Goose Hunt at a Loafing Pond

    This past Tuesday, conditions looked good for a hunt at one of the loafing ponds we have permission on in Orange County. Hunting these ponds can really be hit or miss because of the corn in the area that gets cut at various times throughout the season, greatly affecting the patterns of the birds, but we have figured it out to where we can put the odds in our favor. On a cloudy day, we have almost never seen geese use these ponds. However, if it is clear and sunny, the heavens open up and geese rain down from every direction.
    We set up before daylight, an unusual thing for us to do, since the flights are usually 10-11 o'clock, and nothing before or after that. Birds had been coming early in the week prior, so we went for it. We only used 8 or 10 decoys, because the pond is only 50 yards across at it's widest point, making the entire pond pretty much in gun range. We don't have much cover, but there is a little bit of marsh grass growing next to the bank that we can hide in and around, which usually works for us. There were 4 of us hunting, my dad, my little brother Wyatt, my friend Kevin, and myself, meaning we could take 12 birds.
    About half an hour after legal shooting time, we spotted 6 geese approaching from a long ways off, wings locked, not making a sound. I called a little bit at them, but it didn't look like they needed much, since they were looking very committed. The birds decided that they would continue past the pond and out of the area, not good... 20 minutes later, we heard LOUD geese behind us. A pair of geese that had sounded like a dozen or more cleared the trees and coasted right in, we put them both on the water stone dead. After that, the action slowed, and we didn't see anything for the next hour or so, but finally another flock was headed our way, this time it was 5 birds. While the birds were coming in, I told my brother and my friend that I would shoot the 2 birds on the right and leave the other 3 for them to take care of (my dad wasn't shooting since he was taking pictures from 20 yards behind us on the edge of the woods). I brought my two birds down and looked to my left only to see the 3 birds flying away missing only a few feathers, even though 6 shots had been fired. Luckily they circled back over and we brought one straight down, the other two coasted away into a field, and we did recover them both.
     While we were picking up those birds, about 20 geese came over. We lied down on the ground and hed still, but they knew something was up, and checked out. We set back up, and had a pair fly over and circle many times, but they didn't come within gun range, and checked out like the last flock. We had a nice group of birds, probably a dozen or so, come right to us and drop straight down into the decoys backpedaling like mallards dropping into flooded timber. They didn't even circle before coming in. We put four of those on the water (someone's gun jammed, and I straight up missed 2 out of my 3 shots), and had another flock bust us when we were trying to pick up the dead birds. With one goose left until we limited out, we decided to pack up and get out of there so we didn't educate the rest of the birds. We had a very good hunt, although our shooting was definitely not up to par. I shoot a 20 gauge, so I can use that as a halfway decent excuse of why I am not bringing the birds down, but ultimately what it comes down to is that I need to step it up when birds are in the decoys! Thanks for reading!

 Most of the birds we shoot are lessers, but we did shoot 2 "big 'ol residents"

All Good Things Must Come To An End

   To my dismay, I recently lost the permission to use firearms on what have been my "stomping grounds" ever since I took my first deer 8 years ago... I have grown up hunting on a few properties that border one another (including mine), they aren't very big, all 5-20 acre pieces of land, but altogether add up to around 100 acres. After the arrival of new neighbors from Boston two years ago, all of these properties have slowly been degraded to "archery only" areas. This isn't because I have been putting anyone in danger, it is simply because these new neighbors don't the slightest idea about guns in general, and voice their opinions to my other neighbors that let me hunt, and eventually have managed to get their way.
    Don't get me wrong, I love to bow hunt, but I can't exactly hunt geese, rabbits, squirrels, or anything that isn't normally hunted with archery equipment without things getting really expensive really quickly, not to mention the fact that it is 10 times harder to do it with a bow. And trying to hunt deer in rifle season is not like hunting them in bow season, this time of year the deer spook from the slightest things, and aren't forgiving at all. We used to have a really fun deer drive that my two younger brothers and I would do in the evenings, where two of us would push a whole bunch of deer by the other brother, and after one or two were down, we would work together to field dress and get them back to the house. That is definitely one of many traditions we had that will no longer be possible because of the archery only policy. So even though there is the "why can't you just do it with a bow?" point of view, many things will never be the same because of this.
    I wish I could sit down to talk with my neighbors and explain to them that they don't need to be afraid to be in the woods, but that simply won't happen, we have talked to them many times to try to explain what we do, and they honestly don't have a clue. It sure is sad to watch everything wither away like this, because even though it's "only guns" being revoked now, it started out as "just high-powered rifles", so who knows how long I will actually be able to hunt here. But I'm trying to forget about it, I will have my driver's license by next season, so hopefully I can hunt some other places and not worry about this mess. I have been hunting for 8 years here, and have made countless memories with family and friends, or even just by myself, that continue to stick in my mind like they happened yesterday, but all of a sudden, even though I'm still here, the land is still here, and the game is still here, the opportunity is not.

20 Gauge for Goose Hunting

   I have used a 20 gauge on and off for a few years goose hunting, and finally decided to stick with it since I shot better with it compared to the 12 gauges I have tried. I don't use any fancy chokes or high density loads, just a cylinder or improved cylinder choke with 3" 1500fps #2 steel shot loads. Many geese have fallen victim to this combo. We normally hunt over decoys, and many of our shots are inside 20 yards, at which point the 20 gauge performs just like a 12. I have taken down a few birds at longer ranges too though, and just recently I had an experience that was a real eye opener in terms of the performance of a 20 gauge on geese.
    We hunted a loafing pond on opening day of the Virginia goose season, but didn't have any birds fly by until 11:30 when we packed up! We assume that this was because a BUNCH of corn was recently cut and the birds simply stayed on the fields. About 15 geese did go to a pond we have permission on, so we decided to do a quick jump shoot. My brother Wyatt pushed the birds over a hill to my brother Ewing and I. Unfortunately, the birds didn't fly where we wanted them to, and we ended up shooting about 40 yards at the geese. I dropped 3 on my very first shot, and shot too far in front of the birds on my 2nd and 3rd shots, my brother Ewing missed twice with his o/u 12 gauge. The fact that my gun still had the power to bring down 3 birds at that distance should say a lot to anyone who doesn't believe a 20 gauge is an ethical option for hunting geese!

