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.