Opening Day II -- Teal

[Mills]

Good job! I have never done the early Teal season here. Still hot and that means snakes and gators

[Keith Doty]

We have for years VERY QUIETLY carried a couple of heavy buck shot rounds when hunting early season in the salt marsh on the north side of the bays (inland brackish side) due to the gator issue. I've dusted a couple with bird shot over the years but never had to shoot a gator but if it's him or my dog........... Just gotta be careful. They have become somewhat of an issue wade fishing some areas as the population has come back. There are a couple of areas you don't wade in warm weather!

[Mills]

Even back when they were critically endangered, game wardens would look the other way if they were threatening humans.

Harry and I keep talking about hunting teal, but then don't get around to it. Honestly, I need to get a bigger boat for river hunting ducks which is probably the best way for us to hunt them.

[Keith Doty]

Our wardens have always been very fair about that. I was getting "shell checked" teal season years back not long after steel became mandatory along the coast. I had 2 rounds of 00 buck, lead of course. He asked and I told him why it was onboard. He said "I didn't see them", end of that conversation. We were hunting in a saltmarsh, brackish water, and known to have gators.

[mobirdhunter]

🐊 Gators and 🐍 snakes — no thanks! I’ll stick with mosquitoes, deer flies, horse flies, ticks, and chiggers. Actually the last two mornings have been pleasant and pretty much bug free. It was 50 this morning. I went back for snipe. They and the teal had blown out with the front. I did shoot some rail. They fly like a slow tossed wet rag, but are had to wait out to shoot…and really hard to find when you down one. Still hoping to go back and shoot a brace of snipe with my “snipe gun,” a well used but wonderfully original VH 20 that probably has lots of stories to tell. How many of you have a dedicated snipe gun??

[Mills]

Now that possibly my only two dove hunts of this season are behind us, we just got an invitation for duck hunting the first of our season right before Thanksgiving, so that is good news. Mosquitos are no fun either, so hopefully the temps will be low enough to keep them away too.

[Keith Doty]

You got me there, no dedicated snipe gun. Never shot a snipe in my life. Always looked like the feather to meat ratio was pretty low! They are legal game here as are Rail but I don't know anyone that hunts them.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Keith Doty

You got me there, no dedicated snipe gun. Never shot a snipe in my life. Always looked like the feather to meat ratio was pretty low! They are legal game here as are Rail but I don't know anyone that hunts them.

Rail have less meat than snipe. I only shoot a couple a season, unless I’m on a slow duck hunt and need to defend myself.

[John Marscher]

We killed 8 water moccasins last week in the duck pond. Shooing gators off is the norm and don't bring the dog till it cools off. Mosquitos will get you good but thats part of living in the lowcountry!

[Mills]

My Sterlingworth 16 is a good snipe gun although I have not been in a while. The few places available don't have too many birds