Ice eaters are a mighty handy tool, I'm glad my friend has one. If he didn't, we wouldn't have had any shooting this weekend at all.
We hunted again this morning and the duck numbers improved, though again, there was an awful lot of Hollywood in the bag.
It was pretty well limits all around, even a canvasback fell to the boys on the island which was fun to see. I wound up the morning with another pair of redheads, a mallard drake, and three of the aforementioned, along with a big fat coon.
The coon was a hoot, the boys in the island blind spotted him coming out of a small piece of cover behind the point blind we were shooting and pointed him out to me. I was shooting with Mr. Russell (the owner) who announced that he didn't need any coons near his duck ponds as they might fight with the dogs. I jumped out of the blind and pulled the old "I don't see you, I'm just walking by" shuffle while actually angling towards him and managed to get within a long shot. I only had #6 shells left by this time and just annoyed him with the first couple rounds. I was reloading and trotting his direction when he actually turned and ran towards me which caused his quick demise. At 20 yards, a load of 1 1/4 of #6 shot is mighty hard on a coon's head.
All in all a terrific weekend with my Dad and some great friends. We even had a couple young bucks with us today who picked up all the decoys while we watched from the bank and gave directions. Getting older does have it's slight advantages in the field, I used to be those guys not too many years ago. *wink*
DLH
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I was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore little; diced not above seven times a week; went to a bawdy-house once in a quarter--of an hour; paid money that I borrowed, three of four times; lived well and in good compass: and now I live out of all order, out of all compass. Falstaff - Henry IV
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