Yays and Nays this past season?

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Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Anotherone » Sun Jan 22, 2023 8:56 am

What worked and didn’t work for you this season?
Yays: Oxyvan waders, 3 seasons with no leaks and cheap too.
Browning Silver, it went bang when asked.
Higdon pulsator worked for the 3rd season as advertised.

Nays: Amite River swamp, very few birds.
LA east zone duck season split didn’t do diddly squat.
GM 5.3 liter V8 is an oil burner, bring back the 350 or get out the game.


They say next year will be a barn burner. Lol!
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:16 am

So much negative.
Not much positive.
Let's see it got frosty cold and for the first time ever my engine was frozen with ice in the lower unit.
I hit the starter button and it sort of tried.
I couldn't un-push that button and roasted the wires and starter too. Then I noticed the gas tank on the truck hanging down. Yikes!
So I limped home and did repairs.
Positive?
figured out calling wood ducks better.
Never tried that hard at it but wasn't slamming mallards at all so learn to kill woodies.

Mallards were just not cooperating for me this year.
I killed 8 I think.
Pitiful.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Sun Jan 22, 2023 1:32 pm

The nay?
Had six (6) different people start in last August on me.
"When we gonna hunt?" they all said.
Text text
Text Text
Text
Text Text.
Feel me?
You get there and ...hello?
I'm sick of it.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Jimmy » Sun Jan 22, 2023 8:03 pm

Ricky Spanish wrote:The nay?
Had six (6) different people start in last August on me.
"When we gonna hunt?" they all said.
Text text
Text Text
Text
Text Text.
Feel me?
You get there and ...hello?
I'm sick of it.


It's called a hint.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Mon Jan 23, 2023 4:23 am

^^ and then there's this guy.
Put that under "nay".
Unforgivable crimes against hunanity.
:lol:
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby PorkChop » Tue Jan 24, 2023 8:26 pm

Mostly yays for me. Wife and daughter both shot their first cranes and Vinny Quack also shot her first Specklebelly. Hunted a lot more this year because of homeschooling the kids. Really not many complaints if any of the season. I’m guessing if it wasn’t for my hip I would’ve got out a lot more.

I guess still not shooting my first banded puddle duck would be a nay and Vinny Quack Shooting two Lucky ducks



That one wasn’t bad the first one she shot was pulverized
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby OGblackcloud » Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:20 pm

:lol: :lol:
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Wed Jan 25, 2023 5:28 am

OGblackcloud wrote::lol: :lol:

It's good that we are so much tamer nowadays.
Ten years ago ... We'd be full-on raging. HFRs would be flying and Greta would be all "how dare you" on us. :lol:
Then the legal team shows up with banhammers
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jan 25, 2023 2:04 pm

This was my worst season ever. The Nays dominated. I love hunting and being in the outdoors. I don't need to get a lot to be happy, but my season was so bad, I really had a hard time not bitching towards the end of my archery season.

The biggest nay was my deer season. I deer hunted a lot. I saw exactly one deer while in my stand all season (saw maybe 5 walking in or out). That one deer was a nice buck that I shot and lost after hitting it where I was 100% sure I had a dead deer. After leaving for 2 hours, 5 hours later (7 hours after I shot him), I am pretty certain he was still alive. I actually had two things pop up in my feed that emphasized how unlucky I was. One was a video of a guy shooting a buck that I'm sure he hit it almost exactly where I did and you can see blood pumping out immediately. I found about 10 drops of blood total. The other was a guy that tracks hit deer with his dogs. He had a diagram that showed lethal (recovered) and non-lethal shots. My arrow was in an area that showed 100% recovery.

To add insult to injury on my not seeing anything. My buddies would hunt the same spots on different days and see deer. But it wasn't just deer I was not seeing, I wasn't seeing anything other than tweedy birds. I got picked to log all wildlife I saw while archery hunting. For all of October and November, when the survey ran, I believe I saw a grand total of 6 squirrels and 1 cat. That's not 6 squirrels in one day. That is 6 squirrels over about 2 dozen outings. 1 squirrel every 4 times out. And absolutely nothing else. No turkeys, no raccoons, no foxes, no other critters of any kind. It got quite discourage to grab the log sheet practically every day and check that I didn't see anything.

The only yay was my wife had a lot of fun duck hunting. While she didn't get any shooting, we had a pretty good amount of action the 4 or 5 times she came out with me. One day we had about 20 wood ducks over the course of about 2 hours buzz us in range. I would have maybe shot twice if I was trying (I had my gun, but it was all about her) because they came out of nowhere and were moving so fast. It was exciting. The other times we saw ducks or geese and had a few almosts to keep it exciting.

