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Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
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4:57 pm - squirrel hunting
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Tried to hunt squirrel for most of today. The result was I saw no squirrels, and should have taken the shotgun as I flushed 3 grouse. I am sure the coming snow will mess with whatever variables led to me flushing grouse today, if I try again on Thursday. In fact, I bet if I try to hunt thursday all I will see are squirrels.
I was using the Anschutz despite all its weight. Took the bipod off to shave something off the weight, but it still is a beast of a target rifle to lug around the woods. I also had to walk to every single spot today as the road in the state land is closed. Park at the entrance and walk in is the name of the game. I don't mind it usually, but it can be disheartening when you get real deep in there and decide to call it a day. Tired and with a heavy rifle, having to hike a couple miles back. Thankfully there was only an inch of snow here and there, no knee deep drifts to wade through.
About 3.8 miles overall, not so bad. I would have gone for more but not seeing any squirrels had me disheartened, and I didn't want to be even more tired come things getting dark. Or darker at least.
At the very least though I got to spend a beautiful day in the woods, along with some exercise. And that's what really matters.
Apparently there is a lot of snow coming. I was intending to do some shooting with Sergio tomorrow, but depending how bad it is I might make it a snow day and be lazy around here. An AR-15 needs cleaning since yesterday, so I suppose that could be taken care of along with some ammo organization. Get some exercise shoveling the driveway
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| Monday, February 8th, 2010
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6:09 pm - zeroing
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Spent the day at the range, did some good shooting.
I have to say though, I am pretty sure there will be lots of guns easy for the taking when the SHTF. Why is it that the dumbest conversations always seem to be between two idiots trying to figure out how to zero a rifle? Usually with a scope, forget about them accomplishing anything with irons. It's like these fools never boresight, or understand what 1/4 MOA adjustments mean at 25, 50, and 100 yards. It's a wonder they get their scopes zeroed at all. Only took 100 rounds
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| Sunday, January 31st, 2010
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4:59 pm - Pistol match #3
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Shot another match this morning. Jumped my score nearly 100 points to 582 for this match. Not bad considering I am still shooting .45. Shooting some corbon match ammo, at least that's what they advertise it as. It is more accurate than the cheapest .45 though, recoil is a little lower, muzzle flash is noticeably absent. I think that has helped tighten things up a bit, as well as some practice I managed to get in on Friday. Will be shooting another match tomorrow evening.
Came upstate this afternoon, should have got out to the range but figured there wouldn't be enough daylight left. Sitting here as the sun goes down I think I was wrong. I did plink a little down by the river with some Aguila colibri rounds though. Tomorrow I will get an overdue haircut, shoot a little rifle, and then head back to the city for the match. Hoping to catch up to the guy in 1st with his red-dotted glock 9mm (cheater!)
Truth be told, I am hoping that future matches are rimfire only: it's cheaper, I have a more suitable gun, and I shoot better!
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| Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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10:25 am - Magpul ACR
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I am so disappointed to hear the news from SHOT show. Magpul of course ended up partnering with Bushmaster for the gun. Now the news is that BM has priced the gun at 2700 for one version and 3000 for the enhanced. Absolutely insane for a 5.56 semi auto. And somehow it weighs 8.2 pounds, and has a fucking 1:9 twist barrel. 1:9 twist! what the fuck!
I mean I've been spending all this time making sure my guns are 1:7 at least or 1:8. Been thinking about rebarelling my 20" AR with the ACOG from a 1:9 to something 1:7.
Very disappointed to hear about the ACR though, the only new generation rifle I've been looking forward to
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| Monday, January 18th, 2010
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9:35 pm - Pistol Matches
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Yesterday morning I shot a bullseye match at the West Side range again. This time it's a centerfire match, so I used my most suitable, the .45 1911.
I ended up placing second with a score of 460. But the guy who won had like a nearly 200 point lead, but the bastard is using a red dot sight on a 9mm glock. I wish it was cheating!
