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river hunt # 3 with Dad

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last weekend was a barrel burner! I thought I was gonna melt the Browning. Got there on Friday around 3 PM, car-pooled with Dad, that was a fun change. Started hunting around 4 PM. setup a decent decoy spread. The 3 bufflehead decoys work like a magnet on those birds! Dad dropped me off at the blind. It was low tide which makes a huge difference because it is easier to walk around, set decoys, retrieve dead birds without getting wet! Especially when you have waist waders like I do.  Had a drake bufflehead come right in to the decoys, so I let him have it. "HEY DUCK" I shouted to get him up off the water. He didn't have far to go , one shot with Monarch #4 shot put him down quickly. Belly up floater. What a beautiful bird. The heads are a super pretty iridescent green and purple. The males are roughly twice as big as the hens. The hens are only 8 oz on average, the males are maybe 1.5 lbs. Little birds, in fact, they are the smallest diving ducks. They are called diving du...
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River hunt #2 with Dad

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 1-12-21 Well last weekend was even better. We got a late start because my Zippo handwarmer was acting up. It was cold enough to need foot warmers in each boot! So we were crossing the water after legal shooting time. The Motor started on the second pull, an excellent sign of the day to come! The evening before I had tried solo hunting from the Sneak box; wow it is tricky. You have to be out in the middle of the river, with the wind blowing. Then you have to set the anchor to the line with a carabiner. The front line has a decoy duck on it with a special loop to use. Then you have to move to the back of the boat. Time to deploy decoys. You reel out the line one by one, attaching 8 decoys on a straight line. You attach to the back of the boat. Then you have to cover the engine with camo. Then you lay down in the boat and roll the cover camo over yourself, get the gun ready and wait. The ducks were not interested in me at all. Uh-Oh, engine cord won't go back in. I tried the oars and...
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Finishing out 2020 with a duck hunt with Dad on the River

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 Duck Journal Notes 12-31-2020 Well friends, 2020 has been a rough year for all. Our family has had it's share of loss and grief, as well as a share of madness from being co-op'd up tighter than our chicken coop. Anyways, that is the subject for another blog. The night before, I added some extra brush to the blind. It was better, but still sparse. It would have to do for now. At least the new brush was nice and green. It was low tide while I was out there, which makes it easy because the water was only mid shin deep.  The boat motor was running good. 8HP Evinrude from 1998. We stayed up a bit reading some of Dad's old notes from other duck hunts going back to 2015. This is when he really got "serious" about duck hunting, although the first time he went was probably around 1974! No signal on my phone or wifi at Uncle Ev's Cottage. Dad has lots of good stories to tell and remembers every detail, it seems.  We set our alarm clocks for 5:15. It wasn't too cold...
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