2019-2020 Season Log

[Johnc]

My grandfather and dad would make me practice mounting and shooting a red Ryder BB gun that gene haydel purposely took all the sights off of to make me shoot with both eyes open and learn how to focus on the target

Not stare at bead or go back and forth between bead and bird in flight—toast when u do that

Stop the gun and behind especially on anything quick

I have gained a hair of wisdom over the years,as in hi vis sights are highly distracting and that 3.5 inch 12 gauge shells pattern horrible and produce so much muzzle jump forget follow up shots in a timely manner

[Bud]

I find it interesting Marsh barked the second time they came at a bad angle. Can't help but wonder why he did it. Know it's a no no.
a) ...and don't come back!....my favorite.
b)... helping you call them.
c)...you guys need to shoot one or two for me this time.
d)...give me a gun!

Followed by...Dad didn't like that. Oops.

[Rick]

Took Dad a moment to process such a surprise, but the "Hey! What the hell?" was still quite timely. Had you seen the exhibition he had, you'd put your dollar on "D".

My grandfather and dad would make me practice mounting and shooting a red Ryder BB gun that gene haydel purposely took all the sights off of to make me shoot with both eyes open and learn how to focus on the target

Not stare at bead or go back and forth between bead and bird in flight—toast when u do that

Stop the gun and behind especially on anything quick

I have gained a hair of wisdom over the years,as in hi vis sights are highly distracting and that 3.5 inch 12 gauge shells pattern horrible and produce so much muzzle jump forget follow up shots in a timely manner

Hadn't thought of Gene in quite a while. And wouldn't be at all surprised to learn 3.5" shells have helped save more birds than they've killed.

[BGkirk]

I have no bead.

cant remember how long mines been gone as well


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[Rick]

The Daisy routine John was put through might have been inspired by the Army's old "quick fire course": where they gave us BB guns and had us shoot flying disks of decreasing size by focusing on the disks, instead of aiming. Can't say it's something I recall, but would think it likely there were no sights on our Daisies, either. Do recall surprise at how many of us got pretty good at it.

Still, I think I owe the biggest part of whatever early season accuracy I might muster to the late great gun writer, Bob Brister's, suggestion to keep a gun where it's handy to practice mounting it while focused on spots on the wall or ceiling, then checking that mount for alignment on target. No Tom Knapp, I find proper mount a very good thing.

[Duck Engr]

Still, I think I owe the biggest part of whatever early season accuracy I might muster to the late great gun writer, Bob Brister's, suggestion to keep a gun where it's handy to practice mounting it while focused on spots on the wall or ceiling, then checking that mount for alignment on target. No Tom Knapp, I find proper mount a very good thing.

I do the same, though it didn’t help much on this morning’s early single.

[Ericdc]

Finished out my teal season with a triple this morning using my no bead 2000 model browning gold.


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[Rick]

...browning gold.

Amazing in itself that a Gold fired three times.

[Ericdc]

It’s had few parts replaced over the years, but it’s been awesome for me.

If I had a dollar for every time a benelli guy said something like that.

I might could buy a benelli


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[Darren]

...browning gold.

Amazing in itself that a Gold fired three times.

Now now........

[Rick]

Date: 9/28 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to moderate SE

Temperature: pretty warm before the breeze came up

Moon phase: new

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Fewest woodies and mottleds seen to date, but lots of tree ducks and what should have been enough teal.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Nearly all came just as we'd want them to.

Hunters: 2, long time regular, Fred, and his new-to-us neighbor, Dave.

Guns:

Malfunctions: Dave's Super X2's firing pin wouldn't strike primers hard enough to fire them. (Even those pre-struck primers worked fine when I shot them through my 870 blind gun.)

Dog(s): Marsh lost a bird Fred thought he's stoned but either swam off or got under the flotant at the boat trail's edge.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: My young guy was 75, and Dave pouted about him not relinquishing his end seat or my not letting him shoot from my spot next to Marsh, the in-op gun he insisted on trying to make go bang for half the morning, not being able to hit with my 20 and our birds not having the good grace to show in the numbers he was apparently accustomed to in Argentina. And I'd be lying if I claimed to be as patient with either as I wish I'd been.

Kudos: Dave's really not as bad as that might make him sound, just way up in years, but the highlight of my morning was still achieving our 9:30 curfew and getting all of us out in one piece.

Birds By Species: 9 bw teal (6 drakes and 3 hens)

[Rick]

Date: 9/29 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light SE

Temperature: warm

Moon phase: new

Special Notes: last day of September teal

Waterfowl Activity: Best of the flight seemed to be while Marsh and I were down the run chasing the first bird of the morning, but occasional shows until around 8 (which should have been more than enough) and then nothing at all until a final bunch right at quitting time.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: The birds responded a heck of a lot better than we did.

Hunters: 1, just Fred, Dave stayed in camp

Guns: I shot my 16ga Model 12 even though Dave wasn't using my 20.

Malfunctions: Only had one case of misplacing the Model 12's safety and another of forgetting to pump.

Dog(s): Marsh had a good morning.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: I prayed for patience on the way to camp, and true to form, the good Lord gave me plenty of opportunity to practice it during a morning of miscues, at least two loose rounds before his gun was shouldered, rung chimes and so on. Found myself raising my voice at one point, but smoothed it over by making conversation about his sons and grandsons.

Kudos: Finished a very long morning with by dropping four from a big bunch that did it right at the bell.

