duck hunt

[charlie cleveland]

well its been cold in north mississippi for the last few days down to 4 degrees one morning...anyway got up at 4.00 am saturday morning looked at my thermometer it said 14 degrees so went back in and put on another thick shirt...went out and started the truck up took a secound look at things to make sure i had every thing...even thought to get me some of those hand warmers to go in my gloves boy am i glad i thought of them... met my hunting partner at our hunting place it was now 5.20 am..i grabbed the old lc smith and my shell belt and we took off walking to our hunting site we arrived there at 6.00 still dark about 15 minutes to shooting time...we had hoped for the old slew we was hunting on not to be froze over but it was...finally i loaded up the old smith no 2s in the right barrel and bb s in the left... was not long 4 ducks tryed to light on the ice my buddy got a shot off but i did not..in about 2 minutes my hunting partner shot twice i almost shot on his dead duck..that wood hit the ice and slid almost to me i bet it slid 30 foot..after this a pair of woodys came in at about 15 yards they came in so fast and left out so fast i never got a chance to even get my ungloved hand out of the bibs of my waders..i think those ducks had it in high gear...in about 5 minutes a group of about 10 woodys came over they were high but i shot once just could not help my self... well we stayed about 15 more minutes no ducks seen no shots fired any where in that big bottom..i don t think there was a box of shells fired in that bottom this morning..the water being froze we should have hunted over the old river it was running so it did not freeze up...well we walked back to the truck no ducks seen..met up with some fellow hunters they said they had not fired a shot..anyway we had one woody in the bag it was my friend s first duck...it made his day..any way i got home helped my grandson buy a old s 10 pickup then called my loaffering buddy and we went to a gun show only seen i parker hammer gun with a broke stock but it had been fixed with a brass sheeting and some nails looked ok. price 500 dollars..a good day by all means...did see a super nice hopkins and allens old 10 ga single barrel a rolling blck at that at 1200 to rich for me... i tried to trade a nice 20 ga parker for a real nice winchester 32-20 but the fellow ask me 650 to boot. needless to say i took the little parker back home... charlie

[Mills Morrison]

Great story Charlie

[Mike Franzen]

Waterfowling is tough hunting sometimes. Most times. Always enjoy your tales.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Well one duck is better than none, particularly since the water was frozen.

I've seen those Hopkins and Allen rolling block singles in every gauge but 10 and 20, that's a rare gun but $1200 is crazy.

[Mills Morrison]

One duck on a real hunt is worlds better than "guaranteed limits" on fake released duck hunting. At least, in my opinion

[charlie cleveland]

i agree mill a wild bird of anykind is better than tame ones...we got two weekends left to hunt ducks..i m going again this weekend if things work out....destry your rite about the old 10 ga hopkins and allens that was a crazy price but it sure was a nice piece for sure.. charlie

[Mills Morrison]

Hoping to get some hunting in these last few weeks of the season.

[KCordell]

Very nice Charlie. Thanks for the story. Only got a handful of ducks this year myself...but oh what fun.

[charlie cleveland]

well we got two weekends down here to shoot ducks so me and the old lc smith are going in the morning..the friend that goes with me was deer hunting yesterday evening and found us a new spot to hunt in...he went deer hunting and wound up catching a duck some body had crippled..somebody broke one of its legs but other than that it looked ok...he took some pictures of it and turned it loose...while hunting he found were wild hogs had rooted up about 1/4 of and acre looking for acorns... he also seen several ducks so thats why we will be waiting there for them in the morning... well 3.30 comes early so howdy ous...charlie

[charlie cleveland]

