Duck Hunt With First Light Gear's Down Patrol

Back in August, Matt and I joined Josh (with FLG) and Tommy to make the road trip to the International Waterfowl Expo in Arkansas. We had a great time and talked about getting together for a duck hunt sometime during the season. Josh and Tommy live about 2 hours East of us near the Arkansas river. Over the course of the season, our schedules never meshed until 2 weeks ago when I called Josh and found that we were both free on the 21st. We planned to meet up at 5 am on Saturday and hunt an area of trees with standing water that was only about 4 feet deep.

My alarm goes off at 1:50am. This is what we do for fun? I get to Matt's at 3am and we get on the road. We pull up to Josh's office just before 5am and get suited up. We get to the spot and setup with Josh's G&H Decoys that are Texas rigged. The decoys are setup in less than 5 minutes and have the 3 mojos out shortly thereafter. We are all sitting just inside the treeline by about 5-10 yards and in a line 5 yards apart. This should allow us to fully ambush any birds that commit to the spread. 15 minutes before shooting light, shots start ringing out from the fields and water around us. 15 minutes early? Everyone's taken a shot a minutes or 2 prior to the actual shooting time, but a quarter of an hour prior is ridiculous. We wait until shooting light even though a flock of 8 birds came in a few minutes before. We hold ourselves to a higher standard and will set the example rather than follow it.

A few minutes after legal shooting, a couple birds dive bomb into the spread. Being in the woods, looking at the flooded area, with thick woods behind it as well, the area was much darker than shooting over open water like we are used to. The cameras weren't able to be used for probably 30 minutes. With us being set in a line, there is nothing that needs to be said about who takes shots other than "take 'em". It is much easier to pick your shots on birds hunting this way rather than in a blind with other hunters right on your elbows. The number of birds wasn't very high, so we were getting 1 or 2 birds coming in here and there. It was amazing to see them come out of nowhere and drop 100-200 feet straight down as they committed to the decoys. Even if they saw us pull up to shoot, it was too late. They had to stop their descent and fly completely vertically to attempt to bail out. If birds made it half way into the spread, they weren't leaving.

We had a group of 5 birds start to drop in. 2 break in a little faster than the other 3 and then decide to flare about 25% of the way in. As they start to flare, the words are spoken, "take 'em". 3 guns erupt as the birds exit through the top of the trees. I am following a drake as he flies directly over me. My first shot is off, then I pick a hole through the trees and pull the trigger a second time. He immediately folds and gravity takes over. I yell "I got him" and Matt exclaims he also hit one. Then, splash splash. 2 ducks drop into the water with force. A while later, we have a flock of about 100 birds circle, but we can't get any to break off and into our set. It was fun to watch them circle several times and hear nothing but the whistling of wings. It was almost deafening as they skimmed the tree-tops.

We ended the day with 11 mallards. It was slow with 5 guys there, but the experience was more than worth it in hunting outside of our element. As usual, Tommy's cooking was spot on and it was great to hang out with him, Josh, and Earnie. There was a lot of laughter and gunpowder was burned. Thanks for having us out, Josh. This is what we do for fun.

Bonus video from our day after Christmas hunt:

Gear Review - CCI .22 Sub-Sonic Ammo from AmmoForSale.com

I was contacted by Caleb with AmmoForSale.com about reviewing some ammo a few weeks ago. We worked out the details and that we would be reviewing .22 ammo. He let me know when it shipped and not 2 days later, the ammo was at my door. It was shipped in a non-conspicuous box, which I appreciate with living in a neighborhood. The packing material was a bit lax, but the .22 ammo was in hard plastic cases, so it didn't concern me as much.

The ammo we received was 40 grain hollow-point sub-sonic ammo by CCI. I've heard good things about sub-sonic ammo when used on small animals and predators that you trap as it's less likely to punch all the way through. Another item to note is that with being sub-sonic and hollow-point, when the ammo penetrates the target or animal, it expands as a usual hollow-point would, but with the ammo being slower, the damage is greater as the bullet expands sooner it it's penetration. We shot multiple .22's during the review. We used semi-automatic and bolt action rifles.

We started at the gun range. We used 50 rounds in both types of .22's and never once had a jam. We brought along the common Remington Gold .22 ammo to compare noise, groupings, and devastation.

Accuracy:
The distances we shot were 20, 40, and 60 yards. The accuracy was never once questioned as the groupings were tight. There was no noticeable difference of bullet drop between the sub-sonic and regular ammo.

