Boy it’s great to be retired.  Going duck hunting with an old friend we call “Gattlin”.  He likes his duck hunting and today he should get his limit in short order.  The next storm isn’t coming in until Friday, but there should be a lot of ducks milling around today.

More to come later!

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

As expected Gattlin arrived early, all excited to get out into the swamp and kill something.  I was too, but I did not expect him to be THAT early.  Anyway, we ate a bit of breakfast that he brought and had a cup of coffee, and then we went.

A beautiful day!  But not necessarily one you would go out of your way to go duck hunting on.  Pretty much a cloudless sky.  Warm, temps hovering in the mid 40’s.  Very little wind.

We got the box bailed and the decoys set, and settled in for an afternoon of, well sitting.

Except the ducks would have nothing to do with that!  Frank had not been duck hunting in two years and was a bit rusty.  He had his limit by noon!  NOON I say!

I had none by the time he dropped his last one.  So, here I limp along shooting and shooting and shooting.  The ducks were very cooperative, coming in, flaring perfectly and flying off unscathed!  What in the heck is going on?  I feel like an Edjukateer here!!!!  I fire, they flare!  I shoot, they duck!  I bang, they swang!  I pop, they poop!  I could not get anything to touch them birds.  Frank offers me his shotgun, but the stock is too long.  I can’t get it to my shoulder and be able to get my cheek down on the stock.  I’m back to my 20.

Another duck is swinging right into the decoys!  I jump, I aim, I shoot, it FOLDS!  YAHOOOOOOOOO!  Finally I have bagged a duck.  I look at Frank, “Did you shoot?”….he did not.  YIIPPEEEE!  I finally have a dead duck!

Frank offers the other side of the blind!  OK, I’ll take the seat.  Here comes two.  There coming.  There coming.  There they are…”Take em Zoonie!”  I’m up, I’m on one of them, I shoot……dang!  (chuckling in the background)

What in the He** is going on.  The other day I could not miss, today, I can’t hit my A** with a scoop shovel.

Finally, at 3:30 our limits are filled!  Thank you Lord!  The embarrassment went on for far to long a time.  I feel humbled.  At least for now.  But Edjukateer, don’t you think for a minute I won’t give you more grief in the future about your own shooting abilities.

I guess there is one consolation.   Back at the truck we counted how many shells we shot……Gattlin…AT LEAST 40!!!!  Me…..18!  I guess that’s the difference between a bolt action 20 and an auto loading 12!  Thanks for the fun time Frank!  There should be another before the lake freezes up!  Let’s hope so anyway!

Bears Butt

Nov. 16, 2011

After storm duck hunt today with Bob.  Hopefully some northerns have arrived.  More to come!

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

Bob and I were right on time today.  He set the decoys and I baled out the box.  The ducks were milling around all over the place.  Once we settled in it started like it was going to be an hour and we would have our limits.  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!

But in reality all Bob was doing was poking holes in the sky!  He couldn’t hit is butt.  I think he had shot nine times, when I said, well I’ll take the next duck and show you how to do it.  You see, he is shooting a 12 ga. auto, and I’m shooting an old 20 ga. bolt action Mossberg.  He comes a duck, Bang!  Down it goes!

Of course my head swelled all up and stuff and then it started pouring ducks in on us.  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  It went on and on and on.  Suddenly we realized I had killed five ducks and he only had one.  He started yelling at me to find his “other” box of shells.  I had put in on the edge of the box, and he was looking on the seat down below.  We finally found it and he was relieved.  Soon, that box was almost empty as well.  He decided he should be shooting my gun and me his.  OK.

It took me seven shots with his gun to finish my limit.  He shot several of my shells and wasn’t real pleased with the end results.  We came home with 8 birds.  Oh, but he does still have two shells!  Does that make you feel better Edjukateer?

Duck jerky, here we come!

