This website is intended as a resource for the waterfowler in general (especially the beginner) and for Ontario waterfowler in particular.

  

 

 

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 ...And here we go....

 

 

October 27, 2009

Green-winged Teal - Luther Marsh, Oct 24, 2009

Last Saturday I went to Luther Marsh with a friend of mine to try again a spot on the shallow lake where we’ve been hunting before (with no success).

Everything was perfect – good wind, sometimes too strong, but generally just right to put the ducks on a predictable pattern, overcast and cold just as much as necessary, not too many hunters, and even if the level of the water was a bit high, the hunting spot was still accessible without a boat – we just pulled a cart with all the gear while wading along the shore… We’ve got the decoys on the water pretty quick and we found good cover in the reeds and under a tree, where we managed to get two flat spots to sit…

As I said, everything was perfect, except the ducks didn’t pay any attention to that spot and to our spread of decoys. They were flying high and determined towards a precise destination… I don’t think we’ll be hunting that spot again, except maybe for demonstration purposes for new waterfowlers.

However, it wasn’t a complete waste of time (in my opinion any time spent hunting is time well spent regardless whether you bag anything or not, but that’s an other issue).
I’ve got a story worth telling out of it:

We shot a green winged teal… and a crow.
The teal wandered into our decoy spread ending up on the far right side (which I was covering) so Dave held his shot. I’ve got up, pointed the gun and... lost my balance…
The two seconds I needed to re-gain my balance and aim properly were enough for the duck to touch the water, but my brain didn’t work that fast… so I pulled the trigger… I was embarrassed, Dave was pissed off because I shot the duck on the water (instead of in flight, the way an ethical hunter would and should do) and besides, I had a 3 ½ inch #3 in the chamber and the duck wasn’t more than fifteen yards away (maybe even ten). We both thought I shredded the little thing (teal is a very small duck)… When I recovered the bird, it was little doubt that the meat was severely damaged. The feathers on the back and the wings had extensive shot damage, one pellet went through the head and about one inch of skin was peeled from the back of the neck (the shot came from behind). That was indubitably a quick kill (and that was the only good thing about it)… I didn’t see any sign of damage (like exit wounds) on the breast, but I didn’t want to sound like I was trying to talk my way out of the embarrassing situation. “Did you at least aim high to avoid hitting the body?!” asked Dave. “Yes, I did”, I muttered. And indeed I did – not by purpose, but out of reflex – however, I was under the impression that I shot way too low, as I could see the shot pattern on the water… Anyway, I put the bird away and continued to wait there and call occasionally when ducks where flying in the distance… None came anywhere near us. At one point the only things flying around were flocks of crows, and one of them was the next thing that came into range (about 50 – 60 yards away). I fired two shots – one behind it but the next one dead on… Apparently it was a bad idea, because while I was out to retrieve the bird, Dave says a pair of puddling ducks came towards our decoys but I scared them away… That was just to complete the glorious day…

And here comes the interesting part of the story (better late than never, eh?!). When I finally decided to clean the bird I was extremely surprised by the findings. The breast was untouched, the wings were not broken and generally speaking it had very little damage, except the feathers (I wasn’t going to take it to the taxidermist anyway…).
I couldn’t believe that such a small bird, shot from such a short distance with such a big shell had no meat damage at all.
I found only one pellet in the teal. It broke the left thigh and remained there, superficial. This shows how fragile this bird is. A #3 steel pellet broke the thigh in two. It was probably a ricochet from water surface, otherwise I believe it would’ve gone through. Not a single pellet in the breast. The feathers on the back of the bird were badly damaged, but apparently the pellets grazed the back of the bird almost parallel. One pellet in the head – through and through, and one inch of skin on the neck peeled.

So it turns out that I did aim high afterall… As I said, not by purpose, but out of reflex – the reflex I told you in an other story that I worked all the summer to build – to take headshots so I don’t damage the meat so much… This was an involuntary demonstration that “Power Is Nothing Without Control”. Sometimes, especially if you know what you’re doing (i.e. you train enough) you can shoot a powerful load at a small game bird or animal and not destroy it completely. And vice versa, shoot a small load at a big bird or animal but hit the vitals and score a quick and clean kill. Like knocking down a 13 pound Canada goose with 3 inch #4 shot or dropping an adult deer with a .243 Win 100 gr. bullet…

I have the opposite story, told by a trap coach who used to be an Olympic athlete. He was invited by some big figures to an upland hunt (to improve the overall “score”). At one point he was told “it’s your turn, the next bird that flushes it’s yours to shoot”. So when the bird got up, he aimed, shot and… a cloud of feathers flew everywhere with chunks of meat and entrails…

- What do you do?! they asked him.

