Christmas Hunting Success

I was able to go home for about 3 weeks for Christmas which was a huge blessing!  While I didn't go on any big hunting trips while I was home, I did several short morning hunts in nearby locations and had great success.  It was so much fun to watch the sunrise over a set of decoys and get to spend time with my dad.  It would take too long to tell the story of every single hunt but there were a few birds in particular that stood out.  One of the first days after I got back my dad and I decided to sneak up on a spot that occasionally has held birds in the past.  After taking our time carefully sneaking up on the spot, I looked through the brush and saw about a dozen mallards sitting within range.  Unfortunately, before my dad could get in a good position to shoot, they saw me and jumped.  I shouldered my gun and was able to double, shooting both a hen and a drake mallard.  

A few days later, my dad and I set up a small spread of 7 decoys on the edge of the ocean and hunkered down in some brush on the beach.  It was a slow morning but about 30 minutes after sunrise, a drake wigeon came into the decoys and my dad was able to kill it.  It was his first duck of the season and it was a beautiful bird!

The next free morning my dad had, we set up in the same location on the beach.  The way we were set up, there was a large bush between my dad and I so I couldn't see much to my left where he was and he couldn't see much to his right where I was but we could both see straight ahead where the decoys were.  Almost immediately after legal shooting hours, my dad had a group of mallards that kept looking at the decoys but wouldn't commit.  I didn't know that he had his eyes on a good group of birds so when a single drake mallard came in on my side I wasted no time in killing it.  I felt bad when I realized I had scared away the birds that would have eventually come in and given him a shot but at least we had one bird down.  After retrieving it we settled back in to see what would happen.  Not 20 minutes later I started to lean around the bush to say something to my dad when a group of about 25 mallards started working our decoys.  I froze in a very uncomfortable position and waited.  Finally the came close enough and my dad called the shot.  He immediately killed a drake mallard and I shot a pair on my side.  I felt confident that I had hit one of them but they both flew away.  After packing up our gear I walked up and down the beach just to see if I had indeed hit one of those birds and sure enough I found the hen from the pair washed up on the beach.

One the last day my dad was available to hunt we headed to the same spot on the beach.  It was another slow day but eventually a single drake mallard came in.  Since it was my dad's last hunt I wanted to have him to have the first shot.  He missed on his first shot so I took a shot and also missed.  I cycled my shotgun and got ready for another shot.  I got a good lead on the bird and started to squeeze the trigger.  About a thousandth of a second before I shot, my dad shot and hit it perfectly knocking it over right as my gun went off also hitting it squarely.  The two shots were so close together that they almost sounded like a single shot.  Needless to say, that was a very dead drake mallard!

                                    

 The day before I left I decided to get out just one more time.  Unfortunately, my dad had to work.  It was a beautiful frosty morning and it felt good to be out watching the sunrise over my decoys.  Five minutes after legal shooting hours, like clockwork, a pair of mallards cupped up into my decoys.  I shouldered my gun and picked the closest bird.  I squeezed the trigger and the hen mallard folded up stone-dead.  I racked the action and swung onto the fleeing greenhead.  I squeezed the trigger again and he somersaulted end over end.  While my shooting is not always that good, it was a great feeling to see a pair of mallards come down with such solid hits.  It was a text book hunt from the set up, to the birds coming it right after legal light, to a pair of mallards coming into my decoys with reckless abandon and with two shots fired having 2 dead birds on the water.  It was a great way to end my 2013-2014 waterfowl season!