfect cross shot approach…Edjukateer dumped the big male Sprig without any problem.  A great start to an evening hunt.

Next we noticed the big ducks were no where to be seen, but large flocks of smaller ducks were everywhere.  Teal!  Flocks of 5 to 50 were in the air and winging in every direction.  It was impossible to keep track of where they all were.  Suddenly a flock flared into our face and Weasel dumps a nice Greenwing with one shot!  NICE!

As the late afternoon went on and evening came forward with it’s darkness, the ducks provided us with plenty of entertainment.  Most came on fast and furious.  Some gave us a glimpse of themselves before blowing past at 2000 miles per hour.  And all mixed with the ever pounding wet snow from the north lands.  What a great evening for duck hunting.  At one point I asked the Weasel if he had ever wanted to hunt ducks during a snow storm…His answer……I had better hunts when the mosquitoes were out and it was 70 degrees.

We had our warmest clothes on and still the wind and wet penetrated our supposedly water proof coats and chest waders.  My ears got very cold and my trigger finger was beyond feeling and the ducks came in, wave after wave.

But the waves of ducks turned from the mallards and pins to teal…every where were teal spinning and turning.  And so we shot and shot and shot.  And the pellets penetrated the sky and more snow fell.  We were poking lots of holes into the sky causing such a spectacle.  And around us were others doing the same.  It was a wonderful evening of hunting.

Back at the truck we counted 5 ducks…….Edjukateer with 3 and Weasel with 2….I shot 4 times all afternoon and only touched one duck.  What a great afternoon.  Thank you Edjukateer and Weasel for the good time!

Bears Butt

Nov. 9, 2012

Today was Monday, not anything real exciting going on.  I picked up all the leaves in the yard, vacuumed the house and made ready for supper and still there was plenty of time for something else to do.

I had wanted to go on a little afternoon duck hunt even though it was a blue bird day.  I just could not get last Friday out of my head.

Well after making lots of calls and finding myself the only one with time to go hunting, I decide to heck with it, I’m going to go.

I don’t like to hunt alone and this trip was sort of a Reconnoiter trip, more than a hunt.   I took a 5 gallon bucket, my shotgun and a box of shells and headed out.

In the swamp I walked along slowly making notes of the increase in the water around the area.  Where Weasel and I had hunted last Friday it was at least 2 inches deeper.  I had waded through lots more water getting out to that spot than we had last week.  Things are looking up.  OH.  And I saw some geese sitting in the same place Weasel and I had seen them last week.

Well it was nearly 2:30 p.m. and only about 3 hours till closing time.

I sat on my bucket and watched the birds fly around, landing ever so much closer to where I was hiding.  Soon there was a flock going to cross over my hiding place…I jumped…lead the bird and popped the cap…Down he went…a nice male Pintail.  I sat back and waited until the birds settled down and then went out and gathered my trophy.

Well, long story short, I shot 14 shells!  14 shells!  Crazy huh?  I did not have any decoys out and still they offered me 14 chances to shoot.

I ended up with 2 birds.  And one heck of a memorable afternoon of hunting.

More fine eating!

Bears Butt

Nov. 5, 2012

Early in the week the weatherman was calling for 10 to 20 mph winds, overcast and an ever so slight chance of rain on Friday.  This is always an exciting forecast for me in the event I can go out and chase some ducks and so I set up a date with Brother Bob to go out and do just that.

As the week progressed, the weatherman changed the forecast and made that arrangement for Thursday….bummer…I had other plans for Thursday.  And so it was, Thursday was a perfect day to head out into the swamp and I watched it blow and knock down leaves and stay cloudy and more leaves fell and more wind blew.  It blew from the South most of the day and then it turned from the North and then from the East and then from the South again…I was dreaming all day long about the ducks flying everywhere.  Visions of the sky being black with the birds as they dropped into the decoys, fighting the wind as they came in and hovered over the decoys making shooting them so easy, seven shots equal seven birds.  Dream on big boy.

About Wednesday Bob developed a bad problem with his leg and cancelled out on the hunt.  No way he would be able to walk the distance from the ATV to Colmer Island, which is where I spent a lot of time last year hunting.  Well maybe next week.

On Thursday watching all the wind and clouds and doing my dreaming I called the Weasel to see if he would like to go hunting on Friday….he said he would!  I was a happy guy!

So as night fell the winds were still blowing and I settled into a deep sleep while dreaming about the hunt the next day.

