Thanksgiving Hunt
 

Our tradition is to duck hunt Thanksgiving morning and this year was a fun one! We don't usually have many teal here this late, but the short 10 did well with Salt Creek #5s and some of my #3/4 handloads. I was prepared with 2s and 4s for geese, blacks, and mallards.... but the birds forgot to come!

Fortunately, my wife let me go out again this morning real quickly as well. The hunt was short, but fun! Now to clean 4 more birds and the Parker :)

https://imgur.com/28VAOyc

https://imgur.com/GoSXRfF

https://imgur.com/0Bh0Mgl

https://imgur.com/JufCgbB

you are liveing the life....charlie

Alex, it looks like you had a wonderful hunt...and those are some very nicely plucked and oven ready birds. I won't show that photo of the prepared birds to my wife. She'll start expecting that quality around here.:crying:

Pretty pond and great pics! Izzat Pennsylvania?

Thanks! I was a little lazier on the second four though

https://i.imgur.com/KlyaO4L.jpg

Unfortunately, this is 30 minutes into Jersey. I’m right outside of Philadelphia, so I duck hunt a lot in Jersey as well as here locally. It still amazes me the number of different species I’ll see just 30 miles away. I’ve never seen a teal in SEPA!

The plucking looks outstanding. Do you use wax? I talked to a fellow who shot several teal just a few days ago in northern Ohio. The migration is slow for sure.

I haven’t tried using wax yet. I still pluck them by hand and then rub my thumb over to get the remaining fluffy down off. I’ll sometimes wear a latex glove when I do that since it seems to work well. I then use a torch to burn the pin feathers off.

By the way, it’s hard to see in the second picture, but there’s a Griff out there retrieving ducks!

Alex - I killed my first duck on the Mullica River. Anywhere near you? On the way home, we stopped for dinner at a crowded restaurant. I got on the pay phone (!) to call my mom. My announcement to her in front of all the waiting folks was "Mom! I'm no longer a virgin"

Far little more exciting than a hunting dog searching for a downed duck! That it's a Griff even better...