10/27/10

Skipped class today because Mitch informed me that he "had found the birds." How am I supposed to miss that? Well it didn't disappoint. We had an awesome hunt. I love being patient and only shooting birds that are feet down. Doesn't get much better than that.

Notice that sweet black autoloader on my shoulder? That's right the new gun has not disappointed. Mitch nicknamed our guns the black bandits.

10/25/10

Skipped out on work for the afternoon to try out the new gun. I got 5 and Todd shot 3. It was ok for just going out blind. Hopefully the birds will show up soon!

10/4/10

Mitch and I made a Sunday night decision to head out Monday morning. We hunted the same place as the opener, code name "wisconsin". It was an excellent hour and a half. We both limited and made it to work on time. I took chase with us on this hunt. He actually did quite well considering it was his first duck hunt. This dog is not a big fan of the water either. He had a couple of good marks and even brought a couple back all on his own. Its good to know that I have a back-up dog in case jax gets injured.

Opening Day 2010

Spent the opener with Todd and Darin. Had a really good hunt. This was the first time on an opener the whole group has limited. We did it with two guns also. Darin's gun wouldn't fire. Birds flew really well, especially for such a blue-bird day. Jax did excellent considering I haven't had him out practicing much recently. It was a good start to what hopefully will be a great season.

Youth Hunt Part 2

After the geese this morning I had to go to work for a few hours but I was able to talk the same people into a afternoon duck shoot. The ducks were thick and the boys shot a ton. Alex had a perfect day. He was able to shoot a limit of geese in the morning and a limit of ducks in the evening. Braden was pretty dang close to the same thing. The youngest Stratford boy, Bridger, got his first couple geese. The first goose of his life, you guessed it, was banded! 3 boys, 8 geese, 4 bands, and 18 ducks. It doesn't get much better than that.

Youth Hunt 2010

Made it out for some morning geese today with Mitch's little brother Alex and Braden Stratford. We had found a field that was holding a ton of geese and were super excited to get permission to hunt it. Ended up with 2 limits. Three of the birds were banded. Two of those had a metal band and a yellow band. I'm sure they are all urban geese that were relocated. Pretty awesome way to start this season off.

Check out the band on this last pic. He was shooting that goose right in the butt and put a dent in that band. It made the band look really cool.

9/01/10

Well dove season is finally upon us. Made it out this morning with Todd, Clayton, and Mitch. We ended up with 20 doves. The plan this morning was to hunt out of layout blinds in a grain field. Had to change our setup though; the doves were decoying too close. That is a good problem to have. Chase got his first real attempt at hunting today. He did a pretty good job, but he needs a little work on marking.