This evening I shot another match, ended up with a score of 488. So I improved, I had an epiphany in rapid and timed fire that helped a little, but I didn't hang on to it for the last rapid fire target. I'll have to get some practice in over hte next two weeks before the next pair of matches. Will have match grade ammo for that too so then it will be all me, no excuses for ammo.
Don't know how I placed yet, will find that out later.
OF course, if I can do consistently well overall I have a chance of winning the league.
Back to work tonight, it was a nice sickation
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| Friday, January 15th, 2010
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5:03 pm - More shooting
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Got in 100 more rounds of .22 and 50 of .45. Split the .22 between slow fire and rapid. Shot 30 rounds of .45 in slow fire, 20 in rapid.
Some progress has been made, not much. But it's a good thing that I decided to get some practice in with the .45 before the match, otherwise that would have been a huge disaster!
I probably should also drift the .45 sights to the right a bit, but I don't want to mess with how I shoot it two handed too much. Maybe after this match when I have some time I will drift it over and see how that does, can always drift it back.
On another note, why do people have to be such pigs? I know not everyone shooting there is a member, but is it really too hard to sweep up your brass? I mean really, it's not like it's .22 brass even. There was a whole mess of 9mm brass just forward of the booth, but in range of the broom. And the guy had left brass sitting on the table part of the booth. Really! It's right there! Just pick it up and throw it in the bucket!
And then their targets, they throw it in the trash, it falls out, they leave it there. What's so hard about picking it up again? Then again the person who did this probably shoots once a year. They also happened to hit the metal holding their target up, causing it to fall onto the range. Twice. Under 7 yards.
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| Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
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5:59 pm - Bullseye practice
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Just got home from some shooting at the West Side range. Went yesterday and shot 100 rounds of .22, split between slow fire and rapid fire practice for bullseye. Then today again, same thing, plus 100 rounds of .45.
Hadn't shot the .45 at 50 feet yet on the B2 or B3 targets. Slow fire was an atrocity with some embarassingly low scores. I started to get worried.
Then in rapid fire I am doing fucking amazing. Not just score wise, but I am actually grouping. In slow fire I was struggling to keep them all on the paper, and now in rapid fire I am putting several right on top of each other. Not a spectacular group or scores with it, but better than the atrocities I was getting in slow fire.
This is an interesting development. Clearly I will have to get some slow fire practice in. Maybe it is the "just do it" of rapid fire that is better for me, and that I am taking too much time with the trigger in slow fire.
Regardles, must give props to anyone who can shoot master or high master scores in bullseye with their .45
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2:15 pm - I guess I'm pretty much a magpul fanboy these days
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NEED/WANT
Hopefully I will be able to get to some courses some day, maybe when I get better vacation picks in the seemingly distant future
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| Monday, January 11th, 2010
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12:17 pm - Over the past two weeks I've increased my ammo supply by nearly 10k
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Yep. A couple weeks ago I picked up some bulk .22 at Wal-mart. They had some Winchester 333 round stuff instead of the 550 federal packs, but I picked it up for lack of anything else. Price was not as high as the 550 packs. Then friday night I managed to get some 550 packs too, but they have a 6 box limit.
Saturday Kaitlin and I headed out to Honesdale, stopped by the Alpine Haus to get some good kielbasa and gelbwurst and other good stuff. I love the Alpine Haus, it's my favorite German butcher and more shop around. Better than Schaler & Weber in the city I think. It just smells so good in there and they always have good german-y music playing. And the people working there are friendly too. I just wish they had these chocolate covered banana jellies that I love so much from Germany.
We did some shooting too at the Dyberry creek range, pretty much was just us there. Shot some .22 AR, then jumped into regular AR carbines. I shot my build and Kaitlin shot a CMMG upper I picked up for a good price a couple weeks ago. AIM surplus had 16" mid length CMMG uppers with a free troy drop in rail. Only have some Daniel Defense rear sight on it so far, no rail covers even, but it runs nicely as a centerfire "backup" for the .22 AR.