- You said it’s my turn to shoot…

- Yes, but we don’t eat anything? You pulverized the bird!

- I’m sorry, I told you I don’t have a hunting gun. You said it’s ok to bring my trap gun.

- Go home. (and that was his first and last hunt)

He didn’t only bring his trap gun (full choke 32 inch barrel) but he brought the trap shooting champion mindset: “smoke the clay target” So he “smoked” the bird…(“to smoke” the target in trap slang means to hit it dead on and pulverize it to dust.)

 

September 18, 2009

Ontario, early goose season. Greatest hunt I can remember -- we've got about 60 geese in less than 60 minutes...

This was a hunt I didn’t plan for. However, it turned out better than the ones I spent weeks preparing.

I made arrangements for two Fridays off, to take advantage of the early goose season and go hunting with a buddy of mine, but each time he called me the evening before with bad news – there were no geese in the area where we were planning to go… Besides, the weather was not cooperating either – it was warm and no wind. So each time I wasted the precious day off doing some chores, just to take my mind off the missed hunt.

Finally I sent a text message to my lucky guide up North, with not much hope (usually they’re fully booked long before the season begins). To my surprise, the answer came: “Sure thing, buddy”.

So I jumped on an early train from my job, piled up in the trunk of the car everything I found in the “waterfowl hunting” area of my basement, double checked, and then triple checked if I’ve got my boom stick, ammunition and hunting permit (those are the three things you can’t do without) and after a quick nap, I was on my way to GreyBruce Outfitters, up in Bruce County, just after midnight.

Minutes later the dogs were retrieving the first birds… but an other formation of geese was approaching, so the dogs were called back… and it was like this for the next 45 minutes. Some geese got away because we didn’t have time to reload. We had to stop at one point and count the birds down, with birds flying over us, so we won’t shoot over the bag limit….

Great hunt! Great, great hunt!  ( Thank you Steve and Luke! ) 

We’ve got 56 geese in less than one hour (the bag limit for the area was eight birds and we were seven hunters).

On top of all the things that made that morning one to remember, I have to mention two. First, the dogs. Each year they surprise me with something and my admiration for both the trainers and the dogs is ever increasing.

What happened this time – after a shoot, I dropped a shell in the chamber and I took a very long shot at a bird that was circling around, trying to go back towards where the group came from. The bird dropped about 70 meters behind me, in the corn. I visually marked the point where it dropped, thinking to go in and find it latter… However, one of the dogs went in and ten minutes latter came back with the bird. I couldn’t believe it! Just think about it - the dog has to keep it's bearing, catch the scent and find the bird in the thick corn, and carry the heavy bird back, through the same thick corn... Absolutely remarcable!

Both dogs were really great and hardworking!

The second thing that made this hunt special for me was ...my shooting. I trained the whole summer to take head shots and it worked so well, I surprised myself with every shot I took...

After cooking the heavily pierced breasts from the geese shot last year with BB size shot, I decided it would be nice to have clean goose breast for cooking, without bruising and pellet holes. So I went down in shot size, I went tighter on the choke tube and I practiced every week (trap shooting). The result? I’ve got seven clean head shots at medium ranges and one head shot at extreme range (about 70 meters). Unfortunately one of the birds got shot at (and hit) by two other hunters while falling, but I’ve seen clearly the head folding and the wings dropping (the sign of a headshot, all muscles relax instantly) the second before the next two shots made a cloud of shredded feathers out of it… I only shot ten shells to get my eight geese. (At the last shoot, I tried three more shells from a different brand that I bought for testing …and I was glad I didn’t buy more, but I’ll write about this later in the ammunition review section)

 

I'm looking forward to the regular season now - the duck population is incredible this year ...

 

Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Duck hunting...

Everything was beautiful... just the ducks didn't show up...