Birds By Species: 9 bw teal (5 drakes and 4 hens)

[BGkirk]

Rick on average how many times are you retrieving ducks ? After each volley?


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[Rick]

Rick on average how many times are you retrieving ducks ? After each volley?

What's dead in the pond stays there until we've need to take the dog to collect something on the flotant. So it can vary greatly.

[Duck Engr]

That’s typically our SOP as well (minus the dog and flotant part). What got us Saturday was a falling tide that had sucked our early kill nearly out of the bay. We’ll jump out to chase cripples down and defend what’s on the pond from gators as the need arises.

[Ericdc]

Explain loose rounds?


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[DComeaux]

Don't know that I have the patience anymore to do what you do.

[Duck Engr]

Don't know that I have the patience anymore to do what you do.

I know I don’t. I’m always impressed that Rick puts up with what he does.

[Rick]

Explain loose rounds?

Loose rounds are unintended shots. Still have the heebie-geebies about how quickly one of this morning's bell-ringers followed my "Go ahead and kill them." on birds coming from Marsh and my end after seeing Fred's gun go off on its way up not just once but twice this morning. Pretty sure that abnormally quick shot was a loose round, too.

Re: patience, Fred's been a nervous mess as far back as I can remember, but largely because he enjoys it so. And getting old's not his fault. (Being dumb enough to pray for patience knowing full well how that always seems to work out was on me.)

He used to come on the second teal weekend, and I hope I've talked him back into that, so I can share the last with family and friends more often - or, perhaps, just most anyone else...

[Ericdc]

That’s inexcusable though, no matter how exciting it is. Hunter’s safety teaches that.




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[Rick]

That’s inexcusable though, no matter how exciting it is. Hunter’s safety teaches that.

He's always been a mess, but I don't recall him being an unsafe mess. An awful lot of guys seem to get herky-jerky with advanced age.

[Ericdc]

That’s true, did he recognize it and apologize or anything?


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[Rick]

Naw, we bickered all morning over whether ducks were big or little, in range or out and so on, and I doubt either of us wanted to give an inch while the action was on. Reminds me of my old nemesis, Doc Charles, except I've yet to reach the point of actually suggesting he hunt elsewhere. Still just daydreaming about him going to Argentina with his buddy, Dave, instead of sticking with me.

[Darren]

Rick, no third fourth or 7th hand reports of speck sightings over the weekend? Seems usually someone somewhere sees (or thought they did, or hears of) some.

Can't imagine our lingering warmth is helping the cause, should turn in our favor soon though.

[Rick]

Rick, no third fourth or 7th hand reports of speck sightings over the weekend?

Tom, who I carried a number of teal mornings thought he might have seen, but didn't hear, specks one morning hunting with Ed on our piece between Lake Arthur and Thornwell. But that's the closest I've seen to a report. Know I also thought/hoped to have heard one at the mudhole, but wouldn't bet the proverbial plug nickel that it wasn't just a similar note or two.

[Ericdc]

I had a Facebook memory from 2015 of specks in my lease area. Plan to be up there Saturday morning.


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[Rick]

Before I let it get away from me altogether, here's our September teal wrap-up...

Date: Aside from a strong first day, our September season at the mudhole remained much the same, start to finish.

Time: A wrecked knee precluded my making afternoon ag land hunts after wrecking it worse doing so the first weekend.

Location: Aside from two afternoons at SC's, just the mudhole

Cloud Cover: Almost always sunny with one(?) rain day.

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE the first weekend, then easterly to southeasterly nil to moderate for the remainder.

Temperature: Generally warm to hot with no cool fronts.

Moon phase: Didn't seem to make a lick of difference.

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Generally enough ducks of some sort around to keep us awake to include several spoons and a lone pintail, along with lots of woodies and mottleds. And there were generally just enough teal around to keep it from seeming as bad as it might have.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Ran a teal tuned Stanley Deceiver with generally fine results start to finish and believe its volume saved a few days for us. While we had stale birds start swinging wide of the mudhole as the season progressed, I noted just one bunch that seemed to push off the call - perhaps in spite of how aggressively I ran it.

Hunters: Too few free days to suit me (and little doubt friends and family). Some hunters made their own hunts, while others frittered most of their chances away. But most were fine folks.

Guns: I took the Model 12 on the last morning, which was fun.

Malfunctions: My old Montefeltro was hang-firing just a hair and put up until I can figure it out, and a SX2 was only dimpling primers. One spinner's hard-wiring shorted within the extension cord and had to be run continuous on 6v battery.

Dog(s): Marsh barked at a flight after it made a couple bad angle passes, but was otherwise a fine hand and blessing on the flotant.

Special Equipment: SOS, and the combination and its positioning seems to have again helped us pull the marsh's strongest teal gunning from distant water.

Curses: Would have wished more opportunity for my folks.

Kudos: But thankful for what generally seemed enough to keep them happy.

Birds By Species: 195 bw teal and 1 gw teal

Photo Ops: Already looking forward to seeing this again:

003a.jpg

[Duck Engr]

Am I reading that your blind was the high teal blind in camp for the early season?

[Rick]

To the best of my knowledge and sad to say, yes. Believe Ed came within a bird, but did a lot of his good on ag land, rather than at his east blind, which would be my pick of our marsh teal blinds. (Used to hunt it in September, instead of the mudhole.)

Last year's changes have made the difference, or certainly seem to have.

[BGkirk]

Do the other blinds in yas marsh put the same effort into calling as you do?


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