Michigan.....

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The lower Michigan duck season opened today. I'd gone out last night and scouted the infamous "Mud Hole" and gone ahead with the plan of working up a temporary blind in another part of it as that's where the majority of the ducks all seemed to be using the past couple of years. Was a bit of a chore as the walking is painfully treacherous but I finally got the job done after a couple hours of thrashing around in the mud and slime.

Things hadn't looked good, I'd not seen a bird the whole time I was there, but we were going to give it a try anyway. Picked up Jim at 5:30am and met the other boys in the field. I'd marked the path to the new blind and we finally managed to get the sled and decoys there through the rough cover. Let me tell you, to hunt this place you've really got to want to hunt as it's torture to get around in.

Daylight brought a few flights of wood ducks then later some bluewing teal worked the spread. I was pleased with how the big Parker performed just as I had been up in Quebec last week. I killed a pair of teal and two drake wood ducks in 7 shots, pretty good work for me I assure you.

Later a single goose worked right in and one of the other boys killed him. Just as we were starting to talk about getting out of the heat and going for breakfast a flock of four geese appeared in the distance. Some hard calling brought them right in but they were off to the side so only Jim and I could shoot, still we managed to knock out one each on the odd angle. Much to my surprise, the other two seemed reluctant to leave the area and made a swing around the pond out of range. I started calling hard and managed to coax them back over us in range again. I gave mine two barrels and he came down like a sack of potatoes, the other two boys poured it on the remaining bird and killed him as well.

We ended the morning with 7 wood ducks, 4 teal, and 5 geese. Not too bad considering the conditions, we were pretty pleased.

We'd noticed quite a few wood ducks setting in across the slough. So, after we picked up, I slogged over to investigate. The water is particularly high this year and has backed up on a long point of land that has some red oaks at the tip. As I approached, about 30 birds reluctantly flushed from along that tip out from under the flooded trees. I walked on in and found feathers everywhere, they're apparently going in under the oaks picking fallen acorns. Good spot for a natural blind nearby so we're going to give that a try in the morning and see if we can't pick up a few.

This was a bittersweet hunt actually. Good shooting, but probably one of the last times we'll get to use the spot. Jim has had it leased for years from the farmer but it's recently been sold to the county for a bird sanctuary. We were only able to hunt because the closing hadn't happened yet. Chalk another private spot off the list just like my old strip mine cut down in Southern Illinois where we hunted for years. It's now partially filled in and has a huge motel sitting next to it. At least this one will be preserved but no more hunting obviously. We have our memories......


Destry

[Eric Eis]

Good luck tomorrow, I'm surprised with the luck you had considering the hot weather...

[Don Kaas]

Well done DeHo, well done. Went down to the Club this morning to give the new car a run and drop off the newly engraved trophies from last season. You will be amazed at the changes. The old place looks pretty spiffy with its new landscaping and the NRA designed enclosure around the ring takes some getting used to but should eliminate the "problem" of errant mariners:shock:

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Had another surprisingly productive morning on the Mud Hole, guess it knows we're leaving so it's being good to us one last time.

Killed our 6 legal wood ducks (all drakes) in pretty short order and stuck around to see if we couldn't pick up some of the teal we didn't get yesterday. We never saw the first one but they were replaced by the mallards that are normally on that slough for the opener which had been oddly absent yesterday. We managed five of those through the course of the morning to put us a little closer to a limit.

We'd thrown out 6 goose floaters just in case, though we really didn't think any of the big birds would decoy into the narrow neck we were hunting. This was proven right away when a nice bunch of 15 worked us hard but then sat down out on the open water. Later a single surprised us by showing strong interest, I did some hard calling and talked him into making a mistake. Told Jim to take the shot, as he'd only killed one goose the day before. Up comes his Citori and down goes the goose with a beautiful one shot kill. A whoop and hollar when he waded out to pick it up let me know it was banded! I told him he should give it to me as I'd called the bird in but he seemed to want to hang on to it oddly enough. Managed pull the same trick with another single goose about an hour later but no jewelry on that one I'm sad to say.

We gave it up at 10am when it hit about 80 degrees and the birds really stopped flying. As good a 2nd day as I've ever had on the place, makes me more sorry we're losing it.


Destry

[charlie cleveland]

fine story and a mighty good hunt it must have been...im sooy that your loosing those places to hunt but i think the hunters world starting s shrinking about 40 years ago..if you do not own land or belong to a hunting club the old hunters way of hunting is about gone..there is some public land for hunting though...sorry it disturbs me about loosing hunting ground...whens the next big hunt...tommorrow i hope.... charlie

[Destry L. Hoffard]

And the Mud Hole continues to produce.....

Jim and I hunted an afternoon this past week and only killed one mallard. But, there was evidence that quite a few birds were still using the place, so we figured to give it another try this morning.


