Southern Illinois.....

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Made the drive down to my home area to hunt the opening two days of duck season with my Father and some friends. We are usually invited to hunt on our friends farm and this year was no exception. Strong numbers of ducks on his pond, more big ducks that I've ever seen there. Lots of mallards and widgeon with a few grey ducks mixed in. The wind blew a gale both days and was wrong for the blinds so it was sort of pass shooting most of the time but we still managed to kill 16 for five guns the first morning. Second morning the wind blew even harder and kept us off the big pond altogether so we moved operations to the wetland. It had just gotten flooded that week so only had a few ducks using it but three of us managed to kill our wood duck limits plus a couple mallards. Good to be out hunting with those boys again, particularly Dad. Might be back again for Thanksgiving, just have to see how work is going before I can say for sure.


Destry

[Richard Flanders]

Good for you Destry. You're getting a lot of ducks this fall. Hope you have a good freezer. I roasted a big fat canvasback last night. It was excellent. I didn't leave the ravens much on that carcass...they didn't even pick it up today!

[Destry L. Hoffard]

If this keeps up I'm going to have a record season, my notes show 70 as of this weekend.


Destry

[charlie cleveland]

nice going destrey... nothing like hunting with dad... charlie

[jerrybucci]

nice shooting

[Brad Boyer]

Thanks Destry, always enjoy reading about your hunting adventures, especially those in Southern Illinois!! Good shooting,
Brad Boyer

[James Brown]

Is Olive Branch considered southern Ill.? Is the Goose Pit still there? My Dad and I were there in 1975. The picture of the birds on ground was taken just back of the Goose Pit.
James

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The natives consider anything roughly south of I-64 to be "Southern Illinois", all this stems from that part of the state trying to succeed from the Union during the war. Olive Branch is Southern Illinois for sure, and I've eaten at the Goose Pit myself in years past. I don't believe it's there anymore, a lot of the goose hunting down there has fallen off so many of the spots we all remember have closed. Seems like I heard it had burned down and they never rebuilt.


Destry


P.S. Is that a business card in the last pic? I collect stuff like that from Southern Illinois so am always curious.

[James Brown]

Too bad about the Goose Pit. They had good cheeseburgers. Yes, it is a business card. I have two, give me an address and I'll send you one.
James

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Great! Thanks a bunch. I sent it via PM.


Destry