Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Wildfowl

FLYWAY VETERAN 1 HUNTER: Robert Bawden, West Jordan, UT BAND # : 3617-25386 0*8 SPECIES: Black Brant (F) BANDED: 07/24/2000 LOCATION: 20 S Chevak, AK RECOVERED: 01/29/2017 LOCATION: 1.7m SSE Venustiana, Baja, Mexico 2 HUNTER: Jordan Risser, Elizabethtown, PA BAND #: 1078-63687 SPECIES: Canada Goose (F) BANDED: 08/08/2015 LOCATION: Near Puvirnituq, QC RECOVERED: 01/09/2017 LOCATION: 1.3m E Rheems, PA 3 HUNTER: Jordan Risser, Elizabethtown, PA BAND #: 1557-11781 SPECIES: Greater Snow Goose (M) BANDED: 08/10/2000 LOCATION: SW Bylot Island, NU RECOVERED: 03/25/2015 LOCATION: 1.6m ENE Rheems, PA 4 HUNTER: Jeff Schack, Redding, CA BAND #: 1707-46214 SPECIES: Greater White-fronted Goose (M) BANDED: 07/15/2007 LOCATION: 7m W Perry Island, NU RECOVERED: 09/20/2015 LOCATION: 5.7m NNW Prud’homme, SK 5 HUNTER: Jeff Schack, Redding, CA BAND #: 1937-64758 SPECIES: Lesser Snow Goose (F)…

THE BIG ORANGE-LEGGED mallard hung over our decoys. Bang! Damn, missed. Bang! Crap, missed again. Bang! Finally got ‘em. A dead mallard lay on the edge of the decoys, the gun was empty and three hulls were bobbing on the water—just what Mr. Browning had in mind. In 1903, John Moses Browning envisioned this scenario when he advertised his new long recoil-operated Automatic-5 that put, “Five Shots Under Your Finger.” The late Altey Langford of Elliott Island, Maryland, used a Remington Model 11—made under license from Browning—to hunt, and although market hunting was banned in the early 1900s, he estimated killing 10,000 ducks a year for a lifetime record of about 500,000! Such was the cry from conservationists about repeating shotguns, that on Feb. 2, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed…

And wouldn’t you know it? The Monday after the 2016 blue-winged teal season ended, a front pushed a huge wave of teal down! Blue-winged teal season is an excellent time to knock cobwebs out of the waders and add days to the season. It’s the perfect time to introduce youths and new hunters to duck hunting, too. The weather is warm and the best water is extremely shallow. Equipment needs are minimal, just a few decoys, hip-boots and a call really, but many of us use Mojos for good reason. Mississippi is a fly-over state for coastal marsh-bound blue-wings, we either have them during their ephemeral stop-overs or we don’t. The following reputable outfit- ters deliver excellent early teal hunting opportunities in September. Contact them or visit USHuntList.com for details.…

We managed only a few ill-placed shots as the teal ripped through muggy Missouri air. A SQUADRON OF GREEN-WING teal screamed past our decoys in the dark of early shooting light. Fast, like Mav buzzing the tower in “Top Gun.” The blind was a spacious dungeon, so well concealed with grasses and corn stalks that seeing birds was tough. Two Habitat Flats guides bookended four shooters and a photographer sandwiched in between, all of us trying to sneak peeks at working ducks without blowing the whole deal. We managed only a few ill-placed fleeting shots as the teal ripped through muggy Missouri air and showed us their tailfeathers. “OK, I’m done. You call it, Stan.” “No, no, way man. It’s all you. It’s your show.” The young guide had…

It was worth the long morning runs across the coastal bays for plumed-out pintails. South Texas: where dodging massive flocks of sprigs and redheads —and barges—is the norm THE EDGES OF THE GULF OF MEXICO ARE MAGICAL PLACES JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE THE great ocean basin touches land, from the Florida Keys and Cuba up to Venice, Louisiana, and west clear to Padre Island and on down south to the Yucatan. For waterfowlers, one the most intriguing sections is the salty piece of land near Port Aransas in the Lone Star State just north of Corpus Christi, where photographer Chip Laughton encountered un-Texas-like weather and staggering numbers of pintails and redheads while joining friends who have hunted out of Seadrift, Texas, for many years. He arrived during a…