Sound: The regular .22 is not a loud gun to begin with, but with this ammo being labeled as sub-sonic, this is one of the items that immediately came to mind. The CCI ammo is labeled as 1050fps whereas the Remington Gold is 1280fps. We don't have any way of measuring the decibel range, but just playing it by the average ear, there was a solid difference. It sounded more like a pellet gun being shot than a true rifle. We mixed up both ammo in the semi-automatic and you could easily tell when the sub-sonic ammo was fired. This came in handy when we were squirrel hunting. Typically the first shot will scatter any other squirrels that are nearby. This was not the case with the sub-sonic ammo. We were able to take multiple shots from the same location without the squirrels completely disappearing and scrambling for cover. Using regular ammunition, you almost always end up waiting quite a while to allow the woods to settle down. Another plus with this ammo for us, being that we hunt public land, we could squirrel hunt the same locations that we deer hunt without worrying about others hearing us as much.

Destruction:
The plywood that we placed behind the target was our best case for measuring the toll the ammo puts on target besides the bushytails that we knocked down. I wish we had some ballistics gel to use on the test. The holes in the plywood where the CCI ammo penetrated appeared to be slightly larger which I would attribute to the quicker expansion of the hollow point by CCI. The squirrels that were taken provided the extra knowledge that we wanted. Typically, we aim for the head of the squirrel, but today, we were aiming at the ribcage as well to test this bullet. I have shot the Remington ammo for most of my hunting life and am very familiar with how squirrels react to being hit with it. The CCI ammo still punctured completely through the skull in some cases, but not all. The ribcage shots gave us the same results. Some, but not all of the shots would create entry and exit wounds. This leads me to believe that this ammo by CCI may actually be safer to shoot when you are not surrounded by countryside for miles. Although we as hunters are always paying attention to the safety of our shots and where the bullet will travel after the shot, the subsonic ammo, being slower, and less likely to pass through an animal, gives me a better feeling.

We typically use photos and video to illustrate our posts, but today was a perfect storm as we had people shooting high-caliber rifles at the same range as well as shotguns, thus not allowing the video to show the difference in sound. We only had our phones on us for pictures, and that didn't allow for macro-focus pictures. Lesson learned. As for recording squirrel hunts, it is laughable after you try it. You hike several miles while chasing bushytails and any unnecessary gear or movement really adds to the difficulty.

I would highly suggest not only trying the CCI subsonic .22 ammo, but also looking at the AmmoForSale.com website the next time that you are looking at purchasing ammo. They keep a limited stock of items to keep their overhead low, but their inventory is always changing, so checking back often may give you the deal that you are looking for.

Take Your Chances When You Get Them

This week has been pretty slow at work. We've been released early every day and Thursday was no exception. I headed home about 1:45 and given that it was 65 degrees, I knew I had to take the chance at one more deer hunt. When the temperature drops below freezing, I find it unbearable to be in a deer stand for very long. It's not that I'm a fair weather hunter, but I'm pretty lanky and find it hard to stay warm in cold temps.

I had a few things to wrap up around the house before I could go hunting, and didn't get to leave the house until about 3pm. The sun set time was 5:25, so I was in a rush. I parked the truck to realize that I left the camera tree arm mount for the camera at home. I had the camera and I had the camera tree arm, just no way to connect them. It's a mile walk to the stand, and during that time, I decide to just enjoy the sit and not worry about filming, getting there late, etc. I choose a stand that transitions between bedding and an acorn flat. I get setup in the tree and check the time, 4pm. Wow, better just enjoy being outdoors. I get a little bit of film to show the stand and settle in.

