[MarketHunter]

Hunted with Dad and Mr. Russell at his farm this morning and afternoon. Other shooters passed in and out through the day but we three mostly stuck it out the whole time.

Spent yesterday afternoon getting the big pond ready. It was frozen solid, we broke it out and chopped up all the ice we could get to. Put in the ice eater and let it run all night so we'd have open water this morning.

Shooting time was 6:25am and at 6:15am we had 100 ducks in the decoys. By the time the legal hour sounded they were gone and we didn't bust a camp for nearly an hour. We hunted till 10am then took a break, in the bag was three mallard drakes, three redheads (including my first of the season), and a single Hollywood.

We did breakfast at the cook shack then Dad and I headed home for naps. Back to the big pond to meet Mr. Russell at 2pm. Things warmed up a bit soon as we got there, the Hollywood ducks began to fly. They aren't my favorite duck to shoot but considering the conditions we were taking what came in.

We stuck it out till legal dark and made a fair bag. Two mallard drakes, a grey duck, a big drake redhead, and several Hollywoods which finished up all our limits.

I had one of those "on" days where I was killing them high, wide, and deep. I killed several that brought exclamation from other shooters that they couldn't believe I'd knocked it down. We're going again tomorrow, I'm sure I won't be able to hit a thing, that's usually how it goes.

Was shooting the Swamp Angel with 1 1/4 ounce loads of Kent TM. Dad had his Model 21 out in the morning but moved to his new fangled automatic in the afternoon because it's so much lighter.