However, the season is not quite over. I'm on the fence of going goose hunting. I'm in Illinois and we got a few inches of snow, but none of the lakes are frozen. Will that move geese to the cooling lake? I doubt it. I think I'm going to drive down to the clubhouse and check the logs today. About a half dozen pits were hunted this morning (we can check remotely what pits are signed out and who is in them). I'm think I will drive down and if they had any luck I'll go. If they all scratched, I'm not up for sitting in a blind all day hoping today is finally the day my luck changes.

I did a Maine sea duck trip. The trip was great, but as far as the actually hunting. The third and last day when we packed up, the guide said "you all are snake bit." Not exactly the hunting we were hoping for on our most expensive trip to date. For the most part my season has been snake bit.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Wed Jan 25, 2023 2:21 pm

SpinnerMan wrote:This was my worst season ever. The Nays dominated. I love hunting and being in the outdoors. I don't need to get a lot to be happy, but my season was so bad, I really had a hard time not bitching towards the end of my archery season.

The biggest nay was my deer season. I deer hunted a lot. I saw exactly one deer while in my stand all season (saw maybe 5 walking in or out). That one deer was a nice buck that I shot and lost after hitting it where I was 100% sure I had a dead deer. After leaving for 2 hours, 5 hours later (7 hours after I shot him), I am pretty certain he was still alive. I actually had two things pop up in my feed that emphasized how unlucky I was. One was a video of a guy shooting a buck that I'm sure he hit it almost exactly where I did and you can see blood pumping out immediately. I found about 10 drops of blood total. The other was a guy that tracks hit deer with his dogs. He had a diagram that showed lethal (recovered) and non-lethal shots. My arrow was in an area that showed 100% recovery.

To add insult to injury on my not seeing anything. My buddies would hunt the same spots on different days and see deer. But it wasn't just deer I was not seeing, I wasn't seeing anything other than tweedy birds. I got picked to log all wildlife I saw while archery hunting. For all of October and November, when the survey ran, I believe I saw a grand total of 6 squirrels and 1 cat. That's not 6 squirrels in one day. That is 6 squirrels over about 2 dozen outings. 1 squirrel every 4 times out. And absolutely nothing else. No turkeys, no raccoons, no foxes, no other critters of any kind. It got quite discourage to grab the log sheet practically every day and check that I didn't see anything.

The only yay was my wife had a lot of fun duck hunting. While she didn't get any shooting, we had a pretty good amount of action the 4 or 5 times she came out with me. One day we had about 20 wood ducks over the course of about 2 hours buzz us in range. I would have maybe shot twice if I was trying (I had my gun, but it was all about her) because they came out of nowhere and were moving so fast. It was exciting. The other times we saw ducks or geese and had a few almosts to keep it exciting.

However, the season is not quite over. I'm on the fence of going goose hunting. I'm in Illinois and we got a few inches of snow, but none of the lakes are frozen. Will that move geese to the cooling lake? I doubt it. I think I'm going to drive down to the clubhouse and check the logs today. About a half dozen pits were hunted this morning (we can check remotely what pits are signed out and who is in them). I'm think I will drive down and if they had any luck I'll go. If they all scratched, I'm not up for sitting in a blind all day hoping today is finally the day my luck changes.

I did a Maine sea duck trip. The trip was great, but as far as the actually hunting. The third and last day when we packed up, the guide said "you all are snake bit." Not exactly the hunting we were hoping for on our most expensive trip to date. For the most part my season has been snake bit.

Just for the hell of it take a crack at them random wood ducks or perhaps focus on decoying and hunting them that way. They're not hard to call.
In Arkansas the first split I get many opportunities and the kids down there treat it like a dove hunt and blast away at them. The duck commander wood duck call is easy to.use and effective.
If it wasn't for wood ducks this year I'd have only shot 8 ducks. Killed a lot of rainbow teals.
I'm surprised at how few I miss.
;)
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jan 25, 2023 3:00 pm

Ricky Spanish wrote:Just for the hell of it take a crack at them random wood ducks or perhaps focus on decoying and hunting them that way.

The key part of that was I was hunting with my wife. I was not the least bit concerned about shooting. It was all about her and trying to get her her first duck. She's got a few geese. If I was alone or with a buddy, as I said, I would have taken some cracks. But just a couple because they were so low and so fast and we are surrounded by brush, most were just visible for a short time and were not in view long enough for even a snap shot. None for my wife who is very slow getting the gun up and shooting.

BTW. That's how I get most of my wood ducks. Snap shots at birds buzzing by. I'm actually pretty good at that and have killed a decent number.

As far as decoying, we are hunting from fixed blinds set in locations best for mallards. If I was free to hunt where I wanted I would set up where the wood ducks want to be. For the most part these are birds passing through on their way south. They like to tuck back in the many little corners of our property and they buzz around while they are there. They are flying below the tops of the brush so you don't see them until the last second as they buzz by. They are not feeding on our flooded strip mine property. They just like to use it as they pass through and we do have a decent number that nest on the property too. I have had some response from a wood duck call, but for the most part they just do what the hell ever they want.