Around 4:30, I see movement 150 yards to the south. It's a doe walking a treeline. I spot movement behind her, but can't tell if it's a buck or not. I watch the doe as I know the second deer is tailing her. I spot her white tail walking into the tree line, directly away from me. Time to get creative. I grab my grunt call which was set to a fawn bleat and try to sound lost. The doe turns back toward me and starts heading my way. She gets to about 100 yards and turns toward the west. I bleat a few more times and she turns back toward me. There is a small creek 50 yards from me and the doe stops short of it to check out the area. I now notice she's probably a 1 1/2 year old. I can tell the second deer is also a doe, and most likely the mother. The younger doe crashes through the creek and starts feeding at 45 yards. The older doe is still on the other side of the creek and is nervous as heck. She keeps running to the south, then wanders to the creek, then spooks to the east, then comes back, then spooks again to the south. The doe on my side of the creek is also getting nervous. I look around to see if any other deer, namely a buck, are around. I don't see anything. The doe starts walking directly toward me. At 20 yards, she looks up. The sun is in my face and I dip my head slightly to allow my hat to shield the sun. The second doe again spooks and the first doe runs 5 yards to the west and looks to the south. I take my chance to draw as she's looking away. My elbow rubs against my safety harness and she again spooks another 5 yards to the west, but I continue my draw figuring I have nothing to lose at this point should she spot me. She is at 17 yards. I'm at full draw. There's a low hanging branch covering her vitals. A few seconds later, she takes 3 steps to the north west and is perfectly broadside. I settle my 20 yard pin on her lungs and release. Being that the second doe was spooky, I should have held a bit lower knowing she would duck on my release. Since it was only 20 yards, the arrow connects, but is a bit higher that I would like. The arrow passes completely through and I see blood start coming out of the entry wound as she takes off. She leaps away from me, then takes off in a dead run to the north west and circles to the north east in her 60 yard attempt to exit the area. I hear her pile up and thrash. As my emotions start to hit, I look back for the second doe which is staring in my direction from 70 yards. She turns and runs south. I watch her white flag disappear into the treeline. It's 4:55pm. I debate on continuing my sit, but the mile drag back to the truck and the duty of cleaning the doe cause me to go ahead and get down as I know it will be a long night.

My wife doesn't like gamey tasting meat, and that factored into my taking the shot on the young doe. The mile drag was also considered and a smaller deer would be easier to get to the truck. Being that we hunt only on public land, there is zero amount of quality deer management that can be done. Since we can't control what other hunters shoot or the hunting pressure on the area, you take the shots that present themselves.

I text my wife and Matt to let them know of my success then grab the camera to record the recovery. I walk to the spot where the doe was standing when I took my shot. I see where her hoofs dug into the ground when she took off. The arrow is about 3 yards away and covered in pink-ish blood. Even though I know where she went down, I take the chance to track her to gain the invaluable experience of tracking. With knowing where she was at, I could put all the pieces together as I track and note the blood trail, location of the blood, amount of blood, and other sign produced by the death run. The trail of blood was consistent, but not as heavy as if it had been a heart shot. I pay attention to where the blood sprayed on weeds and trees that were along her path due to it being a lung shot. The knowledge I gained while tracking a deer that I knew the final location of will assist later on in my hunting career. I find her where I expected. She was around 60 pounds.

After it was all said and done, I trekked 4 miles that night, making two trips to the truck. One to take my stand and gear, the second to get the doe. Below is a video of the recovery.

Gear Review - The Silent Retriever

We were able to get in contact with Kevin VanCamp, the creator of The Silent Retriever and acquire 2 of them for review. We have had limited time to hunt, so getting in the woods to test this guy out was done at the end of a quick duck hunt.

Ease of use: I climbed up in a tree and pulled The Silent Retriever out of the package for the first time. I dropped my knit full-face mask on the ground then attached the included pull rope to The Silent Retriever. The rope smoothly slipped through my hands as The Silent Retriever lowered itself toward the ground. The Silent Retriever is weighted nicely and doesn't require you to pull slack out to drop it. I was able to pickup my face mask and my hat without any trouble. The face mask was grabbed immediately as it is knit and the hat only took two tries to grab it successfully. You do have to be careful when using The Silent Retriever as the hooks can grab twigs, tree branches, vines, etc. when trying to snag your dropped gear. This should be a given however when using an item that is built to grab dropped items.

Durability: The 25 foot pull rope is a solid quality and has been burned on both ends to prevent fraying. Good call there. The rope is also a "camo" pattern with green, black, and khaki colors interwoven. The hooks are fairly thick, and they do not appear as though they would bend easily. Even if they do bend, they should either bend back into place or assist even further with grabbing items.

Where to purchase: Kevin has a website dedicated to The Silent Retriever and is available via email sales@thesilentretriever.com. The Silent Retriever is well priced at $14.99 for the full system, or $9.99 for just The Silent Retriever.

Video of the review:



I would like to thank Kevin for the opportunity to review this great system! It will always be included in my backpack when hunting.

Ducks, More Ducks, and a Goose

I admit, we've been slacking on writing blogs lately. Again, life, work, and everything else has prevented the time from being available. Plus, I don't see myself giving up time to hunt on my days off to write a blog. Here's a video/photo-blog of last weekend's duck season opener. We have a split season here and we finally got some cold weather and ice on the water. I, Michael, finally got my first pintail on an uncontested shot and Matt and I tag teamed a goose, which was a first for me as well.


December 10th: Flying Steel



December 10th: Matt's Wack n' Stack



December 11th: Duck, Duck, Goose.

