2018-2019 Season Log

Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby BGkirk » Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:19 pm

Duck Engr wrote:Date: 12/23/18

Time: morning

Location: local river

Cloud Cover: partly to heavy and back

Wind Direction and Velocity: light southerly swirling westerly a couple of times.

Temperature: 37

Moon phase: “headlight” bright

Special Notes: only truck at the ramp again. Was another to show after me I discovered when I got back.

Waterfowl Activity: more woodies than on the previous trip, however most were high. Had enough opportunities to kill my three but was looking the wrong way on most occasions. Saw a bufflehead buzzing as well.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: woodies fairly high and unresponsive. Had one pair of woodies get up from an adjacent slough that had skirted me early. Was able to trick them with aggressive squeals as soon as they got up. Waited for them to land in the decoys, which they didn’t, and the hesitation cost me an opportunity to take the second in the pair.

Hunters: solo

Guns: M2 12 gauge

Malfunctions: Legh got hung up in the jerk cord due to me being slow getting it out of her way. Had to whistle stop her around.

Dog(s): Legh

Special Equipment: 1 mallard hen on jerk cord. 2 drake pintails in current.

Curses: none really. When I go around here I’m just hoping to get one retrieve for the dog and not see any gators.

Kudos: accomplished both aforementioned goals of a local hunt and connected on my only shot fired.

Birds By Species: 1 wood duck

Photo Ops:Image

Legh returning, with the jerk cord in the proper position this time.

Lagniappe:
youre seeing gators at 37 degrees?


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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby BGkirk » Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:22 pm

And The lemon juice? Do tell


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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:20 pm

BGkirk wrote:
Duck Engr wrote:Date: 12/23/18

Time: morning

Location: local river

Cloud Cover: partly to heavy and back

Wind Direction and Velocity: light southerly swirling westerly a couple of times.

Temperature: 37

Moon phase: “headlight” bright

Special Notes: only truck at the ramp again. Was another to show after me I discovered when I got back.

Waterfowl Activity: more woodies than on the previous trip, however most were high. Had enough opportunities to kill my three but was looking the wrong way on most occasions. Saw a bufflehead buzzing as well.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: woodies fairly high and unresponsive. Had one pair of woodies get up from an adjacent slough that had skirted me early. Was able to trick them with aggressive squeals as soon as they got up. Waited for them to land in the decoys, which they didn’t, and the hesitation cost me an opportunity to take the second in the pair.

Hunters: solo

Guns: M2 12 gauge

Malfunctions: Legh got hung up in the jerk cord due to me being slow getting it out of her way. Had to whistle stop her around.

Dog(s): Legh

Special Equipment: 1 mallard hen on jerk cord. 2 drake pintails in current.

Curses: none really. When I go around here I’m just hoping to get one retrieve for the dog and not see any gators.

Kudos: accomplished both aforementioned goals of a local hunt and connected on my only shot fired.

Birds By Species: 1 wood duck

Photo Ops:Image

Legh returning, with the jerk cord in the proper position this time.

Lagniappe:
youre seeing gators at 37 degrees?


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Nah that’s just my somewhat joking checklist of a good local hunt here, no matter the weather. Never seen a gator when it’s that cold, and hope to keep it that way, though I doubt they’d be much more than a big log at that temp.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:23 pm

BGkirk wrote:And The lemon juice? Do tell


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With a loud-mouthed dog who likes to bark and fuss after the shooting, I’ll take one of those little yellow bottles of lemon juice with me and keep it in my jacket pocket. After we shoot, I’ll grab it and if she opens her mouth to bark and carry on, I’ll squirt some lemon juice in there. Doesn’t take more than one or two shots of that and they typically learn to keep their mouth shut.
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2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:50 pm

Date:1/22/19

Time: 3 pm to close

Location: pit

Cloud Cover: heavy. Light rain near quitting time

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong out of the south. Pit fast grass looked like it’d been wrecked when I got there took 30 minutes to straighten that out

Temperature: 50

Moon phase: waning gibbous. Super duper blood killer moon or whatever ridiculous name they call it a couple nights ago

Special Notes: got into town around 2 pm and it was eerily empty in the skies and the fields around us. We had the most ducks which was mainly shovelers mixed with what I’m nearly certain were blue wing teal.

Waterfowl Activity: Sparse. A few high flights of big ducks from the north in the last hour of daylight. Steady stream of snows fighting into the big south wind.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: called at some high mallards with no response at all. Who knows if they heard me with all the wind. Pintail did it like the textbook says they’re supposed to, fell out of the nose bleeds, one swing, a couple quacks to turn him back to me and in. Couple groups of teal gave me half a swing but buzzed off elsewhere.