 Here is my dog, Walt, who actually sat still for a picture with the birds!

New Soon-To-Be Hunter

   This evening, I took my 7 year old cousin Connor on a deer hunt. Connor's only hunting experience prior to this was when I took him with me on a squirrel hunt last year and we walked around with a .22 and brought down a couple bushytails. This morning, my little brother Ewing got his first deer with a bow, and Connor helped him field dress and drag it out. Now Connor wanted to experience the whole hunt! The deer near my house right now have been gathering in huge herds (42 is the biggest we have seen) in the river bottom fields, and there is no way to get within 200 yards of them, so we have been working on figuring out a way to drive the deer up in the woods where it is easier to get a shot. After a few tries in the past couple of weeks, my brother and I figured out a pretty good setup for a 2 man deer drive.
    My cousin and I set up on top of a ridge overlooking about 90-100 yards of woods bordering a field. When the deer get spooked out of the river bottom, some of them come through this funnel, and normally have relaxed enough by then to provide good shooting opportunities. After getting Connor settled in with a nice seat and a blanked to stay warm, I gave my brother Wyatt the okay to start, and he pushed deer from about half a mile away, he counted 25 in total. 3 does came by us first, but they wouldn't stop in a clearing so they walked around for a couple minutes. Connor hadn't seen the deer yet but when he spotted them, he whispered to me "I see one!" and I responded with a very quiet "shhhhh". Luckily the deer were very forgiving today, so we were able to get away with a little whispering and movement, which is exactly what we needed. I finally lined up for a 75 yard shot on the smallest one. When I shot, I dropped the the barrel a little bit and shot under it, resulting in the deer running straight at us and stopping at 25 yards to stare, at this point Connor was giving me a bewildered look as if he was saying "JUST SHOOT IT?" as I scrambled to get powder and a bullet in the gun. Just as I was clicking the safety off after reloading (deer is still standing there!), she snorted and ran off. We stayed put, however, and within 5 minutes, I heard a commotion in the thicket behind us.
     I raised the gun and clicked the safety off, just as a doe stepped out of the thicket at about 45 yards. There was too much brush in the way, so I had to wait for her to walk out and present a shot. Just as I was preparing to stop her and shoot, she stopped to look around. The only problem was the small sapling right in the way of where I wanted to put my bullet. Connor shifted his feet, and the doe immediately decided to have a staring contest with me. Since we had been spotted, I leaned over a little bit and took a shot at her shoulder. When the smoke cleared, I had a deer laying on the ground and Connor said "did you get it this time?". I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the deer. His response was "Woah it's RIGHT THERE!". Hopefully Connor will hit a growth spurt within the next year so he can shoot next time, because right now he just isn't quite big enough to handle a gun well. I think he still had a great time though! Thanks for reading!

 

Looks like I had some serious demon eyes this evening

The Brutal Truth

     As a hunter, I know that I won't always hit my mark, and sometimes I will end up regretting pulling the trigger. This weekend, I had a rough encounter with one of those situations. I muzzleloader hunted on a farm one afternoon in hopes of bringing home a doe or two to make jerky with. I spotted a lone deer feeding on the edge of a field, and was able to stalk to about 80 yards from it because of a hill between myself and the deer. I assumed it was a button buck since it was a small deer by itself, but I had no problem with taking it since there is going to be an attempt at planting corn next year and all hunters have been asked to thin the herd to the best of their abilities. I was shooting a Knight MK-85, with iron sights, the scope mounts for it are a little too much for me to want to spend on a 3 week season. Back to where I was. The deer was still calm, and feeding, so I shouldered the gun, steadied myself, and squeezed the trigger. The deer was hit hard and only made it 50 yards before crashing in the edge of the woods. I walked back to my bag that I set down before I closed the distance, all of my shooting supplies had been rattling around pretty loudly. I reloaded my gun, and walked back to the top of the hill to get my deer. When I got there, 4 more deer were standing where the one I shot had been feeding, so I lined up on one of the does and squeezed off another shot. This deer sped off immediately, but its tail was down so I knew I hit it. I walked over to gut my first deer and upon my arrival, I was puzzled to see that the deer wasn't there. I walked back into the woods 20 yards or so, and looked for blood. Nothing.... By now it was getting dark so my dad came out with two big spotlights to help me get both of the deer. We only found a small spot of thin blood where my first deer hit the ground, and no evidence of the other deer being hit. After covering the woods to the property line, we headed out, with no blood trail whatsoever from either deer to follow. And unfortunately, there was no way for me to go look for them the next day, with the biggest complication being that they could be on any of a half dozen small lots that I didn't have permission to search on.
    Well, one of my deer was found today, a mere 30 yards from where I thought it went down. The deer went in the complete opposite direction from what I predicted. The shot was textbook, right behind the shoulder, exactly where I was aiming. The other deer however, I have no idea about. Ultimately, I am to blame in this situation. I did not study the bullets that were given to me with the gun (I am borrowing it) and if I would have simply googled them, I could have discovered that everyone who had shot them said they expanded and fragmented too quickly to even leave an exit wound, and left little blood trail if any at all. The second mistake I made was to take my eyes off the deer once I saw it go down. If I would have waited another ten seconds after it fell, I could have seen it run off and die in the creek that was within sight of where I was standing. I also don't think I should have taken that second shot. I was overly confident from dropping the first deer, and was pushing my range, the deer was probably 90-100 yards away on the second shot.
     I can add up all of the reasons on why things went wrong, but what it comes down to is that I really screwed up. I feel terrible about what happened. It's bad enough to lose one deer, but I lost two, in one evening. Hopefully I have learned enough from this experience to no duplicate it again, but also, not be too afraid of messing up to take shots that I am comfortable with. I know something will happen again, it is part of hunting, it is just our responsibility as hunters to do our best to learn from mistakes and to do everything in our power to keep the hunt as perfect as possible. I hope someone can learn from my mistake(s), or at least relate to my situation and know that it happens, if anyone claims to have never wounded or lost an animal, he or she is either lying, or has not spent much time in the field. As always, thanks for reading!

