Wildest Bird hunt stories

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   We all accumulate a few stories to tell through the years. I thought it would be nice to share a few.

While still in high school, a bunch of my buddies and I used to go
camping a bunch. Most of our group had been in the Boy Scouts together and three of us are Eagle Scouts including the guy who is central to this mess. We decided to make a duck hunt the following
morning of this trip, as it was cold enough to have iced over (not so
common in LA) and we thought it would be a good hunt. We had two
different spots. One was a 15 acre, but quite deep, pond with lots of
trees, logs, brush, etc., and the other was more of a grassy, shallow,
marsh area known for mallards. Both of these spots were just at the base of the Mississippi River levee, and the pond was bordered by a fence to the north, the other side of it being Arkansas. 
We had my 10 foot flat bottomed aluminum
boat for the pond. and had built a blind in the marsh area. Will and I went to the pond and had our limit in an
hour or so. The other guys struck out and had heard all of our shooting
so they came to investigate. 

I'll remind everyone now that we were all between 16 and 17 and still
bulletproof (aka stupid). There were no life jackets, flotation
devices, or good sense in the boat at all, but we all literally grew up on a lake
skiing and such, so this didn't concern us and the birds were still
flying so.... Two of us had hunted that little boat before, but three were leaving this
time. That's a load in a 10 ft. boat. My buddy Jamie was in the middle,
as he was the largest guy, and he later admitted that each time the
other two leaned to paddle, he saw a little water come over the sides.
To this day, nobody knows why he didn't find this an important item to
share. They made it to just about the deep part of things when he
yelled "we're going down". Since there had been no warning, this new
fact was a shock to everyone but Jamie. Will and I were on the bank and
watched the whole thing. I had never personally witnessed a boat sink before. Seen a canoe flip? sure, boat completely filled with water? nope. George, Jeffery and Jamie finally make it the
twenty or thirty yards back to the bank, soaked to the bone, and Jamie
asks where his gun is.

Being the good friends that we were, I stripped down and made a few
dives for his gun myself. I also had to retrieve my dad's boat after all. Remember that this water is covered by a thin
sheet of ice. It took my boys about three days to warm up and
reappear. LOL And that is how I wound up in a truck full of grown boys
all stripped down to our underwear with the heater going full blast.

We wound up borrowing a large magnet and going back that afternoon. We
did get his gun. It was twenty feet down, and he claimed that he'd
handed it off to Jeffery when he bailed. We still don't know why he
expected someone else to carry his gun.

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daniel77 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List .22 LongRifle Joined: 08 May 2009 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 43	Post Options Post Reply Quote daniel77 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Wildest Bird hunt stories Posted: 16 February 2010 at 04:18
	We all accumulate a few stories to tell through the years. I thought it would be nice to share a few. While still in high school, a bunch of my buddies and I used to go camping a bunch. Most of our group had been in the Boy Scouts together and three of us are Eagle Scouts including the guy who is central to this mess. We decided to make a duck hunt the following morning of this trip, as it was cold enough to have iced over (not so common in LA) and we thought it would be a good hunt. We had two different spots. One was a 15 acre, but quite deep, pond with lots of trees, logs, brush, etc., and the other was more of a grassy, shallow, marsh area known for mallards. Both of these spots were just at the base of the Mississippi River levee, and the pond was bordered by a fence to the north, the other side of it being Arkansas. We had my 10 foot flat bottomed aluminum boat for the pond. and had built a blind in the marsh area. Will and I went to the pond and had our limit in an hour or so. The other guys struck out and had heard all of our shooting so they came to investigate. I'll remind everyone now that we were all between 16 and 17 and still bulletproof (aka stupid). There were no life jackets, flotation devices, or good sense in the boat at all, but we all literally grew up on a lake skiing and such, so this didn't concern us and the birds were still flying so.... Two of us had hunted that little boat before, but three were leaving this time. That's a load in a 10 ft. boat. My buddy Jamie was in the middle, as he was the largest guy, and he later admitted that each time the other two leaned to paddle, he saw a little water come over the sides. To this day, nobody knows why he didn't find this an important item to share. They made it to just about the deep part of things when he yelled "we're going down". Since there had been no warning, this new fact was a shock to everyone but Jamie. Will and I were on the bank and watched the whole thing. I had never personally witnessed a boat sink before. Seen a canoe flip? sure, boat completely filled with water? nope. George, Jeffery and Jamie finally make it the twenty or thirty yards back to the bank, soaked to the bone, and Jamie asks where his gun is. Being the good friends that we were, I stripped down and made a few dives for his gun myself. I also had to retrieve my dad's boat after all. Remember that this water is covered by a thin sheet of ice. It took my boys about three days to warm up and reappear. LOL And that is how I wound up in a truck full of grown boys all stripped down to our underwear with the heater going full blast. We wound up borrowing a large magnet and going back that afternoon. We did get his gun. It was twenty feet down, and he claimed that he'd handed it off to Jeffery when he bailed. We still don't know why he expected someone else to carry his gun.
	Am I gonna have to shoot that for you?

Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Guest	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 February 2010 at 07:41
	On a duck hunt in my 10.5 foot john boat the morning shooting was good. First duck I shot has a greenhead mallard, then a hen, so my mallard limit was over. At 7:30, I picked up the two mallards threw them in the bow and picked up 2 dozen deks, mallards. And reset the set for some divers and maybe some woodies. At 10 some woodies started to fly and soon i had two drake wood ducks, also tossed into the bow and my limit was full, so I rowed out and started picking up deks and straightening lines. As I pushed the pile of birds aside and grabbed the mallard decoy bag that was half full from the morning, that "dead" drake mallard took off and flew straight up circled one and highballed it out of there before I could load my wingmaster. Must have just knocked him unconscious??? Had to reset decoys, camo boat and wait for the evening flight to get my last bird.......I can still see that mallard flying away and my surprise.

crazy2medic Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List .375 Holland & Holland Magnum Joined: 22 November 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 722	Post Options Post Reply Quote crazy2medic Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 February 2010 at 11:21
	We were Dove hunting west Wichita Falls Tx, on a ranch called the Swenson, Myself (I was 15yo) My Dad, my Uncle J.D., friend of my Dad's, and his two 20 something yo boys. We had lined ourselves up along a dry wash creek below a big pond, the birds were using this as a flyway to water, This was getting all of us some good shooting! I was the first one that would get a shot, then my Dad, my uncle, and Richard and his two boys were spread out about 30yds apart at the base of the Dam, This one dove came in, I took a shot, as soon as I did this Bird tucked his wings, rolled like a fighter jet towards the ground, about 6ft above the ground wings came back out and he started pumping them as hard as he could! he shot past my dad and my dad emptied his 1100, my Uncle emptied his winchester, and Richard and his boys all emptied their shotguns! this bird stayed no more than 6ft above the ground the entire time,when he was at the dam he climbed it staying just above the ground, the instant he cleared the top of the dam, he climbed straight up! well out of shotgun range! and just kept going! To this day I believe that bird survived bird season!
	Teach the children quietly, for someday sons and daughters will rise up and fight while we stood still

Irish Bird Dog Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List .416 Rigby Too many Joined: 01 March 2009 Location: Midwest Status: Offline Points: 5574	Post Options Post Reply Quote Irish Bird Dog Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 February 2010 at 15:32
	A couple years back I was down on the Mississippi river backwaters for opening day of duck season here in WI & MN with my hunting partner and my dog Molly. Across from the MN town of Wabasha, where the movie (or parts of it) "Grumpy Old Men" was filmed. So, come first morning we were heading out at o'dark thirty to our hunting spot. We each had a 12ft jon boat and motor loaded with dekes plus I had Molly my golden retreiver. With me n Molly and all those dekes we had quite a load in that light weight jon boat, good thing we was using steel shot cuz that many lead shot shells mighta put us down to the gunnels & Hevi-Shot woulda swamped us sure. It was very windy and there were whitecaps on the water, south wind but that was good cuz we was heading north once we got out to the channel area of the backwater. But first we had to go at a slight angle to the waves to get out there. My partner went first & me n Molly followed his light. It is extremely weedy there and the props kept getting fouled so you had to tip the motor up and "shake" the weeds free and drop it back and keep going about every couple hundred yards. Sounds easy right? Well it was 'til my motor quit at one of those shake times......turns out it was flooded but more on that later. Now there was no time to fiddle cuz that damn wind kept turning me n Molly and that little 12ft jon boat sideways to the waves...I could just envision getting swamped by those whitecaps....not a good feeling in the dark. Mean time my partner is plodding along thinking the light he sees behind him is me n Molly coming along.....not so....it was other duck hunters heading out too. It was scary and I buckled up my life vest between pushing on the oars from the back seat and told Molly to lay down low and hang on. I had to fight the waves but not too hard once I got her turned with the wind and it was pushing us in the right direction at least. Well as I was cursing my partner for not coming back to help me I kept rowing and getting madder. He finally does come back but now it is getting near daylight but he gets there and I hook a line to his boat and he tows us to the spot. Now we are late setting out our spread but it worked out. We got ducks all day long. Now what happened to that motor? Well it was a Mercury 3.6hp pack motor. It had only forward and was always in gear. So to go in reverse you just turned the whole thing around 180* and that was that. Anyway, it turns out that when you tip that motor UP the carb floods cuz the tank is built in on the top. That's what I did was flood it by tipping it up in the forward position when I was deweeding the prop. It worked a couple times but the last time I musta had it up too long. It ended well as it turned out but for a bit there me n Molly thought we was gunna maybe get dunked in the dark waters of the Mississippi backwaters that dark morning. Not a good thought! Edited by Irish Bird Dog
	Irish Bird Dog NRA Life/Endowment 2nd Amendment Supporter