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

Every camping/hunting/fishing trip has to be stocked with appropriate items to make the trip more enjoyable.  Some things are absolutely necessary for the trip to be had, while most things taken are to make it more comfortable for the participants.  Here is my list of things I usually take on a hunt.  Keep in mind most of my hunting is done using a muzzleloader rifle, so your hunt might include a suppository rifle and some of those brass suppositories.

Election day duck hunt with none other than the Edjukateer!  He taught me about all I know about shooting at ducks.  I hope he and I have enough shells for todays excursion.

The low last night was 27, so we will be enjoying some ice and my hope is that the weather will warm enough to give us some open water.  A little breeze would also help the situation.  But whatever we get will be a good day on the marsh.

A few mallards and a pintail or two would also be a nice thing to enjoy.

More to follow.

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

We managed to get away from the house about 10:30 or 10:45 a.m. who cares, we got away.  Hit the duck club shortly after that and made the long ride out on the 4 wheeler.  Then we had to walk the rest of the way.  For two old guys that is quite a chore.

Ducks were winging all around as we set out the large decoy spread of duck and goose decoys.  One can never have enough decoys and today, being a blue bird day we figured we would need all the help we could get.

I asked Edjukateer about the number of goose decoys out and he said that was plenty.  So that is how many we put out.

The shooting started really fast with loads of birds coming in from every direction.  Pretty soon my limit was laying behind us and Edjukateer still had a few to go.  I think I popped my limit with 10 shells.  Anyway, I had lots of shells left in case the two boxes Edjuakeer brought wasn’t enough.

I was beginning to think that is was going to start raining on us pretty soon as Edjukateer really punched a lot of holes in the sky.  Some of the ducks he shot at were so close the gun barrel went passed them as they flew by and still he shot.  It was a very “edjukating” day.  Not just for the birds but for me as well.

Finally a very large duck came winging in…a beautiful drake mallard and with one shot, mind you, Edjukateer added it to his limit!  Nice bird!

As time went on, he did something to his gun, so that he could borrow mine and try to finish off his limit.  Using up nearly all of my full box of shells, he finally called it quits.  Not because he ran out of shells, but he did run out of time.

We picked up the decoys and headed for home.  Back home at 4:10 p.m. with plenty of time to take care of the ducks and for him to get home to see an old friend.

I think Edjukateer shot 33 times and managed to get 5 ducks of his limit.  Somehow my gun went off once after I had my limit and that duck ended up in his limit.  So, 13 ducks were brought home and I have since cleaned them up and ground them for jerky.

It was another fine day in the marsh.  Thanks for playing Edjukateer….OH YA….and showing me just how to shoot AT ducks.  He did manage to bag a very cool mix of birds.

The next time we see these 13 ducks they will be made into jerky!  MMMMMM!

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

Seeing the first real snow of the year laying on the ground has my blood pumping a little bit faster now.  The fur in the wild should be priming up real good and it’s going to be trapping time pretty soon.  With that a guy needs to know how to handle the fur he catches in order to market it and make a few bucks.

For those who haven’t done a whole lot of fur handling here is a very good source of  “how it’s done” and if you pay close attention to the details they tell you, the cash you bring in will be higher than if you ignore what they are saying.

http://www.furharvesters.com/pdf/pelthandling.pdf

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

AH!  Another fine day for hunting.  Clear, cold and not a breeze in sight.  It does not sound like a very good day for duck hunting does it?  Well, that is what we are going to do.

Some days you just have to accept the fact that the weather doesn’t matter.  The birds (animals) still do what they do best and that is “whatever they want, whenever they want to do it”.  We will be there to intercept them in their endeavors.

Magpie and I have never hunted ducks together and so today will be the first.

Wish us luck!  I’ll report later on how the day went.

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

The hunt began when Magpie arrived at my home.  As always he was just a wee bit early and so “right on time”!  I expected his arrival early and was standing at my already warmed up vehicle!  The dog was put up and I was ready and anxious to get going!