 

 

 

Luck of the Draw and Plenty of Missed Shots

Thanksgiving week is usually pretty hectic with family and so many places to be. I didn't bother with adding to my wife's worries with even mentioning the word "hunting" Thursday. Friday and Saturday were another story, however.

In Oklahoma, we have a split waterfowl season. I'm not sure why, but we can hunt almost the entire month of November, then there is a 2 week break, then it opens again on December 10th and continues through January 29th. The first part of the season is usually too warm for hunts to be very successful. The first couple of weeks were pretty slow, but cold fronts and north winds started pushing in the last 2 weeks and really had the birds coming in.

Friday morning, we decided to meet at 5am to try and get the blind location that we wanted. It was a south wind at around 20 mph and due to availability of the public waterfowl hunting areas, we were going to be facing west and playing the wind left to right. Matt and I setup and saw 2 other hunter walk in several hundred yards to the north and locate themselves in a spot with the wind hitting them in the face. Matt's dad showed up with his decoys and we set out 2 dozen with 2 baby mallard Mojos and a teal Mojo.

Shooting light came and went without a bird showing itself. Finally, around 7:30 birds started moving. A group of birds work there way in and we knock down 2 teal. It's obvious that we're all a little rust. To prove my point, we had 9 teal come in and land directly in the decoys. All 3 of us stand up and unload our guns. All 9 birds get the hell out of our spread without losing a feather. We all had a good laugh over how awful that performance was. One thing I did find pretty interesting was that I had my teal mojo mixed in with widgeon decoys on the right side of the spread. We had two teal come screaming in and land directly behind the teal mojo. I stand up and draw down on the one directly behind the mojo and wait for him to jump off the water. Matt quickly says "don't shoot the mojo!" No kidding? It's mine. About that time the bird jumped and I took him while Matt tapped the one on the right and his dad came across and laid the second teal out.

We had a few group of 15+ mallards come toward the spread, but they wouldn't commit. We ended the day with 5 teal, 2 gadwall, and 2 pintail.

Saturday we again met at 5am. There were already a few other hunters in the parking area milling around, so Matt and I hurried to the spot we chose as the wind was out of the north and forecasted to be 25 mph. I built the blind while Matt and Mark set out the decoys.

The wind didn't pick up like it was forecasted to do, so we were battling to get birds to come in. We had a couple of groups work in, but only 3-4 birds max. Most of them were grey ducks. There were 2 birds that worked in and landed outside the decoys on the left. We stood up and jumped them, immediately dropping both right back to the water. All of 1 mallard was seen all morning and the birds just quit flying by 10am. We walked out with 2 widgeon and 7 gadwall.

That concluded my weekend of hunting but Matt and Mark made it back out the next day for a continued north wind. They limited by 10am and their first bird of the morning was a male wood duck. I managed to miss or not have a chance at 2 of my most wanted birds for mounts in 3 days, a pintail and a male wood duck. That's hunting though, all luck of the draw and plenty of missed shots.

FYI, there will be a video or two coming, but there are a few hold ups in editing currently.

When Nothing Is Going Right, Be Ready!

I looked at the weather early this week and saw that Thursday was going to have a low of 28 degrees in the morning with a high near 60. With the beginning of the week having highs around 70 and lows in the 40's, I knew it was time to schedule a day off. Wednesday night I called Matt's dad to ensure that I wouldn't be stepping on his toes if I walked in that morning. He was planning on hunting a different area. We decide to get there extra early to have plenty of time to setup in our chosen locations.

Thursday morning, I get up extremely early and start the long drive. I get to where I'm supposed to meet Mark, Matt's dad, and get dressed. I'm ready to go when he gets there. We chose to use a small boat instead of making a long and strenuous walk. All of our gear is loaded in the boat and we back the trailer in. There is a rope on the front of the boat that is attached to the trailer so we can drop the boat in and pull it back to the ramp as we pull the trailer out. Mark backs the boat in and starts pulling the trailer out but the boat isn't coming back toward us. The rope pulled off the trailer and the wind is pushing parallel to the shore. It's 28 degrees and there is ice all over anything the water touches. We both watch helplessly as our stand, gear, and the boat go floating away from us. Earlier in the week I would've just swam after it, but that isn't an option today. Mark decides to go back to his house and grab his other boat. I continue to watch the shadow of the boat as it drifts into the fog.

