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Thread: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    1,247

    Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    I've only been hunting coastal waterfowl here in BC for the last three years,,,,,basically since I got my griff. Any other waterfowl hunting was done in Alberta. Have to say, even though I've been out well over a dozen times to try a late afternoon or night flight shoot it hasn't been gang busters by any description.

    What I have found is that the birds would come the last minutes of legal shooting time but usually after if they came at all while we were there. We never got skunked and I still enjoyed going out and watching the dog make her retrieves, most of therm blind, but it was nothing like our morning shoots.

    That being said, this past Friday afternoon we went out to one of our newly acquired spots and got set up by 3:00. It was nice and warm out and I was feeling a little sleepy so I said to my buddy, "Maybe I should have a quick nap while we wait for sundown." LOL

    Well, that didn't happen because birds started showing up fairly regularly about 15 minutes later and gave us enough looks that we had our limits by 4:30. Had to be our best afternoon shoot to date in the last couple of years. Felt strange having everything taken down and packed away while it was still light out. Haha



    So how has your success been in the afternoons/evening the last couple of years? Have you found it worth your troubles?

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    1,122

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    I've had some nice sunsets

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Agassiz
    Posts
    467

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    I have never tried an afternoon set up. Always had to work at 4pm so wouldn't work out.
    We have gone out late morning and early afternoon a few times and done well as long as the birds (ducks only) were moving and we were set up where they wanted to be.
    Work has changed with more flexible times so we were going to set up for geese this afternoon but some yahoos decide to have a pallet fire and party just over the dyke from the field we were going to be in. Loud music included. We decided not to bother. My buddy said that he saw one flock coming and then a few hundred yards off they turned away . Normally it is dog walkers we worry about, but they just keep going and are soon out of the picture. These bozos had a pallet fire on private property without permission.
    Oh well , there is always tomorrow.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    282

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    Late afternoon hunts are tough because ducks usually show up after legal time especially later season when the ducks are extremely wary.
    "Nothing kills a Deere faster than Magnum .....CaseIH."

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Posts
    1,770

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    Generally the birds get very wary late season, especially in heavily gunned areas. I used to let the first few birds pass in the morning undisturbed and I usually had better shoots. All the sky busters make the birds jumpy. I have that some days it does not seem to matter and the birds come in like no one is there. I can remember days that birds came in and you would be out picking up birds with no cover and there were more birds coming in. That's duck hunting

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    990

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    Was out tonight MC and set up at 3.Was actually pretty good as well ,single, pair ,couple buzzed the decoys but something wasn't right,wind was good kept moving robo around 3 times.Finally think I had it right, in behind the j hook and that was it.6 greenies last flock at 4;30 doubled on yes you know it hens.Pics tomorrow

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    1,247

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dutch View Post
    Was out tonight MC and set up at 3.Was actually pretty good as well ,single, pair ,couple buzzed the decoys but something wasn't right,wind was good kept moving robo around 3 times.Finally think I had it right, in behind the j hook and that was it.6 greenies last flock at 4;30 doubled on yes you know it hens.Pics tomorrow
    Alright! Nicely done! My buddy and I did an evening shoot last week and it was pretty much a total bust. No birds flying at all. In the last ten minutes of legal light three mallards passed by just barely interested in the decoys and we were able to drop one each so at least we didn't get skunked. lol

    Turn the clock back exactly one week and it was a totally different story. The wind was perfect! The hunt didn't start off with a bang but we put a half dozen birds on the ground in the first hour. At this point in time I figured we might walk out of there with a single limit of birds between us since we only had twenty minutes of shooting to go. I would have been absolutely fine with that since evening shoots have not been my friend.

    Well, ten minutes or so later we dropped another two. Five minuted after that all hell broke loose! We ended up both getting doubles plus a few more. You never saw two guys loading up so fast! We got our limits with a couple of minutes to spare but they were all over the place!

    We knew four them fell in the water and the others were either in the decoys or off to our left and right. Luckily my dog had her head outside the blind and had a good idea were some of them were.

    By the time they had brought back a couple of birds each it got dark awfully fast,,,,, but those two dogs located every bird! Totally amazes me how good they are at finding them. In any event, as mentioned above, by far the majority of the birds that we shot came within the last ten minutes of legal light. Far more came while the dogs were located the other birds. They were coming from everywhere.

    While we were cleaning up in the night sky we were getting dive bombed. I thought some birds were going to land on my shoulder,,,,or even hit me. They copuld have cared less that we were standing right out in the open or that the dogs were running around. Haha

    Last retrieve:

    Last edited by mastercaster; 12-07-2020 at 09:23 PM.

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    990

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    Pic with Yankee a retriever machine

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    990

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    This morning was a good day.S/E 30+ high water they were moving ,limited pretty quick with both dogs contributing,and the GSP don't like rain lol

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    4,368

    Re: Afternoon/evening shoots,,,,,how have they been for you?

    very nice boys!!!! Hoping the wind is blowing tomorrow afternoon like it's forecasted to do. I've only been out on 1 morning shoot this year and the rest are afternoons.
    Done pretty good most afternoons I've been out. I find I do waaaay better as far as having birds decoy in on mid week afternoon hunts in my area as the birds don't get shot as nearly as much as the weekends.

    I run a mix of teal, mallard, pintail and widgeon decoys and have been only using 18-24 decoys this year. That and I try to set up in unusual spots where I never see others set up and pay allot of attention to brushing in my setup really well. Worked pretty well for me so far.
    Last edited by Ron.C; 12-15-2020 at 06:42 PM.

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