At the club we were faced with the coldest morning so far this fall and there was a 1/8 inch coating of ice on the water.  It made for a slower than usual walk to the blind, but still not too bad.

Magpie offered to bail the box out, but I had already decided to let him set the decoys out, afterall, he used to guide duck hunters in his past and I wanted to learn a thing or two about his uncanny ability to attract ducks via decoys.

The box bailing was done in short order as it had only filled half way from my hunt the day before.  Life was good!  And once that was done, I went to preparing the goose decoys for deployment.  Magpie set the goose decoys and we settled into the blind to wait for ducks, geese or other shootables to arrive.

It took a full hour or so for the first of the ducks to show and of course they would not decoy within range.  They would fly just on the edge of the guns capability and sometimes they would even land out on that edge.  A bit frustrating, but still fun.

When the sun had had a bit of time to melt off the ice, we decided to move the decoys a bit closer to the blind and also moved a couple of goose decoys to cover our movement in the blind.  The duck flight pattern today was about 100 yards to our right, which was different than the day before.

With the decoys placed closer to our blind the ducks were mostly now flying in the kill zone!  They began to hit the water after we shot and life was getting more interesting.  We tried a call or two, but the only one that seemed to actually draw in a duck was a vulgar attempt at speaking loudly through the duck call.  I had told Magpie a story about doing this some years back and it seemed to work then.  So, I spoke through the call and what to our amazement did arrive was a couple of teal that came out of nowhere and only one of which continued to fly on!  Calling was not to be done much the rest of the time.

With the price of shells being what they are today, we had shot quite a number of times at the fast little teal and had several in the bag when we decided to save our shells for bigger ducks.  We waited and waited for bigger ducks.  Meanwhile teal were sitting in our decoys by the tens!  I decided a bologna sandwich was in order and as I proceeded to explain to Magpie how the day before had me doing “this” when suddenly two pintails were flaring in my face.  He said, “like this?” as he raised up and politely downed a drake pintail!!!!  Good shot Magpie!

Well, there you have the big duck story of the hunt.  After an hour of not shooting because nothing but teal seemed to be flying I told Magpie I could not take any more of these little buggers flying around and that I was going to start shooting them!  We both started shooting at them and hoped for bigger ducks before we either shot all our shells or had our limit, which ever came first!

We ended with our limits and I had shot 22 shells.  How many Magpie shot is a mystery to me, but I’d guess somewhere around 30.  He took some long shots at big ducks because he was shooting 3 1/2 inch 12 gauge shells and could reach out there and get them, while my 20 gauge just wasn’t enough.

The end result was two limits of birds, a wonderful fall day in the swamp and a great memorable day for us both.

Bears Butt

Nov. 2011

Goin out duck hunting again this morning with my brother Bob!  It’s currently raining outside and the forecast is for colder and possible snow by this afternoon.  I like hunting when it’s nice and comfy like last week.  This will not be as enjoyable, but should prove to be a “fowl” day!  More will be posted after the hunt.

Bears Butt

NOV. 1st (can you believe it?)

Well, as fate would have it, Bob got pretty sick and called to tell me he couldn’t make it.  Dang!  Usually that would have had me bummed out and I would not go hunting.  I really don’t like to hunt alone, but since this was a day to hunt Colmer Island and the walk is only about 200 yards, I decided it would not be so bad.

I left home about 9:30 a.m. and headed to the club.  Last nights storm had all but finished its flurry and the sky was bluing up.  There was still a pretty good breeze out of the north and it was colder than it has been in quite some time.

As I approached Colmer Island I jumped about 300 ducks and they flew off.  That is a good sign and usually by the time you have your decoys set up here they come back.  This time I was doing it all by myself and so the bailing of the box took the usual 20 minutes and then I still had to put the decoys out.  The birds decided I was taking too long and flew elsewhere.  Oh well.

