November 11th Ducks & Geese hunt

[Marc]

Well we packed everything up the night before and met at the field this morning for 5:40am, it wasn't overly cold and we had a bit of fog starting the morning.

We brought the Dozen Dakota Extreme Honkers, dozen extreme mallards, a dozen 3/4 body GHG shells, 12 goose shells and 2 dozen silhouettes.

We set up the dekes, got the blind sorted out and awaited legal time, this being Donk's first waterfowl hunt we let him take the first crack at the ducks. Two shots later the first duck (hen mallard) hit the ground. Then we were off to the races. The day started off pretty slow and as the day wore on and the sun became more apparent the less opportunities we had. Then as the day pressed on and the clouds rolled in the shooting began to pick up again.

We bowed our heads and paid respect to all the vetrans and serving members who gave their lives to protect this great country of ours. There was actually a fly pass with vintage fighter aircraft from the WWII era that flew over us at the 11th hour.

It was a good day overall with 22 mallards (12 hens, 10 drakes) and 7 geese between the 3 of us. We were hoping to finish off the 3 man limit on ducks but decided to call it quits around 2:00pm as we had to get back home.

Now the plucking begins.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/11_nov_09_duck_and_goose_hunt.jpg

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Dave_witih_wheel_barrow.jpg

[Johnnybear]

Wow!!! what a great post Marc. Super photos. Great gunning, great dog, great friends. What more could you ask for:cool:. Thanks for sharing.

Oh yah. When you have to wheelbarrow them out of there I guess it was a great day:-D.

[870]

nice shootin. I love the wheelbarrow. I wish the feilds I hunt geese on was hard enough to run one of those.

[branthunter]

nice shootin. I love the wheelbarrow. I wish the feilds I hunt geese on was hard enough to run one of those.

Give it a try John----I use one out there all the time---just try to keep as much as possible to the tractor trails, but if the field supports your weight it should support a wheelbarrow----try pulling rather than pushing too.

[Tanya]

Great day there Marc and crew, well done! Good to see another rookie losing rookie status. Saw that plane a couple times yesterday - very cool.

[Marc]

Sometimes it sucks being the dog owner. :lol: We had a couple of gliders that I chased after for the rookie. One bird sailed out for a good 200 yards. I have to say though Donk marked the fall and was pretty much on the money to where the duck fell.

Now that I've recuperated from the early morning and plucking my fingers off I can fill in a bit more detail of the days events.

The first flock of geese that came to the decoys had a good dozen birds in it. They kind of caught us off guard and we didn't have time to change out shells as both Field Marshall and I were calling them in. We fired off a volley and 3 fell from that flock.

The next goose was a single and circled the blind a couple times losing altitude. The dog is glued to the bird as he makes the finally approach for landing. This time he was doing a fly pass from right to left about 30 yards out. Donk raises his gun so I figure I'll let him take this one. He fires the first shot, nothing happens... at this point I'm leading the goose as well, he fires a second shot, nothing happens... The poor dog by this point is crawling out of his skin expecting it to drop and the Goose is now around 40 yards out... I lay the hammer down with a load of #3's :lol:, the bird falls to the ground, dog chases & wrestles bird, and comes back to the blind happy.

Poor Donk gets razed, and I catch hell for shooting the goose. I didn't realize he was giving the goose two warning shots before he was going to shoot it.:mrgreen:

The third and last flock to visit the decoys was a group of 3 birds. They pretty much did the same as the lone goose, did a couple of passes losing altitude and another fly pass from left to right. This time all 3 shooters were shooting and all 3 birds hit the dirt. The dog ran out all excited and brought the birds back one by one.

We had a hard time with the ducks once the sun came out and they just wouldn't commit to the decoys. It was so frustrating. As the day progressed and the clouds rolled in the duck were starting to decoy again.

The shot of the day had to be when Field Marshall had a pair of mallards come over from behind and made a nice double with the 20 gauge. There is a man that knows how to shoot ducks and geese.

We heard some shots early coming from the bay and were surprised that we were pretty much the only ones out there.


Donk did great for his first time shooting birds with a shotgun and was pretty taken back by the days events. I think he's hooked.

[Donk]

It was an awesome day!! I thought i was only sporting to give that goose a few warnings before you pounded it....

Next time i'll hopefully get a little less excited and stop shooting the flock!! School boy error i spose..

Thanks again to Marc and Field Mashall!!

Cheers

Donk