Deer Hunting in Pajamas?

   Today when I got home today from school, I started to walk back to my room to change into my hunting clothes and out of my pajamas (it was pajama day at my high school) when something in my backyard caught my attention. I stopped and was astonished to see two does eating the bushes about 10 yards from my house in the back yard. We have big windows at ground level facing the back yard, so I was about 15 yards from these deer, and the windows were open to let in fresh air, so I had to start my stalk in my living room. I made it back to my bedroom and grabbed my bow, then sneaked back through my living room (ducking behind my couch so they didn't see my walking by) and made it to the back door. I opened and closed the door as quietly as I could, then walked about 20 yards to the corner of my house, drew back, and stepped out. It was only about a 15 yard shot, and I picked the smaller of the two deer to shoot (young deer=good eating). The shot was perfect, a slightly quartering away/broadside shot, and my arrow hit right where I wanted it to. The deer ran about 75 yards and expired. Since I didn't have time to do much once I had spotted the deer, I had ended up shooting it while still wearing my pajamas, I definitely didn't expect that when I slipped them on this morning! I know this wasn't much of a hunt, but it sure was fun and I now have some more backstraps headed for the grill. Thanks for reading!

 

Pretty sophisticated camo pattern...

Early Season Duck Hunt

     This morning I went duck hunting with my brother and two of our friends. We hunted the (classified) river near our house. Yesterday, my brother and I hunted before school and killed 3 wood ducks in the half hour we had before we had to head home and catch the bus. We then got 2 from the same spot that evening. Today we set up in the exact same way, since all of the ducks were coming to the pool we hunted because of some sort of plant growing on the banks that had a seed on it that they liked (I still can't figure out what it is). Legal shooting hours started at 6:50 this morning, so we set up about 10 minutes before that. Birds didn't start flying until about 7:00 because of cloud cover, and we saw piles of woodies in those crucial 15 minutes of flight time. We managed to bring down 5, and one got swept away in the current before our lab could get it. We did a lot more missing than we should have, but that happens with wood ducks, they are super fast, change direction constantly, and pop out of nowhere from behind the trees giving a very small window of opportunity.
      My friend and I floated a stretch of river above where we hunted to try and flush some birds and push them to my brother and his friend. We probably saw 50 or 60 wood ducks and 5 or 6 teal in 2 hours, and only got a shot at a few groups. The river rarely bends/turns so the ducks spot you from 100 yards away and usually spook before they are in range. We brought down 4 ducks and lost two of them because of heavy current and lots of log jams for the birds to get stuck in. We ended up pushing a few birds past my brother and his friend, and they got one hen woodie. After we met up with them, we went back to the house to regroup. We had 7 woodies total and could still take 5 more. So my brother and my friend went back down to the river and floated a stretch below where we hunted and ended up killing our remaining 5 wood ducks! Hopefully we will be able to hunt the last day of the 4 day early season this Monday, as of now the plan is to set up where the teal were today (mixed in with 20-30 woodies) and try to get a couple of those! Thanks for reading!

 My friend Kevin and I heading down the river 

 This one was in the best shape for a picture 

 It rained all day so the birds are pretty wet and not that good looking, but they are ducks nonetheless!

Dairy Farm Pigeon Hunt

       This Saturday, my uncle took my brothers and I to a farm in Greene County to dove hunt in the morning. We hunted from daylight until around 11:00 and only shot 11 doves and 15 pigeons between the four of us. After we finished hunting, we headed over to the dairy to see if we could try and save the day with a quick pigeon shoot. There were a lot of birds and I bet I shot 20 times within the first 5 minutes, bringing down a bird on most shots. After the flocks headed on to the other dairy farm nearby, we picked off singles and pairs, and shot when the flocks returned from the other dairy. We ended up with 58 pigeons in total, our best day yet at the dairy. We cleaned some for one of the workers who asked for 10, and brought the rest home to clean. I just finished having some for dinner, they were great! We marinated the breasts in Worcestershire and roasted garlic teriyaki sauce for a few hours, then put them on skewers with some green peppers and onions, wrapped them in bacon, and grilled them. Thanks for reading!

