Give it another couple minutes.....

 Monday was the late season duck opener, after work on Sunday I headed South to try and find some ducks. I waited 'til sunset and found nothing, if I was going to hunt I would have to put up a Hail Mary. I knew just the property to try, sight unseen. So, I got out well before sunrise on Monday which was suppose to be a rather dreary, dark, cold and snowy day. Fortunately for me all that came to fruition, unfortunately the geese and ducks just didn't see the need to move that much. I had to wait half the day before I heard my first goose, and they were close coming in from behind me. I didn't move, I didn't call I just waited for them to come from my left and give me a shot. They finally started crossing into my view and when they were easy pickins I sat up and dropped 3. I gotta tell ya that's the best way to get woken up, and now with geese on the ground I felt the day was a success.

I stayed out alllll day and instead of waiting until 5:17, I decided to pack it in at 5 so I can get my pics and police my area.

My day would end without a limit or a duck.

Or did it.... while I was taking this pic some geese started to fly and I had a flock doing it right... 

So I did what anyone would do, I checked the time and shot 2 more for limit. Still no ducks but a great way to end a day.

After I got home and got everything put away and the geese cleaned and had something to eat I finally got to bed at 9:43 only to get up at 4am to try my river spot.

My buddy has allowed another hunter and his kid to hunt so this spot is no longer all mine. That being said they were in there when I was in a field on Monday. My first thought was, "well this could be really good or really bad". When I finished setting up and the first half dozen ducks flew over I had high hopes. I was able to pick and choose my ducks I shot 2 drakes then took the next pair a hen and a drake. The first goose I shot was passing just over the tree tops. The next 2 were doing it right and wanted to land right in front of me... turns out that's what they did, just not the way they intended.

Since I had my limit of ducks and 3 geese I decided to cut out early (3:30) and go scout for Wednesday.

 Quite the haul if I do say so mys...HONK

 

Oh no I di on't.....

That goose almost landed on my camera, I think I'm just going to leave my camera set up from now on.

 

The reason this is in so late is because I hunted again today down at the river. It wasn't as good as Tuesday but I didn't leave empty handed.

Funny thing was I was working a goose when this guy just dropped out of nowhere and landed in the decoys. 

Super good week, don't expect much for next week, today made it up to 53 degrees. With those temps the geese can hang out an eat grass, duck closes on Tues. so hopefully I can manage to knock a couple more down. 😁

 

I got geese flying by right now.

Solo Mission

 Yesterday I gave my 2 accomplices enough knowledge to be able to go goose hunting. As it turns out I was the only one in the field, no worries since I got my wheeler I don't dread going by myself. I was getting set up as the sky's lightened, not really early but not really late. I wasn't sure how many geese were in the area but at least I knew there were some. So I got the decoys set and my blind brushed in and laid down to wait on the geese. With the East wind the sounds of the goose chatter was an all day thing. So every time they sounded like they were going to fly I got ready, only to be disappointed. I knew they weren't going to sit all day with the cloud cover but I also knew it wasn't going to be all right in the morning with the mild temps. Well they finally started to get out and try to get some feed, before the oncoming monster storm. I had a 5 pack come in and do it almost right... well right enough to drop 1 and salute another, that didn't fall. On the last shot I heard what no waterfowler wants to hear.... shot bouncing off a shed roof. The neighbor yelled, "Hey", I yelled back "Sorry", and proceeded to walk over to him, some 230 yards by google earth. After smoothing it over with the neighbor who is a country boy and understood, and watching 2 geese fly in to my spread while we were talking, I headed back to try and fill a limit. First thing I did when I got back was rearrange the spread to avoid shooting the neighbor again 3 1/2 BB's go a long way.

The next flock I saw was way out and I started flagging, it was a flock of 25 or so geese and they were pretty high. As they got closer I put the flag down and started talking to them, they responded by starting to drop in altitude. I kept talking but they peeled off and headed back the way they came, so I got on the flag again. After some persuasive flagging up and out of my blind they started to come back. I got back in my blind and started talking to them, they started dropping and circling after the 5th circle the were convinced everything was OK and dropped in, I got 2 of them. So now I was at 3 with only 2 more for a limit. That's when the duck's showed up, they were alot of fun to watch and when 20 of them dropped in my spread I just took pic after pic and even some video which I can't find to download from my phone.

And No it's not duck season... that opens Monday after Christmas. Oh Yeah... Merry Christmas to you.
 

So with only 2 left I thought that would be a slam dunk all I needed was one flock to work and boom, all done. Well that flock took it's time I wasn't worried about them flying, just when, was my concern. I finally had a flock of 7 coming in a little far but still doable. I hit the first one and he went down and missed the next 2 shots 😲. Now we're getting into crunch time I was going to pack it in at 5 even though sunset was at 5:15. Well, I couldn't wait that long because I missed a shot on the next flock that would surely be my last before quitting time. 