Hunters: solo

Guns: M2

Malfunctions: gun jammed after the first shot on a gadwall opp.

Dog(s): Legh. Easy day.

Special Equipment: none.

Curses: can’t complain

Kudos: enjoying hunting alone more and more these days for some reason. I shoot much better too.

Birds By Species: 2 juvy drake shovelers. One drake pintail.

Photo Ops: Image

Lagniappe: considering taking that pintail to the taxidermist. First one I’ve killed with any kind of a sprig. I regret not mounting the one I killed in Alabama last year.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Rick » Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:32 am

That's a good one, but you'll shoot a longer-tailed one as soon as he's mounted...
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Deltaman » Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:55 am

Pretty Pin DE, and when it comes to watching birds fall out of the heavens, those long-necked, skinny winged birds, are surely one of the most beautiful!
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby MARSH BEAR » Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:32 am

In my opinion the Pintail is the prettiest duck. It is also my "mostest" favorite duck to shoot.
Good luck on the rest of your season.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Darren » Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:46 am

Nice solo hunt and pretty bird. Any idea what led to the M2 malfunction? (I shoot same). Just not slick enough on the bolt?
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:01 pm

Rick wrote:That's a good one, but you'll shoot a longer-tailed one as soon as he's mounted...


No doubt about it. Kind of like killing a big buck and getting it mounted. A bigger one is sure to follow.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:06 pm

Darren wrote:Nice solo hunt and pretty bird. Any idea what led to the M2 malfunction? (I shoot same). Just not slick enough on the bolt?


Freshly cleaned and lubricated, so I was hot under the collar until I saw the piece of blind grass stuck in the action. Freak thing. Worked well the rest of the afternoon.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Darren » Fri Jan 25, 2019 8:23 am

Duck Engr wrote:
Darren wrote:Nice solo hunt and pretty bird. Any idea what led to the M2 malfunction? (I shoot same). Just not slick enough on the bolt?


Freshly cleaned and lubricated, so I was hot under the collar until I saw the piece of blind grass stuck in the action. Freak thing. Worked well the rest of the afternoon.


That'll do it!
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Tue Jan 29, 2019 11:26 am

Date:1/23/19

Time: morning

Location: river

Cloud Cover: heavy with steady rain till 930.

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong out of the north.

Temperature: bone chilling. Upper 30s.

Moon phase: waning gibbous

Special Notes: hole we hunted was on the edge of too deep to even stand around the edges. Paddled our way in on pirogues.

Waterfowl Activity: sparse. More wood ducks than anything.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: handful of mallards worked is early but wouldn’t finish. Probably should have shot one of those but opted for “another pass”.

Hunters: 2

Guns: stoeger 3500 and M2

Malfunctions: stoeger has had issues ejecting 3” shells. Was a single shot.

Dog(s): Legh and Trace. Legh retrieved all 3 birds as she saw them all fall. High water had me getting soaked up to my elbows anytime I helped her back on her stand.

Special Equipment: pirogues; which had to double as a dog stand for trace as his normal stand was too short for the deep water.

Curses: no ducks.

Kudos: I was too cold to think of any.

Birds By Species: 3 wood ducks (all of which I killed, as my buddy had a bit of an issue with a bent barrel in addition to his single shot.

Photo Ops: too much rain

Lagniappe: I don’t like hunting in the rain or deep water, and this morning reminded me why. Probably should have just sat in the pit.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Rick » Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:30 pm

Is your field blind not good in the rain? Ours have almost always seemed their best (for ducks, not geese) then. Often best for geese just as it lets up.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Tue Jan 29, 2019 3:59 pm

Rick wrote:Is your field blind not good in the rain? Ours have almost always seemed their best (for ducks, not geese) then. Often best for geese just as it lets up.


It typically is, but it’s also pretty predictable based on the previous evening’s after shooting light activity, or lack there of, which was the case the evening before as I was leaving the blind. Couple that with the fact that we’ve had rainy day success in this river spot before and it was what seemed like an easy decision, only to leave with the “maybe we should’ve just gone to the field” discussion.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Tue Jan 29, 2019 4:10 pm

Date: 1/24/19

Time: morning

Location: river but about an hour south of previous day.

Cloud Cover: clear skies, finally.

Wind Direction and Velocity: from the north 5-10

Temperature: 28 degrees

Moon phase: waning gibbous I think. Fairly bright on boat ride.

Special Notes: only the second time I’d been to this area, but the water level was right, so we treated it as a scout hunt. Sat in the channel for a few minutes after shooting light to see where the most duck activity was.