Yesterday we stopped by Sergio's in Honesdale again because he was selling off a bunch of stuff. Ended up picking up 2k 9mm and 2k in 5.56 from him, a bunch of AR mags, some glock mags, a turner style sling. Was a good haul.
We managed a hike at Ten Mile river afterward, even though it was close to sunset and I almost got the ford stuck on a snowy unpaved road. The sign said "limited use seasonal highway no maintenance" from some date in november through april. I figured driving up to the trail head made sense with our limited time. Also, when walking you have to pay attention to the trail marker, not the footprints in the snow of the idiot who went before you. We managed to get to the top and down before sunset, and it was nice to get out there in the snow. 3 miles round trip, 500 foot elevation gain.
I have a series of pistol matches coming up again at West Side. 6 matches, most fall on days off for me. It's a centerfire match but since the best trigger i have is my .45 that's what I'll be shooting. Was digging around online today and managed to come across some match grade cor-bon, so went and ordered 550 rounds of that to try out. Hope it will help me out a little bit, I haven't been too impressed by the accuracy of the ball ammo I've got. It's a reason for me to get into reloading at some point, but I just don't really want to devote the time. Anyway, since this is bullseye shooting I dunno how much match ammo will help me out in controlling .45 ACP recoil one handed, but I'm willing to spend the money and find out!
They also have a good deal on Federal Gold Medal Match 168 gr .308, so ordered 400 more rounds of that for the GAP Crusader.
Been a pretty good ammo haul. Should get me by for a little bit and let now focus on building up some of those remaining AR-15 lowers. Still planning an SPR build, the lightweight carbine build is having a rough spot since CMMG stopped making lightweight barrels. Maybe I can dig something else up for that. Have a spare lower I'm not sure on what build I want to do next.
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| Friday, January 8th, 2010
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5:02 pm - to hunt or not to hunt
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Tomorrow morning the weather is supposed to "feel like" 0 degrees farenheit. I wanted to goose hunt this weekend since it's the last season until 10 days in March. However that cold takes some serious consideration.
The place I scouted out last weekend is now frozen over where I was gonna set the decoys except a few small holes. I suppose I should pick up some standing decoys instead of just the floaters I have for situations like this. I dunno how natural a spread there would look anyway, the river is frozen over pretty much until the point where there is a strong current at that point. Any goose I shoot there would likely drop into that strong current requiring some kayaking and ice-walking. This place is a confluence also, so there are some holes in the ice where the stream joins the river, and I was thinking about that too. Then any hits would fall onto ice or somewhere manageable, most likely. Though the chance of a kill dropping into the current is still there.
Considered the fishing access slightly up river but the calm water is all frozen over and all that remains is current.
Am now considering right in front of the house. One neighbor isn't up, the other probably won't even notice 3 shots if I even get the chance to shoot. There are some good spots I could just toss the decoys out sit and wait for a bit.
That's the other thing, I haven't really seen a lot of goose activity recently, so is it worth it to sit in the bitter cold and wade out in the river for a low chance? Maybe...
Kaitlin is coming up tonight, so I am sure her advice is to enjoy snuggling in a warm bed in the early morning.
I also seem to be getting a little sickness, supposed to go back to work sunday night, but I am thinking of working this into a little sickation. Maybe a week off? So until then I am not too concerned about suppressing this illness, I'm not a good actor and need a real cough when going sick.
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| Sunday, December 27th, 2009
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8:05 pm - There is going to be another terrorist attack
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I think everyone prety much expects that. This administration sure likes to aggravate that.
After this most recent incident which was stopped only by luck and a few passengers jumping the guy, Napolitano states that "The system worked". Yeah, TSA really stopped this one!