Up early and at the coffee pot…made two sandwiches for lunch and made sure everything was packed and ready for the hunt.  Coat, boots, water, shotgun, shells, atv with gas…everything is in order.

We had planned a “not so early start” and I picked the Weasel up at 9 a.m. and off we went.

As I peered out the windshield on our way to the swamp, I was seeing a perfectly calm, blue bird day.  Not a day one would normally consider for a duck hunt.  But when you are facing staying home and raking leaves or sitting in a duck blind swatting mosquitos, what would your choice be?

We found ourselves in a very nice spot where we kicked up a few geese and some ducks.  They were sitting in very shallow water and because we kicked them off we figured if we set up there they would eventually come back.  As we sat there and the ducks began to filter back I noted the path they were following and told the Weasel we needed to be farther out into the water.  After an hour of frustration and not being able to draw the birds in close enough for a shot we picked up and moved farther out.

The weasel has big feet and on our trip out into deeper water, his feet decided he needed to stay in one spot, while his brain said to keep going and suddenly his boots were filling from the top down as he went to his knees in the ankle deep water.  Not a good thing to be feeling so early in the day.  He managed to scramble up without taking in the entire lake and since it was not a very cold day, decided he would continue to hunt, wet feet and legs and all.

We set up in a very nice little spot and perched our butts on top of the 5 gallon buckets we had brought with us.  A good thing to have at this point.  It did not take very long before the ducks started trickling into our area.  Most of them came in as singles or doubles and for some reason they were moving at a pretty good clip.  I say that because I was having a heck of a time getting on them and keeping up with their path and most of my shots were going behind them.

The Weasel on the other hand was doing a pretty good job of hitting them.

Aside from the 12 duck decoys we had out, we also put out a few goose decoys more as “confidence” decoys than anything else.  After all there wouldn’t be any geese come where we were anyway.

After a couple of hours of sitting there and having a few ducks wing in and keep us interested in the hunt, we suddenly realized a flock of geese were actually coming our way.  We hunkered down to become one with our buckets and here they came right into us.  They made a turn at the last second which kept the Weasel from having any sort of a shot and I dropped one with my new little 20 Mossburg.  Bonus!  One goose!

The day progressed and we shot many times.  I had ducks flare in my face, so close you could smell their ducky little breath.  The Weasel had similar shots at the winged creatures and pretty soon I was sharing some of my box of shells with him.  We each had only brought one box of shells because we knew we would not need the extra weight on such a blue bird day.  About an hour before the season actually ended, a nice big pinny came swooping over from my side of the blind.  With my last shell in the trusty little 20, I put the bead right on his beak as he peeled in from my right and made a slight turn toward us…BLAM!…and my shot cup cruised right past his tail!  DANG!  It flared slightly upward as the Weasel blasted him with his last shell and he tumbled into the water.  Hunt over!  No more shells.

We had a time walking back to dry land what with the extra weight of a bunch of ducks and a goose, but we made it without incident.

Bottom line…well you count them:

5 ducks for the Weasel, one duck and a goose for the Butt

Not bad for a blue bird day in the swamp.

The shooting Gods were with us today.  Lots of shooting and not a whole lot of hitting.  It was a very fun day afield and I hope we get to do it more very soon.

Thanks for the hunt Weasel…oh and the shooting lesson as well…5 to 1!  On the other hand remember big headed Weasel, I lent you four of my shells!

Bears Butt

Nov. 3, 2012

Fur is fur and when there is a demand to capture up that fur it is time to do it!  Some times the demand does not require the fur to be prime, other times it does.  And so the makings of a true trapper comes out in the end.

On the muzz deer hunt this year we found Bones in a real dilemma.  She had some wild deer mice livin in her lodge and she don’t like deer mice one bit.  She didn’t have any traps even though I offered her the only one I had, she figured it might be too small to hold such a big critter as a deer mouse.  So she lived with the deer mice until her husband, Tracker, came up to camp with a whole pack of mouse traps.

Now his traps were not the mouse trap ordinaire…no sirree…these babys were meant ta kill an kill quick like.

So they set their trap line out on Friday night.  Baited them up real good with whatever they baited them with and turned off all the lights in the lodge.  Both of them expected a full trap line of fur by first light the next day.

What they found were still set traps with not a speck of bait left on any of them.  Those deer mice snuck in and very carefully lifted the bait off the triggers and got away with it all.

