Wednesday, January 30, 2013

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!!!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

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.

Monday, January 21, 2013

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.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

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)

Thursday, January 17, 2013

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!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

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.

Friday, January 11, 2013

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!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

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