Hunting

Two Duck Hunts, A Lot of Variety

feeds@yuku.com (LoboYZorro) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:45:43 GMT

This weekend, my wife and I invited another couple to hunt ducks with us. They are both good shots, but both are inexperienced with duck identification, in the air or on the strap. I decided that was ok because this weekend none of the ducks was off limits. Last weekend, there were several species we could not yet shoot. After five days into the season all ducks became legal, but one could shoot only one of a few species. The limit this year is 6, up from 5 last year. Each person could...

Saturday hunt

feeds@yuku.com (les becassines) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:54:08 GMT

I hunted again yesterday for the second time. I usually hunt several days the first week of the season but based on what I saw last weekend there weren't enough birds here to allow it. With so few the last thing I want to do is run all of them off the lake. I shot a twenty-eight gauge gun this time. As much time as I have spent the walking on the first two hunts I ought to carry this one the most until the habitat improves and the birds show up. It is the lightest gun I own. I have been...

2 Snipe, 1 Shell

feeds@yuku.com (Long Haired Dave) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:23:07 GMT

I did a duck hunt Sunday morning but after it broke up and everyone went on their way I went to look for some snipe because I was in the area.

About 20 minutes in a large wisp bore down on me. I could have had a head-on shot but in the second I took to lock on a target they flared and then presented me with a hard, fast, left-to-right shot. I fired and two birds dropped. I was trying to mark the birds with one eye and watch the wisp with the other but by then they were out of my...

Snipe season is here

feeds@yuku.com (les becassines) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:35:34 GMT

Once I was out there it seems like only yesterday since I last hunted. Unfortunately the conditions are nowhere near as favorable as they were last year or any year prior for the last decade. Yesterday I scouted and I didn't see one snipe so at least there was some improvement. We need weather cold enough to kill the grass and no more rain. Maybe then the birds will come.

...

Two day and counting

feeds@yuku.com (les becassines) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:11:43 GMT

The glorious 1st, I can hardly wait.

My last couple of hunts.

feeds@yuku.com (SniperJohn) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:51:20 GMT

Hunt on October 15
I had planned on looking for some early Snipe migrants in Oklahoma, but I
pretty much changed my plans on finding any Snipe after I looked at the lake
levels online. But the good thing is for me at least; the high water will
kill the vegetation and make for some great Snipe habitat when the water
recedes.

So I just went on an all small game hunt and general scouting mission. I
walked a public tract of land in Texas and then in...

Scouting Report

feeds@yuku.com (LoboYZorro) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:01:15 GMT

The 2009 duck, goose and snipe season opens in my part of Texas Saturday morning. I have been reading and hearing that this will be a good year for ducks. I decided to do a little scouting at my favorite duck pond. I could not believe what I saw. I have never seen it like this! All ducks! Well, a few coots.

Can you see the white spots on...

Few more dove

feeds@yuku.com (patf) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:24:51 GMT

Headed to the fields after work on Friday. We had more rain and another cold front move through since Sunday and I wondered if the birds were still around. Normally I see a few birds along the roads once I get out in the country, but I did not see a single bird. I set up and after 45 min. still not a single bird. I had the feeling I was about to get shut out and considered leaving to check some of the other fields when a single bird flew in an landed on a nearby power line. I decided to...

Afternoon Hunt

feeds@yuku.com (patf) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:17:28 GMT

We have had some wet weather the past couple of weeks that has been keeping me out of the field. This weekend things cleared up and it finally started to feel like fall. I loaded up the truck with the wife, dog, youngest one and a new to me 28ga sxs. The good news is it seems the dove are back or new ones have arrived. We were not trying too hard, mostly just enjoying the afternoon, but we managed to take a few birds. I may have to make a more serious effort later this week.

...