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| Friday, December 25th, 2009
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7:02 pm - Squirrel hunting
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Went out to the woods this afternoon to seek revenge on teh squirrels that had been teasing me all deer season.
Within 30 minutes had three running around a big oak tree. I lined up my shot annnnnnnnnd...MISS. Cycled the lever and MISS! They are still there though, so I go prone and miss....and miss. They finally beat it and so I walk over there and have a sit near their tree. Those 4 shots were all from about 40 yards away.
30 minutes later a old gray squirrel with nice golden tips ot his hair pops out, runs down a little bit, I swing on him and pop him through the head. I let him fall, 8 yards away for the shot. I heard squirrels might be curious and come out to see what happened, so I tried that. Nothing for a while of course. Then I finally hear something and see that one squirrel is hiding on top of a branch. I can see his tail flicking but can't get a shot at the head. Try to wait him out, nothing is happening, so I tried to circle around and see if I could get a better angle. Unfortunately just as I do it jumps up and runs down the fork it was sitting on. I think it ran into one of the holes in the tree.
Waited til sunset but it never came out again. Went home with my one squirrel, have him soaking in the fridge for lunch tomorrow. He was a grizzled looking guy, pretty good size. A little meat damage where the bullet broke one shoulder but overall pretty good.
I hope to get out there in a couple weeks with the Anschutz and finish the other two off. I figure using the Winchester today limited me with the low light and peep sights. I like hunting with irons but a scope sure makes a difference. Though the anschutz is pretty heavy anyway. I have been contemplating over the past year or two another Anschutz, one of the sporting ones for hunting.
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| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
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7:56 pm - A little update
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I went on a brownells spree the other day. Ended up picking up a Speedfeed stock for the 870. I like it, haven't had a chance to shoot with it on there, but I actually prefer a pistol grip on an 870 over a traditional stock. At least on a HD shotgun. I feel the safety is easier to engage/disengage this way. Though a Mossberg should never have a pistol grip stock, the safety is retarded with anything but a traditional stock.
Nice to have 4 rounds on gun too, I don't really like sidesaddles as I feel they screw with the balance in a bad way. This makes the stock end a little heavier but no big deal.
Next up is to get some ghost rings and figure out this drill and tapping and epoxy business for installation.
In other news I have christmas eve and day off. I'm happy about that. What really really bothers me is that my brother knows this, and is doing his "neglect nearby family" thing. I don't see how that can feel any other way to me, since I have always had a family Christmas until this job. And it has been 2 or 3 years now since I've had a Christmas for real, and here is my first chance for who knows how many more years, and he is going to play the game of "Dasha and my cats are my only family" nonsense. It really really bothers me and kind of ruins having Christmas off to me to not be able to actually celebrate it with my whole family. I don't even really care about presents I just want a nice Christmas eve upstate with a nice crisp snowy night, the tree, a warm house, pfeffernusen and mom playing a Christmas mass on the record player.
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| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
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5:27 pm - Deer, final attempt
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I have tomorrow and friday morning to try and take a deer with the flintlock. I managed to get 50 minutes of hunting in this afternoon, not great but better than nothing. I got stuck on overtime at work, thankfully only 4 hours, and raced my ass up here. Of course, I had to get stuck behind the slowest shit in the world multiple times.
But, to make up for the disappointment, there was encouragement today. LOTS of tracks, that seem to have happened within the past 1-3 days. Some poop. Unfrozen water in the area as a water source, and still some acorns on the ground and a spot where htey were kicking them up.
Tomorrow I will hunt hard and all day, will not leave that area. Maybe move to some different spots within but I will be there all day. If nothing tomorrow, Friday will hopefully give me a chance. Gonna have to bust out the foot warmers for the first time hunting I think, bring some good gloves, keep the flintlock close and at the ready. NO NAPPING!
I NEED to get a deer, it is about time! People just don't take you seriously as a hunter if you don't have a deer under your belt!