For Love of ‘Fowl I took this shot of a beautiful hen mallard I thought would look great in your magazine. I entered it in the Chandler, Arizona, Nature Photo Contest in April and won best category and was the No. 1 overall winner. I am paralyzed from the shoulders down, and have a brace to hold my camera on a power wheelchair and hold the shutter cable in my mouth. Because I can’t use my hands to turn the camera, I shoot in landscape mode, and crop the photos later. Greg Wickenburg Chandler, AZ Hunting with Purpose I wanted to share with you the veterans goose and duck hunts the City of Anoka, Minnesota, sponsors Sept. 2 and 14, and Oct. 8 and 19. Federal Premium is also a…

WATERFOWLER WARREN BROWN’S trips to the Izembek Lagoon of Alaska’s Cold Bay are always special: encounters with brown bears, streams full of fish, weather extremes and hordes of Canada geese. Last year was particularly memorable. “Our first afternoon hunt was a bluebird day so we didn’t expect too much,” recalled Brown. But the tide was right and there was some bird movement, mostly brant, so he thought maybe there was a chance to shoot a few. The first group of brant that swung over the decoys offered an opportunity and Brown and his son, Matthew, connected on a pair. “Matthew fetched the birds up like a good dog and I could hear him chuckling on his way back,” said Brown. “First brant of the year and it’s double banded!” the…

I feel comfortable hunting in winds up to 30 mph, because the water is shallow. MICHAEL KLEINWOLTERINK LIVES IN Yale, Iowa, and works as the manager at Link’s Restaurant and Lounge at Lake Panorama National Resort in Panora. Working at a golf resort gives him plenty of time off in winter, allowing him to hunt waterfowl an incredible 80-plus days during the season. He is 35 years old and became a duck hunter when he was a senior in high school when his boss at the resort started taking him along. He loves his Beretta A400 and the durability and realism of Avian-X and GHG decoys, which are a mix of mallards, teal, pintails and wigeon. Michael sometimes employs two spinning-wing decoys and two homemade splashing decoys. Most of the…

MAXIMUM CONCEALMENT We love Max-5 for its versatility, because no matter where the ducks and geese go we can follow…and blend in. Filled with cattails, reeds, and grasses for the marsh; corn, wheat, oats and sunflowers for fields; and branches, twigs and leaves for flooded timber—it’s a go anywhere camo pattern that obliterates the human outline. realtree.com FEELIN' FROGGY Reinforced at the shins, knees, seat and crotch, the Grand Refuge breathables are a public-land hunter’s dream. The zippered chest pouch holds precious items, like MOJO remotes and tins of snuff. A fleece-lined pocket with diagonal zippers and 1,200-gram Thinsulate boots keep hands and feet toasty. Available in Mossy Oak Bottomland, which we are pleased has made a comeback in recent years—probably because it blends in just about anywhere. $250 |…

MARCH OF 1812 ARRIVED IN Tennessee and with it came the spring planting season. The man hitched his mules to a plow and drove the animals into action with a quick snap of the reins. His land lay to the east of the Mississippi River in what would become Dyer County a decade later. As the plow opened the earth in rows that would grow crops for the family’s survival, the man tired and decided a break was in order. He took his handkerchief from his pocket to clear the sweat from his brow. Just then, the earth moved. The mules were terrified as the ground shook. The man knew what it was after earthquakes had touched his land months before in December. But this one was different, much stronger…

I'm thinking of filling the other nine holes with cigars and hot pepper cheese goose sticks—should make for some interesting smells. I REMEMBER YEARS ago sneaking the Cabela's catalog into work, sitting at my desk thumbing through the latest and greatest duck gear. Ogling decoys and pricey auto-loaders, I would fantasize over bucket-list trips my buddies and I still haven't gone on, hoping the boss wasn't lurking. Of course, that's all made easier now with the advent of computers and the Internet, though they drove plenty of my favorite local sportsman's shops out of business. What a wretched injustice that was. The last time I went to a big box store, I asked a pimple-faced kid with his head buried in an iPhone where this year's best floaters were and…