Ricky Spanish wrote:In Arkansas
You are hunting where they are feeding. I really think most of them are just stretching their wings and not interested in anything but the joy of a fly around or maybe just nervous nellies that jump from one tucked away corner to another. On the rare occasion we see them above the tree tops, you have a decent chance of them decoying to your mallard call. I'm assuming those are birds that just arrived and are looking for somewhere to put down. They either feed on the duck weed that is in the many little corners of our club and not in the more open water our blinds are on or they fly off the property to get acorns or whatnot since there is not a lot to eat on a strip mine with the shoreline lined with buckthorn. But all the protect like coves and pockets on our property does provide them tons of security to roost. I have several spots if we didn't have to hunt from a specific blind I would toss my half dozen woody decoys.

Occasionally you will get some to decoy as pretty as can be, but it is rare. 15 years of hunting in this spot, I've tried just about everything. Not a lot you can do when you rarely see them more than 40 yards out and they are going full speed.

When I see one heading fast towards another blind, I give a quick quack on my duck call so the guys in the blind look my way and hopefully see them coming. I've gotten a few that way in the past where others gave me a heads up.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Wed Jan 25, 2023 3:24 pm

That's 2021.
2022 hardly any.
You'd think I'd be finding acorns in their throats but nope.
The eating part happens at night in rice fields.
Hard to believe it but that's the way it is and has been since the first time I went there. They prefer rice and dining at night.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jan 25, 2023 9:12 pm

SpinnerMan wrote:However, the season is not quite over. I'm on the fence of going goose hunting. I'm in Illinois and we got a few inches of snow, but none of the lakes are frozen. Will that move geese to the cooling lake? I doubt it. I think I'm going to drive down to the clubhouse and check the logs today. About a half dozen pits were hunted this morning (we can check remotely what pits are signed out and who is in them). I'm think I will drive down and if they had any luck I'll go. If they all scratched, I'm not up for sitting in a blind all day hoping today is finally the day my luck changes.

5 pits hunted and only 1 goose. My season is over. :(
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:43 am

Back to wood ducks.
They fly by and it happens so fast that they're gone before you even touch the safety. Right?
It takes faith but those zingers are callable and with as few as two wood duck decoys you can land them and swat away like Phil admits doing.

Line em up if u can.
It's not impossible .
You might get lucky.
I aint ashamed to admit it but I'll swat a wood duck if given the opportunity.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Deltaman » Thu Jan 26, 2023 8:49 am

.....in a heartbeat! A head shot bird sure eats better too!!!!!
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so"
Mark Twain
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby SpinnerMan » Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:07 am

I wish we could bring guests. I would be happy to let you try and maybe I would learn something I wish I learned 15 years ago.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Duck Engr » Thu Jan 26, 2023 11:44 am

Anotherone wrote:What worked and didn’t work for you this season?
Yays: Oxyvan waders, 3 seasons with no leaks and cheap too.
Browning Silver, it went bang when asked.
Higdon pulsator worked for the 3rd season as advertised.

Nays: Amite River swamp, very few birds.
LA east zone duck season split didn’t do diddly squat.
GM 5.3 liter V8 is an oil burner, bring back the 350 or get out the game.


They say next year will be a barn burner. Lol!
Wholeheartedly agree on the 5.3. Thing sucks. Had to buy a new engine for my truck at 132k miles.


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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Anotherone » Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:18 pm

That’s wonderful, I’ve got 131k on mine right now. Lol.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Darren » Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:37 pm

Anotherone wrote:That’s wonderful, I’ve got 131k on mine right now. Lol.


Had over 150K on my '04 suburban with that engine, ran like new. Also had a '12 Tahoe with same engine, no issues to 100K miles then sold it.


Was a big fan of our new marsh blind this year, was worth the work it took to get it into such a remote place.
Hoping to expand our hunting to better take advantage of nearby public land that's massive, and low-pressure (believe it or not). So we're high on this bayboat-duckboat concept for Fall 2023 as we've got a lot of water to cover, and the more we cover, the further from crowds we can get.

For field hunting next year, seems we've got ourselves talked into trying the grass panels that came with the new pit last year we've not installed yet. Really could improve our cover, and will help conceal kids' movement as they're more likely to be accompanying us in years to come.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:38 pm

Anotherone wrote:That’s wonderful, I’ve got 131k on mine right now. Lol.

Not sure of the details or year but the buick century with a v6 would blow up at 60k.
It was planned that way.
Used to have engineering material science books that were all about that sort of thing. They burned nicely..

Oh. We're bitching about trucks now?
My tick tick exhaust leak sounds fucking badass now im leaving it rawr.