So in defeat I started to collect my gear I unload my gun put it in the case turned to start taking my blind down and I hear "honk". I am outside my blind, on my knee's, checking my phone for the time, taking my gun out, opening my shell bag, (the goose lands) and loaded my gun, stood up, moved to my left (so I don't shoot the neighbor again) and shot that goose 😮😲😮     😃 LIMIT 😃. 

All done all that was left was pics and packing up. A day well spent. 😁

This will be short

 Jake and I hunted 2 days on my properties and 1 day on his. We shot 6 geese all off of my property and all in one day. Not a great week but we got geese and had a good time.

I have yet to shoot a limit of ducks or geese, but there's always next week. 

What a week

 Cliff wanted to go pheasant hunting this week, so Monday we hit the fields. We worked until after 1pm and didn't lift a bird, nor did we see one. I take that back we did see one run in front of the truck as we were getting ready to go. We also saw one as we were filling out our property cards, we watched a pheasant walk down the road and slip into the waterfowl resting area😡. It was a nice day and we both got some much needed exercise, albeit I got more than Cliff. 🙊

 After I got home I jumped in the car and headed out to scout for ducks and geese. I found about 150 ducks using one of my fields, as luck would have it the landowner was crossing the road when I was getting ready to go, so I informed him that I was going to hunt in the morning. I got to the field an hour before sunrise for 2 reasons. One I was by myself, Jake couldn't make it, and two I wanted to be set up before the early fliers started. As I was rolling down the access to turn around I happened to notice lights bobbing around in the field. After I got turned around I dropped the door on the trailer and started the wheeler. That's when I saw the trucks creeping along the edge of the woods. I got the wheeler out of the trailer and headed over to talk to the people in the field. Come to find out this guy has permission and just shows up when he wants to hunt👎. With their 2 vehicles parked in back of where I would've set up I decided to just concede and head for the house. On the way I did call the land owner and let them know what happened and that I did not stay to hunt. 2 hours and 65$ later I was back at home and working on some projects 👿. 

It kinda ate me up all day....😠😠👿 

Wednesday I had decided to run over and hunt an area lake. I had one duck come in that I shot at around 8am. I lost track of it when it was flying because there were other ducks in the air. After 10 or so I went down to look for the duck I shot at. I thought I would find it in some reeds that were on that side of the lake, but when I didn't see it I headed back to my spot. The water was really flat and I noticed something on the water, it looked kinda like a big leaf. I kept going towards it because I wanted to see if it was my..... it was, it was my duck whoo hooo not skunked.

Pheasant and Duck

 I did go duck hunting on Monday I waited until 2 but nothing showed. Tuesday I hit the fields for a couple pheasant. I saw 2 only got a shot on this one, but made it count. I shot him right in the morning but stayed at it until 1:30 or as I like to say, "too tired to go on."

Sorry bout the crappy inside on the cleaning table pic but like I said, "I was tired".

Wednesday I didn't hunt because the wind was soo bad. I just got back from this mornings hunt and even though it wasn't a barn burner I did manage not to get skunked.

It was definitely a little cooler this morning (finally) and hopefully next week will be more of the same.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Before I let ya know what happened this week, I just wanna say,"Happy Thanksgiving". I hope you are enjoying a relaxing day of fun and festivities.

Took Monday off to get my house stuff done, forgot ice cream and pumpkin pie..... Anywho Tuesday got up and took my boat for a drive.... when I got to the lake it was hard water. Plan B, I headed home unhitched the boat threw some decoys in the car and headed to sit in a field for couple hours. Since it was past sunrise and headed to be a warm day I didn't have a whole lot of hope in this hunt, but it was better than sitting home. Turns out I could've saved gas and sat home.

Since everything was locked up with no soft water to be found I made plans to head to my river spot on Wednesday. 

I missed.... alot.... I was able to hit 4 ducks- 2 black ducks and 2 hen mallards. I tried to stay and finish my limit but around noon they had pretty much stopped flying. So I packed up my gear and headed home.

Seriously last week of deer season

 Monday I started my hunt for a buck. Jake let me hunt on his property he had quite a few nice looking deer on cam. 

I started the day with a couple doe's and a little 6 chasing them around. After they left I had 2 more yearlings enter the field. That's when my day changed, Jake called me and asked how I was doing. When I told him what I had seen he let me know he had a giant over by him and if I didn't see anything in the next 15-30 minutes to shoot over to the house. 

