Island Waterfowl

[YukonJack]

Well, now that the geese have closed for a bit, the ringnecks are showin' up. No Mallards in any numbers yet (at least not where we gun for them). Hammered five Ringnecks and a hen Bluebill yesterday over the dekes. Boy's, I'm bitten hard again this year for this type of huntin'....most fun I've had shootin'...Ole Statler don't know what he missed yesterday!

[Blacktail]

I see you are from Sooke

Where abouts do you do most of your waterfowling?
I usually head around Cow bay but am really keen on finding other areas
that are productive and new partners to share experiences with.

[YukonJack]

Yeah, Sooke it is...traffic and all! We head out to P/R. Healthy populations in the lakes there-abouts. And they don't have that "iodine" taste the ones from the Bay are reported to have. Of course, I've never eaten any from Cowichan, just heard they didn't taste too good. We're hitting the migrators on the edge of our flyway.

[Marc]

Well K-1 has got me all worked up to try some duck hunting. I had the duck and goose calls out tonight and the dogs were going nuts. I'll be spending the better part of tomorrow organizing my decoys and getting the boat ready to go for Monday. It's going to be a sort of a scout and hunt type of trip. I saw something I never knew was there when I was up in elevation and it looks like a decent spot for ducks so we'll see how things work out on Monday and if it's productive you can bet I'll be back out there on Wednesday. I'm going to have to blow the dust off the old MEC Steel master loading press and do me up some 3-inch loads.

Marc.

[Dano]

Your MEC, is it a special model for loading steel loads? My buddy had a MEC Grabber model when we used to shoot trap and hunt ducks a lot (20 or so years ago). We would travel to a place called Kesserings (sp) in Washington state to buy reloading supplies. At that time we could bring back one pound of powder each (may have been two). I bet that is impossible now (or illegal)!
Let us know how your shoot goes, hopefully better than my shoot today.....

[Blacktail]

Marc

You said you were at elevation
Are you heading in around the glenora heighte area in Deerhome ?
I have seen what appears to be some fairly good eveidence of birds around Lois Lake

Yukon

what lakes are you hunting? fairly low or higher in elavtion
Might see you up there some day

[Marc]

Hey Dano, The MEC I'm talking about was designed for steel shot in mind. The neck of the shot bottle is a little bigger and the charge bar has rubber dampers on it where steel has no give so it doesn't damage the bar. To tell you the truth I don't use the charge bars. I measure everything on the scale for every shot. It's a bit tedious at times but I know that every shot is going to be the same weight and traveling at the same speed. I'm using the alliant steel powder using Remington hulls. I've just loaded up some hmm. It's not 1 1/8 and it's not 1 1/4 its in between. 520 grains of shot what ever that works out to in ozs. Traveling at 1550fps. I'll let you know how they work.

Blacktail, I was in Deerholme looking down at Cowichan bay. I was looking at Lois Lake at one point in the day and only saw 3 birds on the lake and they were some type of divers. I was to far to be able to get a close enough look to identify what kind of duck but they were definitely diving.

Marc.

[Marc]

Well got back from hunting ducks. Let me tell you I've never worked so hard for a duck in all my life.

K-1 and I headed out to Cowichan Bay for some duck action this afternoon. I found out while setting out the decoys that my left leg leaks and the crack of the arse on my chest waders. We had the decoys set out and sitting by 2:30pm. We had about a half dozen merganser land in our decoys throughout the afternoon. I noticed that there was some divers on another point a couple hundred yards from where we were set up so I grabbed some blue bill decoys and set up over there.

An hour later or so a bufflehead drops in and I try my new loads on him. Well one shot and he was down for the count. Send Nash in for the retrieve and wait for more ducks.

The tide was on its way out and K-1 decides he wants the decoys out further. So there he is placing the decoys further when all of a sudden he decides he wants to roll over in the water and sticks his shot gun in the mud . Good thing he didn't see me laughing from the other point. I could hear him blowing on his shot gun and ejecting shells from his blind. Well that's about all the hunting action for the afternoon.

So we pack things up and I try starting the old 15 hp Johnson. No luck. It's dark and we're a good 2km for the boat launch. We also have to fight the wind the whole way and I have to pick up the wife for 8:30pm. Finally I said ok lets go, it looks like I'm going to have row this sucker back. After what seemed an eturnity and a half dozen sand bars we make it back to the truck. The poor dog who was tossed on top of the decoy bags was tired and I'm exhausted.

All in all it was a good day. Got out of the house for the afternoon and spent time in the marsh with my dog and hunting buddy.

Anyone got a recipe for bufflehead?

Marc.

[Blacktail]

Sounds like an eventful day Marc
Good laughs there

Widgeon Island or around the other side by the old mill?

[Marc]

We were way back behind widgeon Island on one of the smaller Islands. I think I'll be trying it on the other side next time. We saw lots of widgeon and buffleheads and very few mallards on the widgeon Island side.

Marc.