Opening Day of Dove Season

   This Monday, my brothers, my dad, my uncle, and two other hunters headed out to a cut cornfield to do some dove hunting. We arrived at 11:15 to ensure a spot on the power lines, but were shocked to see hunters already occupying the spots. We set up on the edges of some standing corn, and hoped for the best. The hunters on the power lines were steadily getting shots at doves, but not one of them could hit one. It was a real shame to see them sit there all day in the best spot on the field and shoot at high birds, missing close birds, and even not noticing when a bird decoyed on the power lines right above their heads! But I guess it was a learning experience for them. We picked off the lone birds here and there, they would pass over my brother and I, looking at the MOJO, giving us enough time to take a shot. I had brought down 5 birds by the time they really started flying. At around 4:00, the doves really started rolling through. This meant that even though the people on the power lines were having more shots than us, we had enough birds passing over to keep us happy. This day happened to be one of my "on" days, and I bagged a limit of birds in about an hour once the action had picked up, then sat back to watch everyone else shoot, as well as taking down any pigeons that came within range. My brother also got his limit. We ended the day with 42 birds between the 4 of us (my two brothers, my dad and I), mostly doves, but about 6 of them were pigeons. I am not sure about how everyone with us did in terms of actual totals, but we all got lots of shots and brought down plenty of birds. Thanks for reading!

 

We have already eaten half of them!

Rose Hauling Groundhog Hunt

   My dad works for Rose Hauling (mulch, topsoil, rock, etc.) and we hunt on the property very often. We deer hunt, spring turkey hunt, goose hunt (one of the best goose hunting spots in VA), and rabbit hunt. Recently, the groundhogs have been getting into some of the gardens they have out there. I took it upon myself to try and take out a couple with my .22, even though there had been plenty removed by the workers via .22 magnum and .22 hornet. On the first day I hunted, I was only able to see one groundhog, but that was ok because he had burrowed only 30 yards away from one of the gardens and had been a serious problem. I sat down about 10 yards from the hole (only way to do it with tall grass), put down my bipod, and dialed in my scope. It was over as soon as he popped his head up. He was in pretty rough shape, to the point where I'm not going to post a picture of him. He had pretty much lost all of his hair and looked absolutely awful. The next day, I went out again and found one on the edge of a field feeding in some short grass. I stalked towards him until I was around 70 yards away and put my bipod down. Once again, it was lights out and I disposed of this one after getting some hide and the tail for fly tying, since this one was in much better shape. Dove season is just around the corner, so stay tuned, thanks for reading!

Rabbit Control

  My friend was having problems with rabbits in his garden, and invited me to come over and hunt some with him. Our weapons of choice were .22s with subsonic ammo (to keep the noise down for the neighbors). We pretty much walked around the property, fished at "his" creek, and found ways to pass the time while waiting 15 minutes in between checks on the field with the garden. Around 6:00, I spotted one at around 70 yards away, that clearly knew something was up. So I set up my bi-pod and settled in for the shot. My first shot did not connect. I'm not sure if I hit a couple weeds that may have sent the bullet off course, but for whatever reason, the shot didn't connect. Luckily, the rabbit poked his head up higher to see what had happened, and this time I had a very clear shot, and my shot connected well. We put the rabbit on ice and went back into our routine of checking the field every 15-20 minutes for more rabbits. We finally spotted another one, and I hung back while my friend put a stalk on it. Although I couldn't see him when he shot, I clearly heard a loud plop of his 38 grain fiocchi subsonic hitting its mark. He brought that one back and put it in the cooler with the other one, and that was it in terms of action for the rest of the evening. I should be able to write about some REAL hunting sometime in September, when some small game/migratory bird seasons open back up. I figured I would make a post considering this is the only hunting I have done since April when I went turkey hunting 5 or 6 days (no luck). Thanks for reading!

 

My friends gun on top, mine on the bottom

Virginia Spring Turkey Hunt

     This past Saturday,  my brother Wyatt and I headed to the property where I heard all of the gobblers when I hunted on youth day. We set up, and within 10 minutes of sitting down, we had a bird gobbling on the roost no more than 75 yards away. He gobbled his head off, to the point that we thought there were 4 or 5 gobblers roosting, but at 6:50 when he finally decided to come down, we only heard him fly down and crash through branches, very loudly. Had there been more birds roosting with him, we would have heard them fly down as well. He decided to go to the real hen in the opposite direction of our position though, and we could barely hear him gobbling within 10 minutes because he was so far away.
      We listened to hens and distant gobbles for another half hour, with no action other than a hen that walked up and started putting when she saw our decoys (2 hen decoys), and walked away. We sat for what seemed like an eternity, hearing and seeing absolutely nothing, until finally, some time around 9:30, one gobbled off of Wyatt's diaphragm, around 300 yards away. After 4 or 5 more gobbles, we heard him begin to make his way towards the field we were set up in. He finally showed himself at a distance of around 80 yards, where he proceeded to puff up and strut. He did this for at least 20 minutes, gobbling at every little cluck or yelp Wyatt let out, but he wouldn't budge. We decided to just quit the calling and see if he would leave so we could re-position and call him back in. After 10 minutes of watching him strut around, he began to walk our way, not leaving full strut though, he occasionally went into half-strut, but that would only be for 1 or 2 steps. When the bird got inside 35 yards, it was game one. Wyatt was trying to let me shoot since he shot one the previous Saturday, but since he was between the turkey and I, I told him to shoot, giving the turkey less chance of busting us.
      At 20 yards, the point where the pattern begins to get small, and then almost too small at 10 yards, I said "Hey turkey, hey turkey" in  a moderately loud voice, but he was so focused on getting to the hens, he payed little attention, and kept walking. Wyatt even let out a couple loud yelps, but the turkey didn't pay attention.  Finally, he turned to the side, presenting a side shot that wouldn't mess up the meat, fan, and plumage. Wyatt sent a 3.5" #6 12 gauge turkey load his way, and the bird immediately hit the ground. When Wyatt got up to go step on his head, I followed him, but I realized I could barely walk. I had been jammed up against a fence post in an awkward position, not moving, for the past 4 hours, and my body was letting me know that I did. After 30 seconds of loosening up, I walked over to check out the bird. He had a 10" beard, 3/4" spurs, weighed 19 pounds, and had a gorgeous fan, not bad at all for the first gobbler Wyatt has ever called in by himself. He deserved it, he hunted hard nearly every Saturday last year without bagging a tom. Thanks for reading!

