Decent brant hunt today
Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2013 2:51 pmGot out early this morning, but not early enough. The spot I was hoping for was booked already, so I settled for another spot with a pretty good reputation, about 500 yards south of my first choice. My buddy, who's never hunted brant, but grew up slaying ducks, specks and snows in the Spoonie Bros neck of the woods, met me about 45 minutes to shoot time. We got set up and enjoyed our coffee.
Right away I was seeing groups of 15-20 come in every 20 minutes. Just waiting for one to swing on your spread is all you can do. A group of about 10 worked the guys just north of us. Birds wanted in there bad, but I think a lack of patience bit em in the ass as they shot too early with the birds just outside of range. Didn't hit a thing. One more pass and they would had birds down.
20 minutes later a pair broke off from a bigger flock and came right at us. Circled 4 times and lit. Facing easy on the spit and staring right at the sun sucks when birds are lighting in the decoys. Poor shooting resulted in one dead bird. I think we nights been shooting at the same bird, giving the second time to flare.
But we cussed each other and ourselves and regrouped. 30 minutes later another pair came outta the north. They flew right over the gigs north of us and B lined to our spread. They didn't even work, just dropped right into the middle decoys. I cringed as Doug sluiced the first on the water, praying he didn't put holes in my decoys. The second jumped and I dumped him.
3 down 1 to go. But it wasn't meant to be. After that the tide was incoming and we didn't see enough birds to keep our interest.
But I was thrilled as this was my first time hunting them on my own. A good start. And Doug who's hunted everything under the sun on numerous continents had a blast
Right away I was seeing groups of 15-20 come in every 20 minutes. Just waiting for one to swing on your spread is all you can do. A group of about 10 worked the guys just north of us. Birds wanted in there bad, but I think a lack of patience bit em in the ass as they shot too early with the birds just outside of range. Didn't hit a thing. One more pass and they would had birds down.
20 minutes later a pair broke off from a bigger flock and came right at us. Circled 4 times and lit. Facing easy on the spit and staring right at the sun sucks when birds are lighting in the decoys. Poor shooting resulted in one dead bird. I think we nights been shooting at the same bird, giving the second time to flare.
But we cussed each other and ourselves and regrouped. 30 minutes later another pair came outta the north. They flew right over the gigs north of us and B lined to our spread. They didn't even work, just dropped right into the middle decoys. I cringed as Doug sluiced the first on the water, praying he didn't put holes in my decoys. The second jumped and I dumped him.
3 down 1 to go. But it wasn't meant to be. After that the tide was incoming and we didn't see enough birds to keep our interest.
But I was thrilled as this was my first time hunting them on my own. A good start. And Doug who's hunted everything under the sun on numerous continents had a blast
