Funny things that have happened to you while waterfowling

[silveragent]

I'm sure you've had some funny stories that you like to share.

Just yesterday I had a new hunter with me who had a day to remember.

First duck he shot yesterday (his second ever), it landed in the flats at Robert's Bank. He marched out there only to see a bald eagle snatch it up. Then that eagle was joined by another. And another. Soon there were eight eagles all chasing the first one around. It's like they all had the "Free Meal" app notification and they all came in from all parts of Ladner. I assured him eagles poaching cripples was part of the experience. I've had that happen a couple times before too.

Again yesterday, we all had an opportunity at a handful of ducks coming in. I missed mine but he shot his and I looked up after doing a quick reload to see it fall nearly into my lap. If I hadn't shifted it would have knocked me out. I picked it up and it was a beautiful mallard drake so it could very well have done some damage if it had bounced off my dome.

Earlier, we were setting up decoys and a dumb ass juvenile snowie flew nearly at head level right through us and we were so surprised none of us had a chance to pick up our guns. Probably for the best since we would have been shooting at each other. The hunter next to us had an absolute gift - his one bird for the day.

That was just my buddy's third time hunting. He's going to think every day is going to be that entertaining.

[wideopenthrottle]

wearing brimmed hats to protect against the pellets coming from the other side of the bay

while canoeing up a creek, stopped to stretch the legs and have a pee..standing on a riverbank as a pair of wood ducks went by I blasted the first one with a head shot so close that it began to spin like a helicopter...

shooting ducks that are coming straight in and have them crash into you or your blind

[silveragent]

One time I was peeing and a strange dog came up to me and dropped a wigeon right into my pee stream. Before long its master came and I was like: you pick it up and he was like: why? I said, I pissed on it. And he had this look like I had done it on purpose. It tried telling him and it became so awkward I finally handed it to him. To this day I'm sure that hunter is going to tell a weird story about how this guy purposely pissed on his bird. Meanwhile the dog is just wagging his tail.


while canoeing up a creek, stopped to stretch the legs and have a pee..standing on a riverbank as a pair of wood ducks went by I blasted the first one with a head shot so close that it began to spin like a helicopter...

A couple weeks ago I shot a bird coming straight at a couple other buddies and it was so close that I showered them with feathers. In retrospect I should have held up but no harm done except I also pulverised it beyond saving. The feathers were still floating around when I walked up to them to retrieve it. They said it looked badass from their POV.

[mastercaster]

I'm sure what happened to me late last winter during the last opening for geese would have been funny if someone else would have seen it happen. Three of us went out for a Canada goose shoot out in the valley,,,,, two of our group set up on one side of the field and I set up on the adjacent side.

At some point during the hunt a lone goose came flying towards my blind. Glad he honked a couple of times to tell me he was coming because I may not have seen him. He was still quite high in the sky but because he came right over the blind I decided to take a shot. I didn't even stand up,,,,,,took the shot from my stool.

Right after I took the directly over my head shot I was leaning so far back because of my follow through with my shot gun that I fell flat on my back, narrowly missing my dog in the process. Haha

I thought it may have been a good shot but I really didn't know if I hit him since I was flat on my back. In any event, about a half hour or more later one of the guys walked over and asked why I didn't send the dog for the bird? I told him I didn't know if I got him and he said, "How did you miss that? He dropped out of the sky like a rock!"

Sako and I left the blind and she was able to find the goose on the other side of the ditch just inside a big bramble. By the compound fracture the bird had on one of his wings it was no wonder he fell out of the sky like my buddy described. Have never seen such a nasty break like that before! Just shows you just how much damage a well placed (lucky) BB can do even at the height that bird was flying.

https://i.imgur.com/DLKxVLO.jpg

[silveragent]

Mastercaster, I've crippled ducks like that with that kind of clean break. It makes it easier when sending the wing into Environment Canada.

[ACB]

One of the most funniest thing's that has happened water fowling was with the first waterfowl dog that I owned, a female black lab. I bought her as a started dog and through the years she became very good at marking birds. A hunting buddy and myself were hunting a creek in east Chilliwack jumping birds, we saw a bunch of Mallards go down in this creek and snuck up and jumped the birds and when they went up I picked out a drake and shot it, I hit it but it was still going so I shot it again and knocked it down. I said to my buddy I got one and he said I got one too and there it is, pointing at my bird that was laying in the corn field across the creek. I said I don't think so. So as we were walking to a bridge that crossed the creek we were" discussing" who's bird it was, I sent my dog to retrieve the bird and when she returned and after I took the bird we were still talking about it. I didn't notice she took off again, I turned to see where she was and I looked up to see her coming back with my buddy's drake, it had got knocked down into some tall grass and my buddy didn't see it go down because he was trying to shoot another bird. She marked both birds and solved an argument. God, I miss that dog.

