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Bible Study Verse
Joshua 24:15
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (NKJV)

Thoughts
I finished setting up my things in my tree stand just before the woods awakened to the daylight. I grunted using my grunt call, rattled my rattle bag, and only had to wait a few seconds. He seemed to just materialize out of the dimly lit woods. He walked in my direction seeking out my calling. I could make out his rack as he moved closer. He proudly wore four points on his narrow antlers. As far as he was concerned, he was the biggest deer in the woods. At this point, he was. I enjoyed watching this deer as he couldn’t find the other deer and as he walked off. I chose to let him walk away. I told a teenager about this encounter and he shared, “I wouldn’t have let him walk.” The joy of hunting is that a trophy is an individual’s choice. ((Dennis W.)

Action Point
We have many choices in life. We face simple choices like how you like your coffee, to more difficult choices like which house to buy. In our spiritual life, we face choices every day. Will we feed our sinful desires or will we follow the righteousness of God? Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will follow the Lord.”

Sportsmen’s Tip of the Day
Of all the hunting paraphernalia you could carry into the woods, take a grunt call. Calls are small and simple to use. When you see a deer, you have a natural sound to hopefully turn that deer toward you

In North Carolina swan hunting has been a tradition and a pastime for years. Each winter as the migration occurs and birds move south thousands of tundra swans make their way to North Carolina. These swans migrate to many fields, ponds, impoundments, and refuges along the NC coast giving waterfowlers the opportunity to harvest one of these glorious birds. Each year the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission gives out 5000 permits, this year I was fortunate enough to be drawn and lucky enough to harvest my first swan.

Duck hunters are a completely different breed, whether it be sleep deprivation or hunger, nothing will stop them from accomplishing another day in the field. With little sleep, 3 am came fast on January 17th as I headed to Washington County to meet a few friends for our hunt. Once I met up with them around 5:45 we headed to a private field close to the Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge to try to fill our swan tags for the year. Arriving around 6:00 am in a bitter 9 degrees we head for the ditch to set up and await our shot at a tundra swan and maybe even a shot at a snow goose or two. We got settled in the ditch and one of the guys realized he had forgotten to put his plug in so away he runs back to the truck and made it back with 20 minutes to spare. As legal shooting time slowly got closer we had the opportunity to watch thousands upon thousands of snow geese make their morning trek across the sky. Next in line were a few swans and ducks in numbers that would make your head spin. Shortly thereafter the swans started to fly and were flying strong. Throughout the morning there was a stream of swans that seemed never ending as they continued to make their way across the sky and giving us the opportunity of filling each of our tags. By 7:30 am we had filled 2 of the 5 tags in the ditch and the swans continued to come. A single swan is headed our way, it’s my turn, I wait for him to get close enough and BOOM, down he goes. It was bitter sweet for me as it was only one shot but unreal as I held a bird many in the US will never have an opportunity to harvest. As we sit waiting to fill the last two tags we notice a snow goose closing in fast and much to our surprise in the decoys he lands. Two of us decide to sneak down the ditch and get as close as possible, as we get close we noticed he is preening himself paying us no mind. We hop out of the ditch to try and jump him and he doesn’t move, finally he jumps and we take him. In one day I harvest not only my first swan but also my first snow goose, UNREAL! By 9:30 am there had been a few misses, some guns that did not want to cooperate, more birds then you can count, and 4 of the 5 tags filled. Finally, the last tag was filled but it wasn’t over head. The swan was hit prior and we never saw him go down in the field. As we sat waiting for the one last swan we notice a swan about 600 yards out in the field and we knew it was the one that had gotten hit that we never saw drop. We gathered our things and head to the truck to drop some things off and head to the injured swan. The last swan tag was now filled and another awesome hunt to tell about for years to come. What a great way to spend a January morning. There is nothing like hunting with friends, meeting new friends, a few “firsts”, and all in all a hunt I will never forget.

http://www.ncducks.com/ncducksraffle.html

NCDucks.com is having an anniversary raffle for a Remington 870, the link is posted above however if you

are not registered please contact me about getting your tickets and we will get you in for this great gun!

Well here is the latest from waterfowler.com and it may look good for us as well. As many of you know the season starts Saturday and there is a cold front moving in as we speak! Looks like the Deer and Duck hunting will be unbelievable the next few weeks, hope you have some vacation time!

