North Dakota Waterfowling 2023-2024

[Rick]

I've heard mess of excuses for undercutting the new kid in my day, but "saw a band" may be a first.














Pickin' of course.

[PorkChop]

[Deltaman]

That first duck will mean even more to all three of you now
Good Luck with today's adventures, and hope the new geese are still around!!!!!!

[PorkChop]

We went after cranes this morning. They went out a different end. Will try again in the morning.

Not sure if I mentioned yesterday saw several bunches of speckle bellies and today some snows on the ground. Getting ready to head out the door to see if we can kill some ducks. 20+ mile per hour NW winds should make it interesting for the girls.

[PorkChop]

Hi see fresh birds in the near future

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[PorkChop]

We got out last night for ducks. Had it all planned out. We were loading the truck and we could not find reapers dog blind. Checked both trailers, the garage all around the house and thought maybe somebody stole it out of the driveway. But then I asked the question, did you girls leave it out in the field the last time we hunted. We came to the conclusion that that is what happened.

I knew the birds were most likely already flying and some may be in the field because we left late as Nattles wanted to go so we waited for her to get off of work. When we got out there some cranes were flying around as well as some honkers. I decided to drive over to where the blind would be. As we were driving over there ducks started taking off out of the field. not where we were planning on setting up but I figured well since they flew back to the roost we would set up where they were. After set up I went and parked the truck. Just as I shut the door my phone rang and it was a landowner that is a must answer phone call. He kept me on the phone for a good 15 minutes. Of course the girls had birds flying around the decoys but Nattles cannot shoot without me being there. I guess I must’ve smelled bad because once I got there the birds really were not interested. And of course they started dumping in to where we had planned on setting up.

The wind was blowing 30+ and I figured with all the rain we had I would be able to get the spinner poles in the ground with no problem but I could not get them in deep enough so they kept on blowing over. One of them broke but it should be an easy fix. I have a piece of sucker rod that I used to hammer into the ground so the polls get deep enough but I did not bring it. Did have three greenheads hovering to my right so my first shot I nailed one and then with the wind they were gone. Had another single hovering over the decoys and I told Nattles to shoot it. She shot and then Vinny shot and then when they were done I shot as it was still in range. It flew for a while and then started flying up wind and slowly went down. Lost it on the other side of a hill. reaper and I went over there and spent a good 45 minutes and never found it. Not 100% positive it went down but I suspect it did or it made it back to the roost.

Reaper bringing in the one duck.

[PorkChop]

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it finally happened! Nattles finally shot her first duck! She went through a lot of shotgun shells trying to get this first bird and I will probably have to go to the bank to take out a loan. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t graceful, but very thankful we were in a big field so we could see where it fell. I think she got lucky but in this case I will take lucky ha ha

Robo the Hobo getting the party started

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Found this rock walking back to the truck. Looks like a duck head to me. Sarah is going to paint it for her and put her name and date and first duck on the back.

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A bunch of ugly drakes. Vinny did get a nice one with curls starting

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[5 stand]

I know you can't see it, but I'm grinning like them girls, just looking at the pictures and reading the story... Family memories you just can't beat that...

[5 stand]

Congrats to Nettles !!!

[Rick]

Been a lot of guys through my blinds hoping for their first sprig, and she had the good sense to put it behind her first.

[Duck Engr]

Congrats to Nattles! Can’t hit em unless you’re swinging!

[Deltaman]

Love the family affair dad, and congrats to Nattles for her first duck

[SpinnerMan]

Been a lot of guys through my blinds hoping for their first sprig, and she had the good sense to put it behind her first.

I'm still hoping. Seen plenty snow goose hunting and even had a beautiful bunch decoy as nice as could be during late goose over the snow, but I have never seen one close enough when it was legal.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it finally happened! Nattles finally shot her first duck!

First of many firsts. That's awesome. Love the pictures and reports

[don novicki]

Outstanding. Painting the rock will be a nice touch and a lifetime treasure.

[PorkChop]

Well as I said in my upland post I figured the weather change would switch things up on us this morning. Birds flew later which is a good thing but flocks were bigger. Definitely did not see the same amount of birds but when we were picking up more started coming so… I had to get to work though so we couldn’t stay much longer.

We were covered in pintails and I really wish they would’ve raised the limit like they said they were going to or at least they implied they were going to do. I believe they said they were going to make it three pintails which only one of them could be a hen.

