Innholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2018 i Wildfowl

1 HUNTER: Jeff Puckett, Norman, OK BAND #: 1188-24284 SPECIES: Large Canada Goose (M) BANDED: 06/24/2 6 LOCATION: Ne Nashua, IA RECOVERED: 09/26/201 LOCATION: Near The Narrow , MB 2 HUNTER: Cliff Deverger, Quincy, IL BAND # 2097-27280 SPECIES: Lesser Snow Goose (M) BANDED: 08/06/2012 LOCATION: 25 km W Johnson Pt., NU RECOVERED: 03/05/2016 LOCATION: 3.1 m south Hull, IL 3 HUNTER: Ned Pyatt, Victoria , TX BAND #: 1155-46920 SPECIES: Blue-Winged Teal (D) BANDED: 08/18/2016 LOCATION: Near Edam, SK RECO ERED: 09/09/2017 LOCATION: 2.3 m E Cordele, TX 4 HUNTER Steve Warwick Wilmington NC BAND # 1008-73984 SPECIES Canada Goose (M) BANDED 06/22/2006 LOCATION 11 m N Clayton ON RECOVERED 01/ 27/2017 LOCATION 2.8 m SW Hampstead NC COMMENTS This was my two year old Lab Gunner’ first goose…

HERE IS TWO DAYS’ WORTH of good hunting near the Platte River, which cuts across Nebraska before finally dumping into the Missouri River. A migration route for centuries, these guys also picked up some prairie chickens and pheasants to add to a wall full of greenheads. From the guns used by the men on the ends it was probably in the 1920s. They are shooting early Winchester Model 12s. Called “The Perfect Repeater,” by Winchester it started as a 20-gauge known as the Model 1912, and just like its predecessor, the Winchester Model 1897, both were shortened to 97 and 12 respectively. The Model 97 was an exposed-hammer gun of John Moses Browning’s design, but the Model 12 was the brainchild of Winchester’s chief gun designer Thomas C. Johnson, and…

IF THERE IS ONE THING YOU can count on during an early-season, south Texas teal hunt, it’s mosquitoes, swarms of them. Even with a coating of bug spray and a ThermaCell hanging from the blind, the bloodsuckers still managed to find their way to exposed skin. So instead of scanning the dim skyline for blue-wings at first light, five of us were busy swatting, slapping and cursing teal-sized bugs as an eerie whine pierced the gray Texas sky. Millions of mosquitoes hovered around the blind. If there is one more thing you can count on during a September teal hunt, it’s that the little birds will catch you off guard. They always do. So when a f lock of blue-wings swooped up above the decoys just minutes after legal shooting…

I read the article titled “Public Land Time Bomb.” The article noted Montana has one of the best and most liberal water/stream access laws on record, which didn’t come easy. Having served as past Vice President, I’d like WF and its readership to know a group of volunteer curmudgeons known as the Public Land Water Access Association (PLWA/plwa. org) forged and defended the Montana Stream Access Law for nearly the last 20 years. While many groups are jumping on the public land/water access bandwagon, PLWA has and continues to be the dog in the fight, successfully protecting and defending access of Montana’s public lands and water. Unfortunately, the attempt to privatize public lands and water has escalated to a full on battle. I recommend your readers become involved in protecting…

NO. 47 Mike Bard of New York killed his 47th species of waterfowl—a cinnamon teal on the Great Salt Lake—last year to complete the North American Waterfowl Slam (shoot - ing every legal species of duck, goose, swan and crane). Bard killed his first duck—a woodie—in 1993, and a vast majority of the birds on the list were shot in his home state, though he has traveled far and wide to complete the slam, including a trip to Newfoundland for Borealis eider, a sub-species of common eider. After his cinna - mon, quick congrats were offered and the boys tucked back in to finish teal limits on the GSL. Well done! KEEP IT SAFE Every year duck hunters drown. The 2017-18 season claimed a few more, like a 22-year-old Arkansas…

JOHN VIAU LIVES in the rural village of Ormstown, Quebec, which lies on the main flyway for greater snow geese. Not surprisingly, the area is home to several outfitters specializing in snow geese, and even locals frequently use their services due to the massive decoy spreads necessary to lure in big flocks of wary white birds. Viau and buddy, Dave Wright, decided to forgo the guides and invest in two-dozen snow goose shells. “The first four hours proved to be a complete bust, even though the sky was filled with huge flocks of snow geese,” said Viau. “Two outfitters had setup within a five-mile radius of our position. They set over 1,000 decoys and were shooting large numbers of geese.” The pair was about to call it a day when…

A FLOCK OF black ducks winged over the marsh, their feet grazing the grass. As they banked, and quacked in response to the calls of a pair of hunters lying in wait. The birds set their wings to land; Duane Read and his sidekick, Spencer Davis, rose to shoot, leaving orange feet kicking above the dark belly and silver under-wings of a drake floating among the decoys. “I hunt mainly divers,” Read said. “I shoot lots of canvasbacks, redheads and scoters. Our puddle ducks are usually wood ducks, mallards, pintails, gadwalls, wigeon and teal. I also hunt Canada geese. None of them are as wary as a black duck. If you get a black duck to come in, you know your blind is doing what you created it to do.”…

