Another day in the duck marsh

[Richard Flanders]

We couldn't help ourselves. Up at 0500 yesterday and drove 4hrs to Minto village and put into the Tolovana river for some late ducks.... and there were ducks. Big mallards, the big northern birds are finally here. Every duck that came by was a big fat mallard. I have 8 here that fell to my #2 frame VH-12. Didn't even have time to pluck but two; too many birds coming over for that. We dressed for 0deg and got 40deg and roasted all day.... Back at the landing after dark and drove home under flashing northern lights for 4 hrs. What a day. At one point coming down the river I shut the motor off so we could just take in the silence, the setting sun, and the cacophony of hundreds of swans on a nearby lake. It really does not get any better than that.

Time for some serious plucking today....

Almost forgot... what's with this $50 reward band I got on a very determined mallard hen(see it barely down on the lower left of the pic I think)??? They picked a good one for it. I knocked her down but she flew off low for 150yds before setting down. I mushed over in the mud and she took off about 2ft off the mud and I took a 70yd shot at her put her down again. When I got close she fluttered off again! and I had to swat her twice to get her anchored! This was one determined duck. I approached this lady with 'guns drawn' you can bet. This is my very first ever banded duck by the way. Too cool!

Update: That hen actually has a band on both legs! Likely has something to do with the reward band?? I named her Bonnie because she has 25 holes in her and was still game to try to get away, just like Bonnie after Hamer and crew got through with she and Clyde...

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Your first band and it's a double banded $50 reward???!!! To say I'm envious would put it mildly.....

Destry

[Richard Flanders]

Thanks Destry! The bands went a long ways in cheering me up after expending so much ammunition for so few ducks! I seemed to make the hard 50+ yd shots and miss the ones that came right over me at 25yds...go figure... Tom would say of some incomers, "they're way too high" and not shoot.... I'd shoot and down one would come.... or he might shoot twice and miss and I'd swing on a bird way the hell out and down it would go.... maybe it's the F/F chokes....

She was banded Aug 8, 2009 on Minto Lake, not far from where I got her..... and the check's in the mail....!

[Steve McCarty]

Thanks Destry! The bands went a long ways in cheering me up after expending so much ammunition for so few ducks! I seemed to make the hard 50+ yd shots and miss the ones that came right over me at 25yds...go figure... Tom would say of some incomers, "they're way too high" and not shoot.... I'd shoot and down one would come.... maybe it's the F/F chokes....

She was banded Aug 8, 2009 on Minto Lake, not far from where I got her..... and the check's in the mail....!

How's that thumb doing?

Say, what kind of shells were you shooting?

[Richard Flanders]

That thumb gets pretty painful after a weekend in camp if I don't drink enough liquids and isn't bad at all here; it gets way worse. After last night's plucking session out in the back woods it's my plucking thumb on the right hand that's really hurtin' today; good thing I have a good in-house pharmacy.... Shooting Hevi shot Classic Doubles, KTM, and Bismuth, mostly all in 4 shot as much as I can, with some #3 an #5 mixed in there. The old bismuth shells are the dirtiest burning shells I have ever seen - terrible!. The bbls look like I've been shooting black powder. The KTM and Classic Doubles hit pretty hard and kill well. Pic shows where the "fat meets the road"... or the Food Saver as it were... I swear I'm going to show some serious respect and have a moment of silence when I roast and stick a fork to ole' Bonnie... what a fighter! I actually feel a little bad about taking her. She obviously had good genes to pass on. I will pick her bones absolutely clean out of respect and in hopes of taking on some of her tenacious spirit:bowdown: We all better hope that ducks like her don't discover some long lost scattergun in a marsh and start toying with it and figure out how it works...:eek:

[charlie cleveland]

what a fine storey about bonnie...she just didnt want to give up did she...still about 6 weeks till us in mississippi get to shoot any of them big ducks...if any any of them get by them big parkers... charlie

[Dean Romig]

Cool picture with the ducks strung over the log. I remember catching a few ducks in muskrat traps when ran a trapline in the late fifties and early sixties. Ususlly just had to cut the leg off at the first joint above the foot if the trap broke the bone. One particular black duck I did that with lived for five more years.

[Dave Suponski]

He may have lived for 5 more years but I bet he was pissed.....:biglaugh:

[calvin humburg]

Richard, crazy glue works great on cracks but make sure the infection is out of it if it is infected may not be. But me and Dad use it all winter.

Dave,:rotf:

Dean, I caught a greenhead on a beaver drownder rig he drounded.

[Richard Flanders]

I've done the glue thing in the past Calvin but this thumb wasn't bad enough to bother. You should see the other thumb.... much much worse. Sometimes you can just duct tape the cracks shut if that's all you have.

[Rich Anderson]

Sounds like Bonnie is/was a $50 duck in more ways than one. I hope you fare better on the Roosters this November :)

[Richard Flanders]

Roger that Rich; The $50 band money won't even cover half my gasoline bill much less my ammunition bill!

[Rich Anderson]

This is a good lesson on getting in more preseason practice with the shootin iron:rotf:

[Francis Morin]

[quote=calvin humburg;51908]Richard, crazy glue works great on cracks but make sure the infection is out of it if it is infected may not be. But me and Dad use it all winter. Thank the medics and Corpsmen from the Vietnam era for that, Calvin. quickest was to close up a bleeding artery or veins. I always carry a field first aid kit, and waterless hand soap is a great wound cleaner- years ago I might have gone with Hydrogen peroxide, but a Lady friend who is also an RN told me- don't use it, as it 'burns" the blood vessels ends- But always clean out a wound- other wise you'll end up like Harry- in the great Hemingway short story-- "The Snows of Kilamanjaro"":bigbye:

[Richard Flanders]

My girl Bonnie, who roasted up quite nicely and was very tasty I can tell you - the grey jays are still picking on her carcass in the lower yard and will be fed the 3/8" thick slab of fat I froze and picked out of roasting pan - was banded by a biologist with whom I used to share a house in Anchorage and have known for many years. What are the chances??? - relatively high up here actually.... I called him last night and told him I shot one of his 'pets'. He said they banded 1000 birds so I'll keep looking. Another friend shot 3 banded birds out there this fall.

