A Clean Gun is a Must

So here we are lyin' in a field, anxiously awaiting the nightly feed.  The first bunch that came hard were 3 snows and a blue.  Take 'em, Boom, Boom, Click, Cycle, Boom, Click.  This was followed by a few choice cuss words, and dropped just one when they were all at about 8 yds.  Cycled the feather duster a few times making sure it was ready for the real show to come.  Here comes the show.  About 9 Can's charging hard and dropping air.  Take 'em.  Boom, Boom, Click, Click, Boom, Cycle...Too late to even fire.  A guy can't say enough about keeping one's feather duster clean.  Could've at least had a can of Rem Oil.  Two guys ended up with a Snow and 2 Can's for an hour and a half field hunt Wednesday night.  With a properly functioning firearm a two man limit should have been easy.
Went to the Ditch Thursday morning and manged just one Mallard.  That's all the we saw.  The incoming weekend weather should push the remaining amount of birds from the North.  South Dakota has Sat Sun Monday night temps -7, -14 and -18 with snow forecast two of the three days.  This will probably be the last push of the season.  We are gonna stick it out one more morning Sunday before we call it quits for the season at the Ditch.

That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits.

Mallard Fest

I must start by saying that there is good news to report.  The lost dog is found.  After 3 days of being gone, turns out he was lying the field he was hunting waiting for his owner to come get him..  He was lying there barking and the house right by the field heard him and called.  There he was lying there looking around as if nothing happened.  Except for being a bit hungry, all is well. 
On to hunting.  Not much going on in the way of North the South duck movement.  There are still concentrations of birds in Southeastern South Dakota and they have had no reason to move.  We hunted the Ditch last Thursday and saw 7 workable ducks and shot one.  We arrived a bit late and was moving and setting decoys as 6 of the 7 were trying to land on our heads.  There was a gaddy floating around just before we jumped in and we took him.  That's all she wrote.  We have just two weekends left and this season of duck hunting is over.     
In light of the lack of action we decided to hit the road and try out our scouting scopes.  We managed to find a field to jump in for an afternoon of what we hoped would be mallard fun.  We hadn't really gotten into a bunch of Mallards this year so when we found a field we aggressively tracked down the owner and got our permission.  Somewhere west of the Mississippi, East of the Rockies and North of the Mason Dixon Line we set up.  Didn't take long and we had our first group.  They didn't like something and we adjusted the spread.  Our second group came and were working nicely in when "boom."  A shot fired from one of the lay downs, without warning or words, and one Mallard was in the bag, despite the fact the other 15 or so were closely behind. After a bit of razzing and wondering we decided that worse case was we were gonna leave with 1 in the bag.  The skunk factor was gone.  You know when you haven't pulled the trigger on a Mallard all year you get a bit itchy.  We had large groups and small groups, 5 to 250 working over us for a solid 2 hours.  We packed up with 19 in the bag, 17 Mallards and 2 Pintail, and were not in the least bit disappointed.  There is still time to finish off the season, if you put in a bit of leg work and polish your beggin' skills. That's all for now.  Check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits.

Emergency - Lost Dog - Then Report

While out pheasant hunting (don't hold it against him) a friend of mine had his 9 yr old lab either drop in the field or run off.  We are all hoping he ran off, although he's never done that before.  The general area where the Yellow Lab named Chief was hunting was by/around the following places.  About 2 miles West of Brian Elliots house and 1 mile South.  Around Silvercreek Kennels, Gil's and Chatt's.  NW of Galls Lake.  I'm sure everyone familiar with the area knows "about" where this is.  If anyone sees him, again his name is Chief, yellow lab 9 years old average build.  Please shoot us an email if he happens to show up at your place, or you see him running around.  Thanks to all.  Hopefully he shows up.

Managed to get a couple warm bodies into the Ditch around 11AM.  They stayed until around 2PM and didn't fire a shot.  A few groups here and there was about all that was seen.  Haven't heard any reports from anywhere else with any major success.  When the winds finally calm, I believe it'll be shootin' time again.  Got and email for Dr Oz and the Boyer Boys;
Well the hunting has been good since our last report. We are getting some geese now. The ducks are decoying and it has been a season to remember. Monday the 29th was a dud till the wall of clouds moved in. The winds  were 22 mph out of the SE till around 11:00 A:M and when it hit it sent decoys flying within an instant we had 25mph North winds. Saw thousands of ducks ahead of the front and more after it got here. The first group came at 10:45 while I was in the decoys fixing some things. So I got to call that group in while on the ground. That was very cool to see fifty mallards work lower and lower from decoy level. The winds were bad news and I knew they would only get one shot in the blind. The lids throw open and they blaze away the birds flair and off they go, gone in a split second. Two Drakes are bagged and I think they did good. We bagged four more Drakes before going to work. So far 138 ducks and 25 geese. Lots of ducks moving south and north in huge flocks. The flocks appear like clouds, quite a sight.
 
Promising report!  I've been looking at Squaw Creek Numbers and the Can's are definitely not there yet and there's nothing left at Sand Lake.  There are still large numbers of birds somewhere between here and South of Sand Lake in South Dakota, they're gonna come and it's probably gonna be quick! Get down and Get Ready!  That's all for now, hope Chief finds his way!