 

My younger Ewing also connected on a nice longbeard on another property that morning, giving them each 2 birds already this season! Now it's my turn! 

If you look at the feathers near the base of the fan on Wyatt's bird (top bird), you can tell it was shot in full strut, those feathers are GONE. Not a single pellet in the breast though!

Turkey Season is Here

     Just wanted to make it known that I am still alive...Just not much hunting going on. But Spring Turkey Season is finally here! I hunted last Saturday (Youth Day), and I bet I heard 75 gobbles before birds left the roost, they are still in the process of breaking off from their big winter flocks. Once the birds hit the ground, they shut up and would only shock gobble on a crow that would caw 2-4 times in rapid succession, nothing else. I did a couple soft yelps every 10-20 minutes, for about an hour, and the birds never gobbled back at me, only back at crows. So I moved a couple hundred yards closer to where they were and got aggressive with the calling. I got 4 gobbles out of the flock, and then I "shut up" for a while, and waited. After 20 minutes of nothing, I called some more, and couldn't get any responses.
      Rather than try to set up again, I decided to sneak out instead of messing up a flock of turkeys on youth day, I have a whole season to figure it out, better safe than sorry. I will be headed back to the same property on Saturday to see if I can do a little better this time. Thanks for reading!

Round Two with the Ferals

        We headed back to the dairy farm for pigeons, but this time, it was much tougher. We received almost no shots, and even though I was using high brass #6s, I had puffs of feathers floating around with no bird to show for it! I carried my Crosman 1077cc pistol for cleaning up cripples that we normally have to chase after and catch, it worked very well. My uncle also came and was shocked by the toughness of these birds! My dad even watched me take 3 shots around 20 yards on a bird, and he said feathers came out on every shot, however, the bird still sailed 80 yards and had to be finished off with the pellet pistol! I also watched my little brother Ewing take 2 shots with a 12 gauge, shooting 1.25oz 2&2/4" #6 shells @1330fps, hitting the bird both shots, and the bird continued flying. And there is no way that our chokes are too open, because we used modified chokes! We ended up with 15 birds in 2 hours, not so great considering over 4 boxes of shells were fired! If anyone has suggestions on what I need to do about my shot size/choke etc, please tell me! Thanks for reading! And just as a heads up, I probably won't be posting much, since hunting season is out, but I will post about pigeons, groundhogs, and the occasional bullfrog hunt we take during the summer. OH, AND SPRING TURKEYS!

Rabbit Fever

    Here in the last week of the season, I have decided to hunt rabbits. I had never really tried it being old enough to appreciate the hunt and after Monday, I decided I would give it another shot. Especially because the table fare matches up with the enjoyment of the hunt, unlike squirrels, which I have stopped hunting for the most part since it is so much work to make them taste halfway decent. Rabbit is great simply pan-fried!
     My little brother Ewing and I headed out to our neighbor's property after school to stomp around in some brush. Since I was the "designated brush stomper" last time, Ewing assumed that role and I got to be the shooter. We checked 3 or 4 piles before jumping the first rabbit, that passed by me going at light speed around 20 yards away, I raised the gun, got on target, and sent a nice pattern its way. The rabbit stopped in its tracks and expired before I got to it. We continued walking around but didn't get any more shots, I saw one at about 45 yards but with low brass #7.5s out of an improved cylinder choke, I decided to pass on the shot. Well I have to get around to cooking some rabbit, thanks for reading!

Virginia Rabbit Hunting

        My little brother Ewing and I decided we were going to kick brush piles at a couple properties we hunt on, since it had been nearly 3 years since we had hunted rabbits last. My weapon of choice was a Mossberg Super Bantam 500 youth 20 gauge with a stock extension and a rubber recoil pad for extra length, the gun is incredibly quick to shoulder, so for rabbits, it is perfect. Ewing brought a Browning Citori Lightning O/U in 12 gauge, another quick shouldering gun. I used 2-3/4" 7/8 oz low brass #7.5s with an extra full choke, for taking out the head and shoulder area without ruining the other meat. Ewing used 3" 1-1/4oz high brass #7.5s with a modified choke for the first shot and an improved modified choke for the second.
        At the first property, I kicked a rabbit out of a brush pile and it ran straight away from Ewing in a wide open field at 25 yards, but he missed, and my shot pattern was caught in a sapling tree that found its way into my swing following the rabbit. Stressful for the first one to get away like that...We continued hunting for an hour or so with no luck but decided to head back to that same area to finish up. I kicked the same spot on a pile for at least 2-3 minutes and all of a sudden, a rabbit decided it was time to leave and Ewing anchored it at 20 yards. We hunted around for another half an hour with no luck, and headed to the next spot.
      Within 5 minutes of arriving, I spotted movement 2 yards away in a brush pile and realized it was a rabbit, I put the bead on its head, and fired. The head split wide open but that was the only impact point of pellets, so reality is, it was a better shot than a full pattern hit at 20-30 yards. 45 minutes later, I was belly crawling through a brier patch trying to spook something up, when a rabbit darted out going at a blistering rate of speed, but Ewing quickly raised the gun and smoked it at around 20 yards. We hunted for another hour, not seeing any, and took a lunch break, we were TIRED!
       In the last hour of the afternoon, we tried a small brushy fence row where we spooked 2 but didn't get any shots. We also tried a 1 acre patch of young pines, cedars and miscellaneous hardwoods with sparse briers mixed in. I got to crouch/crawl/bushwhack through the whole mess, and Ewing walked around the field edge to intercept any that ran out. I spooked up one but never got a shot due to heavy brush blocking my line of sight. Ewing spotted one on the edge of the woods and shot it, and then we walked around until we lost good light and called it a day. We also jumped 3 woodcock while bushwhacking around but they aren't in season, although we probably couldn't anyways, they are 30 yards away by the time you realize you spooked one! Thanks for reading!

