I was able to go home for Thanksgiving this year which was a huge blessing. I will detail the trip later but for now I will just highlight the hunting I was able to do. Since joining the military I have been quite busy and it has been a few years since I have been able to go hunting. With a week at home I figured it was time to get back out there. My dad also hadn't hunted since I left home so he was looking forward to it as well. If I had to summarize my hunting while at home I would say that the only predictable thing about waterfowl hunting is that it is unpredictable. We planned an elaborate hunt one of my first days home and were pretty excited. We got up at 0300, drove to a far away location, and set up a nice spread of decoys. Despite out efforts, the birds evaded us and we ended the day with not a single shot fired. It was however so nice to spend a day in the duck blind with my dad and catch up on life. The next day, I slept in and went to breakfast with a friend. After spending a few hours with him, I decided to grab my hunting gear from home and go to an area nearby just for kicks. It was late morning and not very good hunting weather (meaning it was a gorgeous day) so I didn't expect much. I brought my sister with me so we could spend some time together. When I got to the spot, I saw a small group of mallards right near where I was parked but they flew away when I got out of my vehicle. I kept an eye on them, and after circling a few times, they landed in a location that was legal to hunt but hard to get to. My sister and I took our time getting there and were very careful as we approached where they had landed. I carefully looked through some brush and saw that they were still sitting there. I had it all planned out in my head how I was going to stand up and probably be able to shoot two of them after they jumped up. I told my sister I was about to go for it and rose to my knees. I picked out a nice drake and when I tried to take the safety off so I could shoot, nothing happened! In a split second I realized what had happened. I bought a shotgun from a friend last year and had not had a chance to hunt with it yet. I had brought it along instead of the gun I have been using for the last 7 years. The problem was the safety on my old shotgun is in front of the trigger guard while the safety on my new shotgun is behind the trigger guard. My muscle memory had kicked in and I had reached in front of the trigger guard out of habit. Once I realized what had happened, I flicked the safety off, picked out a nice drake, and folded him. Despite the delay with my safety, it was still a really fun hunt especially since my sister was with me and was able to see it all.
On Thanksgiving morning we were busy getting ready for company to come over. After a while, my dad and I decided to grab our guns and swing by the same nearby spot to see if anything was there. As we approached it we saw a flock of geese near where I had shot the mallard a few days prior. We snuck into position but by the time we got there the geese had moved farther out into the bay. We were going to just head back to the car and continue with the meal preparations but my dad just had a feeling about the situation and suggested we wait and see if the geese would come back. Sure enough, 10 minutes later the geese turned around and started working their way over towards where we were hiding. Once they were in range, my dad called the shot and we popped up guns blazing. When the smoke cleared, we had three large geese down. After grabbing the float tube, we retrieved them and headed home. What a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving!
At close to 15lbs. a piece, my sister was having fun trying to lift all three with one arm.
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