[charlie cleveland]

richard how much is a gallon of aviation fuel in your neck of the woods....maybe you can get one of those 100 dollar birds next time... charlie

[Richard Flanders]

In town here it's $5/gal; in the remote villages it can be $9/gal.

[Marc Retallack]

Hi Richard

A bit off topic- I noticed in the last catalog I received that Filson used a quote from you. Nice. Has that been in there for long and I just missed it?

Cheers
Marc

[Richard Flanders]

Cool! I didn't know they were using that in hard copy catalogs. It was on their website for years; not sure if it's still there. I didn't know about it until a high school classmate sent me the page from their online catalog. I sent that to them about 25yrs ago I think. I think they may be using another of my things in there; a pair of double tin pants with something like "anything else of yours still waterproof after 16yrs of use?". I had a pair of tin pants I had used so much I had to sew new bottoms on the legs from the knees down but they were still waterproof. I finally got new ones and sent the old ones to Filson and told them to use them in ads somehow. I think they're in one of the catalogs I just got. No credit to me but I bet they're mine. They're worn about right and who else would be stupid enough to send a smelly old pair of pants back to them?!

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Hah! That's great Richard, I'll have to dig out a catalog and take a look.

Destry

[Marc Retallack]

Very cool Richard. I saw it on page 29 of the Fall 2011 catalog. You're welcome to my copy if you don't have one.

Cheers
Marc

[Bill Murphy]

I know it is quite common to sew new bottoms on Filson bird pants. However, in the past ten years or so, I seem to have outgrown more bird pants than I have worn out. My original Duxback pants are about worn out, but they won't fit me either, so I don't have to worry about the bottoms. When I was a "Filson Company Man", I bought some stuff under the employee program, most notably a pair of uninsulated bird boots for about $75 when the retail was around $275. I can't believe I didn't buy some 6" boots or shoes under the same program. They allow two pair a year as I recall. Filson introduced some tin shorts about ten years ago or so. I bought a pair under the employee discount. What a pair of shorts. I wish I had bought nine pair. Linda hates them. She wants me to look presentable at all times, even in the bush. Now they are out of the catalog. However, I am on the lookout for someone with bird pants they want to throw away that I can make shorts out of. 38 or 40 would be a good size. To simplify, I would like to find a pair of Filson tin pants that someone isn't using any more that I can convert to shorts.

[Steve McCarty]

Hmmmm; now I'm not a doctor (thank goodness!), but I'd dump hydrogen peroxide on those thumbs it apply that polysorum-stuff. I'll bet your bad thumbs are genetic. Your granddaddy probably had the same problem. My wife's thumbs suffer too. So I'm in to thumb problems. When you are gutting ducks all kinds of gunk gets in there and doesn't do you any good. No reason to stop shooting ducks however. Wounds that won't heal are not good, but I'll bet you already know that.

You'll get my bill in the mail.

[Richard Flanders]

Steve: That thumb was no problem at all; just needed some Lubriderm. Didn't really even hurt at that point. Even the right thumb that was far worse didn't hurt. They're not an issue until you see blood.....that won't stop coming. It's just a matter of not drinking enough water. You drink enough and it doesn't happen, especially in extreme winter cold. They never get infected; I see to that. Lubriderm mixed with Bag Balm is the best hand cream I've found when working in extreme conditions. Some people sometimes sleep with cotton gloves soaked with the Lub/BB mix or just pure lanolin, which works very well.

Marc: I got the Fall 2011 catalog today. Don't really need any more. It's been in there off and on for years and I have it digitally from their website. I'd like to know what they did with my pants; they looked a lot like the pair on the cover but with new 'skirts' sewed on the bottom. The Devils Club in SE Alaska used to absolutely shred the leg bottoms. For what they cost now I wish I had them back!! I used to get them for $60/pr. Believe it or not, the cheapest price I can find on them anywhere in the country right now is right here in Fairbanks. The first thing I do to them, after shortening them about 12"(!), is rip out and discard the metal suspender buttons and replace the fly buttons with a heavy zipper. Then I restitch the leg seams from top to bottom inside and out with sz. 99 dacron thread on a vintage hand-crank Singer sewing machine. THEN and only then will the stitching not ever wear out.. and I mean NEVER..... much better than original. I restitch some of my Carhart pants the same way but they don't need it as badly as their stitching is far better than Filsons. You can easily wear the fronts clean through on Carharts in a month of intense field work in the brush but the redone stitching lasts.

[Steve McCarty]

Is that a T-Cart or a Super Cub? I flew a T-Cart for years. Loved that little bird. It was a good 15 mph faster than any other kite with the same engine. No electrical system. No radio. It did have position lights, I think, but no instrument lights. If it got dark I put a flashlight in my mouth. Fuel gauge was a wire on a cork. Had to "prop" it to start it. I'd get that thing to 14,000' if I had thermals to ride on.

Great fun.

Steve

[Richard Flanders]

It's a PA-12, or pregnant Super Cub as some of us refer to them as.... Same engine, same wing, twice the cargo space.

[calvin humburg]

Enjoy the silence, I do as well Richard.