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| Thursday, December 10th, 2009
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10:04 am - a minor hunting update
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Well my schedule is getting all messed up due to everyone going everywhere. It's my two days off, which I usually stay in the city for. But Kaitlin is off and away, I didn't get stuck at work, so I decided to come upstate. Managed to get a couple hours of hunting in the afternoon yesterday, was hoping to find some tracks in the snow. But nope, nothing. Woods were dead quiet, maybe everything was still bedded down from the storm. I dunno, because it's not like I've ever really seen a connection between sign and seeing deer. Only ever seen a handful here and there during a hunting season.
I am having serious motivational issues with regards to hunting deer. I was going to go hunting in the morning, but I just said to hell with it and went back to sleep. I actually had a decent amount of sleep, 7 hours, but I also had been up over 24 by the time I went to bed and I feel like I need closer to 10 hours of sleep when I do the "stay up all day after working a midnight" deal. Add that on top of never seeing a damn thing, and I wasn't really looking forward to sitting in the cold woods just to confirm that I know where to hunt squirrels and not see any deer. Stefan did see two does there when we went together a couple weeks ago, and did shoot his deer near there, but when I go I see nothing. It just makes it easier to wake up in the morning and decide it's not worth it, get more sleep.
Now I am unsure what I'll do, if I'll hunt this afternoon I dunno. I want to do some shooting too. Then I need to decide if I want to go back to the city tonight and get ready for work tomorrow night, or stay up here, hunt in the morning, and really screw up my sleep patterns. What I usually do the night before I have to be back at work is stay up all night, but if I stay up here and hunt in the morning that will lead to one sleep deprived night of work.
I will have three days off next week, and that will be muzzleloader season. I will have to make a better effort then, since at least then I can take a doe which hopefully will give me better chances with regards to the deer that I might see. I've never seen a legally antlered buck on that bit of state land, though last week I found sign of something with antlers at least.
Next year I will have to make some better plans for hunting. There is more state land only 20-30 minutes away, though the easiest access on there might be over the lake. There also is some boy scout land nearby that I think can be hunted with permission, will have to see about that as well. Hopefully I can get another deer season vacation on top of it all.
And motivation to wake up early even when I don't see a damn thing!
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| Friday, December 4th, 2009
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3:20 am - I can has apocalypse?
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That's probably my favorite ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fearsclave icon.
Went and saw "The Road" with the woman tonight. Never read the book, but I enjoyed the movie. Apocalyptic stuff is always great in my eyes. Has a lot of the darkness that compares to "Threads" in terms of showing a more realistic end of the world. This one is pretty bleak.
On the way home I told Kaitlin, don't worry, I have 36 rounds, not just 2.
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| Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
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9:02 pm - A few more pics
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We hunted for deer this morning with no luck, but my brother saw two does. I'm hoping to chance upon a legal buck when I head back up in a week. Or hoping to take a doe when I get to hunt 2-3 days of muzzleloader season in 3 weeks.
Anyway here are dad's pics from duck hunting, in all their blurry flash and flashless glory:
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| Monday, November 23rd, 2009
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12:01 pm - a little hunting update
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Went out saturday morning with dad. We went upriver a couple miles instead of around here, saw absolutely nothing. I think I heard a duck in the morning but didn't see anything. Was frustrating with the river being a little deeper and was difficult setting decoys there.
Tried again today with my brother. Pretty much a bust again, though the river wasn't too deep. We ended up seeing one flock of high, disinterested geese.
Tomorrow the weather looks promising for waterfowl, so we will give it another shot in the morning.
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| Thursday, November 19th, 2009
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10:16 pm - Pistol Match #4
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Ended up shooting a 702. Came in second for the match.
As it was the final match, the league champion was announced. Steve Pang took this one, I was in second. But they gave him a trophy! I was close! Had I done better in the first match, or improved this match, I could have taken it. I think the differecne was like 40 points or so.