Last minute first rabbit hunt of the season

feeds@yuku.com (flycruiser) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:05:05 GMT

Early Saturday morning I got a call from the soon to be best man in my wedding (this weekend!) down in Alabama. We've been trying to get in a hunt for the past couple of weeks, but with work, wedding planning and him having newborn twins it didn't look like it was going to happen this month. He called to say that his wife and kids were at a church function for mothers basically all day Saturday. I was up and ready to go in about 15 minutes and had the Land Cruiser loaded in about 5...

Crazy with Birds!

feeds@yuku.com (SniperJohn) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:50:23 GMT

It was opening day of Deer bow season here. And the first year Crossbows are legal for us. So I hit the stand with a crossbow this morning just because I
could. Two herds of Hogs came through, but I was waiting on a spike that has been showing on my game cam. Too many hogs probably kept him away.

Now when I got back to the camp house it was crazy. Waves of Dove flying in every direction. Mourning and some Whitewings. Second hunt was going to be with my compound, but when I saw...

There goes the average

feeds@yuku.com (patf) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:56:46 GMT

Made a trip back to the doveweed pasture, what took 6 shells to accomplish last time took about a box of shells on Thursday. An approaching cold front created a stiff South wind and the birds took full advantage giving me the middle feather as they blasted by one after another. I tried with little success to adjust my lead, the spent shell pile grew and the bird pile not so much. The decoy spread finally worked bringing in a nice herd of cows.

Texas Snipe Only Hunt

feeds@yuku.com (patf) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:46:47 GMT

Most of the WMAs in Southeast Texas allow snipe to be taken only during waterfowl hunts. I was looking through the map booklet for public hunting lands and noticed that the Justin Hurst WMA (formerly Peach Point) south of Houston has a snipe only hunt on the mornings of Feb. 6th and 7th. I don't recall "snipe only" dates on any public lands in the past but I may not have noticed until now. I have not been to this WMA, are any of the...

Pre-hunt trip

feeds@yuku.com (flycruiser) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:25:27 GMT

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since I've been around. Wedding stuff keeps getting in the way, oh well. Only 27 days to go!

I went to the farm this weekend for a bachelor party of sorts and to check out the hunting conditions and areas. The place is covered up with rabbits. I saw them everywhere. The lanes we cut earlier this year were looking perfect.

The cabins on the other hand were a wreck. The big cabin (basically a 3 room house) was filthy. The toilet has...

woodies with a plus

feeds@yuku.com (vanckirby) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:15:42 GMT

got my two woodies today. went to pick up the first one and he had a little surprise for me :)

Quick Trip

feeds@yuku.com (patf) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:03:57 GMT

We had a cold front stall here in Southeast Texas bringing a few days of rain. I drove down to the dove fields yesterday and never got out of the truck due to the steady rain but did see a few birds at one of the fields. This morning the rain stopped so I headed out even though I only had a couple hours to hunt. I started out 0 for 3 then hit 3 in a row. I wish I could have stayed later, there were a good number of birds feeding on dove weed in the pasture next door. I think it would...

The night before a duck hunt

feeds@yuku.com (irish snipe) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:39:09 GMT

Here I am at 11pm trying to sleep because I know I have to be up at 4am to travel the 100 miles home to go on my first duck and goose hunt of the season. Any other night and I would be fighting to stay awake but after watching countless video clips of my quarry on the net I worked myself in to such a frenzy that sleep seems impossible! I'm gonna hunt a new spot that I haven't been to before, I'm told it has a fair number of widgeon on it and there will always be our home grown...

South Zone Dove

feeds@yuku.com (patf) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:48:55 GMT

After missing the North/Central opener due to work, I was able to catch the South opener on Friday. I was hunting a milo field southwest of Houston near the town of El Campo and the birds were thick. I ended up with a limit of morning dove plus one eurasian collared dove well before lunch. I was told the fields closer to the town of El Campo were producing limits of whitewings with no morning doves to speak of. It seems that when the whitewings move into an area they tend to push out the...

11-foot, 500-pound beast

feeds@yuku.com (DLFL) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:36:18 GMT