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Hi Guys,
went out duck hunting this evening. this was flight shooting on the banks of the river Ancholme in north lincolnshire. The Ancholme is a tributary of the river Humber, one of the biggest esturies in europe. The area of the ancholme valley is really very flat what is termed "carr" land. it is pretty open and taken with cereal growing. there are very numerous dykes and drains criss crossing it. on the fields in the winter there are normally large floods and many acres of shallowly flooded fields. This winter is no exception. the piece of river is a dead straight bit, man has messed with the course and now it is straight as an arrow and on the side i shoot it has a shuttered edge. it is around 20 yards wide, steady flowing and about 5 feet deep. running parrallel to it on my side is a drainage dyke about 30 yards away. this has a bit of water in it and ducks like it. The ducks tend to flight up the river in the evening from thier roosts on the Humber tidal mud and go inland to feed on the flooded fields. However we have quite a haar frost today and most of the fields were frozen.
I gave my buddy richard a ring and off we went. i had with me Daisy my 5 yr old brown labrador. my miroku mk70 sporter gd 3 shotgun and an assortment of cartridges. for duck flighting i tend to use eley grand prix hi velocity bisimuth in uk 5 shot. Multi chokes at half and 3 quarters. before the lead ban i used to use whatever 32gr 5 shot game cartridges were cheapest. those bisimuth are £20 per 25 ($30usd).
As we drove down in the trusty ford focus hatch back i saw most of the floods were frozen, this is not good news! however as we parked i could see great clouds of hundreds of teal swirling over the river. every now and then they were punctuated by the direct and purposeful flight of pairs and trios of mallard.
Daisy knows the deal now. she can tell the difference between ducks and other birds and she was whining with excitement as she could hear the piping teal.
We loaded up as we approached the bank and crept to the edge. as we stood up there must have been 2-300 teal on the river. they lifted i swung the gun up, missed the first bird and killed the second in the air. Richard also openned his account. Daisy made the first retrieve with great gusto, she was less pleased to go in the freezing water the second time but did.
following this retrieve a great pack of teal came down the river. i took one bird and it landed on the ground some 60 yards away. i marked it for later.
A skien of greylags passed tantalisingly close at about 50 yards. Daisy was disgusted i didn't shoot at them!
a pair of mallard were next up, they came on at 20 yards up and 30 yards out at top speed. Again the miroku swung up, gave them a good lead and took a left and right at them. richard took a teal that was sneaking in from behind. daisy again made the retrieves. by now she was cold. when she got out her teeth were chattering!
we bagged a couple more teal and another left and right, this time at wigeon followed for me. It was time to go. We could hear ducks flighting all round! but just could not see well enough to shoot. daisy picked up the bird i had marked earlier, turns out it was a runner. It was bought to hand alive and then dispatched.
so It was a good outing, we walked back to the car and chatted before towelling daisy down and packing up with a heavy game bag and a light heart. It was the last day of our inland wildfowling season today, we have another 3 weeks on the coast below the high water mark.
sorry no pictures.
went out duck hunting this evening. this was flight shooting on the banks of the river Ancholme in north lincolnshire. The Ancholme is a tributary of the river Humber, one of the biggest esturies in europe. The area of the ancholme valley is really very flat what is termed "carr" land. it is pretty open and taken with cereal growing. there are very numerous dykes and drains criss crossing it. on the fields in the winter there are normally large floods and many acres of shallowly flooded fields. This winter is no exception. the piece of river is a dead straight bit, man has messed with the course and now it is straight as an arrow and on the side i shoot it has a shuttered edge. it is around 20 yards wide, steady flowing and about 5 feet deep. running parrallel to it on my side is a drainage dyke about 30 yards away. this has a bit of water in it and ducks like it. The ducks tend to flight up the river in the evening from thier roosts on the Humber tidal mud and go inland to feed on the flooded fields. However we have quite a haar frost today and most of the fields were frozen.
I gave my buddy richard a ring and off we went. i had with me Daisy my 5 yr old brown labrador. my miroku mk70 sporter gd 3 shotgun and an assortment of cartridges. for duck flighting i tend to use eley grand prix hi velocity bisimuth in uk 5 shot. Multi chokes at half and 3 quarters. before the lead ban i used to use whatever 32gr 5 shot game cartridges were cheapest. those bisimuth are £20 per 25 ($30usd).
As we drove down in the trusty ford focus hatch back i saw most of the floods were frozen, this is not good news! however as we parked i could see great clouds of hundreds of teal swirling over the river. every now and then they were punctuated by the direct and purposeful flight of pairs and trios of mallard.
Daisy knows the deal now. she can tell the difference between ducks and other birds and she was whining with excitement as she could hear the piping teal.
We loaded up as we approached the bank and crept to the edge. as we stood up there must have been 2-300 teal on the river. they lifted i swung the gun up, missed the first bird and killed the second in the air. Richard also openned his account. Daisy made the first retrieve with great gusto, she was less pleased to go in the freezing water the second time but did.
following this retrieve a great pack of teal came down the river. i took one bird and it landed on the ground some 60 yards away. i marked it for later.
A skien of greylags passed tantalisingly close at about 50 yards. Daisy was disgusted i didn't shoot at them!
a pair of mallard were next up, they came on at 20 yards up and 30 yards out at top speed. Again the miroku swung up, gave them a good lead and took a left and right at them. richard took a teal that was sneaking in from behind. daisy again made the retrieves. by now she was cold. when she got out her teeth were chattering!
we bagged a couple more teal and another left and right, this time at wigeon followed for me. It was time to go. We could hear ducks flighting all round! but just could not see well enough to shoot. daisy picked up the bird i had marked earlier, turns out it was a runner. It was bought to hand alive and then dispatched.
so It was a good outing, we walked back to the car and chatted before towelling daisy down and packing up with a heavy game bag and a light heart. It was the last day of our inland wildfowling season today, we have another 3 weeks on the coast below the high water mark.
sorry no pictures.