I managed my limit of four mallards and two wood ducks plus a single goose. We had good working birds and the other two in the party should have had a limit down as well but the barrels on their guns seemed to be crooked. They still picked up a wood duck, four mallards, and a goose between them so not too bad. Though, a heavy fog of powder smoke laid close to the water when their shooting was over due to all the expended cartridges.

Shooting the big #3 frame DHE as I have been all season. That gun seems to know where to shoot even if it's current owner is sometimes in question.


Destry



P.S. My season has been surprisingly productive thus far, though I've really not done that much serious gunning. I've killed 45 ducks and 4 geese as of this morning. If this continues it could be a record year (on ducks) as far as numbers go. I'm not all about numbers but it's nice to see a good tally on the sheet when things wind up, makes you feel like you've had some success for all your time, effort, and expense.

[charlie cleveland]

hope your tally grows as season progresses...good hunt in the old mud hole...that old big ten is a wonder gun.... charlie

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Leaving early in the morning to meet up with Kurt Densmore for a few days shooting on Saginaw Bay. The weather doesn't look too promising but I'm sure we'll have fun none the less. I'm taking plenty of cigars and whiskey in case we require other entertainments.

DLH

[charlie cleveland]

smoke one of them fine cigars for me i had to give them up....hope yall fill your limits...im still looking for that red head duck.... charlie

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Got back Saturday morning after spending two days gunning on Saginaw Bay with Kurt Densmore. We hunted the open water from his layout rig both days and had good shooting.

First day was a special one. We both killed a duck species we'd never shot before, and both sea ducks oddly enough. Kurt got a hen oldsquaw and I got a hen common scoter. Strange, to say the least, there on that inland water. Though they do kill a surprising amount of sea ducks up that way for some reason. We also both killed a greenwing teal, birds I'd never seen shot out of a layout boat before. Kurt did something I was envious of, something I'd never seen happen before. A pair of ducks tolled to the rig, he fired two shots out of his Parker and had a slick double. When I ran the tender boat over to pick them up it was a bull canvasback and a drake redhead. I've seen a lot of both species shot but never a double on a pair of birds both being drakes, definitely a moment to remember. We finished the day with four redheads, a canvasback, two greenwing teal, a bluebill, an oldsquaw, and a common scoter.

Second morning we were joined by Mark Oulette and had another good shoot. Conditions weren't the best, sunny with very little wind. But we still managed to make a day of it none the less. And, to make it even more memorable, I killed a pair of whitewing scoters, another first of a species for me. I had a group of three come right in on me and knocked down two with the first barrel, then knocking down the 3rd with my second shot. I broke my gun to reload and check for cripples. Before I could get a shell out of my pocket the 3rd bird rolled back over and took off flying! I was disappointed to say the least but was still glad to have the pair. We finished the day with six redheads, a broadbill, three bluebill, and the two scoters if memory serves.

The redheads were thick on both days but with only a two bird limit to kill you had to make a religion out of positive duck identification so you passed a lot of shots you might have otherwise taken.

All in all a great couple of days, I'd not doing any serious layout shooting in years so it was nice to get into the coffin again. My thanks to Kurt for his hospitality, I hope we can do it again.



Destry

[Richard Flanders]

Sounds like great shooting Destry.

[Fred Preston]

Good shooting DH. Should have kept the SBE or at least carried the old 11.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The big 34 inch DHE has been too good to me this season to think of carrying anything else. I missed a few, but considering how long it had been since I'd gunned layout style, I felt like I did fairly well.

I even knocked down a duck at about 40 yards shooting right handed, pretty good considering I'm a lefty all the way. That's something any layout shooter should practice at, being able to shoot off the other shoulder. If the ducks decoy up the wrong side of the coffin you can't shoot at all sometimes because you can only turn at the waist.

Hopefully Kurt invites me again, I'm keen to go back.


DLH

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The Mud Hole continues to produce much to our surprise. I'd checked it earlier in the week and found quite a few birds still using so we decided to make another hunt this morning.

Wood ducks were thick right at first light and I killed my legal three. Then the mallards started coming and I finished up my six duck limit on those. Jim continues to have trouble with his gun barrel being crooked but did manage to knock down two mallards with one shot oddly enough.

After the early duck flurry the geese started moving. It's only a two birds limit here in Michigan so it didn't take too long to fill out on those. A flock of 20 worked us hard but the wind was a little bit wrong for the narrow neck we've been hunting so they pulled up short outside the rig. One single sailed right in and Jim stopped it with his first barrel. As the flock picked up another single turned the wrong way and did the same thing, he killed that one with his second.

The rest turned behind us over the open water, I started calling hard and got them to cross straight overhead at about 40 yards. I pulled up with the Swamp Angel and got lucky, filling my goose limit with two quick shots.

The ducks quit flying all together and since we were full up on the geese we decided to call it a morning. Will keep an eye on the place and hopefully get another shoot or two in before the ice closes it too us forever. Every hunt we make there could be our last, next season it will be a county bird sactuary closed to gunning.

The big gun continues to be my contstant paramour, I can't remember when I've shot so well.


DLH