Totally sexy and ready for Waterfowl opener

I've been wanting to revise my top to my duck boat for a couple of years. I finally got it designed in my head and put on the boat. The heating and bending on the door frames took some time and was the hardest part. All I had to do after that was sew on the cordura and attach some grass. I have a fixit kit in the boat for the first time out, I know I will find something to improve on.

old top style

frame complete

just a grass island

with a surprise

Oct. 15th is DUCK season...........

HERO'S

That's what we were.
On last day of early goose season three of us entered the field and we left with 5 birds apiece. We started with a quad on the water, when the shot was called, all four were down before I even got a shot. After that the geese came in pairs and trips all morning, until..... The mondo wad showed up, and then it was utter chaos. We were shooting birds, we had birds landing in the decoys and 10-20 birds flocks on the horizon with their minds made up to drop in on us. It was pretty intense for about 15-20 min. then the big flocks moved off and we picked up the bodies.
We were only 3 short, so we decided to wait until 11:20 to try and limit out. In a matter of minutes we had 2 more down, one cripple swimming away to the other side of the pond and trying to make a run for it on land. Weed went to get him on the other side by driving his truck around.
While he was gone Ron and I had one lone goose coming in from over the corn headed straight for us. The funny thing was we were just standing there talking when this guy came in low and fast. As we got down Ron told me to take him, before I could get a safe shot on him he landed. So I had to get up and practically run at this goose to get him to take off. When he did....boom, gravy, so Ron and I started gathering up the decoys and breaking our blinds down. When Weed got back from chasing the goose down he was really perplexed when he saw us gathering everything up. He said ,"don't we have one more?" to which I replied,"nope, shot him when you were gone". So we got everything picked up and got the hero pics taken, and were packing up the trucks when a CO showed up.
Now normally I would've cracked a couple jokes like, "did anyone see my lead shot" or "who gets the extra goose." But something just told me to keep my mouth shut and be respectful, which I did.
This guy was thorough, I mean he checked out our guns which were already cased, our licenses, our shells and our geese.
After we were all checked, he said that the lady across the street had called the sheriff and the CO's to report shot raining down on her house, and also stated that there is no property damage but she was scared to go outside.
I felt bad that she may have had shot hit her house. I also knew that she was far enough that there was no way she could've been hurt by any shot that may have hit her house. We will never know if shot actually did hit her house or if she simply did not want us shooting geese across from her.
After he said why he was there he stated, "I'll be right back with your tickets". I didn't know anything was wrong until right then, apparently one of my buddies just got his license the day before from Meijer and was missing some stuff. He told me he had gone into Meijer and told the sporting goods person that he needed all the licensing to hunt geese. Well the person didn't sell him an IN waterfowl stamp, which he got a ticket for. My buddy also didn't sign across his Federal waterfowl stamp for which he got another ticket. He also forgot to get his HIP number finally catching a break he was only issued a warning. He was in such a hurry to get ready that he just didn't check to make sure his i's were dotted and his t's were crossed. Learn from his mistake and make sure your licenses are correct up to date and you have everything you need to be legal. My buddy neglected to do this and we guesstamated his tickets to be about $300.00. I hope it's not that much but it very easily could be.

Weed-Ron-Me

 

 

Even thought the day ended on a pretty sour note, the last day of season ended well for me with 5 more geese to add to this years total.

The Day Before the Last Day

Went out this morning and had all my decoys set for a WNW wind and I felt the wind change. Yep, the dreaded waterfowlers curse, just when you get your decoy's set the wind switches. So after a couple half spread changes to accommodate the ever changing wind I managed to nail down 2 geese. Mostly singles and doubles today, I only saw one flock of 4. Tomorrow is the last day of season and I just got the invite to my buddy Weeds' cow pond he has permission to hunt. So keep your fingers crossed for me, you can be a hero or a zero at this spot and I hope I get to be a hero.

The day before the day before the last day

I got out this morning and was treated to a fairly strong SW wind. I got set up and got out my radio, to listen to the Bob and Tom show. As I was cranking it (it doesn't use batteries) the crank mechanism gave way, so after a little ingenious maneuvering I figured out how to get it to work, major catastrophe avoided right there.
Well I had 2 geese drop in across the water, I tried to get them to come over but they had no intentions of flying or swimming towards me.
After what seemed like forever I had a goose crossing across the water from me, so I started calling just to let him know I was there. He must of liked what he heard cause he cranked his head hard to see where the calling was coming from. He turned and glided in towards my decoys and just seconds before he landed, I dropped him with one shot. I think I'm getting the hang of my new choke tube.

A break in the action

OK so I finally have some time to sit down and update my blog. I just got off work on time for a change so I thought I would catch you up on the happenings. I have been out hunting 4 days since the first. It would have been more but apparently geese and doves dying don't count as a death in the family. So I was expected to be at work all the normal days and usually over my scheduled work day.
Anyway enough of the boring stuff lets get to the fun stuff.
I got out on the first and didn't see or even hear a goose. I decided to try and get a dove hunt in later the same day and managed to bring home 3.

Huntington's fields didn't fill out this year

I went out again on Labor day and got 2. It should've been a couple more but I got a new choke tube this year and it's taking me a little time to get use to it.(everyone needs an excuse)

The next day I got out was on Wed. (the holiday kinda screwed up my week) I didn't see as many geese on Wed but did get one. I had another land right in my decoys and when I finally had to jump him up he was pretty far out and flying away. (more excuses)
Anyway I didn't get pics or video because it was rainy all day.
On Thursday I went up to Mongo, IN to hunt some doves on their sunflower fields. Now I don't know if it was the weather which was misty, cold, and windy all day. Or if it was because of their sunflowers came in nicely but I saw over a hundred birds flying around. I actually only got 7 and shot better than the national dove average which is 5 shots per bird. I only averaged out 4 shots per bird, but this is the first year I had to shoot steel at doves and that's a whole other ball game. (I gots all kinds of excuses)
That's OK though cause I finally have enough doves to make a meal.

I'm not throwing gang signs, just giving a dove count

 So right now all my gear is drying and my guns have been cleaned and oiled. I'm just waiting for Tues so I can start all over again. I only have 3 more days of early goose season left, and I really would like to get limit one of the days.