[Fella]

One of my cousins has hazelnut fields in the valley, when I lived over there we’d setup at the edge of the tree line and set our decoys just out into the field from there. Anyways one time we had a few good groups come in and then it was quiet for a bit so we were chatting and not paying attention to what was happening when I looked at the decoys and saw a nice mallard drake putting the brakes on to settle in next to the mojo at about chest height. Fumbled my shotgun out of surprised but was able to put some pellets in him and he flopped the last 3 feet

[MichelD]

First duck I ever shot I lost to an eagle.

When I first started waterfowling I was very unsuccessful the first couple years and one time I was walking empty handed back to the truck on the dike at Boundary Bay when a woman came walking along with an Irish setter. Tide was high and suddenly the dog dashed down to the waterline and returned with a live crippled teal.

She took it off the dog and gave it to me. "Here, this must be yours," she said.

[mastercaster]

One of my cousins has hazelnut fields in the valley, when I lived over there we’d setup at the edge of the tree line and set our decoys just out into the field from there. Anyways one time we had a few good groups come in and then it was quiet for a bit so we were chatting and not paying attention to what was happening when I looked at the decoys and saw a nice mallard drake putting the brakes on to settle in next to the mojo at about chest height. Fumbled my shotgun out of surprised but was able to put some pellets in him and he flopped the last 3 feet

I thought you were going to tell us you accidentally shot the mojo! Now that would be funny! Pricey,,,,,but funny!

[silveragent]

Speaking of that ... last year I had a frustrating day and then I thought I saw a diver floating on the edge of the reeds. I decided to walk over and see if I could get within range to swat it. Strangely it didn't move so I thanked my luck, kneeled, aimed and let fly. I could have sworn my pellets splashed all around it but it didn't keel over so I gave it another shot. And then it dawned on me and I laughed at myself. I walked up to it and sure enough it was someone's lost decoy. Later that day - after some actual success - I relayed the story to my friends and one of them asked me to describe it in more detail. Yup, it was his. I still have it as he moved away shortly after. Still floats!

[Angus]

At the end of morning hunt, loaded the dog in the back seat of the truck, and backed up to the ramp to pull the boat out of the marsh. Loaded the boat on the trailer and secured it. Went to pull up the ramp, however the dog had other plans. He had jumped into the passenger seat and hit the power door locks.

Here I am, standing in the rain, and he's all wet and curled upon the passenger seat with the heater on.

I can't get a window to budge, and am considering smashing one. My big worry was someone else ending their day and trying get their boat out while I have the ramp completely blocked.

Managed to have the girlfriend show up half an hour later with the spare key. Luckily that happened before any other boats showed up.

Always left a window down when loading after that event.

[blindman]

Done for the day at Pitt Meadows and all packed up and ready to collect the decoys and head home. I looked up as I was launching the boat from the blind and there was a black Lab headed for the decoys from the other side of the waterway. On second look, it turned out to be a black bear and yelling and waving didn't have any affect so I had to unpack my gun and fire a shot past him. He finally did a 180 and climbe up on the far bank, shook the water off and glared at me. Interesting finish for the day.

[silveragent]

My Facebook reminds me that three years ago today my usual buddy and I tried to set up for snowies in Robert's Bank during one of the most severe King Tides that we had in recent memory. The tides were 14' and they had canceled the ferries but we still chose to set up. We would put down our chairs and socks where there was dry land and then ten minutes later everything would be under water as the storm drove the tide in. Socks would be bags of water, our chairs and bags and guns were soaked. Any birds flying were probably mystified any humans bothered to be out there. The wind was howling you could be sitting next to each other and have to shout. We tried to reset twice until we gave up. By the time we made it to the dyke, the water was lapping up on it. It was the craziest weather I'd ever tried to shoot birds in. Needless to say we got nothing. I ended up missing a very nice knife (if you happen to find a rusted 6" ESEE, that artifact was mine) and as soon as I got home and had a hot shower, I had to lay out all of my gear on the floor to dry out and ended up re-showering later with my shotgun to get the salt out. It's still a great story to scare the new hunters I bring out, especially the ones who bring out gadgets and their gucci camping gear.

[Dutch]

Was hunting burns bog back when we could and there was a homemade bridge across a peat slough had 2 planks and a piece of plywood over them.Unknown to me one of the planks was broken so when I stepped on the plywood it gaveway and in I went.So this is not water but a peat water slurry like a thick soup gun was gone and I was trying to get back to the edge but going down (hip waders) as fast as sideways.Called my big black lab (90 lbs) he crept close enough I got his collar which as soon as I did that he panicked and backed away.This worked and I hauled my soaked ass out of there .Then came the real adventure trying to recover my (loaded) 870 which was somewhere in that congealed mass with a rake.Hoping the safety was on or it was pointed away,but did get it by the stock.Another holy sh** adventure.

