Alaska duck hunting - chapter 3

[Richard Flanders]

Off here shortly to chase ducks again. Last weekend the crew said there were so many big northern ducks that they could have easily shot 4-5 limits per day(10/day). Tom got 44 ducks over the weekend, mostly nice pintails and mallards. Our first snow is close at hand so there should be a lot of ducks out there this weekend. The water will be low so my kayak will really be the ticket. So, stand by and I'll hopefully have some good pics of ducks and Parkers Sunday night.

[Dave Suponski]

Rich, Good luck we await your report...:)

[charlie cleveland]

good hunting.... shoot a red head for me.. heck ill settle for anything

[Richard Flanders]

Just back. There weren't near as many as last weekend but I got 11 and only lost a couple. We don't go into how many shells that took.... I'll post a few pics tomorrow. Correction to last weeks take also: The 44 is how many Tom and Kate got combined; Tom/26, Kate/18. Not bad.

Oh well. Why wait? Here are a few pics. I'll have one more to add of all my ducks. They're all plucked. I pluck them immediately in the field because they pluck much easier when warm than if you let them cool. I got some nice roasters out of this batch! Only have to breast out two I think.

1. A friend came out last night in his Cessna 180 float plane to bring Kate out and spent the night with us and hunted this morning. This is of leaving time this morning after packing the camp up following the morning hunt. It's a 3.5hr drive home to Fairbanks.
2. The rest of the crew boating to a stand this morning
3. Nice sunset from my "blind" last night.
4. My 'blind' out in the open.
5. Another shot of my blind with our island home in the background
6. My ducks from this morning.

The pics of my 'blind' are in here to show how clueless the ducks are up here. At least 80% of the ducks that headed my way just came straight over me despite what I did. Some veered if I moved too much but most just fly right over no matter what you do. I got more shooting from that spot than anyone else got anywhere, and they all hid their boats, covered the motors, wore camo mesh over their faces, etc, I just sat out there and blasted away as long as I sat relatively still until they were in range. Some of the ducks were mature ducks too, just not feathered/colored out entirely yet. Talk about fat! Incredible. They make such good roasters with all that fat! The weather was good all weekend. The bay froze each night and only partially thawed during the day. I have a couple of ducks that landed on and broke through the ice which I'll have to breast out as they're bruised to hell and the breast fat burst open upon impact. I couldn't seem to hit anything with this hammer gun on Friday afternoon so switched to my 30" F/F SG VH12 and did well, but the skunk left the building today and I made a few nice shots this morning, including a 70+yd shot that got both of the wigeons in the one picture out of a small group with some KTM #3.

[Dave Suponski]

Wonderful Rich! You guy's are livin the dream...:bowdown:

[calvin humburg]

Nice hammer gun, GREAT pictures Richard. Someday I hope I can wonder around a little in Alaska. Pintails are perty close to my favorite duck. But I like em all. Keep the pictures coming! Looks like I can see the place you plucked your ducks glad to see someone else pluckes a few. So many just cut out the breast meat you better not do that around my Dad. ch I looked at the pictures before I read.:)

[Richard Flanders]

I pluck every duck I can Calvin. Only breast those that are too shot up or impact damaged to roast. Our ducks are also so fat laden it seems a waste to breast them. They roast so perfectly, and I love the legs. Ate a roasted very fat mallard before going out hunting this time and the legs were by far the best part. I just can't see wasting a single bite. I can pluck one of those ducks in <5min when they're warm..... IF there's not too many pin feathers.... I spent over an hour on a big canvasback last trip. It is a nice hammer gun also. 1883 vintage. Been totally restored and nicely done. 32" F/F+. Kills a very long ways out if I do my part....

[Don Kaas]

Very nice Richard. Do you need any 10ga Federal hulls? I'd be happy to mail you some up to AK. I shot (quite) a few with Destry in Quebec last week.

[Richard Flanders]

I can always use the Federal 10ga hulls Don. I'd like to take the 10ga out for our next duck trip here. If we get a good freeze I can land my plane right next to the island on the frozen mud. Very generous of you and much appreciated. Sounds like you two had quite a good hunt last week.

1870 Becker Ridge Rd
Fairbanks, AK 99709

[Don Kaas]

No problem. I'll mail them this week.

[Richard Flanders]

Thank you Mr. Kass. Much appreciated.

Here's a pic of my ducks for the weekend. Can't figure out how to just add it to the pics above. I think I counted 12. The really light colored ones, which is most of them, all have at least 1/4" of solid fat on the entire body. Incredible. I'm drooling already and am going to put an impact split pintail in the roasting pan in a couple of hours...

[Robin Lewis]

Wow, cool picture!
I wish I was eating as well as you:cheers:

[Richard Flanders]

I just roasted and polished off that split pintail in front. There's enough grease left over for the axles on my Conestoga wagon! Gotta love these fatty ducks. Most of these ducks had 1/2" of fat on their paunch! On another note, I just had my first ruffed grouse of the year picking up sunflower seeds under my feeder; winter is coming.....

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Richard,

Good work as always, glad you're getting out so often this season. Sorry you won't be making it down to Michigan this fall. Our last outing was a bit of a bust, was hoping to make it up to you with some better shooting.


Destry

[Richard Flanders]

We'll do it again Destry; just not this year.

[Don Kaas]

Brown Federal and a bag of green Remington 3 1/2" ten gauge once fired hulls on their way to Fairbanks via USPS Priority.

[Richard Flanders]

Thank you Don. They'll get used.

[Don Kaas]

I shot my Ithaca 10 NID Magnum twice last week in Quebec, I still have 1280 rounds of factory 3 1/2" non-tox left... I went on a reloading spree 2 years ago for the short 10s and I have about 225 rounds of Bismuth on the shelf. I don't think I am going to need the extra hulls for quite some time:shock: Enjoy 'em!

[scott kittredge]

Thank you Mr. Kass. Much appreciated.

Here's a pic of my ducks for the weekend. Can't figure out how to just add it to the pics above. I think I counted 12. The really light colored ones, which is most of them, all have at least 1/4" of solid fat on the entire body. Incredible. I'm drooling already and am going to put an impact split pintail in the roasting pan in a couple of hours...

looks like they need all that fat, with the lack of feathers they have to go south :rotf: scott