Chris_H

Well fellas, I couldn't be more disappointed. I've hunted hardcore for the past 3 days, with little success. It seems the only thing I'm seeing consistently is the game warden. I've been checked 3 times in 3 days.

Opening morning was the best so far... We saw nothing short of 500 birds, just some were too high, some caught us off guard while we were reloading, we missed some, we hit some that flew off, etc....
I however did down one after 3 shots... I look to my left and see a lone drake wood duck. He lights into our spread, and I hit him before he made it into the spread. He kept flying and my buddy puts one on him. He shudders and starts to flare higher. He was pretty much in line with me flying away, and I put one more onhim that messed up his program. He dropped in the tall frozen marsh grass, which was surrounded by woods. Needless to say, after a lot of looking, unfortunately he wasn't found. We shot and hit a lot more ducks, but for some reason, our loads just weren't working. It sickens me to see a duck shot and watch it fly away injured.

I went out this morning with another buddy of mine, and no success again. We saw probably only about 20 woodies and only 2 mallards. At legal shooting time, the lake just exploded with shots. Shooting was steady for a good 30 minutes, and then it slowed down. We talked to some fellas on the way out. They were huntingpretty close to us; of course they had no luck either.

I'd love to add some points for Team 10 and just get a bird in the blind/boat. It might happen tomorrow morning at one of my better spots. Wish me luck fellas.

Bowman4440

Tough hunting man. Good luck. you will get em

buckhunter14

Keep it up Chris, early in the season for you. I have another picture to post later!

Chris_H

Thanks fellas.

The season ended sunday... It comes back in less than two weeks; Dec. 12. We've been seeing literally thousands of ringnecks and about a good 100 woodies everytime we go. That'll be the first day hole again... some of the pressure will be taken off during this little intermission. The ducks will work a lot better im hopin.

Lets see that picture buck!

buckhunter14

Hey Chris, I'm headed out right now to hit the lake. I hope she isn't froze over to bad. It dipped down to 23 last night, but the waves should have broken up the ice.


These are two Mallards from uhhh, around Thanksgiving. Beautiful Birds. Been hitting them pretty good, but only have till Saturday left in the season [:@].

SwampCollie

Thats why I stopped hunting in SC Chris. Lots of birds in lots of places we couldn't hunt... and lots of people with 3.5" shells trying to kill them 100 yards high. Its a very frustrating place to hunt unless you have a lot of money or are shooting released chicken mallards.

Chris_H

I couldn't have said it better myself. The solution to hunting areas you're not allowed to hunt is to hunt the navigable water that is close to it. A lot of people have this same thinking: most of those people are rubberheads and skybusters (ya know, the people that ride in front of your spread 5 minutes before shooting time, flush your ducks out of your spread, setup a hundred yards away from you and then throw steel at ducks working your spread [:@])

SwampCollie

Oh yeah... know it all too well. The spots that are on low approaches to impoundments aren't any big secret either.

I got tired of dropping ducks over the dykes and not even being able to send my dog to retreive them. I lost more birds in SC in two years of hunting than I think I have lost in all the other 20 I've been waterfowling... that includes VA, AR, MO, NC and MD.

Got tired of seeing red flannels shirtted rednecks in boston whalers trying to kill ducks.