First, go check out this post at the Outdoor Smorgasbord It looks like they were river hunting which is about all that’s left when it gets this cold. I’ve done that type of hunt a few times on The Kansas River in Northeast Kansas and on smaller rivers in Southern Missouri. The appeal is that you can get into some huge bunches and the ducks usually work pretty well. The downside is that it takes some serious equipment and, depending on the current, can be dangerous. When Riley was young she went after a cripple that was moving fast downstream. I had no boat and couldn’t have called her off if I wanted to. I was concerned that she might not be smart enough to go to the shore and walk back. If she hadn’t I suspect she’d have ended up lost on a gravel bar somewhere. In addition the bottom is uneven and can drop away without notice. Anyway, be careful and go with someone who’s experienced in this type of hunt if you aren’t.

The other option is what I did yesterday. Find a piece of water that the ducks have kept open. In this case it was a large irrigation lake. Even though it hadn’t been above freezing in days and it was 9 degrees when we got started there was still about 20 acres of open water. It’s amazing what thousands of ducks and geese can keep open. My only problem was that I couldn’t convince anyone else to go with me. I’d killed a limit of drakes in no time and I had to watch ducks pour in while I picked up. It was a good experience for Kodi who seemed to enjoy himself.
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Skinny Moose has added a couple of new voices to our growing network of blogs. I’ve already visited them both, and I suggest you do the same.

The Straight Shot is written by a hardcore bowhunter. He’s already got a few posts up that are worth reading and I expect more will be coming.

From the Stand is written by Anne, who runs a taxidermy shop along with her husband. She promises to gear her writing towards taxidermy, taxidermy school, women’s hunting issues, and youth hunting. I hope she’ll be including pictures of some of their work. I’m a sucker for big heads on the wall.

So swing by both places and say hi.

My Aunt sent me this link today. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an embed option so you need to follow the link, but it is seriously funny.

The Old Man and a member of our ill-fated journey to the artic north spent last weekend quail hunting in Southwest Texas with a friend who manages his land primarily for birds. Unfortunately the dry weather hurt their production and they only got into 8-10 coveys a day. So one evening they quit early and pig hunted.

We were sneaking into a mountain lake to do some float tube fishing for Brook Trout when we ran into this guy. No Booner but a very big buck for that area of Northern Washington. I took this picture in early August 2008 so I wonder if he’s on someone’s wall by now.

I’ve spoken with my friends in the safe and asked them to welcome the newest member of the family.


Hopefully everyone can get along. Our newest member is a custom 6.5×55 Mauser 96. The barrel and stock were added by Kimber of Oregon and the trigger is from unknown parts. The rifling is bright and the action is smooth and tight.

I’ve had my eye out for a smaller caliber for some time. I have nothing to bridge the gap between .270 and 22-250. I also have no reasonable option as a deer rifle to lend beginners, kids, or women. Until today my second choices were an open sighted sporter Springfield or a 300 Win Mag. While I’ve killed deer with both, neither is an ideal choice. Hopefully this gun will fill that role nicely. If it shoots as well as everyone tells me their 6.5s do it might even displace my custom Mauser 98 in .270 as the go-to deer rifle.

I hope to shoot it this weekend and I’ll let you know how it does.

Fellow Skinny Moose Blogger Mike Adams passed along this story:

Christopher Bearden, a 17 year old from Olla Louisiana shot two spotted fawns along with a doe on Oct. 19, 2008. He then took photos of his illegal gotten game on-line on his MySpace page for the whole world to see. Someone saw the photos and felt it should be reported to the proper authorities, that is when the Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries took over.

Incredible. The stupidity here is obvious, but think about this: He must have been proud of killing those fawns or he wouldn’t have posted the pictures. I wonder who taught him to hunt.

Read the whole thing here.

Want to see a trucker with a duck for a co-pilot? Follow this link to the piece at NBC. Konrad Lorenz would be proud.

I particularly like the theory that everyone would be happier if they had a pet duck. I’m not sure he’s wrong.

This is an interesting article studying the impact of human hunting on herd genetics. It’s not a new concept, nor is it particularly surprising, but it is food for thought.

The human tendency to seek large “trophies” appears to drive evolution much faster than hunting by other predators, which pick off the small and the weak, the researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Perhaps that half-wit farmer’s kid who’s always gut shooting our spikes and forks actually knows more than I ever suspected? I doubt it, but maybe.