Furries

Daytime coon calling
I went for a walk about yesterday and ended up with 3 coon. I did see 7 and had 1 drop back into the tree upon the shot (very sad). I hate losing,wounding,not using, anything I shoot or hook. Anyone who has hunted or fished with me knows that. I'll look for hours for a dove, but there was no getting this coon. I initially thought that the house he was in was open on the bottom. I have called this tree before, so when he came out the hole to his shoulders I let him have it. The sickening thing was he dropped inside the tree and I couldn't get him, short of a ladder, and a long hooked bar.
That was the low point of my day, the high points were the coons that worked for me. The first one I got I had to call to twice. I was set up on another tree and kinda watchin' two trees to my right. Well I looked over about 30 yrds and there was a coon lookin' at me. So I waited for him to go back into the tree and moved to take him. Well he didn't come back out, so I moved on knowing I would be back to call there. The next spot was the coon that fell back in, nuff said there. By the time I got back I set up on the tree the coon was in and started the caller. The sound had only been playing for maybe a minute when this coon comes tearing out lookin' for a fight. Unfortunately ( for him) he ran into a 30 grn 22 mag round.

The second coon was really not wanting to come out. He made it through 5-10 mins of kit in distress, the same with woodpecker/kit distress, and finally after 5 min of brawlin' bandits he came out lookin' for a fight. Bang flop


The last coon didn't pop out a tree I was watching. I had 4 trees in close proximity that I was watching. I would say that within 10 mins of playing the kit in distress I saw him running on the ground heading for one of the trees I was watching. Well he didn't make it instead he came home with me.
All in all I had a great day, did alot of walking, and got some more yote and fox spots. Not to mention the new coon spots I'll be hitting next year.

Coon huntin' last Tues.

Yes I went out, I went up to Mongo for some daytime callin'. Now let me just say, I've been told that coons don't like to run in the snow.
Horsepuckey I saw tracks in soft snow (then) and mud tracks in the harder snow (now). I think what had 'em runnin' was the cold temps for so long followed by the warm temps. Anywho, I did make it out and knocked on 6 or 7 doors.
Nobody was home, or at least they didn't want to come out. So after seeing all the tracks I decided to try some nite time callin'. So I packed up and went home to take a nap.
When I got up at 8:18 pm I still wasn't convinced I would see anything. So I checked the temp and went to the front door and looked outside. COON, right in the front yard just meandering around looking for something to eat. I got excited, ran upstairs (walked fast) and threw on my coon hunting attire. I grabbed my light and call and was off.
I went down to Huntington and made 6-7 stands. Nothing, I didn't even call in a possum or see a set of eyes all night. So, tired and depressed I made it home by midnight, I went upstairs to brush my teeth. I left the light off as I always do, so I can see outside to the bird feeder.
Yep, COON in the back yard scarfing up the birdseed on the ground and eating the leftover squirrel food. It seems the city coons were out and the country coons stayed home.
Anyway that was last week and I'll give her heck this week as well. Hopefully I'll have some fur to show for my efforts.
As you can see I need it so- wish me luck.
Thanks

All good things must come to an end

That's right I'm packin' up all my waterfowl gear 'til next year. I was on my last field hunt for the year yesterday. I knew it was going to be a long day when the clouds cleared off, and the sun started it's ascent to start the day. Needless to say the birds started flying around 2:30, and boy did they ever fly. The bad news was they did not want to fly to my field.
So I started playing with the qwackers. I survived 6 tornadoes and 4 of them actually touched down. I even saw a wood duck and a black duck in one of the tornadoes that came over me.

As a matter of fact I was having so much fun watching the ducks. I didn't see a goose that flew through over the top. Only noticed him after he was already past.