Suppose you could buy anything you want....
I know a guy that has a ford that says Revnor, not raptor, on it and nobody knows what the hell it is.
What the hell?
It's a bad looking truck I want one
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Anotherone » Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:54 pm

There are no cheap trucks anymore, seen Ford wants 40k for their little maverick (well equipped). I may be putting another motor in my raggedy ass Z71 soon?
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Thu Jan 26, 2023 2:27 pm

Anotherone wrote:There are no cheap trucks anymore, seen Ford wants 40k for their little maverick (well equipped). I may be putting another motor in my raggedy ass Z71 soon?

Mine has 114k, steers straight, shifts, and the 4x4 actually works but I want a BIGGER truck so I can buy a slide in and just show up like cousin Eddie on national lampoon.
I tried sleeping at Chad's yard. New years eve. It sucked.
Every 12 minutes the dogs would raise hell then at 12 they came out an got loud. Then again at 2.
Dogs finally shut up an it's time to go.
Tried that rv but it has a CO detector.
If the batteries aren't fully charged the damned thing beeps every 60 seconds to alert you that it's not working.
Sleep was not gonna happen there.
Put that under nay.
Sleeping on the fuge is super quiet.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Sat Jan 28, 2023 5:54 am

By isolating myself on a NWR I tend to miss stuff like this but might hear about it at the boat ramp.
Remember the reelfoot shooting? I heard about it at bodock from a game warden.
I wish I'd missed this one.



What usually happens is a group of well informed guests get me cornered and drop the news described poorly.
I step right into the shit because it's a setup.
Duck hunters are assholes you know? Every single one of us. I end up saying something I should not have and hear about it for a year or two.
Why? Lying and manipulating dumbass ppl is fun I guess.
Get your wings?
Oh heck no they're installing horns and a tail.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby don novicki » Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:43 pm

Happy that all of my vintage gear has held together and in working order for this season. I doubt I'll ever buy anything else ever again although I may look at one of those seats that Divebomb sells so I don't have to lay flat anymore. Other than that most stuff would have worked if we ever got an influx of ducks like we once did....
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Sat Jan 28, 2023 4:12 pm

don novicki wrote:Happy that all of my vintage gear has held together and in working order for this season. I doubt I'll ever buy anything else ever again although I may look at one of those seats that Divebomb sells so I don't have to lay flat anymore. Other than that most stuff would have worked if we ever got an influx of ducks like we once did....

I've thought about pissing the wife off by ordering a dozen Dakotas.
We visited yankeegray July 3rd 2021.
The wives got chummy and his wife asked me "how many decoys do you have?".

I thought a minute and said , "not enough".
:lol:
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Anotherone » Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:49 am

don novicki wrote:Happy that all of my vintage gear has held together and in working order for this season. I doubt I'll ever buy anything else ever again although I may look at one of those seats that Divebomb sells so I don't have to lay flat anymore. Other than that most stuff would have worked if we ever got an influx of ducks like we once did....

Did you ever get that Girsan you ordered? If so, how’d it perform?
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Rick » Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:01 am

Other than bullets, the only thing new that saw the field with me this season was a fleece hoody Duluth Trading Co. had on sale for around $20 delivered. Was marketed as around-the-house-lounging wear, and it's thick woolly fleece would be an incredible burr and debris catcher, but what a great layer it made under a hard shell on our "feels like single digit" Christmas holidays.

Didn't wear it more than a few times, but, knowing what I now do, would have paid a whole lot more for it.

Pretty sure Pork Chop ordered some for his clan, and am curious what the North Dakota verdict was?
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:15 am

Rick wrote:Other than bullets, the only thing new that saw the field with me this season was a fleece hoody Duluth Trading Co. had on sale for around $20 delivered. Was marketed as around-the-house-lounging wear, and it's thick woolly fleece would be an incredible burr and debris catcher, but what a great layer it made under a hard shell on our "feels like single digit" Christmas holidays.

Didn't wear it more than a few times, but, knowing what I now do, would have paid a whole lot more for it.

Pretty sure Pork Chop ordered some for his clan, and am curious what the North Dakota verdict was?

Fleece is perfect but you're right about it catches every burr. :lol:
16754300275564269844881083580004.jpg


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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:21 am

Oh. A yay.
This sweater is $130.
L.L. Bean.
Old school waterfowler design from long ago.
Merino wool. It's heavy.
I'd buy another one.
Aunt Betty approved. :lol:
16754304381736867482402779163580.jpg

The shoulder shooting area and elbows are knitted differently than the rest.
With that sweater and a drake shirket over it you're not going to get cold.
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Re: Yays and Nays this past season?

Postby Ricky Spanish » Fri Feb 03, 2023 2:47 pm

Haha...
Put this under neigh. Homo stallions? :lol:
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