Another day at the river

 Really windy yesterday at the river, and the wind was coming from a direction that didn't benefit me. I got to the spot around 10ish got my decoys set up and waited..... Had a couple flocks of geese around but nothing that really wanted to play the game. Then I it... a honk.... I looked all around 👀... but couldn't see th... holy moly, they're flyin' right at me down the river. So I waited and 💥..💥...💥.... 2 dead geese. Then I went home. The end.

Next week's the last week for goose then I'll start to hit coyotes again. Then there's "fix it month" otherwise known as March.

The day started at 3 degrees with -15 to -25 windchill

 Yep, that's how it started and it didn't get any better as the day rolled on. This was Tuesday and with the cold temp's coupled with the high of last week, I again went coyote hunting. The only difference with this week's hunt, is the outcome. Short story short, I called in 4 Eagles, 7 Redtail hawks, and many woodpeckers. I did alot of walking and didn't cut 1 fresh track, but these weren't my best spots, so there's still hope. 

Wednesday I finished my chili, went to the Walmart (again) for some stuff I missed on Monday, and had it in my head to get to my river spot by noon or 2. Well, as you may have guessed that didn't happen. I didn't get there until some time after 3. When I got there I heard geese on the river, so as quietly as a person can on crunchy snow, I snuck down a hill and up the other side to put me in line for a little jump shoot. When I crested the hill I shot 3x's and put 3 geese down.... or so I thought. 1 revived and flew upstream, I lost track of him because I was trying to keep another one tacked down. I hurriedly went up the bank and let 2 more rounds go, then I got the canoe loose and down the embankment to the river. I went around and started downstream, to chase another of the geese. I passed 1 goose floating head down in the river, I knew I could catch him. I paddled downstream a couple hundred yards and could not come up with the swimmer. So, I headed back upstream to gather up the only goose that died where I wanted them to.

When I got to shore in front of where I was hunting. I had a flock of a dozen or so geese lock up and start to come in, until they saw me. If I would've been there when I wanted to, I would've at least had my deke's out and had a really good shot at getting a couple of 'em. 

Anyway, as time ticked on and started getting closer to sunset I heard a lone honk. By the time I saw him he was almost right overhead and doing mach 3. I threw my muff down grabbed my shotgun and let 2 rounds loose. The first was right overhead, with no reaction, the second was one of those bending backwards almost touching the backs of your knee's with your shoulder's kinda shots. HE FOLDED INSTANTLY, I couldn't believe it, it was by far the best/luckiest shot I have made this year. Oh, yeah did I mention it was through the tree tops? Yepper it was....

He was moving so fast he landed on the island in the middle of the river, 

THIS IS JUST A FILE PICTURE FOR REFERENCE.

The island I am talking about is in back of me to the right, covered in snow

I thought there was going to be a need for a follow up shot.... but no, he was ready for me to go over and pick him up. 

I was ecstatic. 

That was the last round I fired, it was a great day.... I need to start being on time....

Chilly

 That was all the talk this week.... it was going to be cold. 

Since my goose hunts were not so productive last week I decided to take advantage of the cold and do some coyote hunting. Of course I started out the day getting to the field late, and I didn't even let it stress me out. I made my first stand and by the time the the 15 mins was up I was feeling the chill. My toes were a little chilly in the 3 degree weather, even though I did layer correctly. Fortunately that was the only time in the day that I got cold. Matter of fact by the time it was 11 am it had warmed to a balmy 15 and I had to shed clothes.

Anyway, I only had 4 stands under my belt when I walked in to my 5th spot of the day. As I was walking in I cut some fresh coyote tracks and followed them since that was the way I was going. I got to the last field set up and started calling, it wasn't 6 min when I saw movement in the brush. I shouldered the gun and looked down the scope and saw the yote come out of the woods at 100 yards. I centered the crosshairs on his chest and squeezed the trigger. He took off like a shot down the field, I chambered another round and sent it..... I don't know if I hit him but he piled up right after the shot. 

He ran over 50 yards..

I've never had a Hornday 50grn V-Max blow up like this, usually it never has an exit hole. I texted my furrier with the pic and apologized about the sewing he was going to have to do.😂

As I was dragging him out I looked back and saw the trail.

He's leaking a little.....
Anyway, I hunted the rest of the day and only saw some deer towards the evening. 

Super fun day. 

Next week I want to get in at least 1 goose hunt... the temps are looking chilly again so I am also going to try and get in another coyote hunt.

SNOW

 That's why I got loaded up and headed to town on Monday, just to wait on snow and geese. I saw a couple early flocks and finally I had a flock that wanted to work. They landed 30 yards from my furthest decoy, needless to say it was too far to shoot. I had hoped they would walk in to visit but that was a bust. The only other trick in my bag was to stealthily get out of my blind and try to reap a goose. I was able to get out of my blind crouch walk to a decoy, that I picked up and put in front of me. Then I started to slowly close the distance on the closest goose. When I was just about in range the rest of the flock freaked out over a bald eagle and picked up. The one I was looking to get stood up, looked around, I took aim and .... bang, dead goose.

So now all I had to do was wait for the snow...... unfortunately all that showed up was sunset. So I got my pic and started putting the spread together. 

one goose on an all day sit..... 👍😎

I went up to get the wheeler and it made the noise nobody wants to hear, you know that reer...reer...reer...reer noise. So I grabbed a sled and headed out to get the spread old school. After I got loaded I tried the wheeler again to no avail, and ended up pushing it into the trailer.

By the way the weatherman was WRONG again, does anyone know the definition of insanity?

So we were supose to be getting some more weather on Wednesday. So, I decided to try my river spot since everything should've be locked up tight by then. I'm not sure how true that was but it looked like everything was froze and the snow did show up off and on during the day, so that was awesome.

 I just don't know where the geese were. I could've loaded the truck with ducks but I only saw a couple flocks of geese and they wanted nothing to do with me. So I watched the ducks and a couple muskrat through out the day but no geese. I did have a nice lunch....

Then a large cup of cappuccino

Then I sat down and waited for the end of shooting, before picking up and heading North.

Couple of good days hunting. 😊

HAPPY NEW YEAR....

And I'm starting out on the wrong foot, no hunting this week because of the warm temps. 

Here's a rundown of my week... starting with Sunday after work. I got out of work and it was again raining hard out of the North. I went and set my traps, got home soaked, went downstairs to hang my clothes and noticed water on the floor. It was coming through a water pipe hole from the kitchen. I went upstairs to the kitchen and found water on the countertop and on the floor. I moved everything off the counter and put towels down then I saw where it was coming from.

 Here's the video

Here's the pics

The water was coming from the PVC pipe.

The leak was really weird it wouldn't just run the whole time, it would run for a minute or 2 then stop for five to ten minutes.

So I called the people who put the roof on and they came out the next day. Come to find out they only have 3 installers, so the people that put my roof on were subs, which makes sense. The other weird thing is I've had this roof on for 2-3 years with no issues, but with the North wind and hard rain the chink in the armor was found.

So that was Sunday night.... Way to go... 💜VIKINGS💛 🙌

Monday I checked my traps and had a grinner. Tuesday I did many of my to do list tasks.

Today I went and checked and pulled my traps, we've got a cold snap comin' in and everything's going to freeze up.

COME ON WINTER

Got couple more days of duck season and goose should start to get hot the colder it gets. 

I'm ready.