dawsonscreek

It is a Stevens 555 20 gauge. Made by Savage. Light to carry and only around $500 so I don’t feel bad getting it dinged up!

In July I finally caved into the Mrs. wanting a dog and settled that it had to be something I can hunt. By chance, a buddy had a litter of Brittanys and we fell in love with one (how can you not love a puppy). Dudley, aka dudders the pup, is now 6 months old and so smart and well behaved (for the most part). I have been working as much as I can to get him trained in hunting but more focused on manners and obedience. The last couple weeks I have been taking advantage of some nearby stocked pheasants and having a blast. It’s fun to see him learn each time out. He has yet to point a live bird but he is definitely figuring out how to find them. He even tracked/recovered a downed bird that we would have not found without a dog! Excited to get him some more training and see how next season goes!

I love saving up the legs and slow cooking them. Shred the meat off the bone and use for pulled pork style sandwiches with BBQ!

We finished out the last day of the March Goose season with a hard earned 4 man limit. We took a chance and slept in, not expecting the birds to fly first thing. The gamble was a bad choice and when we got to the field at 8:00 it was loaded, all we could do was watch from the road as small groups trickled in. Figuring the sudden change in weather might make the birds feed twice we came back around 11:30 and there was only about 10 birds left. Good sign! As we set up birds worked the field; we were feeling hopeful. Finished set up around 1:00 and waited. At about 4:00 they started to trickle in. We enjoyed a few pairs and singles to get started. As the evening continued some bigger volleys were had and around 6:30 the last goose of our limit hit the snow! My buddy’s young dog got a lot of practice out there and was loving it!

I was fortunate enough to have a good hunt yesterday and get my first band! A single came in as we were standing out side of the blind and I took on shot at him and crushed him! We ended up with 18 geese and 4 bands. Mine was 8+ year old and banded near Sudbury, Ontario. The rest of the bands were local, but each came from a different flock.

Finally on the board. A solo drake mallard made my day on a tough hunt Saturday in PA. Experimenting with my 20 gauge O/U this year for early season and liking it!

PA opener was a bust for me. I wasn't on the X and birds did not decoy for me. Missed a few passing shots and one gimme on a teal that swam into the dekes.

That is arrow arum (Peltandra virginica). Ducks love it! I have found the seeds in bear scat as well.

Maybe the slight cool down this weekend will do something. Saturday morning is probably shot for me due to a Friday night wedding, but gonna scout hard and put something together for Sunday as it is going to be my last day. Oct 6 is duck open for PA and I only live 10 minutes from the border so I might as well check that out!

Duped again, set up in one of the pastures from last week, thinking the warm temps would have them in there. Well, they roosted in the pond up the road, got up just high enough to clear the trees and landed in the adjacent pasture. Likely never even saw my dekes. Oh well, bring on the ducks now, I've had enough of these long necks for a while.

Had two pastures lined up for the weekend. Saturday's had over 100 in it the night before and had been consistently holding 4 dozen in the mornings, nobody showed up. Sunday's pasture had been holding 150 birds consistently all day and gain, nothing really showed up. We only had one flock work, and piss poor shooting led to only three birds hitting the dirt. Still a great weekend to be out, nd the number of woodies on the pasture pond is exciting for October!

Yeah its brutal out there. Found those birds the next day on a pond and got permission only to find them gone the following day. Tough hunting. Do have permission on a pasture/pond with 100 just have a feeling they aren't leaving it to roost though. They've been there all week so hopefully they stick around. Plan is to shoot it this weekend, will post report.

Having a hard time finding and staying on birds here in the southern tir. SEems as though once we find some, they are gone the next day. Nothing is consistent down here. Despite the tough conditions we got on a field opening day and watched 100+ chose the next field over the hill and not even give us a look. Managed to pull one group of 5 off and we got three of them. Hopefully the cold front this weekend brings some much needed luck

Saturday morning felt like it was gonna be one of those great mornings. Clear skies and chilly. Nothing spoke off the roost, walked my usual mile loop without a peep. Almost back to the end of the loop and got a response. I got as close as I dared and set up. He came in gobbling, drumming, and strutting. SMoked him at 23 yards, he didn’t even flop. He had about 1” spurs, a 9 1/2” beard and was heavy! Estimated at 22 pounds.

Let's just hope that April actually feels like spring and we don't go straight to summer!

Hit the field early on Saturday morning, my work schedule only allows me afternoons and evening for scouting so I wasn’t sure when the birds were getting to the field.Turns out a bunch were roosting on the river adjacent to the field, they left roost when the sun was above the hill and we got a two pack that landed in the decoys. Then a long wait till 11:00 and 3 dozen came back together and landed outside of the spread. Tried waiting them out hoping they’d walk into the spread but that didn’t happen.We both had to p*ss and every bird that came by was landing with the live birds so We flushed them out . Then in the afternoon we finally had birds coming in again, all in pairs which was perfect for 2 shooters. I cleaned up 3 more and missed one, was shooting 100% on one shot till that miss! My buddy only ended up with one more, his gun malfuncted on 2 feet down birds that would have been dead, and also missed one out of the pair I missed. So, we at least shot at a limit, all in all a great day and good success for it being my first year targeting geese!

Good shoot! I got permission on the field I was hoping for. Gonna be a tough hide /setup as the birds are strung out along a several hundred yard flooded ditch in a short stubble field (with a little snow and I don't have snow covers for the layouts) and not really concentrated in one area of it. Gonna give it a shot though!

Jumping Canadas is really fun to me. Had a perfect opportunity at a bigger group, sitting in a pond at the bottom of a tall bank, stopped at the house and by the time the guy got to the door and said go ahead and hunt, the geese had swum out too far to jump. They'll be there Saturday though....

Me and a buddy got out to do some jump shooting, as we couldn’t get on any fields/loafs due to lack of scouting time. Only had one good jump, 2 geese on the river, one shot fired by each of us( simultaneously!) , 2 geese fell dead. Praying to get permission for Saturday on a field I found last night!

I ordered a wicked lights headlamp and am impatiently waiting on its arrival. Only a few more days to bag my first fox(my goal for this year).

Turns out she wasn't a hunting dog, but when she was on her walk she decided she wanted to take a hike up over the hill following some sort of scent!

She is back home safe. As annoying as Facebook is, it was how we found the owners. She made quite the trek over beartown Hill, glad the yipping coyotes we heard didn’t find this sweet girl!