Initially our shooting skills were sub par but at least Vinny and I pulled our heads out. The last shots were at a pair of greenheads and she shot them both boom boom. Nattles was too slow on the draw. I will say that she has been very positive and has been very excited every time I say we are going so I know she will only get faster with practice.



I ended up with two widgeon, one pintail and two greenheads and Vinny shot the two greenheads and a pintail. I don’t know that we could’ve shot a three person limit but we could have gotten close.

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[Duck Engr]

Nice! Good to see the drakes getting some color.

[PorkChop]

Yep it definitely makes it easier for my colorblind self to pick out drakes

[5 stand]

Heck, I don't know what all to say and how many comments to make about Nettles shooting, hopefully she's shooting an improved cylinder choke? If I I'm able to get up there this fall... I have a cylinder and skeet choke that will fit right in that super x that are hers, they haven't been shot in years... If the ducks are less than the Mojo's at 22yds she will be golden with those, she's at the stage of spray and pray...

You mentioned practice a person can practice mounting the gun every night 10 times a night for 7 days equals 70 times, and I think that's better than doing it 70 times in one night?

If you guys are sitting on stools you have to practice mounting from the stool and standing up at the same time?


And as always sure do enjoy the reports...

[PorkChop]

I watched her on one of the flocks today. It was for a Drake pintail and I watched her mount the gun and I watched her realize that it was mounted wrong and her adjust. She shot twice. Space in between the two shots and she could’ve taken the third shot but she didn’t. For this hunt we were in layout blinds so she’s been practicing in the backyard a little bit every day. I told her she needs to practice with all her hunting clothes on. Sometimes we sit in chairs but from this point on majority of our hunting will be in layout blinds or backboards. She has an improved modified in her gun right now. I don’t want it to be too open as I don’t need 27 pintails falling out of the sky.

[5 stand]

If she's practicing you can't ask for more than that...

Sound like y'all have things lined out, carry on...

Looking forward to the next report...

[Duck Engr]

I watched her on one of the flocks today. It was for a Drake pintail and I watched her mount the gun and I watched her realize that it was mounted wrong and her adjust. She shot twice. Space in between the two shots and she could’ve taken the third shot but she didn’t. For this hunt we were in layout blinds so she’s been practicing in the backyard a little bit every day. I told her she needs to practice with all her hunting clothes on. Sometimes we sit in chairs but from this point on majority of our hunting will be in layout blinds or backboards. She has an improved modified in her gun right now. I don’t want it to be too open as I don’t need 27 pintails falling out of the sky.

Hahaha the ol scattergun is good till it isn’t.

[PorkChop]

Sound like y'all have things lined out, carry on...

:

I wouldn’t say that haha Kind of winging it and don’t want to screw it up. Probably because she went from zero interest to maximum interest and if she goes back to zero I will be pretty bummed!

[5 stand]

Sound like y'all have things lined out, carry on...

:

I wouldn’t say that haha Kind of winging it and don’t want to screw it up. Probably because she went from zero interest to maximum interest and if she goes back to zero I will be pretty bummed!

I'm sure that could come across as harsh, my Internet posting skills suck, as you guys already know I don't have a clue about punctuation,,,,.... What's cool is it that I can talk into this damn phone, and have a conversation with like-minded folks, you guys bear with me...

[5 stand]

And it is not just punctuation, it's English in general... I have a form of dyslexia, and English doesn't make very much sense to me...

[PorkChop]

Sound like y'all have things lined out, carry on...

:

I wouldn’t say that haha Kind of winging it and don’t want to screw it up. Probably because she went from zero interest to maximum interest and if she goes back to zero I will be pretty bummed!

I'm sure that could come across as harsh, my Internet posting skills suck, as you guys already know I don't have a clue about punctuation,,,,.... What's cool is it that I can talk into this damn phone, and have a conversation with like-minded folks, you guys bear with me...

I didn’t take it as harsh

[Rick]

Put me in the "open her choke" column. Success builds confidence and confidence builds success. (Says a guy who's watched too much choke spare an awful lot of close birds - and also knows the "clean kill or clean miss" BS so often heard to justify it is just that.)

[Deltaman]

Nice hunt PC, and the big smiles say it all!!!!!!

[Darren]

That's just great stuff daddy-o, congrats

[jrock75]

That is awesome. Congrats on getting her to bite the hook. Hopefully it gets fully set.

[PorkChop]

Well of course I will have jury duty next Wednesday Thursday and Friday. Every hunting season it seems like something! Have not heard in the last few days as of buddy and his daughter just arrived from Kansas. Think we are doing cranes in the morning

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