Trigg, Mark, and Richard, N. Alberta goose/grouse hunt

[Bob Brown]

Hello Trigg, Mark and Richard. I posted this in the Hunting with Parkers section in case we have some pictures of your visit to add later. The time will soon be here! Trigg, will Mark be able to make it down? I sure hope so. Brett and I are looking forward to seeing you and Mark again, and to meet Richard for the first time. We have both been going hard at work and are looking forward to some down time. As I sit here I can hear shotguns being fired at geese around my house. Brett says there are lots of geese around his place, but they're getting hunted pretty hard. That might keep them moving and make for a better hunt for us. The grouse are a little scarce this year, but Brett thinks he has some spots that we should find some birds.
Trigg, I know you're bringing a 28 gauge and your 24" PH 16. I'm not sure what Rich and Mark are bringing. I'll be bringing down some extras, light and heavy guns, so if you guys want to try something different you can pick what you want to shoot that day. Looking forward to your arrival.
Bob

[Richard Flanders]

We'll be meeting in just about 24hrs from now Bob. I'm bringing my 10ga hammer gun and my 2-bbl set 28ga. See you soon. It will be good to get out of the snow here....

[Richard Flanders]

We are here with Bob and Brett now and had a ball shooting geese and mallards today. We got 9 geese this am and 1? this evening. I shot my first greater Canadian today; all we have is lessers in Alaska. Bob let Trigg shoot his gorgeous Westley Richards based 10ga with a straight grip and Trigg outshot us all this morning. I don't have pictures... pretty unusual I know, but I forgot my camera both hunts today. Hopefully Bob will be able to post our hero shots later.

[Bob Brown]

The hero shots will have to wait until I get back to my home computer, Richard. It was a blast having you two up for a visit. After reviewing my shooting prowess it is clear to me I forgot to add shot to half the 10 gauge shells I loaded. Lucky for Trigg he got the ones with the TM in them. I thought I was going to have to search his car for my gun the way he shot with it. And a double banded mallard to boot! To bad you couldn't stick around another day. Brett filled his elk tag yesterday morning. We could have cooked up some tenderloin. I look forward to next year's hunt, hopefully the Marks (Davis and Dube) can make it then. I'll post some photos in the next couple of days. Enjoy the rest of your double gun safari and let us know when you're on the way back north.

Oh, and the Julia's auction catalogues are still here, I'll leave them with Brett so Trigg can pick them up on the way through.

[MarketHunter]

A double banded mallard!!!??? I think everybody has killed a band already this year but me. Kevin got one in Quebec the lucky dog.

DLH

[Richard Flanders]

One band is a $100 reward too Destry!! And Bob it was an extreme pleasure to meet and hunt with you and Brett. I sincerely hope it's not the only time we get to do it. No worries on the shot... I'm convinced Fiocchi forgot to put shot into my 28ga shells for this ruffie hunt in Saskatchewan.... it is the only explanation that could possibly explain the lack of ruffie pelts on the scoreboard here the past few days. We walked 10-13 miles per day the past 4 days and have a pretty meager meal to show for it.

[Bob Brown]

The double banded mallard had one band that was marked with a MD. address and the other came back with information saying it was banded in Washington state. Would the Maryland address be a government office?

[MarketHunter]

That's the address of the bird banding laboratory. If it's one of the new bands with the 1-800 number just call that and you'll be able to turn in the info and get a check. If it doesn't have the number you can either write in or turn it in on the bird banding website.

Destry

[Bob Brown]

Thanks Destry. That explains it. Brett called the 1-800 number on the band already. Richard, Brett went back to look for his cell phone again in that field we hunted. He took a short walk through some of the patches of bush and the fence lines. There were quite a few sharptails in there. I had no idea that they would stick to the brush and not the fields. It would be fun to try them with Shine, the GSP. If I had my lab Katie with me I would have given it a go. It would be easy to push them out of the narrow strips of bush, but it wouldn't be the same without a dog.
I'm back home now, and as I typed the last sentence I heard a grouse outside my window. I looked out and five sharptails had landed just outside my window. Must be a sign. As I mentioned in Debolt I hadn't seen any of the home covey for a while. Great to see them back.

[Richard Flanders]

I assume he didn't find his cell phone. Glad to hear of the sharpies. We'll have to make time to chase them when we come back through. We're in Minot NDakota tonite; on to Minnesota tomorrow.