THERE COULD BE NO BETTER way to ring in 2017 than standing in flooded timber awaiting a flight of January mallards, an opportunity to combine my love of shotguns with a duck hunter’s dream hunt. My partners, Bill Willroth of Dakota Decoys, Ricky Hart from Lucky Duck and Barton Ramsey of Southern Oak Kennels, were timber veterans. “You’ll know when you see the magic,” WILDFOWL editor Skip Knowles said when he called to invite me on the hunt. “There’s nothing quite like it, kiddo.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but eager to find out. Stuttgart, Arkansas, could be summed up with a welcome sign saying three things: welcome to the rice capital of the country, the duck hunting epicenter of the U.S. and one charming rural town. The economy…

WHEN YOU HAVE a boat and people need your help, you do what is necessary, no matter how miserable the conditions. So when Hurricane Harvey parked over the Houston area and dumped as much as five feet of rain, thousands of men and women didn’t give a second thought to walking away from jobs and families. They came from Louisiana and Arkansas and from just down the street, motoring high-dollar airboats and battered flat-bottoms through flooded neighborhoods for a single, simple purpose: to save lives. “When your neighbors need your help and you can help, you help,” says Richard Foley, a private land manager from southeast Texas. “My own home was fine and the land where I work was mostly under water, so I couldn’t do anything else. It was…

SNOW GOOSE HUNTING notwithstanding, spring has always been my least favorite season. It’s a smelly, wet, muddy time of year. And the surest signs of spring, budding plants, used to turn me into a runny-nosed bag of congestion. While I eventually outgrew seasonal allergies, many folks aren’t so lucky. And neither are dogs. Whether it’s pollen, food or even, god forbid, feathers, our retrievers can have adverse reactions to a slew of everyday encounters. Think your dog might have allergies? Here’s what to look for. SYMPTOMS GALORE Higher concentrations of pollen and mold when spring has sprung can have the same annoying impact on dogs as humans. Telltale signs are sneezing, snoring caused by an inflamed throat, and even itchy, running eyes that goop up. But they go beyond that.…

AFFINITY MEANS TO have a spontaneous or natural liking for something, and after shooting a few Canada geese with Franchi's Affinity 3, I see why how they named the gun: It’s an easy one to shoot and it shoots well. I took a trip to my gun club and checked the fit on the 16-yard patterning plate: spot on, just an inch high at 16, so I could always keep the bird above the barrel. If I didn’t like the fit, it came with a set of shims to adjust the drop and cast. A few clays verified it shot where I looked, and with light ⅞-ounce target loads running through like ants to sugar, three-inchers wouldn’t be a problem. Over the following weeks, I shot a variety of shells…

“THEY’RE STILL COMING, STAY down,” whispered Kyle Smith. “One more point and they’ll be right on top of us!” Hunkered below Kyle amid fallen yellow beach grass, I dared not move. Though I so wanted to see the captivating approach of the magnificent emperor geese, I didn’t want to be the one to blow things. “Here they come, get ready…” Sensing the excitement in Kyle’s voice, I knew the birds were close. My camera was on as I was hoping to capture the action. Through the blades of grass I could see Kyle’s hand firmly clutch his gun. When his finger slid toward the safety, I knew the birds were near. Kyle raised up, I simultaneously did the same. But there was no shot. Faster than either of us had…

THE THREE BIG CANVASBACK drakes soared in like cruise missiles from the left, rounding the corner of trees, catching our small group by surprise as they swooped and then lifted high, too far out at first anyway. Everyone hunkered a little too late, yet the birds circled three times and finished right in the kill hole, big mottled feet splayed toward the water. Crimson heads lined with black shone hard against their stark white bodies. Breathtaking. For all three it would be their last landing, and Gunner, the boisterous chocolate Lab, burst from the blind’s dog ramp at the command of his lifelong master, Addison Edmonds. The big chocolate broke the ice around shore more like a rambunctious 2-year-old than the 9-year-old warrior that has made many thousands of retrieves…

WHEN I WAS a young editor at the old Petersen Publishing in Los Angeles, I had a young springer spaniel. Alexis—“Lexie”—wasn’t always young but, sadly, she never got to grow old. We lost her when she was just seven… wish we had more time with her, but there’s never enough. Lexie arrived at LAX airport in a big crate, an extremely confused but absolutely gorgeous puppy with big feet and floppy ears. She was supposed to be special, and indeed she was; she came from Petersen’s HUNTING’s then-Gun Dog Editor David Michael Duffey, and he knew special. She was comfortable in the water and became more than passable at retrieving ducks, exactly the versatile dog I needed, close-working and relentless, flushing valley quail and pheasants, not bad at hunting dead…