Waterfowl Activity: a lot of ducks on the water before daylight that left en masse before shooting time.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: early birds worked but wouldn’t finish. Flights became higher and response lessened as the morning progressed. Staaaaaale birds.

Hunters: 2

Guns: same

Malfunctions: none

Dog(s): Legh and trace were bored

Special Equipment:

Curses: lack of ducks coming back

Kudos: nice to see sun on a duck hunt. It’d been a while.

Birds By Species: 1 drake mallard

Photo Ops: I did a bad job on pics this trip

Lagniappe: did a little exploring after the hunt and found the “sure fire” spot for the next morning.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Wed Jan 30, 2019 12:26 pm

Date: 1/25/19

Time: morning

Location: hour south of camp on river

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light from the north

Temperature: supposed to be 21, but never made it near that. 28.

Moon phase: waning gibbous?

Special Notes: the “sure-fire” spot we’d found wasn’t occupied, but was closer to another group than I would have liked. This likely cost us a few ducks, as the canopy opening wasn’t as big where we ended up.

Waterfowl Activity: way better than the day before. Good low flight early and good mid level flight until 930.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: much better early. Called 3 groups through the opening in the canopy about 50 yards to our north and was sure they’d follow the old road bed down to our decoys. Instead they turned and landed at 70 or 80 yards up the road bed. My fault for not stopping and doing a better assessment before daylight. I was in a hurry trying to get the dog on a stand and out of the water.

Hunters: 3

Guns: same plus a versamax

Malfunctions: poor setup location by me.

Dog(s): Legh and trace lounged and ate crackers.

Special Equipment: jerk chord.

Curses: me not slowing down to take my time on setup.

Kudos: prettiest spot I’ve hunted in a while.

Birds By Species: 1 drake mallard.

Photo Ops: Image

Picture of the scouted spot with the good opening the day before. Ended up 100 yards north of there.

Lagniappe: considered going back a third day with a better setup but didn’t want to make the long drive again or fight the weekend crowd.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Darren » Wed Jan 30, 2019 3:34 pm

Duck Engr wrote: My fault for not stopping and doing a better assessment before daylight. I was in a hurry trying to get the dog on a stand and out of the water.

Curses: me not slowing down to take my time on setup.



It happens, part of the run-n-gun approach, constantly on the move trying to get on/stay on them. Sure looks like a pretty spot in the picture; never hunted that type of habitat myself.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Wed Jan 30, 2019 10:22 pm

Darren wrote:
Duck Engr wrote: My fault for not stopping and doing a better assessment before daylight. I was in a hurry trying to get the dog on a stand and out of the water.

Curses: me not slowing down to take my time on setup.



It happens, part of the run-n-gun approach, constantly on the move trying to get on/stay on them. Sure looks like a pretty spot in the picture; never hunted that type of habitat myself.


Yep it just about wore me out this trip. Tough to run and gun when there aren’t a lot of birds.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Wed Jan 30, 2019 10:38 pm

Date: 1/26/19

Time: morning

Location: river

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light out of the south

Temperature: 30, snow flurries overnight.

Moon phase:

Special Notes: started in a little small spot where we pushed my friends boat off the trailer on the side of the dirt road and idled to the spot. Got a phone call from the other half of our group at 730 hunting 15 minutes down the road saying ducks are flying here, meet us at this location. We immediately packed up and hustled over to that ramp to launch our boat and meet them where they’d seen ducks going down the first hour of shooting light.

Waterfowl Activity: dead where we were, best we’ve seen all season 15 minutes down the road.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: these must have been new ducks, from north or south, I don’t know. Responded well to our cut downs

Hunters: 3+3 made 6

Guns:

Malfunctions: none

Dog(s): Legh, Trace and Jax.

Special Equipment:

Curses: that we didn’t get to see the show from daylight. Flight had slowed down by the time we got there

Kudos: finally some ducks to play with and got a few to do it right late in the morning with the sun up.

Birds By Species: 16 mallards aggregate, 13 drakes 3 hens. 10 were killed by our 3 buddies at their initial setup, 1 was killed by our group at our initial setup, and the balance were killed at the final setup with all of us together.

Photo Ops: again, camerawork was shoddy this trip.