MIGRATION ALERT - November 6, 2007

A cold front dropping down out of Canada has waterfowl on the move in the
northern portions of the Pacific, Central and Mississippi Flyways.   Reports
from North Dakota stated waves of mallards were on the move throughout the
state on November 5th.  

As the cold front moves eastward over the next 72 hours, WFC members are
encouraged to monitor and participate in the WFC field reports to aid in
tracking this major migration event.

For the latest state-by-state waterfowl information, visit Waterfolwer.com
today at:

http://www.waterfowler.com

As some of you may have heard already on October 10th Avery Outdoors lost well known pro staffer Josh Leger in a tragic accident. Here is the tribute to him directly from the Avery Outdoors website at www.averyoutdoors.com. If you get a chance go take a look at the slide show at the bottom of the tribute! Rest in peace Josh!

 

The Last Migration…A Tribute to Jocelyn “Josh” Leger

By Mathieu Bouthillette & Hugues Leblond

The Last Migration…

For the past 25 years, Josh Leger had lived one migration at a time. It started as a 15 year old when a friend and his friend’s father took them hunting and as so often happens after one’s first experience with waterfowling; Josh became hooked right away. He got a duck boat before he even could afford a car to tow it around. Since then, he has been out fishing and hunting at every opportunity. Being a man of passion, Josh would not leave it at simple outings. Waterfowl hunting soon became a way of life and filled every aspect of his daily existence. Before long, he wanted to share what he had learned in the field with the people around him, and that group of people grew larger everyday. He was a charismatic man who was eager to get people excited about all types of hunting and fishing, but it was waterfowl hunting that really made the fires within Josh burn. Whether it was blind concealment, scouting, decoy spread tactics, calling or dog training and handling; he mastered every aspect of this hunt, and it wasn’t long before he was asked to share his thoughts and observations in magazines, web sites, forums, DVDs and as an industry Pro-Staffer. His opinion was so valued that when the Destination X film crew produced their first DVD, we sought (aside from our own team) one man’s approval only: Big Josh’s.

You had to have met him to know how contagious his enthusiasm was. He even managed to include his passion for dogs in his line of work, (or was it the opposite?) Jocelyn trained and handled dogs for customs and police corps in Québec and he was damn good at it. Spuds, Bibi, Brutus and Soya will have been the last of a long line of dogs with whom Jocelyn will have shared his passion and career.

Jocelyn was most content when his house was filled with friends. Every occasion was a good reason to have a BBQ or diner. He had many friends and he helped out anyone who needed it without seeking anything in return. I guess I realised we had become good friends when one day he needed help and he turned to me. If I had to guess if Jocelyn had regrets, I would say he regretted the fact he never had any children to pass his passion on to. I don’t know if he ever realised it, but we all inherited his passion and his love for waterfowl hunting. Seeing now how his death has touched us all and brought us together, it makes me realise he made us all into one big family and that he his engaging human nature will live in all of us who were touched by his life.

He spent most of his life promoting ethical hunting method and stood firmly against crawlers. The tragic irony in the fact that one of them caused his death is unbearable. On October 10, 2007 at around 4:00 pm, a man saw Jocelyn’s spread of decoys and thought they were real snow geese. The man stepped out of his car and shot one round of a .22 rifle from about 400 feet into the spread. He hit Jocelyn in the head.

Jocelyn was taken off the respirator at 11:00 pm on October 10 th , 2007. We are all in mourning of a great man, a great hunter, a great mentor and a great friend. He will be missed. We can find a slim consolation in knowing he did what he liked best, surrounded by good friends, but never again will the sound of geese echo the same memories in our minds, for, from now on, his memory will be at the forefront of every flight of migrating birds that announce the upcoming hunting seasons.

For those of you who have not heard yet Ducks Unlimited will have a Waterfowl Hunters Party in Laurinburg, NC on November 3rd.  Here are the details.
Saturday November 3rd 2-5 PM at Wallace Lodge Aberdeen Rd Laurinburg, NC

Prizes Include:

60 Dozen Avery decoys
Guns by Benelli, Ruger and Remington
Field Blinds
Blind Bags
Gun Cases
Decoy Bags
And Much, much more!!

Tickets $25.00 per person includes DU membership,food, beer.
1st 25 people to purchase Sportsman’s Raffle Package will recieve a dozen decoys.

