One advantage of hunting solo (other than your four legged pal) is- no one to see your misses on the 'sucker shots"- but then, no one to verify that sweet double you made either. I am way past "shoting for a limit" on waterfowls- here are two MI Mississsippi Flyway examples: Our early (September 1-15th) goose season was designed to trim local flocks (golf course fertilizers, Foot-Joy spike filler-uppers if you get my drift) but I don't want to shoot the 5/day limit, one or two clean shots suffice- ditto the late Winter bonus season here- Jan to early Feb- usually five birds/day- a lot to lug out of a deep snowy cornfield, plus the decoys (a sled is useful here)-
I would rather, I suppose for personal reasons, kill one goose stone dead with one shot, than "limit out" in the five/day seasons with 25 shells (I've seen that happen)-so the first bird is the "special" after that, the rest are just extra candles on the cake for me.
On ducks we can take 6 per day, but only four can be mallards, and if so, three must be drakes, only one hen (or black- many hunters can't tell the difference- a black of either sex will NOT have the white bar above the purple wing speculum as does the hen mallard)-- so I may take two or three greenheads-then quit and sit and watch the birds, the colors of the leaves left on the trees, the cloud patterns- etc. Part of what the late Idaho based F&S writer Ted Trueblood called "Other Values"--
It is very easy to miss a "sweet shot" after you have dropped a bigger bird like a Canada- their flight speeds, evasion tactics are all different- puddlers will climb like a F-14, divers will move to Mach 2 and outfly your pattern nine times out of ten- all part of the game.
I don't use my retriever on the dairy farms I duck hunt on in the Fall- for several reasons: he's young, I don't want him bothering the farmer's livestock, he hates cats and most of my farmer friends like their barn cats, and also- wet ground and low electrified cattle fences-He gets his "innings" on the rivers we hunt- mainly pass shooting their, although I will set out a few decoys when the flight birds are down.
What non-toxic loads do you use in your Parker(s) and possibly other side-bys in your gunning arsenal? I have had very good results with the Hevi-Shot for Classic Doubles- I just use the std 2.75" 1 & 1/8th ouncers-
If I had a gunning secret to pass along (A Tap's Tip?) it would be-"Let them get as close as you can-when you can see their bootlaces-shoot"> My duck gunning Mentor- Al Woodhurst- a former market hunter who shot a Model 97 sans plug-- once said this to me: "If you want your ducks to drop dead in the drink, shoot 'em where they think, and not where they stink"_ No Longfellow or Whitman of course, but words of gunning wisdom indeed!