Finally the geese started loosening up from their flight path and one came in from behind me. I smashed him at 15 yrds. So with a poof of feathers, and a snow splash down, I had my first goose. I made a mental note that I would start pickin' up around 5:15. I didn't want to do too much pickin' up after dark. So when 5:00 rolled around I knew it was getting down to crunch time. 5:10 - I had a pair coming from my right to left, right down the runway. I thought to myself, "they're going to work", and they did. When they dropped their landing gear I dropped the trailing goose. I watched him go down after sending 2 shots his way. I jumped up and started out to him, he popped his head up. Ok, here's where it gets stupid, raise shotgun and fire, and again. Unbelievable missed again, so once again it's off to the races. I did do one smart thing this time I put my shotgun down before starting the footrace follies. Well I managed to catch my goose and dispatch him. When I got back to my gun I noticed the chamber was closed. I thought that's odd didn't it eject the spent round? Yeah you guessed it, I had another round in the chamber. I must have loaded up at the blind and just forgot about it. I didn't have to chase that dang goose around, I could've just tried to shoot him again. Well I did end up picking up in the dark anyway, but it's always easier when you have limit to carry out.

Last day limit

Took this pic while picking up. I probably had a thousand geese in the air with at least that many qwackers if not more.

Already lookin' forward to next year.

I would like to say thanks to all the landowners that allowed me to hunt their property this year.

Time for some furry critters.

Blizzard of......GEESE

I am so hated at my job that they decided to give me another day off this week. Of course we all know what I'm going to do with that. Yep, hit the fields for more geese.
Now the bad new was the front was supposed to be showing up around 9 am. So I got out around 7:30 am and started putting out the spread along with the layout blind. I got done just in time to lay back in the blind and watch the snow fall. The toughest thing about field hunting in the snow is: keeping the snow off you face long enough to fall asleep. The second hardest thing is keeping your dekes free from snow. I had to brush off my dekes at least 5 x's during this hunt.

I don't know what time they started flying but they were late, even for geese. The first group that passed within range turned out to be just a bunch of rubberneckers, I managed to cull one out of that flock. I saw a massive flock coming from behind me, no takers. They were passing here and there not really interested in my spread. They pretty much just followed the first flock. I could get'em to bend but not deviate from their course. This is probably a good time to mention the wind settled in and was coming from the wrong direction. It was supposed to be WSW and turned out more ESE. So that means the wind was coming from my right foot over to my left shoulder as I lay there. I did move my dekes best as I could but it was not an ideal situation.

Any way I finally had a flock working the way I wanted. They were working in great and just when they looked like they were going to pass me by and land just behind me. They hooked right in to the kill zone. I took my limit goose with one shot. I started walking up to my prize and he raised his head. So I shouldered the gun aimed high to the head and fired, and fired. Crap goose still not down, foot race me VS the goose. Now take a minute to picture the staypuff marshmallow man running down a goose in the middle of a field. . . . . I'll wait. OK now that your done laughing, I forgot to mention that I tripped did a beautiful shoulder roll, planted my shotgun in the snow, got up and practically tackled that goose. . . . I'll wait again. . . . With my goose in one hand and my frozen snow covered shotgun in the other I walked back to my layout giggling the whole way. Still had a great day, here's the pics

This is pretty much what my spread looked like most of the day. I tried to keep 'em cleaned off but the snow was really comin' down.

There's 44 decoys out there.

First post of 2010

I slept in this morning, got up, ate and made it to the field by 7:30 am. It was kind of a freezing mist kinda morning. I knew I had some time, the geese should fly a little earlier than on a sunny day. It probably took me a half hour to an hour to put out my 44 decoy spread. Once I got the spread ready I settled in my blind and awaited my guests. I'm really not sure when the first flock passed by ( I didn't have my watch) but they didn't want to stop in. So I did what every field hunter does at some point and started hunting with my ears. I heard a honk so I opened my eyes and saw a flock out in front and passing right to left. I started in with the goose music, they weren't sure at first, but all of a sudden they started to swing into the flight path. They committed and were 60 yds out and 10 feet off the deck. At 25-30 yds out they were 5 feet off the deck and I couldn't take it anymore. In my head I heard, "Take 'em" so I did, 3 shots later my limit of 2 geese lay on the ground. So a half hour to an hour after that (10:45 am) I was on my way home to tell you 'bout my day.
Sorry about the pic but I forgot my camera at home. I wanted to take some pics in the field but twas not to be today. I was really warm when I got home so I changed into my house clothes.