Feral Pigeon Hunting

     Today I headed out to a dairy farm near Ruckersville, to try for some pigeons while they weren't milking the cows. This is a mid-day hunt, 11:30 to 1:30, so the birds are all roosting in the barn or on the silos, but the bright side is that we can sit 40 yards away from the silos and barns and pass shoot while they fly around. We put out decoys, but only had one bird commit in our 2 hour hunt, it died very quickly with two shots of 2-3/4" #8s. My dad would jump the birds out of the barns and sheds, and we would try to take down a couple while they circled around. We had 3 groups of around 100 flying when we began and killed 5 in around 2 minutes, but then the action slacked off and the birds "wised up" and stayed close to the silos when flying, presenting us with few shots. I was amazed at how well these birds can take a hit and not go down, even at a moderate range, a cloud of feathers would appear but the birds would keep on going! Part of this is obviously from not leading the birds enough and hitting tail feathers, but we will probably have to step it up to #6 shot next time. The total ended up at 18 recovered pigeons, with 5 in the slurry store (manure pit) that weren't retrievable, one that ran into a groundhog hole before I got to it, and a few that coasted away into far away fields and were picked up by very happy hawks before we could retrieve them. I was very pleased with our success, and we now have a good idea on how to hunt it when we go next time, which probably won't be for another month. Thanks for reading!

 

Our 18 birds of the day, we cleaned every one and even got the legs as well! No wasted meat as apposed to what usually happens to feral pigeons. They taste great!

Goose Hunting with Hevi Metal

       I picked up a box of Hevi Metal 3.5" 1.5oz 1500fps #2s to try out for the last couple of weeks of goose season since the birds are not committing to decoys as well as usual. Although I have killed nearly every duck and goose in my life with cheap $15 per box Xpert 1500fps steel, I decided to pay $30 after I had a bad experience with pulling the trigger on birds that were at the "borderline range" and not having the birds fall, even though they were hit. The Hevi Metal shells are basically a half and half mix of #2 steel shot and #2 Hevi Shot which is actually about the size of a #4 since Hevi Shot loads smaller pellets in order to have a denser pattern with the same energy, since the pellets are much heavier.
       My brother and I set up in a small field (30-50 yards across and 300 yards long) that the geese never land in, but will sometimes land in with the help of decoys or check out the decoys long enough for us to decide if they are in range or not. We heard birds coming from a long ways off and I started calling to let them know where we were, and as soon as we could see them, the pair was "locked up". As the birds neared the 60 yard mark, they began to veer off towards a field across the river from us (the North Fork of the Rivanna) so when they came inside 40 yards, I gave Wyatt the o.k. to shoot. I could not get on the birds in time (they were behind us) and Wyatt shot once and only got one or two pellets in a non vital area, because the goose reared its neck back following the shot, a sign that it was been hit. I called more and the birds decided to give us another pass at 40 yards again, we unloaded our guns and both birds fell (Wyatt used a Browning Citori O/U, I used a Benelli Nova) I knew I missed my first shot, but the geese fell when I pulled the trigger on my second two shots. Wyatt was convinced he killed the first bird that went down, but said that I killed the second bird since he had fired his two shots by the time it went down.
      We saw 3 ducks and 5 more geese, but it was after shooting hours when we saw the geese (and ducks are out of season) so we had to pass on those, but it is always fun to see waterfowl. We packed up our 10 decoys, and headed home. When we were cleaning the geese, we decided that since Wyatt was using Xpert BBs, we could look for pellets in the bird to decide who got it. I dissected the bird Wyatt said he killed because I was sure that I had brought it down, and guess what, I found a #2 Hevi Shot pellet (#4) just below the skin on the exiting side, the other 7 pellet holes had been clean pass-thrus. So it was obvious to us that the Hevi Metal worked wonders, OR Wyatt is just a bad shot, only time will tell. I should be headed out to goose hunt in the morning on Saturday and then heading out to a dairy farm to see if the pigeons will cooperate this time, so there should be more to come. Thanks for reading!

 

The geese weighed 9 and 11 pounds, and in reference to a Nova with a 28" barrel, you can see that these are very large birds!

The Snow Goose... A Bird of Trouble

      Two of our Canada Goose loafing ponds, and the thousands of acres of corn nearby, are now seeing activity from snow geese, and the numbers are growing every day. We were very excited about this since we would be able to hunt snows as well as Canadas that are in season for the next 3 weeks. Until I looked at the regulations...Come on Virginia, what is up with this? Snow goose season runs from October 4th till January 31st statewide, 25 per day limits. And then we have a conservation season from February 1st till March 30th with NO limits, electronic calls, and unplugged shotguns! Guess what, the conservation season is ONLY for the Atlantic Population Zone! (Coast of Virginia and the Eastern Shore). So in the middle of October, I could go to any mountain in the middle of Appalachia that has never even been seen by waterfowl before and it would be legal for me to hunt snow geese there, but now when the geese are actually here, they are protected by law and can't be hunted, when Canada Geese are in season here and 45 minutes away by car there are almost NO laws on them??? What does this say about whoever made the laws on these birds? How are we supposed to get the population in the Atlantic Flyway down to 500,000 birds when we have laws like this? I am sure Virginia isn't the only state with this problem! And who knows how bad it will get by the time the full migration is here? Well, I'm done ranting, but I will definitely be talking to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to try and get them to CHANGE THIS LAW!!!

