Teal season

[William Stevenson]

Teal season opened today here in South Louisiana. My son and grandsons drove in to the marsh house last evening to join my wife and I. There were 6 shooters and all limited in about 40 minutes. I shot my 28 Parker, a wand like little gun with 26 inch cylinder and improved modified barrels. We have 3 blinds on the ranch with 3-4 doz decoys at each. Our shots are at 25 to 30 yards so light gauge guns work well. The dogs went to work and retrieved all birds with no confusion due to opening day. We did lose one duck to an alligator, saw him gulping the bird down, I guess it's like a tax by Mother Nature. I plan to shoot my Parker .410 in the morning, it's actually a little heavier than the 28 with 26 inch cylinder and improved cylinder barrels. We had such a nice time I thought I would share it with the Parker forum. Bill

[Paul Ehlers]

Congrat's on a great opening day!

Loved the part of the good dog work until you mentioned the alligator gulping down a duck.

Don't you worry about the dog's & gators? Being from Colorado I can't imagine one of my furry hunting buddies being gulped down by a gator.

[William Stevenson]

One of the reasons we place the decoys nearby and shoot close in, is that we have no long retrieves and if a gator gets after a dog we are within shotgun range to stop it. After cool weather sets in the gator problem goes away and we set up a bit further out for big ducks. It's gator season now and if we have to kill one, I have the tags issued for the ranch so we can harvest it legally. Bill

[William Stevenson]

And yes, I do worry about the dogs and alligator mix. We take most of the big gators early in the alligator season. I got an eleven and a half foot Bull gator last year and some ten footers so we deal with mostly five and six foot gators during the Teal season. Bill

[charlie cleveland]

nice shootin..loved the mother nature tax law..id worry about the dogs too but sounds like yall have it figured out how to deal with mister gator...how bout some pictures for us old boys that gator eatin that duck would have been something... charlie

[William Stevenson]

Charlie, I don't know how to post photos, I'll e-mail some to you of you want to post them for me. Bill

[charlie cleveland]

im in the same boat posting pictures bill..but im sure DEAN ROMING will be glad to do it for us...send the pictures to me anyway and ill try...i envy anybody living that close to a duck paradise...ive took a lot of squirls with my 410 but never a duck... charlie

[William Stevenson]

Charlie, I'll need your e-mail to send the photos. Mine is: stevensonjr@mindspring.com. Thanks, Bill

[charlie cleveland]

mine is charlie8guage@yahoo.com now if we can just get a picture of that gator and duck..hope you take a few with the 410 s and ducks.... charlie

[Rich Anderson]

Gators and Ducks oh my. I can't imagine having to chase a gator away from my retreiver. in the Upper Pennisula more than one Bear dog has fallen prey to Wolves. When I Grouse hunt there I always carry my 45ACP what with the Wolves and Bears. I can just imagine Daisy chaseing a cub up a tree and I'd have to deal with mama bear:eek:

[Paul Ehlers]

William,

Thanks for the gator lesson. Dealing with the gators while hunting makes my rare snake encounter on the plains look like childs play.

[Richard Flanders]

We've got this little guy hanging out around the drill lately looking for handouts. He's like having a dog around. Seems he wants a job with us...

[Destry L. Hoffard]

My friend Gary from down around DelaCroix Louisiana lost his best dog to a gator several years ago. The weather had cooled off enough to where they shouldn't have been a problem but it warmed up one morning and one must have decided he was hungry. The dog went for a long retrieve in the marsh and never came back. A gator was the only thing that could have done that......

Destry

[G. Wells]

xxxdeleted

[Mills Morrison]

Sounds like a lot of fun. The gators need some lead poisoning. Looking forward to duck season in SC.

[Greg Baehman]

The following is posted for Bill Stevenson with his descriptions of the pics.

1. This is the size alligator I try to catch before the Teal season starts. 11 feet 1 inch.
2. My 8 year old Chocolate Lab, Belle. .410 DHE Reproduction and my first pair of Teal this season.
3. Close decoy setup in the marsh.
4. My son and youngest granson picking me up in the Arneson drive mud boat.
5. Grandson Josh and son William with Belle and Bree, our Chocolate Labs.
6. Me and the Parker .410. Josh and the "youth" Model 12 Winchester I built for the boys several years ago. And Belle. This weekend not as good as opening weekend where we shot limits.
7. Last year with William, Josh and Will. My son and three of our eight grandchildren at the Marsh House.

[William Stevenson]

Thanks Greg

[John Marscher]

Great Pictures. Yall have it made in La. We had a fair amount of birds in SC the week before our teal season started but they all moved on as soon as we got some weather.

http://i609.photobucket.com/albums/tt176/marscherj1/746155810_2658633170_0.jpg

http://i609.photobucket.com/albums/tt176/marscherj1/746154967_2658630415_0.jpg