A first for me

benp

benp

Well-known member
I was able to go out and take my brother and his brother in law and one of our friends to go hunting today. We started out duck hunting a small creek near our property and scored on 3 wood ducks and 2 Canada geese.
From there we went and hunted woodcocks and knocked down 7 of those and a rabbit and a squirrel. Then we had a late duck hunt off a tip from a friend and fell into some ducks that I’ve been after for years. After awhile we shot one black duck which we all shot at but my brother got 2 black ducks, his brother in law got 2 mallards, friend got 2 black ducks and I got a black duck and a pintail. Both are firsts for me and I was ecstatic to get the pintail.

This season has been the best one I’ve been apart of but I’m am young at 23, now to go to the taxidermist for the pintail, I will try to mount the black duck myself with a mallard I shot this year.

View attachment D8858B0F-607F-433D-88B9-F9CF8AA9E263.jpeg

View attachment 180BD83A-075F-416C-88FD-22F2E6314191.jpeg
 
I'm still waiting for my first drake pintail and I'm almost 58. I'm envious. Nice hunt and nice ducks.

Mark
 
Steve-
I would say it’s been a great new year for me and my family. After I retrieved my pintail I yelled to the boys that I was done for the season and didn’t care if I hunted again this season which goes out the 27th.

Mark-
A few people here are envious too. My best friend wished he had come with me cause a pintail is the only duck he wants to mount and has been trying to get one for a while. Hopefully you get the chance to harvest one soon!
 
Mark, I'm 59 and got my first pintail earlier this season. I spooked one this morning when I arrived at my spot, but it didn't return during the hunt.

Way to go Benp. Have you noticed the pintail population being increased in your area this season?
 
There has been a huge increase of everything this year. Pintails, black ducks, canvasbacks, and a the others. I just didn’t get to hunt as much as I wanted but that’s okay.
 
Wow, you got black ducks to come into decoy?? This year has been tough to get them to commit were we hunt , they circle and wont even commit to come into live ducks, nice hunt!!
 
That's a full day of hunting, what young guys do best. Nothing beats a mixed bag for enjoyment, and some good eating.

Congratulations ya all did good!
 
Work was called off today due to bad road conditions, I was able to go across the road to the river to find a bunch of swan, don’t have a permit though to shoot one, but I noticed two geese that had a high pitch honk.
Two speckle bellys, I’ve never seen one in person til today and I was fortunate enough to harvest one, couldn’t shoot both because the other flew up into the swan and I didn’t want to take down one of them by accident.
This has been my greatest season yet and Makes 3 new species for me this year and less room on my wall [smile]
View attachment 02B3FEF4-13FE-4E48-B237-26F09E603333.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Ben,
The great news is that you will always have the memory of this day's hunt and the incredible mixture of game.

The bad news is that such days are rare.

I love your combo of small game and waterfowl.

Mmm. 7 woodcock. Even with four guys banging, 7 woodcock is a rare day. I don't know anyone whose group ever killed 7 woodcock. And I use to live in Michigan which is woodcock central. I understand that there is a large number of timber doodles that winter in NC.

Savor your day. You are blessed!
Larry
 
This has been a very unusual year for woodcock. I’ve been out several days and have got my limit on woodcock and I know several other people have too (some over their limit unfortunately).

This will definitely be one of those memories that my brother and I will talk about in our old age, Lord willing.
We had a 1 great hunt last year in a small swamp where the wood ducks literally landed in our barrels. Really something having the woodies come squeezing in through trees and land 2 feet in front of you.

I wish every season was this good but I know this weather makes it “worse” for the northern folk but after the past few years of them doing good and us down here not so well, it has been a great year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top