Chasing ditch parrots

For a lot of years growing up it was a tradition to go hunting the morning of Thanksgiving. Some years would be a duck hunt, but most recently we would all go to a local pheasant farm. This year we went to an extended pheasant area and tried chasing wild pheasants ... sort of wild anyway. They do a youth hunt where the DWR releases a bunch of farm raised birds and youth hunters have the opportunity to shoot them, and adults are not allowed to carry a gun. Youth hunters don't kill all the birds, so we went after the leftover birds. We walked a long ways, and were about to turn back when we finally saw a little sign in the snow. I said let's go another 100 yards. Famous last words. We really got to where we were going to turn around and Samantha and Shane went around to the bottom of the draw. Me, my dad, Martin and Joe were going to come down the draw and hopefully push something out. Right before we dropped into the draw I notice that everyone but me has their gun over their shoulder and I think to myself, "if a pheasant flushes up, I'll be the only one who can get a shot". You guessed it, not even two minutes later up comes a rooster. I shot and winged it. Bo took after the bird, but he is definitely not as quick as he once was, and that bird probably ran for miles before he stopped. We made a valiant effort to find the pheasant, but it didn't happen.

I truly have mud in my blood and would rather chase ducks over really anything else, but once or twice a year I have to get my shorthair out and let him run. I thoroughly enjoy watching him work and try to find a pheasant, but he is slowing down and the arthritis is going to make him sore for a couple days. Even though he will be sore, you can tell that Bo loved every minute of the hunt. On the way back I noticed that my 10 year old shorthair was still hunting (not ranging as far as when we first left the truck), and my 18 month old lab was by my side.

Duck hunt

The duck hunt in Utah has started. The opener found us on a public WMA. There was 5 of us that went and we were the first ones to start out onto the pond, but was passed by a canoe that was rowing faster than I was. We got setup and had a couple hours to spare before the 8:00 a.m. start time. We watched a lot of birds fly by before we were able to shoot. And true to a Utah wma opener we had two groups set up on either side of us about 70-100 yards away. There were only four boats on the pond, and in the mile and a half of shoreline there were 3 boats within 150 yards of each other. We ended up shooting a bunch of ducks, and a mixed bag too. My father-in-law came and has not hunted where there were a lot of ducks in the area so I think he really enjoyed seeing all the birds. We had a coot come in right at about 8:00 and one of the other guys told my father-in-law it was his duck and he shot it not knowing it was a coot until we all started laughing. Two of us ended up with a full limit and the other 3 ended up with 3 or 4 ducks a piece (plus a couple coots). We shot a pair of canvasbacks, and a pair of redheads, and some widgeon, mallards, teal and spoonies. It was a great hunt, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I'll make sure and get some next time.

Colorado

A week ago Thursday we (me, Andrew, my dad and Matt) headed to Colorado to hunt deer with muzzleloaders. We left after Karen's wedding, which put us on the road about 9:30 p.m. After a stop in Wellington for a pitstop we made it to Grand Junction and stopped at Wally World to get our tags (where else is open during the middle of the night?) We left Grand Junction about 2:30 a.m. and made one more stop in Rifle to top off the fuel and fill up all our coolers with ice. We had a lot of empty coolers with high hopes of bringing home four deer.

We rolled in to camp about 4:30ish and we unloaded the four-wheelers, changed to some warmer clothes, had breakfast and headed out to find some deer. I don't remember the last time I pulled an all nighter, but it's been a while.

Andrew, my dad and myself spread out along a ridge, and Matt went to look in a different canyon. I didn't see any deer right away, and wasn't overly motivated to sit there real long since I was tired, so I called Andrew on the radio and he had some good bucks in his spotting scope. It turns out 3 were "shooters" and one we named the elkhorn buck because on side of his antlers looked like an elk antler. We watched them until they bedded down, and then went back to camp. I layed my pad out on the trailer and slept for a while, but not long enough. We got settled into camp and proceeded to shoot our guns to make sure they were as accurate as a muzzleloader can be.

I hadn't planned on hunting, and wasn't going to until the day before we left when we found some affordable land owner vouchers. I do not own a muzzleloader (yet) and so MaCade let me borrow his. Turns out MaCades muzzleloader shoots #11 caps and everyone elses shoots #209 shotgun primers. I only had 4 caps and 2 misfired while trying to sight in the gun. Umm, now what? I have 2 caps left and then what? I started asking people if they had any extra caps I could use. There were 2 guys camped just down the road from us who said they were shooting #209's and didn't have any #11's. I ran into them later and they had some! They were going through thier bag and found some #11's from years ago when they shot them. What a life saver. I was able to shoot the gun, and had enough primers to sling some lead at a deer if the opportunity was there.