Wear Camo clothing and recieve a free raffle ticket

Pre-sell tickets only
No tickets will be sold at the door
Call 252-425-1842 or online at  http://www.ducks.org/states/50/events/event13225.html

This is the only 1 that will be held in this area.
Fun and different. This isn’t your usual DU event.

It seems some coastal impoundments may not be wet enough either!  WE NEED SOME RAIN!

Coastal Waterfowl Impoundments May Remain Dry

RALEIGH, N.C. (Sept. 27, 2007) – Due to severe drought conditions, some coastal waterfowl impoundments may lack adequate water levels for hunting, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

Most impoundments are filled by pumping water from adjacent sources, but this approach may not be an option unless the Coastal area receives significant rainfall in the coming weeks.

All impoundments on the Roanoke River Wetlands Game Land currently are unable to be flooded and will be dry during early season hunting.

The following may also lack sufficient water sources to flood completely: Lodge Road Impoundment and portions of the Greentree Impoundments on Holly Shelter Game Land, parts of the J. Morgan Futch Impoundment, and much of the rainfall-dependant Parker Farm, which is part of the Goose Creek Game Land.

Many of these locations offer randomly drawn special permit hunts, which require a $5 application fee per entry. While the drawings will still take place, applicants should understand that drought conditions may negatively impact hunting opportunities.

To learn more about the Commission, or other waterfowl hunting opportunities, visit www.ncwildlife.org.

Well it looks as if this dry spell has affected us again!  Hope we see some rain soon!

RALEIGH, N.C. (Sept. 20, 2007) – Due to severe drought conditions, the waterfowl impoundments at Butner Falls of Neuse Game Land may remain completely dry this fall, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

The impoundments are typically filled by pumping water from adjacent creeks, but the Commission is not planning to do so this year unless the area receives significant rainfall in the coming weeks.

The impoundments are open to waterfowl hunting through a randomly drawn special permit hunt, which requires a $5 application fee. Though the permit hunts remain available, prospects look dim for productive waterfowl habitat on Butner’s impoundments.

The permit drawing for Butner’s hunts takes place in early October. When those permits are mailed, the Commission will include updated information about water levels at the site.

Permit hunts are scheduled to take place beginning Nov. 10.

To learn more about the Commission, or other waterfowl hunting opportunities, visit www.ncwildlife.org.

Ducks Unlimited has launched one of the most impressive things I have seen yet…..

Ducks Unlimited launches online migration map

You can follow the ducks this season

Memphis, Tenn., Sept. 10, 2007 – As the fall hunting season approaches, there’s one question on the mind of every duck hunter:  Where are the ducks? Ducks Unlimited is now helping answer that question. This week, Ducks Unlimited launched the most comprehensive migration map on the Web today.

It’s online now at www.ducks.org/MigrationMap.

“This is a must have tool that duck and goose hunters will use. It’s a truly integrated migration map of the U.S. and Canada, so they can see where the ducks are during the migration season,” said Anthony Jones, Web manager for Ducks Unlimited. “For years, people have been asking for a comprehensive, interactive map like this. That’s exactly what we’re giving them – and then some.”

Migration map users can report on waterfowl numbers in their local areas or hunting locations. Visitors loading the map will see an aerial view of North America with real-time colored “markers” scattered across the map.

Each dot represents a user-submitted report with color-coded waterfowl concentrations. Hunters can click on any dot to view the detailed report and in some cases, view detailed aerial maps of their favorite hunting locations. They can even select which type of view they prefer – aerial, road or a hybrid view.

Users also can view migration patterns from two, five and 10 days back on the map.

“This allows hunters to not only see present activity levels, but also lets them know how birds are moving over time,” Jones said.

Users can also switch between different classifications of waterfowl, such as diving ducks, puddle ducks and geese.

“When a user submits a report, we ask them to classify the waterfowl they encountered. If they aren’t sure, we have a waterfowl ID section where they can identify a bird down to the species level,” said Jones.

As an added bonus, visitors to the migration map can also subscribe to a special service and receive instant email notifications when a report is posted to their favorite hunting location.

The migration map is available throughout the fall and winter months exclusively on the Ducks Unlimited Web site, www.ducks.org.

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 12 million acres conserved. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands – nature’s most productive ecosystem – and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.

MEDIA RESEARCH ALERT:

Contact: Laura Houseal
(901) 758-3764
lhouseal@ducks.org

Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about the migration map.