17 Oct 2010 morning duck hunt with Islandbowhunter.
Well we didn't do so well on Saturday with just one goose between Islandbowhunter and I, so we decided to give a try today on a piece of land he managed to get permission to hunt on.
We arrived at around 5:45am, dropped the decoy bags, chairs, shell bags, guns, and parked the trucks. We made the 20 minute trek by headlamp to where we were going to set up. I started to set the dekes and Islandbowhunter worked on gathering material for a makeshift blind.
I continuously check my Iphone waiting for legal time as several ducks are already sitting in the decoys. Legal time comes around and the fun begins, we had teal, shovellers, widgeon, pintail and mallards working the spread. We held off on the teal and shovellers as there was enough of the bigger ducks to keep the two dogs from getting bored.
Since it's Islandbowhunter's spot and he's fairly new to waterfowling I decide to let him take the first couple of birds. The first bird into the spread was a drake mallard, and so was his second bird of the day. OK so I say now it's my turn, 3 birds come into the decoys, which I thought at the time were mallards as it was still two dark to see any distinctive markings, I pull the pin on the first bird and it crumples, the other two birds try to gain some altitude and I pull the pin on the second one and it sails for about 20 yards before gravity takes control and Marshall makes the retrieve.
We did some good shooting and some not so good shooting. I managed a double today and Islandbowhunter managed a triple. There were times we couldn't hit anything and then times where we couldn't miss. I wont name any names but someone started shooting at a duck at 20 yards and it was still heading away 3 shots later when I finally came to bat and smoked it as it was nearing the 40 yard line. The look on his face was priceless.
Marshall was hogging the retrieving and I had to hold him back a couple of times so poor little Kona could have a chance at retrieving a bird or two. Marshall being twice the size and twice as fast was on the birds before Kona had a chance to get to the fall zone. She tagged along and ran back and forth with Marshall just the same. When I wasn't all caught up in the birds and shooting I held Marshall back so Kona could make a few retrieves on her own as well.
Both dogs got along amazingly well and ran and played on the walk to the blind and had a couple of "chase me" times when we were adjusting the decoys or fixing the blind. Kona behaved quite well for an 8 month old pup and is coming along nicely.
We got lucky and managed to sucker in two single geese within range today. The first bird I was calling, and Islandbowhunter had switched his shells for BB, he told me it was my turn to shoot and he was on backup for this round as I still had #3's Kents fast steel in the gun. I had the goose just on the outside of the spread with his landing gear down when I pulled the pin on him around the 30 yard mark, missed the first shot but nailed him with the second one, I have to say I'm loving the Kents.
Later that morning same type of deal, single goose coming in, I get on the call and sucker him into the spread. This time it's Islandbowhunter turn to shoot and me backing him, he's had time to change out his shells and loaded with BB , he nails the goose around 30 yards and we now have two geese in the blind. I was quite amazed we were able to lure geese into the spread when we didn't even have any goose decoys set out.
The last duck hit the ground around 1:00PM and we decided to call it a day even though we could have sat their and waited for more geese, we still had to drag all our gear and birds back to the truck not to mention another evening of plucking & gutting. As soon as we unload the guns and started to gather things to go, a drake mallard and several other ducks poor and land into the decoys. Why didn't they do that when we were trying to hunt them?
The tally for the day was 2 Canada Geese, 10 mallards, 4 pintail, and 2 widgeon.
I think we might have another one hooked on duck hunting and might need a name change from Islandbowhunter to Islandduckhunter.
Congrats on your first limit of birds Jason, was a pleasure to spend the day with you and Kona in the blind.
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'My goodness, it must be the Kent's...'
Originally Posted by sugar
