McVille Field Hunt

the third duck hunt of the year might have been the best so far.  it was a mcville field hunt with briand and dan arneson (the new inlaws!!!)  another super nice morning with temps about 50 degrees by 6am.  this was a field hunt with no water or mud in sight (this makes my life easier considering davis looks like swamp thing after a slough hunt).  the field was dry enough so we could just drive the decoys/blinds into position and drop them off without any heavy lifting or cardio...  it took a little while for the ducks to start coming in  (guessing about 20 min after legal shooting time), but once they did it was fast and furious.  95% mallards coming in in large groups of about 20+.  these ducks were fully locked on our spread just bombing in.  once we started shooting it was only about 30 min until we had our limit of ducks.  some drakes are starting to get their green heads and rings around our necks.  wont be long before we see full fall plumage.  we hung around hoping to get some canadians as well but just couldnt get any to come into shooting range.  perhaps a little more practice on the goose call would do the trick.  this time we had to settle for a limit of mallards and only one canadian. 

 just before sunrise

 nice full body bigfoot decoys (loaned to us by dans buddy)

 davis w the days kill

 dan davis and brian

 tanner davis and brian

davis stretching his legs after the big hunt

Duck hunt numero dos

the 2nd duck hunt of the year was in the same location as the first.  conditions were very similar - clear, warm and slight breeze out of the south.  we set up in the same location as the first day and waited for shooting time.  once 6.50 came it didnt take us long to realize that the ducks were preferring the slough adjacent to the one we set up on.  it seemed no matter how much we called or didnt call we couldnt get them to even look at our spread with any interest.  at about 7.15 casey and i decided to grab a handful of decoys and a mojo and head to the other slough.  our decision payed off handsomely.  casey and i ended up shooting not only our limits but the rest of the parties limits as well (all in about 2 hours!!!).  the ducks were mostly mallards and pintails with a couple teal and gadwalls.  all in all it was another great hunt!

 just before shooting time

 no wonder winston is so lazy.

 maybe it was daves pearly whites that scared the ducks away

 casey w the redneck hat

 josh chillin

 zoomba with his bounty

davis and i with the ducks

Duck season opens!!!

Ok, so duck season opened today and it was great.  beautiful morning, not too cold, no mosquitoes.  the hunt was about an hour west of fargo so we were wheels up at 4.45am.  started setting up the spread by 6 and were in the layout blinds by 6.40.  the season opened at 6.51 so we timed it perfect.  we started shooting right at 6.51 and was pretty steady till about 8.45.  we did make a small adjustment to the spread around 7.15 that seemed to help them bomb in a little better.  after 8.45 it petered out and was just some onezie twozies.  davis was the man on this hunt (not to brag but he was a retrieving machine).  winston did a great job of laying steady but didnt seem to have much interest in fetching ducks (although he did enjoy pulling their feathers out once davis retrieved them)

on a side note, i forgot to blog the last hunt.  it was a grouse hunt.  we didnt shoot anything and i forgot my camera...  end of story.

 davis, tanner, joe, winston, casey

 joe and winston

 davis

 casey

hitting it again tomorrow so hopefully i have some more good news to report

2nd Dove Hunt

based on my semi successful dove hunt from a few days ago i decided to give it another shot in the same location.  this time i brought my buddy dave with me.  we headed out at 5.45pm so it was a bit of a late start.  by the time we got set up it was close to 6.30.  there was not as many doves in the area this night but we still got some shooting in.  we ended up with 5 birds total (2 of which were never recovered).  another beautiful and fun night despite the lack of shooting

dave with davis

davis and me

pic of the wheat field where doves were feeding

watering hole is just before the pine trees.  we set up between wheat and watering hole

davis chillin in the heat

some of the dove decoys.  wind was perfect to keep the wings spinning on the far dove

first hunt of the year!!!

9-2-11.  this was our first hunt of the year.  it was a perfect night for a dove hunt.  the night started with a quick scout until we found a great spot near walcott nd.  we sat between a cut wheat field and a watering hole on the edge of some corn.  we ended up with 6 birds which wasnt too bad in my eyes (it took a full box of shells to get 6!!!).  biggest problem of the night was the mosquitos.  we forgot bug spray and it became unbearable.  davis was good at finding downed birds but his retrieves will need work.  all in all it was a great first hunt