Maryland opening day of Rifle season

Well this turkey day marks for many the opening day of the Maryland rifle season. Even though the day does not officially open for the harvest of deer until that Saturday, just getting to deer camp begins the season for many. We are fortunate to have both waterfowl marsh and deer woods on our property, so Wed, Thur, Fri, then Sat Sun. makes for a great week of hunting. Of course the water pump on the boat decides not to work meaning a phone call to a friend to see if he was going hunting this weekend, and was his boat available. But the wind! It blew a gale then some and no matter what you might think ducks are not into flying in a gale force wind! My son and his guest arrived at the cabin around 10;30 Thursday night, and I had the boat ready to go but like I said the wind was just brutal, so we hunted a quiet piece of water tucked in behind some trees. Later we moved out to a point and shot at a few diving ducks, after sacrificing a goose decoy to the water gods, we decided that maybe our time could be better spent back in camp. I mean there was a fireplace, half Banana cream pie, a Apple pie and turkey needing a new home, not to mention the possibility of a nap!
Sat morning came quick and the woods was Alive with hunters. Our 158 acres is well managed and we know where each other is positioned, but the adjoining property is a free for all and unfortunately our deer have to return to our area to bed, passing through the neighbors property first. I counted 30 rifle shots in the neighboring property in the first legal hour. The morning was unproductive, but after the woods quieted down we returned that evening and took up our stands. Deer were moving about and our party was able to take a nice doe of 100 lbs. We butchered our deer and packed out our meat in coolers the next morning. We will turn it into sausage, baloney, neck roast, jerky, and burger and enjoy the hunt many months after the harvest.

More guns mean More crime or More crime means More guns?

Looking through my American Rifleman magazine this morning the following story line grabbed my eye, "New FBI Crime Report Undercuts Gun Control Slogan.... Again". It seems that that every September the FBI releases it's National Crime report for the preceding year. Once again it would seem that the gun control groups are not happy with the report....again. Since 1991 when crime hit a all time high, the nations national crime rate has dropped 40% a 35 year low! Now hear this the number of privately owned firearms rose to more than 80 million, all all time high, and it reported that the number is closing in on 300 million handguns. That means to you and I that we now owen more of all types of firearms than at any time in history, even those that gun control supporters decided we should not have over the years. So more guns less crime or more crime more guns?

Duck hunting

Well the past couple of days have been classic duck hunting days but where are the ducks? My hunting marsh is located on the Saint Martins Neck area of Williamsville and diving ducks have been flying around some but not in the flocks of 8 or 10 that I saw a week ago. No big ducks have showed themselves and no migrating geese the past two days flying over the blind. There is cold weather up north, snow to the north west one would think that the ducks would be pushed down here by now in mass numbers. My son is coming in from the tide water area of Virgina, so I have the blind brushed up nice, heat on in the cabin and naturally some food for the boy and the guest he is bringing with him. Hopefully we will see some birds fly into the spread, tell some lies, and eat cold turkey sandwiches!

ducks deer and some turkey!

Seems like we have a busy week coming up first we have turkey day, ducks till Saturday then deer season! What is a man to do? First def. in on the bird, now if your house is like the one I grew up in we always went rabbit hunting first thing in the morn. Had a huge dinner then a serious nap with brief moments of football or something. Then Friday was spent ducking in the morning and hanging stands or going to the range again with the rifle. Sat brought opening day and the chance of a nice deer for the freezer. So whatever your choice be safe, shoot straight, and follow the game laws.

Delaware opening day of shotgun season

The rut is in full swing, the weather is bad as it gets and today was opening day for shotgunners in Delaware. It may have been bad but there were at least 20 trucks parked along burnt swamp road this morning. Good luck guys, let us know how you did.

Todays duck hunt

The day started at 3 am waking up without the alarm I stumbled out of the bed room into the Man Cave where my clothes are laid out. Got the Tom Brown, my Chesapeake retriever for his first real duck hunt of the season in the car and made sure my over sized kayak fiberglass over plywood pole boat was tied into the trailer, loaded all the stuff that goes with a duck hunt on a perfect morning and headed to my hunting cabin. The early morning started a bit rough with a gale blowing NE, and rain on the horizontal, so I went inside and had a bit to eat while it lightened up a bit. When it got light enough to see to put out the decoys I got the Black Duck (my boat)down to the marsh edge, got Tom Brown kenneled in and sitting and poled out into the marsh. The marsh was flooded knee deep on what is usually dry grass, so the poling was easy and the wind in my favor. I took up residence next to the edge of the marsh sitting on the boat with the retriever in the over sized cockpit marsh grass placed to break up our outline and waited for ducks to come by and check out my freshly painted decoy spread. First set of birds were two pair of those little Teal rockets, who came wile I was setting decoys naturally. Then nothing, a crow or two, some geese, but no ducks. Tom brown wanted ot of the boat so I let him walk/swim around pissing on everything he could get his leg up on, blew the duck call, ate some crackers and waited for the ducks to come. Then it cleared up some stopped raining, wind died down to just a good blow low ceiling fog perfect for the ducks but I saw none. A few divers out on Assawoman bay further out, but no ducks in my part of the marsh. Then I see coming in hard across my left a flock of four green wing teal, bound for the north side of the river. Laying into my favorite duck call, an old wooden Olt that my dad had I start blowing single quacks and feeder chuckles, and as they show me their tail feathers I start with the comeback call. Damn if they did not cut hard left and committed to my decoys like a cruise missile on Bin Laden, came in smokin fast. I jumped up from where I was sitting on the bow of the black duck and laid down two perfect shots from my double barreled 3 inch twelve gauge, first the lead duck then the second. I wish I was going to tell you my retriever jumped from the boat on command and retrieved both of my ducks but that was not the case, I missed both shots and the ducks showed me their tail, Tom just looked at me with those big green eyes. I will say that even though we may not of had a perfect morning it was a good time to train the dog in things we do not usually work on. Like riding still in the pole boat, he weighs 120 lbs and is not fat so that is important when standing up poling. He sat quietly for a couple hours not being a pain by begging for crackers. So the morning was not a total washout for us
That was the last ducks I saw all morning. Maybe someone had a better morning than me?

Maryland opening day for ducks

Okay my decoys are almost painted, the Black Duck pole skiff is painted, Tom brown is ready, the blind is probably blown away! Opening late season duck day is always exciting for me, you know the Migrating birds are moving in, weather is colder, geese are fat from eating corn and I know there will be good times. Me out shooting my hunting partners and them claiming all the birds, fixing breakfast over a pack stove and skillet. The dog (maybe) making some good retrieves, and the stories of hunts past and the number of birds we did not shoot or missed. (Why do we always remember the missed shots?)Sambuca and coffee in the cold morning blind and frost on the reeds. That is what I am looking forward to this sat. morn.