Lagniappe: felt good to see some ducks responding to our calls like we know they can and getting them to line up right get down on the water. This was our best hunt by far since opening day.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Deltaman » Thu Jan 31, 2019 7:58 am

Man, what a way to close the season out, and glad your persistence paid off :thumbsup:
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Rick » Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:12 am

"Persevere, persevere, persevere."
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:02 am

Thanks guys. It was nice to get a taste of success on the last weekend. Offseason spirits might have been a little low otherwise.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:28 am

b]Date:[/b] 1/26/19

Time: afternoon speck hunt

Location: leased field, but from layout blinds

Cloud Cover: partly to mostly

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong from the south

Temperature: upper 40s

Moon phase:

Special Notes: the last two afternoons had been spent mostly drinking beers with a small side of brushing layout blinds at the field. We’d watched 20-30 specks, in groups of 3-5, come from the south and land in the field to our north both afternoons. We figured we’d set up on our north levee and intercept them with a dozen full body speck decoys.

Waterfowl Activity: more light geese than I’ve seen this year flying over pretty steady from 330 to close.

Naturally, today, the *%^+ specks we’d been watching came from the north, thus never giving us a chance to intercept them.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: the specks that were mixed in with blues would break and give us a look, but would then continue on.

Hunters: 2

Guns: never shot

Malfunctions: specks changing their pattern on us.

Dog(s): Legh

Special Equipment: layout blinds heavily brushed

Curses:

Kudos: nice afternoon to watch the sunset on the prairie for the last time this season.

Birds By Species: DNS

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Sat Feb 02, 2019 10:23 pm

Date: 1/27/19

Time: morning till 745 at initial setup on river. 830 to 930 200 yards into the woods

Location: river

Cloud Cover: high fog early cleared by 730.

Wind Direction and Velocity: slight west changing to north

Temperature: 38

Moon phase:

Special Notes: most of the guys had to be on the road early, so we went back to their initial setup on the river from the previous day since it was easy to access. They left at 745 so Legh and I eased on over into the woods, headed to the same spot we’d relocated to the day before. We didn’t make it all the way in there before ducks were working and landing all around us, so I decided to stop short, which likely ultimately cost me filling out my strap.

Waterfowl Activity: thought they’d disappeared overnight early on. Guess the fog had them flying later. Flight picked up around 730 and was good from 830-930.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: not as good as the day before, but was enough for a little fun.

Hunters: started with 6, down to solo on my relocation

Guns:

Malfunctions: me stopping Legh and I short of the second target location.

Dog(s): Legh and trace.

Special Equipment:

Curses: none

Kudos:

Birds By Species: 3 mallard drakes from river setup. 2 mallard drakes from solo setup in woods.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: nice quick morning to end the season. Worked quite a few ducks at the second setup but only had two pairs commit.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Rick » Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:19 am

Glad you could end it in birds.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Deltaman » Mon Feb 04, 2019 8:15 am

Nice ending with the late solo push into the woods!!!!!!
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Darren » Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:28 am

Duck Engr wrote:Thanks guys. It was nice to get a taste of success on the last weekend. Offseason spirits might have been a little low otherwise.



Glad you got a taste to take with you for the offseason, I really didn't. But will persevere nonetheless.
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Re: 2018-2019 Season Log

Postby Duck Engr » Tue Feb 19, 2019 12:04 pm

I’ll tack this on to the end of the log even though I don’t consider it a hunt, but a shoot with live clays.

My company purchased a few slots at a fundraiser pheasant shoot last Saturday and I was asked to go and talk with clients we’d invited. This was my first time being at an event like this, and if I’d not taken my dog, it would’ve been my last. Just doesn’t do much for me to stand around in a circle and shoot a bird that’s just been let out of a cage, but boy is it a good place to get retrieves for your pup. Legh made 25+ and she was pretty thoroughly pooped by the end of it. Also did me proud on a couple of 150-200 yard blinds, needing only one whistle on each. Luckily for us, the unruly dogs who were out there signaling fair catches under the birds were around the other tower.

Image

One equipment note is something I noticed with my gun/patternmaster choke combo as I finished off a cripple back during duck season. It was patterning almost like a slug, suggesting the wad never opened up. I think I’ve narrowed it down to being federal blue box shells, as I had a few left in my bag. A pheasant circled back behind us on the edge of the field and lit after being missed by another tower’s shooters. Making sure there weren’t any folks in or near our line of fire, I let my coworker’s little boy use my gun to shoot it. When he shot, he missed right, but I noticed a big plug of dirt kick up like a rifle shot. Definitely a tighter pattern than I’ve ever seen on paper from my gun and choke combo. I took the gun from him and shot again, with the same result, except I was a hair high, clearing every feather off the poor bird’s back and knocking it down. I sent Legh and started scratching my head before seeing the suspected federal hulls on the ground and recalling the morning back in January I’d had the same issue. Think I’ll be tossing the few remaining federals and will do some extensive patterning this summer to make sure it was just that shell brand with the issue and not my gun/choke.
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