No News

Waiting anxiously by the phone today to hear some news.   With this storm blowing in and the temps dropping, was really hoping to hear something promising.  Obviously the Legends rolled a few up today, and heard another story of one brave sole with 3 or 4 youngsters who hit 13 ducks and a few Can's on the river.  The Ditch was unoccupied and we're hoping we can get a body or two up there tomorrow, but just don't know.  After the lack of phone calls, I'm beginning to wonder if everyone is already getting tired of hunting.   The temps up North have just about froze everything up, other than the river.  Tonight and tomorrow's wind will likely push the rest of the birds South, hopefully we can keep 'em around for a while.  Had a "party" related email that I'll share with everyone.

Burt/Washington County Chapter Sportsman's Night Out! (Most cherished evening where 5 turns into 9, and "remember when" is commonplace)

Friday, December 03, 2010
Tekamah City Auditorium
1315 K St. Tekamah, NE
Tekamah, Nebraska
Doors Open 6:00 PM  (Another email said 5PM, and food at 7PM) Just pick a time that works for you.

Sounds like $25 get you your membership, food and beer.  A pretty good deal!  We hope to be there talking about the latest and greatest and showing off our Muckbottom apparel and gear, along with our full line of duck boats, steel pits, decoys, layout blinds and much, much more.  Come join the fun!  And, if you dress in your Sunday Best (camo) you'll get into a free raffle for a shotgun. 

Action Today

Was a short hunt do to Turkey Day food awaiting but it could've easily been a long day.  Nothing at first light and we were beginning to wonder why we got out of bed so early.  Just about the time breakfast got all fired up, we started seeing birds.  There were quite a few high groups of Can's and a few that we could call at and at least get them gliding.  Didn't get anything to drop in, but we honed our calling skills.  Came home today with 5 ducks.  One Bluebill and 4 Drake Mallards.  Had a group of 5 come dive bombing on us and we coaxed them to about 10 yds, not real sure why our 5 guns only took 4 of the 5 that close, but I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that we face East.  Yes that's right, some genius decided when moving the pit this year, that we should face right into the sun.  Sun or no son it was nice to finally get into a group.  Up to this point we had taken only 2 Mallards for the year. That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits.

Little Ducks Still Pushing?

A whole day spent at the ditch and 3 ducks in the bag.  Didn't have a lot moving, and had bad wind most of the day.  About 2PM the NW wind started blowing and hasn't yet stopped.  Cold, Cold, Cold tonight 14 degrees and up to 30 mph NW winds.  Gonna have a lot of ice Turkey Day AM, hope the water we have open attracts the birds. 
The South Ditch reported a late "good" hunt with 6 ducks.  Included in their bag was 3 Wood Ducks.  Has anyone ever shot Woodies over ice before.  Sure seems late, but that's gotta be good news for those of us hanging on for the Mallards. 
The Sillosocks Gang rolled up 4 Can's and 4 ducks this AM on a quick hunt.  Haven't heard how the evening hunt went.
Other than that, not much to report.  Very little migration today.  Hunting in the morning, it'll be short but hoping tonight's big wind blows some more down. That's all for now. Check back for the latest and greatest.

OMG! WTF!

For all of you with daughters or sons, or perhaps yourselves, the title is some "shortcuts" for texting.  OMG - Oh MY god.  WTF - What the (insert expletive).  A mid morning invite has us begging and pleading to leave work today early. Early as in around 2PM. By then we've put in 6 or so hours, so was it really asking alot?  Turns out it wasn't.  So we're off to lay in a field with the Master on the Grounds and try and shake a few feathers off some new geese that have been spotted in a field just waiting for us to take 'em home for Thanksgiving.  The set up was complete.  Uh Oh, what is that?  3 Trucks driving down the fence line about 70 yds away or so.  They stop, unload what appears to be about 12 Bigfoots and drive away.  We anxiously watch and wonder.  What are they doing?  They park the trucks and walk back to their "spread."  Oh well, a little competition never hurt anyone.  But wait, where are their blinds?  Oh there they are, those fence posts.  What?  They are setting up for skybustin', you gotta be kiddin' me.  So here we are, 200 deeks deep lying in a field the geese have been hitting for 2 days hard, and we got some idiots standing next to fence posts 70 yds away.  Hold on...it gets better.  So the obvious happens, they sky bust our birds away.  Here's the better part...after shootin' time is over, they ended up with one "sailor" about 150 yds from us and about a 300 yd walk across "our" field to get it.  We're pickin' up and this idiot (for lack of a better term, this is a family blog), comes over and asks us if we got any.  We politely say "NO", and he then asks if we'd like the goose he sky busted.  Seriously?  The nerve!  He was basically saying, "Hey, I know me and my buddy's totally jacked up your hunt. I got lucky and knocked one down, do you want it?"   I'm surprised that this great sportsman was still standing as he left us, me I'm not a fighter I'm a lover, but I'm pretty sure the other's with could've rolled this jacker up into a little ball and pissed on him. 

We managed to take some video after the idiots left and after legal was gone.  Some pretty good footage from a camera phone.  And boy those Sillosocks sure look good!  That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest.

Had one comment to share about yesterdays post from a fellow economically sensitive and stimulus backing duck hunter.  Anonymous wrote:
Great blog, I too was in the work trenches. 2 days to go before 4 days off I hope they keep coming and you all can Drop 'em every day.

Only report from the day was from the South Ditch.  4 guys went 5 for 5 on a group of Mallards and rolled out just before noon.  Snow geese and Can's still migrating.  South wind and low sky's will stop them tomorrow, we hope!