First duck hunt of the year

[Richard Flanders]

We went out to duck camp Friday and got in 3 days of shooting.... or mostly sitting and yapping actually as it was unusual to see more than one duck an hour. Trouble was that it was too hot! Sunday it was 70deg and clear and the birds were not moving much at all. It was however a great hunt. My partner morning and evening for the weekend was an 82 yr old lady from Anchorage, and I do mean a lady. She was a practicing physician for 50yrs or more and just recently retired... for the 3d time. Just wrote a book about her 20 yrs working in clinics in the Aleutians. Had a Cessna 185 and a Super Cub that she flew for over 20 yrs and, until recently sidelined by carpal tunnel syndrome, played cello with the Anchorage symphony. And she managed to raise 4 kids, mostly on her own, in there somewhere. She is an avid waterfowl hunter and has an vintage and high-grade Ithaca mod 37 that was a trap gun at birth. She shot the original barrel out and had a replacement Hastings with choke tubes and a vent rib custom fit. The stock is cut to about 13"(she's short) and is by far the highest grade wood I have ever seen on a mod 37. She still gets the chest waders on and gets after it. I couldn't have been more impressed. It was an absolute honor to hunt with her and make sure she was ok. Sitting on a small folding stool in the mud her first shot at a wigeon tipped her over and filled her waders! She could have cared less... she got the duck and kept on hunting with flooded waders until things slowed up and she went into camp and emptied them. I can't imagine that I'll ever get over the "awe" factor of hunting with her and hope I get the extreme privilege again. For my part I shot my new #2 frame SG 30" VH12. Perfect duck gun! It's choked .032" in both sides so patterns pretty tight. I couldn't figure out why I was missing some 25yd shots that I figured I could make with a sling shot, then I shot a hen mallard at about 40yds and when the dog brought it back it had a shotgun slug sized hole in the breast, which I attributed to an overly enthusiastic retriever..... when I cleaned it there was a plastic shotcup INSIDE the bird! And this bird managed a short dive to elude the dog. Amazing. We're going back out Thursday for this coming weekend and I plan to "pattern" this gun on the water just to see how it looks. I swatted a mallard with it this weekend at about 50 yds and it knocked it absolutely flat. This thing shoots tight patterns. We didn't get a lot of birds but it sure was a great hunt for me. I even got a "trophy" bufflehead that would make Destry proud! Couldn't resist trying just one screaming and long crossing shot and actually made it. I'll attach a pan shot of the island we camp on and hunt from. Nancy and I sat on this end. You can see a decoy or two off to the left and there's a robo duck in there somewhere.

[charlie cleveland]

now thats a lady for sure...and a duck hunter to boot ..i glad you met and hunted with this lady and was able to share it with us...i hope her and you many more hunts... charlie

[MarketHunter]

Richard,

Sorry I kept missing your calls recently, I'm busier than a one armed paper hanger these days. I'll touch base with you soon.

Good work on the bufflehead, you know they're my favorite. *chuckles*


Destry