We found the shooter bucks Friday night and we all were asleep before 9:00 with dreams of shooting big bucks in the morning. We were glad we drove all night and found those deer.

Saturday morning we find the group of deer the "shooter" bucks were in...but only on the shooter bucks was there. Now what? We decided to wait on chasing those deer to see if we could find the other shooters too.

I found a buck that I chased through the brush, and he presented a quick shot, but I felt like I would have been trying to force the shot, so I didn't take it.

Saturday night found Matt and Andrew in the area of the big bucks, and my dad and myself watching across the ridge. I saw 3 bucks in the bottom, one of which I would've shot, but didn't know if it was quite big enough for Matt or Andrew. A little bit later, Matt spotted the bucks, and ended up shooting the bigger of the three. A 20" 4 point with good forks. A good buck, but not as big as we had hoped for or as big as we had seen.

Sunday found us glassing again and riding some of the roads. We didn't see as many bucks, but Matt found some good ones in the late morning. They were really skittish, so we didn't make a push to get on them. We would try later that day. Later that day, they didn't come out of the thick aspens, so we weren't able to get on them.

Monday found us riding the roads and glassing. The deer were getting fewer and farther between. We starting pushing the draws and after pushing several where we didn't see a deer, we found one that had a couple bucks in it. We had one buck, that all three of us had in our sights, but he was on a full run. Had he slowed down or paused, we could've had a shot. Such is hunting I guess. We had another come out, but it was too thick to get a shot. Monday evening we split up and I saw a bull elk chasing 2 cows, and by chasing, I mean he had them on a dead run. It was definately cool to see that. I got back to camp to find out Andrew and dad found a 4 x 6! That got us excited. They had tried to get on him, without spooking him, but ran out of daylight. We were there first thing Tuesday morning, but it was foggy and you couldn't see 100 yards, which makes it hard to find deer. Andrew and I were sneaking through the brush and cut some tracks from that morning of a big deer. We followed the tracks easily because it had rained Monday night. They went right over the fence to the area that we can't hunt! I guess they don't get big by being stupid. We rode the roads in that canyon for a little bit, and I was able to get a shot at a 3 point, but missed.

It was a lot of fun, and the best part was the people I was with. We saw a lot of big bucks, we just weren't able to get on them. I think next year we will be more aggressive earlier in the hunt, and next year I hope to have my own muzzleloader.

We ended up with one deer, which was bigger at the end of the hunt when that was the only one shot, and had a great time. I am looking forward to going next year.

Here are a few pictures from a recent fishing trip.

A day of firsts

Samantha shot her first duck!

I shot my first banded duck!
Here is Martin and Samantha with the days birds.

We ended up with a couple gadwalls, ringnecks, a golden eye, and a greenhead. We won't talk about the birds that we "should've" had.

I was telling Martin that I am going to start saving my pennies and get either a Benelli Super Black Eagle II or the Beretta Extrema II. He let me shoot his gun (a Benelli) so I could put a few shells through one in the field. Well... I think I will be getting the Benelli if it brings me the kind of luck Martins did. The first duck I shot was banded!! That's a pretty good sign if you ask me.

On a side note Guage is having a really good year. He has retreived 53 ducks to date, and I didn't even hunt him until after Thanksgiving.

New Calls

One of my good friends Rene made these calls for me a while ago, and I finally picked them up on Thanksgiving. They are good looking calls! I don't know if I will be able to take them in the field because they look so good.

Duck Hunting

Saturday we went out and had a great shoot in the morning. The big storm rolled through and the first hour of shooting was a barrel melter. I think that we had 9 or 10 ducks by the time it slowed down. I was not in the boat much because I was out chasing ducks with Guage. I ended up with 2 green wing teal, a drake widgeon, and a gadwall. I think at the end of the day we ended up with 16 ducks between four of us.

The picture below (which didn't turn out very good) is from today. Justin and I went for a walk and I was hoping to find a little more open water than we did. We ended up jumping two gadwalls and a teal, and then a drake ringneck. The ringneck was in a little bit of open water and he was crippled and not going anywhere fast, so I finished him off. The ringneck is in the freezer as part of my growing collection of birds I would like to mount.