began the day by getting up at 3.45 am..a man s gota love duck hunting to get up in the wee hours...i met my hunting partner on at the end of the tombigbee waterway bridge.. was not long he arrived and we took off down the trail that he had flag out for us yesterday evening...after a brisk 15 minute walk we chose our hunting places boy what a beautiful old slew..it is filled with tupelo gum trees and cypress trees what a site...we had about 15 minutes till shooting time then i look up and a squirl is running in a tree just above me boy he s out early...i let him pass and not long after the wood ducks began squeling...wish i hada carried a few decoys...ducks began to pour in from every where my first shot a clean miss i guess he was to high just then my hunting partner jamie fires at two he hit one and down it went in the slew...just then i fire the left barrel of the old smith and down came one of the two...next 3 woodies come over me i m telling you straight up i almost fell down trying to aim straight up never got a shot off...jamie fired just then and again but never drew a feather... i then shot at 2 ducks hitting one but it kept going then down it went but two far to reclaim because of deep water...then came 2 more woodies feathers fly from one that duck took a lot of steel but kept flying...then as sudden as it began the ducks quit flying we waited for 30 minutes only a coupla lone ducks came by and were very high...jamie had shot 9 times in all and i shot 8 times...only got one duck in hand that i had killed dead dead and we never recovered any of the cripples i guess this is were we needed a dog...we then started back to the trucks heard a shot and run into a coupla deer hunters one of them said he had shot at a big 9 point but had missed it....finally got to the trucks...this was the end of todays duck hunt...i then went home helped the grandson on his pickup a bit then we went to my dads house he had a rifle he wanted to give to my grandson his great grandson...my dad gave cole a heavy barreled 22-250 with scope and a set trigger also had a stainless 308 barrel that went with the gun...wow cole sure was surprized....we chatted a while then i went home and cole went to bed he had worked all night and had hunted deer till we went to my dads...when i looked at the clock it was straight up 12 i made me a big peanut and bannana sandwhich..gobbled this down quickly and jumped into the pivkup and went to a friends house to get the rear half of a real early t model car about a 1910...it was rough rough but heh were you gona get a 1/2 of a 1910 t model give to you......i then took it home grabbed my sons diseal ford truck and a big trailer and went back and got a fair old 36 ford 5 window coupe brought it to the house grabbed the other truck and went back and loaded up moter and tranny for the old 36..as i was there the guy showed me a coupla old pickups one a 52 ford pickupthe other a 49 chev panel truck i traded him out of both of these old trucks..i went home jumped out of the truck i covered up the moterand then went in and got my rifle and shells and went to my grandpa s old fields and got up in my shooting house.no i did not see a monster deer but did see a mighty nice jake turkey only had a 3 inch beard but in body he shoulda had a beard dragging the ground..stayed up that old house till dark...got home the wife had supper cooked.....what a day it has been...life is good..... .....charlie

[John Dallas]

Charlie - What a day! What type of rifle did Cole get? What did you have to give for the two trucks? Sounds like your place is starting to look like a used car lot. How about "Honest Charlie's Used Cars? Remember Honest Charlie's Speed Shop?

[Dean Romig]

I do...



.

[charlie cleveland]

yep i remember honest charlie and earl shines paint jobs....the rifle was a ruger i will have to look for the number of it...got the 52 ford for a hundred dollar bill the chevy 49 panel truck was 500 no i did not steel them i had gave the fellow the 52 ford and the panel was bought from my dad for 450..he had done a lot of work on them ...so i made out pretty good i guess...anyway both trucks would bring more than that in scrap at the moment...old iron has been in my blood scince i was 8 years old..i grew up in junk yards and still live in one my wife says...the old 36 coupe is decent.....charlie

[Mills Morrison]

Photos from this weekend. Some yahoos started shooting about 15 minutes before legal shooting time and scared all the ducks away. You can't beat the scenery though. Hard to believe the season ends this coming Sunday. I see withdrawal setting in.

[charlie cleveland]

thats one fine boat and paddler you got there...your rite this is lovely scenery...i have the week end and it will be over for me too..hope it closes out with a bang for both of us mills and who ever is hunting this saturday.....charlie

[charlie cleveland]

got up at 3.45 this morning fixed me a peanutbutter sandwich downed it and away to the the duck hole..it was chilly this morning at 31 degrees but i had dressed warmly with also some of them hand warmers in tow...legal shooting time was about 6.30 but it was about 7.00 before we seen any action..i missed a drove of woodies that were a little high but i took the shots anyway..no feathers flew and nothing fell from the sky...jamie shot then at a woodie that was dodgeing those trees at about 6 foot off the water he never touched a feather..then 2 woodies came behind me at about15 foot from the ground this was the best shot for a double i ve had all year. bang bang boy did the bark fly off one tree....yep a clean miss wish i could say there was no shot in those shells but i no better .ha ha....then a single woodie came by and 2 shots latter and still no ducks..jamie then shot two more times hit one but we never retreived it...after that 10 minutes of shooting it was over..we stayed another hour but the ducks had went south.....so now its over for me i m already looking and planing for next year..gona get me a short barrel double with open chokes maybe then i canhit something close anyway...the end for this years duck hunt....charlie

[wayne goerres]

All you guys need to do is buy a couple more guns and that will keep you occupied till next hunting season.

[charlie cleveland]

me and a cousin gona hunt deer crow coyotes and squirl next week..deer season ends the 31 of jan. then ive got the month of feb. to hunt squirls rabbits and crows and maybe a new found sport hunting wild hogs... then i get a rest for two weeks and turkey season kicks in till may 1......wheh got a lot of walking to do...maybe by then another 8 ga will come along.....better yet a 4 ga.....charlie