Well long story short we ended up putting a spot and stalk on this deer. We ended up cresting a little hill and the deer was standing there looking at us. So I did what any idiot would've done, I brought the rifle up and steadied it to the best of my abili.... boom. Miss, deer still standing there chamber another rou... boom. Miss, deer still standing there chamber another roun... boom. Miss, deer walking away need more shells. Jake says,"I didn't think we would need anymore". So he runs the mile back to the house to get more shells while I keep track of the buck. When he gets back we gather ourselves and walk over to where the buck was. He wasn't dead but the doe he was with took off and then so did he..... Complete misses... 😭

List of excuses:

1. Never shot gun before

2. Did not adjust scope for my old man eyes

3. Afraid to move didn't have solid rest

4. First buck I've taken a shot at in years

5. Biggest buck I have seen on the hoof

This picture does him little good Jake says he would've gone 140 and is the biggest deer he's seen in his woods..... and I screwed it up.
 

So, after been completely demoralized I pulled myself together and finished out the day in the panel blind. Having no luck that night, Jake said it was ok for me to hunt the corner woods in the morning. So I got there well before daylight and was still sulking from the miss the day before. When the first deer of the day appeared, a little doe with a big body trailing. It was the he/she buck (antlers completely broke off) if I had my cross bow he would've been dead. I could've tagged him as a doe and kept hunting for a buck. When he went into the woods it was a good hour before I saw the next deer which was a little doe. I noticed some movement behind her and got ready. Sure enough it was a nice 8pt which I really couldn't see I just knew it was a big body and alot of antler. The little doe cruised by me at 40 yards and he wasn't far behind. As soon as I had a clear shot I let him have it with Jake's 6.5 Creedmore. That round just dropped him, he didn't even go 5 yards, game over tagged out.

 By the way after some adjustments I used the same gun to take this deer.

 Free at last, Free at last Oh thank god I am free at last.

Now who's down for some duck and goose?

Last week of deer season?

 Monday started out great with a shot at a nice buck after only 20 minutes on stand. After the shot it looked to me that I had made a good clean shot. So, I climbed down from my stand and went to the truck to get my knife. I got to the last spot I had seen him and immediately found the blood trail and half my bolt. After 20 yards I found the other half of my bolt minus the broadhead. The bloodtrail was pretty easy to follow so I didn't think it would take too long to find the buck. After getting to the end of the property I had permission to track on, I ended up backing out and getting permission to track on the next property. With the landowners permission I went back and continued the search, the property owner even came out to help. After a couple minutes Sheila took point and stopped following blood, she was just kinda meandering slowly looking for a dead buck. An hour or so went by without any good news and with nothing else to follow I had to call off the search. I think I had hit him a little far forward in the shoulder, he bled but I'm pretty sure he made it.

I had kept my buddy Jake up to date with all the goings on of the morning. When I told him I didn't find the deer he told me the neighbor was cutting his corn and I should sit at the pothole. So that's what I did, I got my hunting clothes back on and headed over to sit at the pothole. The pothole is a low spot in the field that Jake has permission to hunt. After only a couple passes they stopped cutting the corn, with only a couple hours til dark I waited it out. With only 15 minutes to go I finally had some 🦌 file into the pothole. When a decent doe stopped and just stared at me, with only 20 yards between us, I was unable to restrain myself. After watching the bolt zip right through her my heart sank, I thought I had made another bad shot. Well, that doe didn't make it 75 yards when she went down in the field. Now that I have a deer at the processor I can mess around and try for a buck. Jake tagged out last week with a nice wide 8 and has been giving me free reign of the property he has to hunt. We just got done pulling the cards for his honey hole property and saw a giant that he's going to try and put me on Monday. So maybe there will be another deer pick after this one..... 🤞

She weighed in at a decent 100 pounds.

Still Deer Hunting

 Yeah no pic, no deer, no end in sight. 

The rut is just starting to kick off, saw some decent bucks chasin' doe's yesterday. Nothing came in close except the one that was under Jake's stand, I tried to get it off my phone but no luck. Anyway the only deer that got close enough was the doe a buck was chasin' of course I waited for the buck to appear, of course he never offered a shot. 

Anywho just thought I would drop this so you know what's goin' on and how I'm doin'. 

Oh yeah my hands are doing much better all swelling is gone as are the bruises. Saw the Doc yesterday and says all is going as planned. 

Yay me.

First goose hunt of the season

 Tuesday Jake and I went goose hunting down in Ft Wayne. The day before there were 50 or so geese in the field, so hopes where high. We got down there and set up around sunrise. I really enjoy this time of year because it's always possible to hunt out of the 🌽.  As luck would have it that's were we were when 4 geese came around from behind us feet off the corn, and they did it right, four came in none left. We only had 5 others come in and they aaalllmost did it right. They locked up and were coming in then picked up a little and missed the kill hole, and landed 15 yards to our right. Jake was to my right and I asked if he had a shot, he said yes so we walked out of the 🌽 and he dropped 2 of the 5. I didn't feel I had a great or safe shot so I saved my ammo. When he was coming back with his geese he asked if I had shot. I said no, then he held up the goose WITH THE BAND. I said WITH THE BAND... that's 2 bands for him off my properties... and a spec, that he had mounted...