So, they reset the entire line with new bait, only this time they really pressed the bait onto and into the triggers…this time for sure they would have a full trap line of fur come the next morning.

Next morning….nuttin!  Well it just so happened the next morning was the day we were to head for home and so they carried the little critters home with them and would deal with them there.  What happened is anyone’s guess as I have not heard either way.

BUT, had we had our senses about us we could have built her a very effective and catch all fur trap like the one in this explanation.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/easterly110.html

Next year Bones…Next year.  In the mean time good luck with the Beavers!

Bears Butt

Oct. 30, 2012

I’m always looking for some way for people to survive out in the woods be it with safe fires, hunting or what have you.  Today I stumbled upon a “sling shot arrow” video from “Wildernessoutfitters”.  These guys are on top of all the things I am interested in but much more than I am.

If you have never thought about shooting small game with a sling shot it is time you did.  It might be the difference between you living or dieing out in the woods.

On an elk hunt many moons ago our very own Hunter, made an incredible shot on a grouse with a sling shot and ended up with a fine meal.

Look at this video.

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

Oct. 29, 2012

So I get a call yesterday from our friend Dry Dog, who proudly says this bow sling thing really works.  He told me all about his fight to find a Whisper Bisket and how expensive it was when he finally found one.  Had he taken more time to look he would have found one cheaper, but he was in a hurry to make one of these fine tools and try it out.

Here are the pictures he sent me.

Dry Dogs Bow Sling. Notice the Whisker Bisket mounted.

And here is himself with his newly made tool.

Pretty nice there Mr. Dog!  Do you actually think you could hit something with that?

Ready! Aim! Fire!

Dog says it shoots pretty dang good out to about 20 yards, but it would take a lot of practice to hit something that far out.  But for close shots it’s deadly.

Great job Dry Dog!  I can’t wait to see how it handles!  Tip it with an Epek broadhead and you would have one mean killing machine!

Thanks for the pictures and the report!

Bears Butt

Oct. 30, 2012

Well, well, well, I think I have finally found a product that is truly outstanding.  I have sat on the back patio swatting at flies with my battery operated fly killing paddle and have commented on how fun it would be to have a “Raid spray gun”.  But when you think about the negative aspects of a spray type weapon in the wrong hands, it just would not be worth it.

I stumbled upon this devise this morning as I surfed the internet and boy howdy would I like to own one right now.

Our house is teaming with flies that have somehow gotten into the house and our poor little puppy MaPa’s is going crazy trying his best to make “fly poppers” out of them for his own little tasty treat.  I hate to get the fly swatter out and take away his fun, but at the same time I hate to see them crawling on the seasoned steak sitting on the counter, or the un-washed dishes in the sink.  So, out comes the cumbersome smacker and splat goes another would be popper for MaPa’s.

So, check this video out on this amazing new creation.  I’m sure Obama will put regulations on it’s purchase and use.  And I’m sure folks in California who purchase them will have to go through background checks and register them.  However, I think there might be a black market nich that could satisfy the needs of folks in all parts of the country at a minimal charge and the government would not need to know.

After you see the video, one can only imagine that there could be regulations on the use of this fine devise, limits imposed and shooting hours restricted.  This is absolutely one of the finest inventions of the times.

I really want one and Christmas is coming soon.

Be the first on your block to own one.  As for me, I just invested a small portion of my income to Morton stock.

Bears Butt

Oct. 26, 2012

Brother Bob and I took a little drive to see about the local duck population and we found a pretty good site.  I have not been hunting ducks yet this year but it is getting nigh on to time to get the boots muddy and give it a try.

They are filling the dikes at the Bear River Bird Refuge pretty fast right now and I assume they are pouring the entire flow from the river into each of the units one at a time.  I don’t know because we didn’t drive out that far.

What we did see however was some good news.  Lots of ducks!  Not a lot of water but lots of ducks.  How long they will stick around remains to be seen, but I think with another good storm we might just see some great hunting.

With an all day venture into the swamp I think a person could fill up a limit, but it would take all day, unless of course you had a boat like an airboat that could skim across the really shallow waters we have right now.  Other than that is will require a lot of walking.

Having not gone hunting since the last day of the muzz deer hunt I’m getting the bug to go hunt something even if it’s wrong.  Coyote, ducks, geese, rabbits…just about anything that has a season going right now.

Bears Butt

Oct. 24, 2012

And it looks like boat hunting is out for this season and it’s probably a good thing too.  Check out this video

They are getting smarter!