duck hunts 8 and 9

we must be getting to the end of the season cause these ducks are way to smart and skiddish to by anything but northern ducks.  we have ditched the layout blinds to lower our profile and are now laying on the freezing ground covering up with cut cornstalks.  our success is marginal at best - seems like the ducks are just out of shooting range - with lows in the single digits its only a matter of time before they are gone for good.  hopefully one more good hunt!!!  on a side note - davis has been making some great retrieves but he still isnt sure about retrieving those big ol honkers...

8th day pheasant

headed out early hoping to scout some ducks near jamestown - didnt find much so continued.  ended up on a long walk with only 1 rooster to show for it.  i then decided to go to uncle wickis hunting shack and see if he was home.  he asked me to join him for a couple walks so it was perfect.  uncle wicki put us on some nice birds - and  a skunk that blasted davis.  super fun except for the skunk.  ended up w 8 roosters

                                     

duck hunt #6 and #7

the sixth and seventh duck hunt of the year were both on a wednesday.  other than being on the same day they had nothing in common.  on the morning hunt we saw very few birds.  what birds we saw decoyed nicely and produced some fine shooting.  on the evening hunt we saw thousands of birds.  however they were nearly impossible to decoy and produced very few shots.  it was a tale of two different hunts.  both fun non the less

honk!

two nice widgeons

mcville deer hunting

deer hunting in mcville is always one of the best hunts of the year.  joe and i got up to mcville about 10am friday and planned to stay through sunday evening.  big hopes of shooting a monster filled our thoughts and conversations on the ride up.  after a quick lunch we headed out to begin our hunt. it wasnt more than an hour and a half and two pushes before joe had bagged a nice 4x4.  shortly after on the next push i shot my buck - a small 4x4 but certainly big enough to make me a satisfied deer hunter.  dans deer took a little more work.  we pushed into friday evening and all day saturday to no avail.  it wasnt until about 11am on sunday when dan shot his deer.  definitely worth the wait -  a really nice 4x4.  based on the amount of deer we saw i would say we did great.  i only saw 4 bucks all weekend and we shot 3 of them.  it was once again a super fun weekend in mcville.



                                     
                                     

duck field hunt #5

It seemed this duck hunt was doomed from the moment go.  First off I somehow got screwed up on the way to our usual spot (which I’ve been a hundred times) and got lost on the way to the field.  Second, by the time we got there it was almost shooting time so setup was rushed.  Lastly, the birds just never seemed to be there like they were the night before.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still a blast, but not the kind of hunt I had planned.  To make things worse I had my buddy Billy up from Minneapolis on talk of a world class duck hunt to rival a guided Canadian adventure.  Needless to say it wasn’t that kind of hunt.  However, we still had some fun shooting and saw a lot of birds.  Next time……

 winston the heater

 zoomba

 zoomba eyeing the birds before me

 billy was under dressed and cold

 the brothers

 tanner davis winston joe

tanner davis billy

3 Day Pheasant hunt in Dickinson!!!

So this was an unbelievable 3 day hunt.  Everything seemed to work out in our favor.  The first day was Wednesday.  We arrived in Regent, ND at about 9.30 am and began our hunt.  Joe, Jeremy and I walked a draw/slough through the middle of a corn and wheat field.  Quickly we were able to shoot 4 birds.  From there we went down to Mott and were able to hunt on one of the Armstrong ranches.  This was a neat hunt – we had 11 guys and 6 dogs so we were sure to kick the birds up.  The birds here were smart and seemed to get up just out of range but we were still able to shoot about 17 or so. 

Day 2 was an interesting day.  I split away from Joe and Jeremy and hunted with the porter family and my dad.  We hunted with another big group of 11.  This time we were able to limit all 33 birds in a matter of a few hours.  It was great for me because I seemed to be in the right place at the right time all day and ended up bagging about 14 of the 33 birds. 

The final day was by far the best for me.  It was just my dad, Dan porter and me.  We were able to go and hunt mike Armstrong’s ranch in Richarton (about 5000 acres of river bottom/rolling hill countryside).  After a couple hours of little success my dad and Dan left to head back to Dickinson.  I ended up staying at the ranch and waited for Joe to finish up hunting with the Sinners and pick me up on his way out of town.  Once they left I was given some sage advice by the “oil king” himself, Mike Armstrong.  He told where he hunts when it’s just him and his dog.  So I headed out with Davis and set forth on the final hunt of the trip.  It was a great experience to have 5000 acres of rolling badlands all to yourself (and your dog) for the last hunt.  It took about 2.5 hours of zigzagging through the draws and grassy hills to get my 3 birds but in the end I succeeded.  The last 2 roosters were a double near the top of a deep ravine which we tracked for about 100 yards.  Incredible way to end the hunt!!!  The 4 hour car ride home was all about the great hunting stories from the trip.  It was a perfect way to end a memorable hunt.

                                     

 final 3 roosters of the trip - all you see is armstrongs ranch

 davis on armstrongs ranch

 the ravine where i got the final 3 birds of the trip

 armstrongs trap shooting station - - nice view

 the ranger i used to get from armstrongs cabin to the far corner of the property

 my dad driving armstrongs hunting rig

 more of davis on the ranch

 one of armstrongs cabins on the ranch

 2nd day slaughter - porters and corwins

 mike tanner matt and murphy

 mike porter shooting a pheasant - you can actually see the feathers getting blown off the bird if you look close

 davis on point for mike

 tim and dan

 bob and jeremy sinner

 tim

 tanner davis and birds

 tim and porters

joe lookin good

pheasant #4

pheasant hunt number 4 could have been the best, and quickest hunt of the year, but it wasnt.  i really didnt plan on hunting on sunday but i woke up at 5.15 and couldnt sleep so i said "what the hell" and went.  i decided to bring my nice little over under 20 gauge that i havent used in about a year.  the reason i havent used it is because i miss a lot of easy shots with it.  however this particular morning i decided i would give the gun another try.  after all, its the shooter not the gun right???  davis and i got to the field just before sunup and it looked perfect.  slough bottom next to a freshly cut corn field.  as soon as we started walking in i could hear the roosters crowing.  i knew we would find birds.  what happened next will haunt me for the rest of the year.  within 15 minutes davis had 3 perfect points on 3 roosters that jumped about 10 feet from me.  i only managed to shoot 1 of the 3.  good thing nobody was around to hear my curses and profanities.  following that walk i didnt manage another shot for the rest of the day (spent most of the time scouting anyway).  i ended up with a lonely headless rooster.  still a fun day in the field

PS -  anybody want a good deal on a nice 20gauge over under???