[Knute]

Was hunting burns bog back when we could and there was a homemade bridge across a peat slough had 2 planks and a piece of plywood over them.Unknown to me one of the planks was broken so when I stepped on the plywood it gaveway and in I went.So this is not water but a peat water slurry like a thick soup gun was gone and I was trying to get back to the edge but going down (hip waders) as fast as sideways.Called my big black lab (90 lbs) he crept close enough I got his collar which as soon as I did that he panicked and backed away.This worked and I hauled my soaked ass out of there .Then came the real adventure trying to recover my (loaded) 870 which was somewhere in that congealed mass with a rake.Hoping the safety was on or it was pointed away,but did get it by the stock.Another holy sh** adventure.

Now that's a goodun!

[blindman]

Just got a new one! Was checking out local area with a stream and some old pond hunting areas I hadn't been to for about ten years. Headed in to a log crossing of a branch of the creek, found it and continued looking for some ponds that abounded there before. The whole area has grown so that nothing looked the same but I continued wadable crossings and until there was no longer any visibility over cattails or through wooded areas. Got late in the day and decided to leave but easier said than done. At every turn my attempts to head out were blocked by dense foliage or over-my-wader depth. Didn't realize how much drainage ONX dealt my I-Phone until I attempted to call my wife to tell her not to worry, but I might be spending the night where I was. Dead phone! The good news is that I had a pack with enough to be o.k. for the night, but I didn't relish the idea that she would panic, so I prayed for some help. Walked a ways further and discovered a new beaver lodge and just downstream a nice new dam. Yahoo! Made it across the dam without falling in and the rest was easy. Getting to a point that at 84 I should be a little more less adventurous. The darn beavers caused a lot of flooding and changing the whole dynamics of the area but I have to thank them for the dam at least one time for the means of escape.

[mastercaster]

^^^^ Hope I'm still hunting when I'm 84! Maybe by the time that age age rolls around it will be legal to shoot deer and waterfowl from your porch,,,,, out of a rocking chair. One can only hope!

[Dano]

Had a buddy take a new hunter out one morning and at first light there were lots of birds flying. As always, hard to identify birds so my buddy stayed seated. The new guy wanted to get started so Chris told him go ahead, it's legal time.
Flight comes in and boom, boom, boom. "I tripled!!!" Chris stood up and sent the dog out 3 times, brought back 2 widgeon but seeing as it was the first 5 minutes of light, hard to see birds in the field. He walked out with the dog, sent it around as directed and then noticed his Robo wasn't working.... Funny thing is, Chris opened it up before he even noticed anything! When he saw the battery shot up he looked the robo over and saw pieces of the wing missing too. "I think you only doubled...." LOL!!!

[Imdone]

Buddy and I hunting ducks over 1 of my good labs.
A few birds decoy in, boom boom boom, two ducks fall. Dog rushes out if blind, picks up dead duck, notices the other duck is doing the spin on the surface, drops dead duck, picks up live duck, starts to retrieve it, looks back at dead duck, picks up both birds. Brings ducks to the blind to two waiting hunters outside without their guns. Dog drops ducks, live duck takes flight and boogers off, dog looks at us.......WTHell fellas??? No other shots fired at fleeing �� duck.

[blindman]

This is "before hunt" event. When I lived in Minnesota, I was building a duck blind frame in my garage to take to my pond. The family across the street was from Germany and the teen-ager son came over to visit me. Shortly after he returned home for dinner and told his mother that he was watching me make a duck blind. His mother came storming into my garage and confronted me for "poking out a duck's eyes in front of her son."

[silveragent]

OMG that is so funny !!

[Sako 75]

About 20 years ago my buddy and I were hunting out his punt for snow geese and ducks. There was slight wind and I was basically missing the ducks I was shooting because of wave rocking the punt. Mind you you this was my second time sitting in a punt. Buddy was getting his fair share of ducks but me nada. So I decided to stand in swallow water beside the punt. I was able to do this because the tide was going out. Now I start to get my fair share of ducks. I remember shooting this one pintail drake and it landed squarely onto his chest. I was laughing at my buddy and he said it not funny. Buddy could not move out way because he was sitting in the punt.

[RambleOn]

We were Brandt hunting out in the open water. Just getting things set up in the early morning dark. All of the decoys out and strings set exactly as planned. Just need to set the boat in position and wait for light. Going to be a great day! Just so happens we were doing a bit of quiet whisper BS'ing at the time, when my buddy pitched our main anchor overboard without tying off. It was like things just went ultra quiet and stopped with the noise of the anchor hitting water. We just starred at each other knowing exactly what just happened.

[tigrr]

We were Brandt hunting out in the open water. Just getting things set up in the early morning dark. All of the decoys out and strings set exactly as planned. Just need to set the boat in position and wait for light. Going to be a great day! Just so happens we were doing a bit of quiet whisper BS'ing at the time, when my buddy pitched our main anchor overboard without tying off. It was like things just went ultra quiet and stopped with the noise of the anchor hitting water. We just starred at each other knowing exactly what just happened.

I laugh with you not at you!