2018 Waterfowl thread

It's been an interesting weekend so far in Atikokan for birds. Not a lot out there, but there's species we rarely see that I've connected with.

I've never shot a Pintail here before, and yet yesterday I Dutch Doubled on these two along with shooting a Gadwall later on in the morning.

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I can count on one hand the number of Gadwall and Widgeon I've shot over the years here and yet the only two birds I got this morning were these

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Probably the highlight of the year for me so far is the progress Townes has made from last season. He made a dandy ~125 yard retrieve on a Widgeon this morning that made my day.

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Cory
 
Spent the last few days visiting family in southern Manitoba and I gotta admit I’m quite jealous of the numbers of geese out there. Unreal how many Canada’s I saw without going out of our way to even look for them. I imagine they keep the waterfowlers out there busy. I didn’t see much more than a couple dozen ducks, but holy cow the geese.

Even saw a group set up in a field hunting them, although they were set up at the opposite end thstthe geesehad been using for the last couple days and only 50yrds from their truck and trailer. Who knows how they did. But I’ll bet they saw birds.
 
My buddy was going to hire an outfitter for a goose hunt, because he had no gear, so I convinced him to put the money into a dozen decoys and a layout blind. We did as well as an outfitter would have, and we are at it again tomorrow, and he can come again next year, without having to buy any gear. We stopped hunting because we thought one more bird had fallen, or we would have had a full limit..
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stubblejumper said:
My buddy was going to hire an outfitter for a goose hunt, because he had no gear, so I convinced him to put the money into a dozen decoys and a layout blind. We did as well as an outfitter would have, and we are at it again tomorrow, and he can come again next year, without having to buy any gear. We stopped hunting because we thought one more bird had fallen, or we would have had a full limit..
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Right on!
Great advise to your buddy! As long as you got access to land, a guy can go broke on buying ammo.
Some of the goose chunks in the stew were TOUGH! Gonna try burgers next.
 
leveractionjunkie said:
Spent the last few days visiting family in southern Manitoba and I gotta admit I’m quite jealous of the numbers of geese out there. Unreal how many Canada’s I saw without going out of our way to even look for them. I imagine they keep the waterfowlers out there busy. I didn’t see much more than a couple dozen ducks, but holy cow the geese.

Even saw a group set up in a field hunting them, although they were set up at the opposite end thstthe geesehad been using for the last couple days and only 50yrds from their truck and trailer. Who knows how they did. But I’ll bet they saw birds.
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Had the girlfriend out sunday for her first ever duck hunt. We hunted a small dugout in a swathed field the birds had been using for water while feeding on the wheat swath. She’s using a nice little BPS Micro Midas in 20ga I picked up NIB off the EE for her.

Hope this link works? Seems to work for some and not others?

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=bJNEj3

Some nice specks in the pic above Stubb. I like hunting specks, love the sound they make! :)
 
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shakeyjake said:
The Weatherby SA 08 worked perfect.....except when the girl had to shoot. Shot once and failed to chamber the next shell, she could've gotten two. Ran like a top after that. Conditions were rain/sleet. Gave er a complete cleaning once I got home. On a side note, that instruction manual is terrible!
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Does your SA-08 have 2 gas valves? I got mine used and it only came with the heavy load valve. I tried it with light loads and it would not cycle reliably. However, it runs like a champ with heavy loads. I'll have to track down a light valve if I want the young'uns to use it for grouse or skeet.
 
Went out last night after work. Unfortunately by the time I get to the land I hunt on I have about .5 hours of legal light left. Brought my $100 single shot with me. Did a beautiful long shot on the Canada goose (paced off 80 yards) and just after me and the boy had retrieved that a few ducks flew over, so I managed to get one of them. After that we ran out of legal light. My boy wanted me to take a picture of him holding them.

 
ok ... now i was was wondering if anybody recommended #2 steel for decoying geese in a layout blind situation. If so what brand works best for you? or is BB best for that situation.
I have used hevi-metal but it is difficult to come by around here...mostly federal/win/kent/challenger stuff but no tungsenMatrix too expensive
 
the spank said:
Had the girlfriend out sunday for her first ever duck hunt. We hunted a small dugout in a swathed field the birds had been using for water while feeding on the wheat swath. She’s using a nice little BPS Micro Midas in 20ga I picked up NIB off the EE for her.

Hope this link works? Seems to work for some and not others?

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=bJNEj3

Some nice specks in the pic above Stubb. I like hunting specks, love the sound they make! :)
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Thanks for taking time to make and share that video! Love to see the birds like that, quite the spectacle. I may be the only one in BC to feel this way, but I sure miss the prairies, especially in the fall time. We have a lot of hunting opportunities here but I crave waterfowl and upland birds more than any sheep or goat.
 
leveractionjunkie said:
Thanks for taking time to make and share that video! Love to see the birds like that, quite the spectacle. I may be the only one in BC to feel this way, but I sure miss the prairies, especially in the fall time. We have a lot of hunting opportunities here but I crave waterfowl and upland birds more than any sheep or goat.
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I'd love to hunt the prairies sometime, looks like some fantastic hunting out there! However, living in BC isn't so bad for duck hunting lol, the Fraser Valley is one of the best duck hunting areas in the world with birds holding here all winter. It's a long season with a ton of birds,,what more could a man ask for :)
 
edgy said:
I'd love to hunt the prairies sometime, looks like some fantastic hunting out there! However, living in BC isn't so bad for duck hunting lol, the Fraser Valley is one of the best duck hunting areas in the world with birds holding here all winter. It's a long season with a ton of birds,,what more could a man ask for :)
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Yes we’ve got it pretty good here as well no doubt. I haven’t hunted the lower mainland, but I hear it’s great if you can find access. Even in the interior I can hunt birds right until season close on December 23rd, and some days are insanely good when it all comes together. I was born on the prairies and have lived there for a couple periods of life and they always hold a special place for me.
 
Thanks for the reply. Always find the different species and their migrations interesting, and how they compare to others. Sounds like a decent window to be able to target specks at least. Not sure why but I’d thought they moved out early by comparison.
 
Got out for the opener in my region this morning! Great day with the sun and birds flying. 5/8 today. Trying out some new gear and it all came together :)

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Unfortunately, no pics but, tonight I took my nephew and his friend to a pond in search of mallards. Nothing much happened until shortly before the end of legal shooting time. We heard geese behind us and I managed to call in a flock of 30+ birds right to the two of them. The birds were right over their heads and locked for landing when I put an end to their indecision and "Now?...Now?...Which one...?" questions by saying they needed to pick a bird and get some steel into the air RIGHT NOW! So, they filled the air with steel and noise...and then the birds flew off without so much as a singed tail feather. They reflected on the power of the suck on the walk back to the vehicle...of course I found it periodically necessary to remind them that they could have had a few goose steaks...The night's events will forever live in infamy. Laugh2
 
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