"With the data we have, it's important to understand this isn't just about California." ON A TYPICAL day, Brad Womble has no trouble shooting two pintails. In fact, adding two drakes to his duck strap is almost a slam dunk. Starting this season, though, he and the rest of the country’s duck hunters will have to settle for just one pintail, thanks to a reduction in the daily bag limit starting this season. “There are a lot of unhappy people here,” says Womble, who hunts in the heart of California’s incredible pintail country. “They are some of the first birds to show up and they are the most common duck we see. They are always around, even when nothing else is flying. Some days, we only go because we know…

“SO, WOULD YOU like to schedule your dog to get neutered?” I glanced at the puppy quivering on the exam table and rose an eyebrow. “Well, I hadn’t thought about…” “You should really consider it if you’re not planning to breed him,” the vet tech continued. “Dogs can live longer if they’re neutered before one year of age.” “I’ll think about it,” I hesitated. Life expectancy or unplanned puppies were the furthest thing from my mind. I was much more concerned about him being up-to-date on shots and not soiling our new carpet. The tech stressed the urgency of the situation. I would have brushed it off, had I not been reminded during the next two visits. By that point I was sick of the sales pitch. I’d heard it…

RAILWAY LINES NOT only opened the west to travel and commerce, but also provided hunters a means to go to game-rich areas and stay there to shoot plenty of quarry. This bunch of sportsmen were hunting near Webster, South Dakota. The illustration appeared in Harper’s Weekly, which was that era’s national newspaper and Time Magazine. During the Civil War, Harper’s was a source of news of the great battles, and among the very first to be “illustrated” through the work of battlefield artists. Although photography was advancing, it is tough to tell whether this is a photo or an artist’s rendering of a photo or sketch, because the techniques of directly inserting photos into print may not have been possible in 1888. At any rate it was a great advertisement…

THERE IS A fine line between fun and frustration with your retriever the first few hunts of the season. It's easy to blame excited dogs, but like most behavior issues, the blame rests largely on our shoulders. After all, we take an animal that lives to hunt and subject it to rules and regulations we’ve created. This means that for much of the year, he’s not allowed to do what he was born for. Not in the truest sense, anyway. When he does get to hunt, it’s understandable that he’ll have a bit of trouble listening and paying attention. This is especially true with pups, teenagers, and even some middle-aged dogs. At our training facility, we try to give dogs plenty of first days. We create realistic hunting situations, so…

WORST. OPENER. EVER. THAT pretty much sums up last year’s Mississippi blue-winged teal kickoff. With my sons Forrest and Duncan, we went through the familiar motions of knocking dust off decoys, joining old friends at camp, oiling up the killing sticks, eating heaps of chicken-fried goodness like starved castaways, and drawing for high card at 5 a.m. sharp. It’s one of the most anticipated days of our year. But we strapped only two teal in as many mornings. Similar nearby reports provided little consolation. When Bart Haddad, owner of SWC Sportsman’s Lodge in Venice, Louisiana, called Sunday afternoon to say, “Come on down if you want, we’ll eat as good as always, but just warning you that it was the worst opener ever—only 11 teal brought in to the ramp…

“COVER UP GUYS, WE’VE GOT geese!” As the blind doors slammed closed, all eyes turned toward the sound of clucks and moans beyond the dam of the small pond we were hunting. All at once, the sounds turned to sights as the 12 geese locked their wings. I held my breath as they glided closer, knowing that if they were going to flare, it’d be now or never. Black feet extended downward. I simultaneously exhaled in relief and called the shot. My only fear at this point was not getting hit with the splashes as the dead birds hit the water 10 yards away. Scenes like this can often result from hunting Canada geese on small water. Strategies and setups vary depending on whether you’re running traffic or hunting the…