Was fun though, I look forward to January and the centerfire match. Now the question is whether or not to get another pistol like I've been thinking about, or just use my .45 for that match. Hmm...
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5:10 pm - A ducking disaster!
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That's how today was. The weather forecast was for cloudy, which I guess is duckier weather than we've been having.
We woke up, got set up and were in position within 3 minutes of legal shooting hours. 0623 is when they began, 0626 we were sitting down. Not terrible timing, getting better at it. Had a slight delay getting hung up on some rocks downstream, hard to see them in the dark.
The action began pretty soon. We had a pair fly overhead downstream, I called to them and thought they were gonna leave. THey looked like specks so far away. But they wheeled back in and came over our spread. They circled once high up, then circled again as I called. The second time they were maybe on the edge of range, almost overhead. We could have tried shooting at them but we passed it up as too far.
Shortly after that dad said "one is coming!" as we heard a quack upstream. I picked it up and saw it go downstream, but my comeback calling worked and it came in right along the riverbank a bit, from the downstream. It flared its wings and put its legs out about to land, I said to dad SHOOTSHOOTSHOOT since he has yet to shoot any game in 10 years of hunting with my brother or myself. It was a perfect easy shot, low, slow, not much lead needed to be added. I didn't shoot and kept calling figuring dad was taking his time. Before I know it the duck is off and dad had been looking hte wrong way the entire time! ARGH!
I always thought my dad's problem was gun manipulation and shooting skills. Now I realize he doesn't even see the game! Not until it's too late and flying away. He is good at spotting them then!
I wish I had jumped and taken the shot since I would have had a duck for the pot today.
Then the solitary duck came back in from the upstream side, just a little ways out from our decoys. I called and he took a closer look, told dad to shoot, and that he did. He is slow on the pump though and I followed up with two shots, and then the duck was out of range.
Shortly later the pair flew by again but didn't come in. A little bit after that, we saw them all as a trio flying high and fast, wanting nothing to do with us. I called and saw one dip out of formation for a moment, but no dice.
We did have a merganser come and land among our decoys, but I called dad off before either of us shot at it. The NYS DEC does not recommend eating mergansers, but they still count toward your bag limit.
Our final action was a flock of about 6-8 ducks plus a pair with them pitching in and landing at the downstream portion of our spread. I was slow on the reaction here and got confused, since the pair was higher up and behind hte landing ones. I called at the landing ones when I should have just started shooting, they were landing after all! But I said to dad "take the high pair!" and he opened up on the drake in front and I unloaded on this hen. All misses. I reloaded and dad fired a third shot, but they were long off by then.
That brought the totals for today to 5 misses for me and 5 misses for dad. Pretty bad shooting on my part. With all those opportunities to shoot I should have brought home at least one more duck.
I think with the larger flock, I ended up shooting high. I will blame it on my new waterfowling outfit. I love it, but I am not used to having the extra bulk and the high collar. I think I was getting more chin-weld than cheek-weld on the stock, and so lining the beads up in a high-8 configuration, sending my shot strings over the tops of the geese.
Next time out I will try to take a moment extra to make sure I have a good cheek weld before shooting.
We called it quits at 10 since we both have obligations in the city tonight. I have my pistol match at the West Side range again tonight, last one for this season though there is rumors of a centerfire match in January. Then we will be going back upstate Friday afternoon along with Kaitlin. I hope to get a couple morning hunts in there, maybe if Kaitlin is brave she will wake up early too and come along as observer, company, moral support, and photographer.
Sunday I will come back to the city with everyone, and then my brother will meet me and we will head back upstate until the day before thanksgiving. The original plan is deer hunting, but maybe we will change that or mix it up: ducks in the morning deer in the afternoon. We will see.
Anyway here are some pictures of yesterday's success. Including some blurry shots of the beaver that has been paddling around up there. More pictures to follow when I get them off dad's camera
( pics )
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