Last Day of Duck Season

    My brother Wyatt and I headed down to our favorite woodie hole on the North Fork of the Rivanna for a  duck hunt this morning on the last day of the season. We set up 4 mallard decoys, 3 teal, and 2 wood duck decoys (teal obviously aren't here in numbers right now but it gives variety to the spread) about 10 yards away in the river in front of us. Right after shooting hours started, we were caught off guard as a drake woodie zipped into the decoys and before my gun was shouldered he was swimming in our decoys. I shot him with a 3" #4 steel load @1550fps, needless to say he was very dead. 5 minutes later, a single hen woodie landed 50 yards downriver and began whistling. I grabbed my wood duck call and prepared to hit a quick "chip-whoooeeee" to get her to swim in range but before I pressed the call to my lips 5 others landed 45 yards away and began looking nervous, we'd been spotted. I said "cut 'em" and after the smoke cleared, Wyatt managed one drake woodie and 2 got away barely flying...thank you steel shot... Anyways, we didn't see anything for another hour and decided to pack up but right before we stood up Wyatt whispered "OH GOSH". I looked up and saw 2 ducks locked up headed into our decoys, and as I shouldered my gun, I noticed they were hooded mergansers, this wasn't as exciting as ducks, but waterfowl to shoot at nonetheless, and Wyatt shot the drake, I shot the hen.
     We waited another 30 minutes but with no luck, decided to pack up. I waded out, grabbed 2 decoys, brought them back, and set out to grab another pair. As I reached down to grab a decoys, Wyatt loudly whispered "DUCKS!". I looked up and to my dismay there were 7 "big ducks"' locked in on our spread, that I was standing in the middle of! As soon as they circled out of sight, Wyatt and I scrambled for cover and I let the Classic Commander call sing. The ducks continued to work, but the locked up 100 yards up stream, I let loose an incredibly loud and aggressive hail call to keep them from landing, even if it spooks them, they won't be pulling ducks off our spread. That turned them around, and I continued a mixture of quacks, feed chuckles, and short choppy hail calls untill 5 of them went in 60 yards upriver, and 2 continued on into our spread, and I yelled "cut 'em!". Well apparently Wyatt hadn't seen the ducks coming so when I fumbled my hands out of my lanyard and raised my gun up to shoot at the birds as they were leaving, he began to shoot, because he wasn't prepared to shoot. I knocked one down, and he plucked feathers with no success. The bird I shot was a drake (CORRECTION, HEN! After further research, hens have olive bills, and drakes  have yellow/orange bills) black duck, my second on the north fork this season. We hung out for another 30 minutes and finally were able to head out without being interrupted. Another thing I forgot to mention is that the wood duck Wyatt killed was his first duck, how great is a drake woodie for a first! In terms of a Central Virginia duck hunt, this was incredible, and we will definitely be headed back for youth day next weekend. Thanks for Reading!

 

Everything except the hen hooded merganser at the top is in good condition, Wyatt had to let an old 3" BB shell that we use for cripples fly at her because she kept diving when we tried to retrieve her.

Getting Permission to Pigeon Hunt

       I stopped by a dairy farm this morning to ask about pigeon hunting. We dove hunt this place every September and I wanted to see if we could try to decoy some of the pigeons that hang around the silos (upwards of 500 birds) all the time because I'm sure they make a mess. I got there at 9:00, and the farmer had just finished brewing a pot of coffee and he invited me in to discuss the hunting. He told me that he didn't want us just walking around shooting them, and I said that is totally fine, we can hunt more that 100 yards away from the dairy and still do well. I also noticed that in nearly every corner of the house, there were 1-3 pellet guns propped up, this gave me a boost of hope, because evidently he had also been popping them. He said we could hunt, just to call him before coming, that is obviously no problem as it is a common courtesy. So I went into town and bought a Mojo Voodoo Dove, and stopped by a friends house to ask about some reloaded #8s from he got from his friend Bearl who reloaded like crazy, but sadly passed away 2 or 3 years ago, because he had always been offering me shells. He gave my little brother and I 11 boxes of 12 gauge 2-3/4 #8 loads, the boxes came out of a huge rubbermaid tub full of shells. I thanked him a thousand times for the ammo and he told me "Go make some noise, it'll make 'ol Bearl happy". So this one is gonna have to be for Bearl.

Goose Hunting and Nuisance Hunting

        My brothers, a friend, and I tried to do a goose hunt on Friday since we didn't have school. No birds would commit to our spread, but luckily a pond we have permission to hunt was loaded with birds and we managed to kill 4. Not pointing any fingers but there were 2 hunters with us that didn't single out birds and flung a lot of steel "at the flock" and missed completely. We also shot 3 starlings with some cheap old #4 steel we had for cripples, and we shot two pigeons with .22 CB longs at a local horse barn, completing half of the avian nuisance slam, we were missing a mute swan and house sparrows, we had no opportunities at either of those.