After that volley we didn't see another goose so we packed up at 10:10 and headed for Chipolte's for lunch. I was just glad we got some geese and the weather was super nice.

Day 2

 Day 2 of firearms turkey season and Cliff and I were waiting for the fly down a little before 🌄.  As the day got brighter I started to make out clumps in the trees, and one of them was a 🦃 that probably saw us walk in. She didn't act skiddish she preened herself as the rest of the flock started to fly down. Once they started coming out of the woods and filing down the path Cliff and I started to talk shooting. Once he said he was on one and I knew I was on one, I called it and we fired almost at the same time. My bird went down and I asked if he got his, he said yes, I asked where it was and he pointed to..... yep he shot the same bird I shot at. After a brief R U sure, and you shot that bird discussion. I loaded another shell and threw it at an escaping 🦃, clean miss. I only had 2 shells as did Cliff ,he had loaded his last one in his gun. I grabbed his gun and made my way over to the edge of the hill all ninja style. When I saw a 🦃, looking up at me I shot it in the face.

Problem solved, hunt over with a double up on 🦃's.

 Two yearling hens... Mmm tender.

Lost track of time

 Did some hunting this week, nothing good happened but will expand next week.

Another vacation and a very fast summer

 I made the journey home, then to Manitoba this year on the fam's yearly 🦆 hunt. In all there were 8 of us. 

My Dad

jason,Dad,jeremy and les

 his brother Reg, 

jason, lance, jeremy, les and Reg

my 2 brothers Jason and Gerry,

Gerry, lance, Jason

 my cousin Les 

Les

and his 2 sons Jeremy and Lance

Lance and Jeremy

and me. 

Lotsa people going this year we took 2 trucks, 2 canoe's, 3 boats, a side-by-side and 2- 4 wheelers, 

 15 guns, way to many shells and enuff fishing gear to qualify as a 🎣  trip. 

So we all piled into the trucks and headed of to The Great White North with all the sights along the way.

We didn't even make it out of the States when we noticed Les's trailer tire dragging. Turns out the brakes locked up and the only way to "repair" it was to cut the brakes. 😲🙏
Once we got through customs and on the way North to the resort there was plenty more to see.

😲GEESE😲

We stopped for the night at Ashern, Manitoba the motel wasn't quite 4 stars but it was a place to sleep.

he was here before I had a beer when I got back to take my shower he was nowhere to be found. 😳

 We finally got to the resort and then all the work we did to get ready for the trip we had to do in reverse. I think we made it to bed that night around ??? well not really sure.

 The days all blended together but pretty much went like this. Get up at 4am drink ☕ eat a muffin, drive the hour to where we transfer to the wheelers then run 3 miles to where we get into the boats,after a little boat ride get out to our spots, 

Morning #1

 Spot 1

 

 

 

Caution video has Bad Words. 😈 Oops

Spot 2

Trumpeter swans in the set

Spot 3

Spot 4 this spot was so good we were there twice.

hunt til 11am, get back to camp clean ducks have a 🍻, eat and get ready for the next day. Fishing was pretty much the same but we got to sleep in until 6am.

Jacee and I hit something day one fishing so we got towed everywhere. Jace did have his electric motor so we used it to get around once we got to "the spot".

Walleye limits with a couple bonus fish

Tulibee from the day we fished for pike

I almost got 'em all in the pic

 We even tried for some Lakers at the infamous "pump house"

Les was "the net man" on this expedition.... unfortunately we didn't need his skills.

As far as I know we all had a really good time, I know I did.

I'll just drop more pics in and let them do the talking....

We shot alot ducks I have only wanted to shoot until this trip.... 

The list went something like this: Pintails, Widgeon, Ringnecks, Bills, Mallards, Teal, Canvasback, Redheads, Ross Snow Geese, Canadian Goose... and even some Ruffed Grouse. 

The only one I haven't mentioned who needs to be mentioned is Riley the wonder dog. Ya know how some dog owners way over exaggerate a dog's skills? Well, Reg isn't one of them, if anything he focuses on the small imperfections. Nothing bad about that, just is. We didn't get to hunt with Riley until the last day, and let me tell ya all he wants to do is work. We dropped a couple ducks down on our end and Reg sent Riley down to us. Let me tell ya he came down and with very little direction just jumped in and retrieved the downed ducks, in the retrieving world they would've been known as blinds. He did awesome I was really impressed. I had heard of dogs bringing back 2 ducks at a time but I actually got to witness it first hand on this trip. Reg if your reading this pet Riley and give him a couple xtra treats, he did a great job.

Riley picking up the second duck we dropped while he was out getting the first.

And just like that it was time to go.... 

Thanks for all the fun Manitoba but it's time to head south...

Good times.....