Mark shows up with the other boat eventually. Luckily, with the cold weather, there were no other boats on the water. As he prepares to drop the boat in, he tries to start it. It won't crank. He removes the shroud and sees that the starter isn't popping up to turn the motor over. The grease is too cold. Time for enginuity. He pulls the oil dipstick on his truck and uses the warm oil to lube up the starter. After doing this twice, the boat cranks right up. I back him in and he retrieves the other boat. We pull the second boat out and redress to get in stand. I make the mistake of pushing the boat offshore with my bare hands. They immediately freeze.We get to our spot and part ways. I walk quietly to my tree and try to quickly put out scents and get up the tree. I climb a bit higher than normal as my boots were too slick to face the west as my stand would angle down. So I face the east. I try to put my safety belt on the tree but as I face the west (behind the stand where I'll get most of my shots) I realize it'll be in the way of any shot, so I take it off. Not a smart move, I know. I look at my phone. It's 8:09. I decide to plop my butt down and not setup the camera. Too much bad luck and too late to not have disturbed the deer movement.

9:15 and I hear movement up the hill to the north. I peer through the treeline and see several deer moving. I stand up and face the tree (to the west). I spot several does, so I relax my grip on the bow. I watch as 5 does feed behind me at 35 yards. As they pass through wide open shooting lanes, I hear something behind me and slowly turn to see a spike behind me at 15 yards, broadside. He's lucky I only have one more buck tag and want to fill it with large inedible antlers. He circles all the way around me and follows the does off to my South West. I figure that'll be all that I see. I give it a few minutes to see if anything else followed the does and then sat down.

I hear movement to my South East at about 75 yards roughly 30 minutes later. I stand, grab my bow, and then grunt as I see a rack coming through the trees. He stops. I grunt again. He marches my way like I just slapped his mom. He walks directly toward me and I draw while he is still in the trees. He walks into the open and stops, facing me, at 40 yards. I'm confident in my shot out to 50 yards. After holding my draw for about a minute and buck fever setting in as I see his 8 points reaching toward the sky, I take a deep breath, place my pin on the center of his chest, and release. The second my bow flung the arrow in his direction, his chest dove to the ground. My arrow flew straight....over his back. I should have known that he was on high alert after I grunted him in and to aim low. He trotted 15 yards into the trees not knowing what the heck just happened. I grunted a few times as I knocked another arrow, but he decided that whatever it was that grunted wasn't worth it and moved on.

15 minutes later, to my South West, I hear a branch snap. I look and 50 yards away stands a large bodied deer. His neck is swollen and he's on a mission. As he steps out of the trees, I notice that he isn't quite gifted up top. He's a dink 6 point with the body of a beast. I watch as he walks by at 30 yards. The 8 I just missed was quite a bit bigger rack-wise, so I don't bother him. I sit back down only to stand a few minutes later as a big bodied deer works just inside the tree line from my North East to North West. I never see a rack and it didn't respond to a grunt. I sit again wishing I had my camera rolling, but figured the morning was over. It's already 11am.

Then, at 11:30, another deer works just inside the tree line following the previous deer. I stand and watch, hoping it will step out. At 65 yards, I spot an absolute brute of a deer step out. This deer reminds me of Iowa deer body-wise. He walks so proudly. I look toward his had and see nothing but straight tines that make all other bucks this morning look smaller than ants. I see 4 points on his left side. I manage to grab my grunt call as I feel like falling out of my stand. I grunt. That's when I had my Field & Stream moment. He looked in my direction. His ears don't compare to his rack, they look small. There are 8 points. His G2's are at least 22 inches with mass reaching throughout. I guess him at 160+ inches. He walks toward me about 5 yards then turns toward the South West again. I grunt again and he sways his massive head, but continues walking. I grunt several more time but to no avail. He clears an obstacle with ease and disappears. I stand there in disbelief. I am in awe of what just happened and the next hour flies by.

Mark had text me around 10 saying he shot a spike. I get down at 12:30 and find my arrow from my miss. I unscrew it from the broadhead as the 63lbs of draw-weight buried it deep into the tree.

I head to Mark's location and we find the back half of the arrow with blood spray on it. We track the deer for 200 yards through some nasty thickets. The blood stops. I start doing a grid search. Mark says he found him. I spin around and there's a pile of leaves. When the deer piled up, he completely covered himself in leaves and was easily missed. We drag him about 400 yards out. The hit was good, it hit one lung and sliced directly through the liver. We are looking for the other half of the arrow and the broadhead that is attached. It is lodged in the skin lining the guts pointing toward the back leg. The shot had been broadside, but the arrow took a 90 degree turn. Every time he ran, the broadhead sliced into his leg, exposing the entire knee joint and giving the appearance that something had tried to chew on him.

All this to say, if you're day is going absolutely terrible, you'd better be ready! The deer of a lifetime only needs seconds to appear and a few more seconds to disappear. How I wish I'd setup the camera.