 

I finally shot the pigeon we have been watching for 3 years we named bandit (seen in both photos), if you look at its coloration, you can probably tell how it got this name (white and dark stripes like a cartoon escaped prisoner)

Little Surprise on the North Fork

        Our little duck hunt didn't go as planned, the fog was thick and the birds were passing over in range and we could only hear their wings. But we did manage to land 2 geese 60 yards up stream and I "swam them in". Wyatt waterswatted both of them through dense brush because he was worried they would spook, I am not impressed with his judgement because we had two new waterfowlers with us and he didn't give them the slightest chance to take a shot. And wouldn't it be cliche that both geese had bands... Bringing Wyatt's band total to 4, mine still at zero. Turns out one bird was from New York, and the other from Greene County a mere 15 minutes away! The odds of these two banded birds being together, decoying on a sad excuse for a river, maybe 15 yards wide, fast flowing, and thick trees on each bank probably 30 feet tall from erosion, is just incredibly unlikely. But what can I say, Wyatt is very lucky with the bling. One of his other banded geese was killed with 7/8oz 20ga #4 steel on a wood duck hunt! If that isn't lucky, then I don't know what is... But I can't win every battle! Thanks for reading! 

This doesn't look like a wood duck hunt!

Wood Duck Hunting in Virginia

       Since I was exempt from an exam this morning, I biked a couple decoys down to the North Fork of the Rivanna for a duck/goose hunt. I was mainly targeting geese but had duck decoys just in case. I had 8 or 10 woodies buzz over around 60 yards away at around 7:20, they sat down 150 or so yards up stream... THE PLACE I CONTEMPLATED HUNTING! Ugh, can't win every battle. I also could hear mallards or black ducks talking a little at the SAME PLACE! I waited till after 8:30, when the geese usually fly, with no success, today they must have roosted somewhere else. I headed upriver to see if I could jump shoot a duck or two, and walked up on 2 black ducks at about 55 yards, too far for me. Another got up at 40 yards and I took a poke at him, he ate a couple pellets but kept on cooking, and my second shot was pointless, he was 50 or 60 yards away by then, too far unless I got a pellet in the head (thank you steel shot...ugh). About 70 yards upriver, I spotted a drake wood duck sitting on the river, and pulled the gun up and shot him at 40 or 45 yards. He began flapping wildly and I knew I got him, until he realized the gravity of the situation and got his wings under him (thanks again steel shot) and headed up river. As I stepped out to see if I plucked off any feathers, 8 or 10 other woodies got up a mere 10 yards upstream from where the other duck sat! Just a little too far to shoot. I charged wildly up the river in my bulky waders, for the next 100 yards, hoping to recover the woodie before he got hidden in the brush, but no luck. I knew he was hit well, so I kept walking until I reached a pool 1/4 mile away from my first shot. I peeked my head over the brush and saw a lone drake woodie swimming down river towards me. I lied down in the mud, hoping he wouldn't see me, and waited till he swam within 25 yards... I raised up and drew a bead, he didn't get up! At this range it meant he was definitely the bird I had wounded. I shot and killed him, more satisfied that I recovered my wounded bird than I would've been with a new one, knowing in the back of my mind that there was a wounded bird suffering up under some brush somewhere. I checked all the areas my black duck could be hiding in on the way back, but didn't see him, so I am hopeful that he didn't get hit too hard and will recover. Thanks for reading!  

 

Had to pull his head off, but it was much more humane than letting him flop and suffer.

Duck Hunting Tomorrow Morning.

        My dad and I floated the North Fork of the Rivanna last Saturday, attempting to jump shoot some ducks. We saw probably 30 ducks including teal, mallards, black ducks, and woodies. Unfortunately no good opportunities arose, and we walked away empty handed. But now I know where the "X" is, and will be lugging decoys down there with my brother and a couple friends to try to hunt them a little more successfully. We may get a pass-shot at geese flying the river as well. I will give an update tomorrow after the hunt, thanks for reading!

Jump Shooting Geese

       We hunted a pond this morning with no luck bringing the birds to decoys, so when we saw one of the ponds on our way home was loaded with around 500 birds, we quickly initiated a jump shoot. Wyatt was the "driver" and pushed the birds over Ewing, my friend Jackson, and I. He killed 4 when he walked up on the dam and shot as the birds got up, killing 3 with the first shot, one with the second shot, and missing because they were too far away by the third shot. We were hunkered down behind a hill when he pushed the birds directly over us, and we all unloaded our guns and put 4 more on the ground. We should have done better, but Jackson is fairly new to wingshooting, this being his 3rd hunt when he got to pull the trigger on geese, and one of those days was when I hunted with him in 30mph winds and we couldn't hit the birds at all, so that was probably the worst thing I could do for his wingshooting "perception". And also, Ewing was shooting 20 gauge #3s, pretty lightweight stuff for pass shooting geese at 30 yards. But if we would've bagged our 12 birds, I might still be out there cleaning them.... Thanks for reading!

 

Might I add that I was throwing 3&1/2 inches of BANG at them (size BB shot), brought down a huge resident and he/she never twitched... Always wondered how to tell if I'm killing ganders (males) or whatever a "hen" goose is called...  

Squirrel Bash Attempt

       Today, my brothers and I tried to get a mess of squirrels for trying a new recipe I discovered, we all grabbed our .22s and a couple high velocity long rifle bullets, and set off in different directions to scour the area for squirrels, keeping tabs on each other by loud whistles back and forth so we know where we can and can't shoot. We managed to kill 4, Wyatt got one, Ewing got two, and I managed to go to my "airgun property" where there are a lot of houses nearby and take one with a cb short. It was quartering away pretty good so I placed the bullet slightly in front of its hindquarter, and the bullet exited in its shoulder, it ran 15-20 yards and died. Had a pretty awesome day goose hunting as well, just waiting on a friend to send me pictures so I can post them here. Thanks for reading!

Starling Count 2013

3 With my .22, one with a Remington 870 20 gauge and #4 steel shot (we had just finished duck/goose hunting), and one with a Browning Citori 12 gauge 0/U with #8s. Update: 1 more with a .22 short @ 60yds