Just a little Post Season Scouting.

Did a little scoutin for Duck season today.
And for anything else I might want to hunt for that matter. I always try to get some scouting in this time of year. Easy to get around through the woods, the ducks are still hanging around, and you can see water through the trees from far away.

Did not get pictures of them, but huge numbers of Pintails in Oklahoma. One flock so big I first thought they were Snow Geese. I did see some Snows flying towards Texas BTW. Probably to Hagerman. But they were coming from deep within Oklahoma and nothing close to the numbers a few weeks ago. I bet most have moved North already with this warm weather. I would not be surprised if some never made it to the coast before turning back.

Beaver Ponds and such.
I have quite a network of these things found all over the place, but I never seem to find time to hunt them. Some clearly fed by Springs and guaranteed to be around from year to year. Next season I need to just drive around from pond to pond then walk each up to jump ducks one day. These are two new ones. Waypoints just added to the topo map on my laptop. And I call myself a ludite.





This one here I knew about and never duck hunt it due to it's easy access, but I was very surprised to see it have water still. I may do a Crow hunt near it next week. Not much competition with that.



A Monster of a Tree I came up on at the edge of the River Bottoms. Don't know what kind it is. That is NOT some illusion created by making Blaze stand far behind it. She is actually beside the tree standing on one of the Roots. It's a BIG tree!



Blaze watching the Sunset.



I actually was headed to a place where I saw a Texas public land covey of Quail this year for that last ditch Quail hunt. But, something made me just keep on driving and I ended up in Oklahoma. Glad I did. A much more productive afternoon than looking for that needle in a haystack Quail. Thursday I should be back up there with okbowhunter for some Run & Gun Crow hunting.

February 26, 2009

The Crow that Broke my Nose!

 

You know sometimes, just sometimes the hunts where everything does not quite go right; are some of the most fun of hunts.

Texas Hunting Forum member Okbowhunter met up with me on the Texas side of the Big Lake and we headed to Oklahoma in my truck for a "Run and Gun" Crow hunt this day. Right off, my old retro Johnny Stewart caller was dead. I put new batteries in it last night, but it must have got turned on by accident when I put it in a carry bag. I had a backup homebrew caller made from a CD player, radio shack amp, and a small speaker. It is not as loud though and I was counting on the Johnny Stewart caller to help make up for the wind. It was just not loud enough to bring Crows from very far away. First set up we had one Crow come, not like what he saw and so became a distant Sentinel giving a constant warning call.

On the way to the next location we noticed there were several crows in an adjacent field. We set up for them. The day started with using several Crow decoys, two mechanical flapping crows, and an Owl. Crow decoys proved to be a problem. The Crows had obviously been hunted in the area. Ultimately we ended up using only my old Owl decoy and one small flapping wing decoy. As for things going wrong. My other flapping wing decoy made from an injured woodpecker predator decoy bit the dust and stopped working. My second decoy worked maybe half the time. Obviously another accidentally turned on, battery issue.



We did pick up a single Crow at the second location, but the next couple places we set up to call just did not work well. Way too much wind. We knew this going in with the realization that like fishing the best time to go hunting is "when you can". The backup caller just did not have enough volume and to make matters worse it started to have a problem with a speaker wire plug. So we found a country store with batteries and put the Johnny Stewart call back in gear. Crows where tough today. About the hardest Crow hunt I have been on. Each location we would have one or two come in initially and no more. Did not matter if the first Crow was hit or not, no more would ever come, so we had to keep moving.

Okbowhunter pointing out a Crow. Well not really. We are actually picking up. He noticed we had set up in a spot with trees that were too tall. The Crows where out of range when they came over. We stayed with the challenge and kept moving and eventually figured out a particular set up with particular cover that worked well.



Blaze on stand next to me.



Blaze really does not like to retrieve Crows even though I make her sometimes. But she really loves being on the hunt. With all the water retrieving she did this season, she got confused on one crow. We hunted over the Red River. I had placed her on stand about 30 yards behind me and when I shot a crow that fell back behind her, she insisted a bird was in the river as would have been normal for duck season. Other than that she did well today and had a lot of fun.



Crows are tough, really tough! We lost some today that sailed to far to retrieve. One was hit by both of us and did a forward flip before falling. We assumed it DRT. "dead right there". It was gone after that round of calling was over. Could not believe it. Another Crow also hit by both of us fell out of the Sky as dead. I had unplugged my Auto 5 and like a WWII Bofors Gunner on a Battleship I shot that Zero all the way to the Ground. Later we found it had hopped far across a sand bar and was at the waters edge. Okbowhunter shot at it a few times, but too far to take enough pellets to stop it. Then the Crow entered the River and began swimming to Texas. SWIMMING!



Ok, now I normally would not send Blaze to retrieve an injured Crow. They fight back. But Blaze was just dying watching the crow in the water. I never want any animal to have to suffer. And I felt it could not do much harm to Blaze if on water. So I told Blaze "go on". Besides, Blaze knows how Crows are and always does a double check on them before picking them up anyway. The Crow did turn in the water to face her and tried to stand it's ground. It was fun to watch.