So, once settled there I sat watching seagulls and black ibis fly around.  NO ducks!  A few geese, but none interested in my setup.  Ok, so I’ll sit here awhile and enjoy the swamp and what it has to offer.  How about a crawfish?

And so I sat wondering just what I would be doing if I was home.  And so I decided this wasn’t such a bad place to waste my day.  It was about noon when the first duck decided to fly into my set.  Of course I was half asleep and didn’t see it coming until it flared up in front of me….I missed both shots!

With both my eyes open now, I was intently watching and this intensity lasted almost 10 minutes.  Then my mind wandered to the sandwich I had brought.  MMMMMM bologna!  I opened up the plastic bag it was in and took 1/2 of it out.  Moved my face mask in order to get to my mouth and right in front of me were two Pintails flaring up and over the top of me…10 feet!  Dang!  The sandwich went down onto the plastic bag and stayed there another 10 minutes, while I reconnoitered the area for more ducks….none.

I noticed the wind was shifting around some and I decided now would be a good time to eat my sandwich.  The wind shifting just might get the ducks flying.

12:20….ducks!  And they were winging right at my setup!

Just like the first duck I shot at, these got to hear two shots, but did not know what all the commotion was about.

And then more ducks, and more ducks!

Wow!  I was pounding them bad boys and hitting them hard!  Of course I used 20 shells doing it, but I finally dropped the last one for my limit of 7!  I was a pretty happy guy and it wasn’t even 3 p.m. yet!  And so, I sat there in the blind and watched the ducks come and go.  I took some video and I hope I can figure out how to post it on this deal here.

DucksComingIn

DucksReallyFlyingGood

LotsOfDucksToday

VideoDucks

Heck, that was easy!  Thanks WordPress!

It was a very fun day even being by myself.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Bob would have been able to make it.  I know my shooting would have kicked his butt….7 for 20!  Heck Ya!  He shoots 20 just getting out of the truck!

The birds today were two shovelers, four teal and one gadwall.  The action seemed to be mostly teal, followed by shovelers and then gadwall.  But one of these days it’s going to be Pintail and Mallards…Then look out!

Bears Butt

Nov 1, 2011

WOW!  Bob and I decided to hit the swamp for an afternoon of duck hunting yesterday.  Oct. 25.  There was a slight breeze blowing,  partly cloudy skies and the temperature was a balmy 40 something.  All in all, not a good day for duck hunting.  Usually a good day for duck hunting is “fowl weather”, high winds, stormy, with rain, sleet, hail, snow…you know…Fowl!

Well yesterday there were hundreds if not thousands of ducks flying everywhere.  Mostly spoon bills, which is not one of my favorite ducks to be shot.  They eat well, but still I’d rather have a limit of male mallards or a brace of Pin Tails with a mix of Gadwalls.  After much frustration at seeing spoonies winging in from every direction we decided to take a couple.  Once we broke the ice on them we went crazy with our shooting and ended up shooting 61 shells between the two of us!

A day much similar to one I had with the Edjukateer, as far as fast shooting goes.

In the end, we both got ourselves doubles (two shots, two ducks) and I did something I had never done before and that is get two ducks with one shot!

Our decoy setup is usually a couple dozen duck decoys and a dozen goose decoys.  The goose decoys are usually used as confidence decoys as the ducks seem to decoy better if they see the goose decoys.  Geese tend to be more cautious in the real world and so if ducks see geese they will come into the set.

Well, yesterday three honkers were passing by to our North quite a distance away, and suddenly decided our set of decoys looked pretty good.  They turned and set their wings right into us!  BANG!  BANG!  BANG! BANG! BANG!  Two of the three were on the water and the third was wondering where is buddies went!

61 shots!  7 Spoon Bills, 3 Teal and 2 Honkers!  Not a bad afternoon in the swamp.  Left home at 2 p.m. and back home at 6 p.m.

Thanks for going with me Bob!  It was a wonderful time!

Bears Butt

Oct. 2011