Marc
01-22-2010, 04:58 PM
I had decided to take the day off from work and get some deserved down time as the duck season was coming to an end.
The morning started off with the alarm going off at 5:30am and me finally crawling out of bed by 6:00am. Headed to the garage to try and un-burry the MomarshDP and gather up my mallard and pintail decoys. The whole time Marshall (dog) is making a racket in the back yard to the point where the wife opens the door and starts yelling at him. He gets a little excited when he knows we're heading out hunting. I load the truck up and get to Field Marshall's house for 7:00am.
Field Marshal and his two grand sons pile their stuff into their trucks and we head out. We get maybe a km from the house when Field Marshal pulls into a parking lot, he gets out of his truck and looks around in the back of his truck, he thought he forgot the shotgun shells but no he has them so we start off again. Then we pull into another parking lot and this time he realizes he's forgotten his coat so I sit and wait while he drives back home to get his coat. Marshall is just vibrating in the truck wondering why we've stopped and not hunting yet.
We brought the MomarshDP as last time Field Marshal had scouted the area there was a lot of water. When we got there today the tide had gone out so we had to drag the MomarshDP for about 50 yards or so before we had enough water to float and pull it along.
We pushed birds up as we made our way to where we wanted to set up. We quickly set the decoys out, put out the lucky duck and tucked the boat away. Field Marshall and his grand kids hid in some tall grass mixed with alders, and myself in my boat with the dog. ( you can just see my ball cap peering over the doors and a hint of brown of the dog laying directly behind me.) It was now somewhere around 8:00am and it was calm and quiet until the birds we pushed out started to come back in.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/momarsh_with_marshall_hunkered_down_.jpg
My plan for today was to shoot just drakes, it just wasn't meant to be. I had a pair of pintails circling the decoys, the drake was in the lead with a the hen following him about 3 feet behind flying right to left. I took a single poke at the drake at about 25 yards and the drake and the hen both fell from the sky:confused:. This was the first time I've hit two birds with the same shot and surprised at how far apart they where. Goes to show you never know how far off a stray pellet can be. Just a reminder for those who hunt birds over dogs.
We had teal, widgeon, pintail, and mallards visit the spread. None really looked like they were committing to the decoys and made for some hard shooting. I guess it's to be expected after being shot at for 4 months or so. We did managed to get our two man limit, but our shot to duck ratio today wasn't the best we've seen it ever with the 2 ducks with one shot in the mix.
The bag consisted of 4 widgeon, 8 mallards and 4 pintails. Not a bad mix of birds for the closing day. The pintail drake that fell with the hen was a mature bird but not quite as big as the one I got last week.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marc_Alex_James_.jpg
The only regrets we have from today was not going to this spot earlier. Here it was the last day of the season and probably one of the best shoots. Oh well, we left lots for breeding stock for next year.
Hope everyone's last day went well.
Here is another pic of the ultimate waterfowling retriever in it's natural environment.:mrgreen:
What a beautiful picture it turned out to be of him sitting in the MomarshDP.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marshall_with_two_man_limit_.jpg
The morning started off with the alarm going off at 5:30am and me finally crawling out of bed by 6:00am. Headed to the garage to try and un-burry the MomarshDP and gather up my mallard and pintail decoys. The whole time Marshall (dog) is making a racket in the back yard to the point where the wife opens the door and starts yelling at him. He gets a little excited when he knows we're heading out hunting. I load the truck up and get to Field Marshall's house for 7:00am.
Field Marshal and his two grand sons pile their stuff into their trucks and we head out. We get maybe a km from the house when Field Marshal pulls into a parking lot, he gets out of his truck and looks around in the back of his truck, he thought he forgot the shotgun shells but no he has them so we start off again. Then we pull into another parking lot and this time he realizes he's forgotten his coat so I sit and wait while he drives back home to get his coat. Marshall is just vibrating in the truck wondering why we've stopped and not hunting yet.
We brought the MomarshDP as last time Field Marshal had scouted the area there was a lot of water. When we got there today the tide had gone out so we had to drag the MomarshDP for about 50 yards or so before we had enough water to float and pull it along.
We pushed birds up as we made our way to where we wanted to set up. We quickly set the decoys out, put out the lucky duck and tucked the boat away. Field Marshall and his grand kids hid in some tall grass mixed with alders, and myself in my boat with the dog. ( you can just see my ball cap peering over the doors and a hint of brown of the dog laying directly behind me.) It was now somewhere around 8:00am and it was calm and quiet until the birds we pushed out started to come back in.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/momarsh_with_marshall_hunkered_down_.jpg
My plan for today was to shoot just drakes, it just wasn't meant to be. I had a pair of pintails circling the decoys, the drake was in the lead with a the hen following him about 3 feet behind flying right to left. I took a single poke at the drake at about 25 yards and the drake and the hen both fell from the sky:confused:. This was the first time I've hit two birds with the same shot and surprised at how far apart they where. Goes to show you never know how far off a stray pellet can be. Just a reminder for those who hunt birds over dogs.
We had teal, widgeon, pintail, and mallards visit the spread. None really looked like they were committing to the decoys and made for some hard shooting. I guess it's to be expected after being shot at for 4 months or so. We did managed to get our two man limit, but our shot to duck ratio today wasn't the best we've seen it ever with the 2 ducks with one shot in the mix.
The bag consisted of 4 widgeon, 8 mallards and 4 pintails. Not a bad mix of birds for the closing day. The pintail drake that fell with the hen was a mature bird but not quite as big as the one I got last week.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marc_Alex_James_.jpg
The only regrets we have from today was not going to this spot earlier. Here it was the last day of the season and probably one of the best shoots. Oh well, we left lots for breeding stock for next year.
Hope everyone's last day went well.
Here is another pic of the ultimate waterfowling retriever in it's natural environment.:mrgreen:
What a beautiful picture it turned out to be of him sitting in the MomarshDP.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marshall_with_two_man_limit_.jpg