Now I did end up calling her off with the Crow now floating closer to Oklahoma side again since it stopped swimming to face off with Blaze. So, I moved onto the sand bar, sent Blaze to my right away from the muzzle blast and shot the Crow "three" more times to finally kill it. Blaze reluctant at first, retrieved the Crow. I did also follow with some repeated retrieves on land to make sure there was no bad effects from her initial Crow stand off.



Today, we called tons of Vulchers during the Crow sessions. As well there were more than one kind of Hawk. Lots of Hawks visited us actually.



Ok, here is where something really went wrong. Today, I had missed some Crows, passed some shots I should not have because I waited on more crows to come that never showed. Had some sailers disappear over the trees. So this story was at the last stand. I was on my knees facing forward towards the Owl/flapping Crow. A Crow crossed around behind over my left shoulder. I am shooting an Auto 5 with the "hump". I twist to shoot this Crow determined to take it. I hit it. It drops a little, but keeps on keeping on. Okbowhunter hits it. It keeps on keeping on. Darn it, last hunt of the day, I am not letting this one get away! I am now twisted 200 degrees from forward on my knees. Gun low on my shoulder. Extremely difficult angle to shoot. BAMMM! Gun butt has slipped under my underarm. Hump hits me straight on the middle of my Nose. I see Black and Stars and let out a (A bad word). Okbowhunter yells "what's wrong, you got it!" I say "I'm Bleeding!". Okbowhunter starts to get up to see, I see a Crow and yell "No stay there, there is a Crow, I got a broken nose, its done, can't do anything about it, so lets kill Crows." Realize Blood is gushing out of and off my Nose as I crank up the caller again.



Okbowhunter made the comment. "At least you killed it with that shot. It would have been salt in the wound if you had missed". I agreed! We found the Crow off the ground wedged in some brush. BTW, my nose is straight. Though it feels broken, I don't think it actually is. But it is going to HURT tomorrow! As if it does not hurt as I type this. I'll live. In a way, it makes the hunt and will be talked about for years to come I am sure. Thank you okbowhunter for going. It was a hunt turned adventure.

May 12, 2009

Hot Dog with Ham

 

Had a fun filled couple of days. Headed to the lease with my dog Blaze for some Turkey hunting. I keep Blaze at my side and use her for a catch dog for any Turkeys I might shoot. The only legal bird we saw was beyond a herd of Hogs and would not respond to a call. There was a hen running with the hogs all morning which I thought odd. The young Jake eventually joined the hen and they both ran into the woods together.



So what is a man to do! Hunt hogs of course!

Hog #1 was actually shot earlier than the above picture. Walking a trail in thick brush on the creek, Blaze picked up a scent and started stalking. I followed through the brush directly behind her. We came up within 10 ft of two bedded hogs. One a small boar. Blaze made an offensive stance when the boar stood up but she ran no more than 5 ft and stopped. Me yelling NO NO NO might have had something to do with that. The little Boar got about 10 yards before I put a bullet in it's neck. We left it to keep roaming and calling for Turkeys.

That first picture above showing the Turkey with the Hogs... I did shoot one of those for Hog #2. When I moved to the edge of the field to try and figure something out on the Turkey, I inadvertently spooked the hogs. I dropped one with a nice off hand shot on a running Pig. Blaze just a spectator at my side during this.





Turkey hunting done for the day, we went back to Hog #1 for a picture. Guess what, it was gone! I watched this hog bleed out and take it's last agonal breath. Not a big hog, but not a baby either. Two years ago I shot a Spring Turkey with a rifle, walked up and shot it again with a shotgun. Deader than a door nail. Same thing. I left for 5 minutes, came back and it was gone. Like this hog, no drag marks, no blood trail, Nothing. Like it was plucked up and taken away. I don't know. Maybe we have a big Cat or something.
So no picture of that one.

Then to the creek for some fishing. Not a single channel cat caught was under 20 inches.






Late afternoon I packed up and changed cloths to head home. On the way out in the Truck I saw three Turkeys in the corner of our field. In street cloths, me and the dog jumped out with the rifle and my one last cartridge. I only had three with me this day. Turkeys turned out to be hens, but while I was on the edge of the field, Hogs poured in. I stopped counting at 30 mature hogs. As well as about 6 sets of piglets of various sizes. So easily over 100 animals. Due to the spontaneity of the moment, I did not have my camera. Fortunately Hogs are blind as a bat in distance so no big deal not wearing camo. We moved pecan tree to pecan tree into the field and set up for a long shot. Picked a hog, braced on the tree, aimed 10 inches left to adjust for a strong cross wind to the right. And to my surprise Hog #3 fell over with a squeal.



Coming back with the camera for the picture above, Blaze scented another in the brush and wanted to stalk it. She even pointed into the direction at one point as if it were a bird. I just told her "sorry baby, no more bullets" and brought her back to heal. We watched a Sow with piglets walk out right were Blaze had been. There were even more hogs entering back into the field when we left for home.

Next hunt I go back to try for a Turkey again. Then maybe another live game of Hog Halo. Taking some firepower next time too!

One last picture from the day.