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Morning,
i have a quick report about yesrerdays duck hunting trip.
The weather was about freezing and blowing a fresh north westerly. The area i shot was a piece of river bank on the East side of the river Ancholme. On some field adjacent to this it looks like the land owner has created a wildfowl refuge. the ground has numerous shallow flashes and is not cut. I call it duck heaven. Ducks gather there in massive numbers- although less this year because it has been frozen much of the winter. The picture below shows one of 3 fields with the splashes on, this one has been cut, the rest haven't.
The river has been canalised and is dead straight and has planked edges, the dog does not like it much. the next two pictures show views to the north and south along the river.
I was shooting my miroku mk70 gd 3 with 30 inch barrels half and 3/4 choke. cartridges were eley grand prix hi velocity bismuth 5 shot. I had daisy my 6 year old chocolate lab bitch with me.
i initially tried to launch my decoys but ended up in a big plastic duck-paracord-enough to make you swear tangle (i didn't take a picture... swearing doesn't come out very well).
So i just set up on the side of the river and waited for the ducks.
the first action was with a pair of wigeon that had sneaked under the radar (like stealth ducks can) and sat on the water. I turned and saw them, they jumped up, i missed the first bird and wallopped the second at about 40 yards. It dropped into the river, dead as you want. It was a duck wigeon. Daisy retrieved it well.
a few minutes later another pair came high overhead i took a shot at the closest and dropped it overhead. again i sent daisy for it... this was more difficult because she was swimming for the first one at the time of the second bird. However, back she went and retrieved it.
the next piece of action was a pack of tufties flying up the river. they were 2 feet from the surface at about 1000000 mph. there was about 8 of them. I swung the gun quickly and got a left and right at them. they fell 40-50 yards away in the river, again i sent daisy and she went for number 1. She retrieved that and brought it back. One of her flaws is she is not very quick over the ground with a duck in her mouth. That means that when she wnt for number 2 she had to run 100 yards down the bank befor getting in the river and making a great retrieve.
it was time for a coffee.
About 30 minutes later or so a coot floated over my head at about 15 yards. it was like a big moth. I toom that, again it fell into the river and daisy went for it.
another good retrieve.
not the best picture... light was fading now.
I finished up with a left and right at high flying mallard. no pictures of these becuase it was too dark. This pair were flying about over duck heaven about 150 yards away chattering to each other. I called them by quacking. they came over pretty well talking to me the whole time. they were quite high maybe 35 yards or so.
again daisy retrieved both birds from the river. these were easy retrieves for her.
we finnished up and walked back. it was nice to finnish in plenty of time, ducks were still flighting, i had shot enough. Daisy had been excellant. the shooting accurate. nothing got away pricked. all in all a good evenings sport.
steve
daisy
i have a quick report about yesrerdays duck hunting trip.
The weather was about freezing and blowing a fresh north westerly. The area i shot was a piece of river bank on the East side of the river Ancholme. On some field adjacent to this it looks like the land owner has created a wildfowl refuge. the ground has numerous shallow flashes and is not cut. I call it duck heaven. Ducks gather there in massive numbers- although less this year because it has been frozen much of the winter. The picture below shows one of 3 fields with the splashes on, this one has been cut, the rest haven't.
The river has been canalised and is dead straight and has planked edges, the dog does not like it much. the next two pictures show views to the north and south along the river.
I was shooting my miroku mk70 gd 3 with 30 inch barrels half and 3/4 choke. cartridges were eley grand prix hi velocity bismuth 5 shot. I had daisy my 6 year old chocolate lab bitch with me.
i initially tried to launch my decoys but ended up in a big plastic duck-paracord-enough to make you swear tangle (i didn't take a picture... swearing doesn't come out very well).
So i just set up on the side of the river and waited for the ducks.
the first action was with a pair of wigeon that had sneaked under the radar (like stealth ducks can) and sat on the water. I turned and saw them, they jumped up, i missed the first bird and wallopped the second at about 40 yards. It dropped into the river, dead as you want. It was a duck wigeon. Daisy retrieved it well.
a few minutes later another pair came high overhead i took a shot at the closest and dropped it overhead. again i sent daisy for it... this was more difficult because she was swimming for the first one at the time of the second bird. However, back she went and retrieved it.
the next piece of action was a pack of tufties flying up the river. they were 2 feet from the surface at about 1000000 mph. there was about 8 of them. I swung the gun quickly and got a left and right at them. they fell 40-50 yards away in the river, again i sent daisy and she went for number 1. She retrieved that and brought it back. One of her flaws is she is not very quick over the ground with a duck in her mouth. That means that when she wnt for number 2 she had to run 100 yards down the bank befor getting in the river and making a great retrieve.
it was time for a coffee.
About 30 minutes later or so a coot floated over my head at about 15 yards. it was like a big moth. I toom that, again it fell into the river and daisy went for it.
another good retrieve.
not the best picture... light was fading now.
I finished up with a left and right at high flying mallard. no pictures of these becuase it was too dark. This pair were flying about over duck heaven about 150 yards away chattering to each other. I called them by quacking. they came over pretty well talking to me the whole time. they were quite high maybe 35 yards or so.
again daisy retrieved both birds from the river. these were easy retrieves for her.
we finnished up and walked back. it was nice to finnish in plenty of time, ducks were still flighting, i had shot enough. Daisy had been excellant. the shooting accurate. nothing got away pricked. all in all a good evenings sport.
steve
daisy
