My sister and her family came to my parents' for the second half of of the Christmas/New years break. My brother in law isn't a hunter so the only time her kids get to experience hunting is when they come to visit. I spent the remainder of my vacation time to go home for the holidays and I'm glad I did for many reasons. Here is one of them....
My family's property is upland piney wood hills but there are a lot of cow ponds that will hold wood ducks and mergansers. Since we sold the dairy cows one of the ponds has grown thick with willow trees. Makes it difficult to hunt but the ducks love it. My first hunting trip with Micah on that pond we set up on a small opening on the east side. There was probably 40ish wood ducks on the pond, but none offered a shot for him through the trees. My dad walked on the west side of the pond hoping to push some our way. Long story short I can't wait until he gets another year or two under his belt and can quickly throw down on a duck flying or even swimming about to fly. After most of the ducks few off there were a couple stragglers. He made two shots but was way off target.
After seeing how the ducks were moving I cut a lot of willow trees out in the pond to make shooting lanes. Even while running a saw in the water more ducks were trying to come in, but he needed to relearn how to shot before hunting again. He burned a half box of shells while I kept throwing cans on the ground. A few corrections and reminders about form and holding his gun up through the shot and he was hitting everything I threw.
We set up that afternoon and shortly after 6 woodies landed perfectly in one of the shooting lanes I cut. One shot and one dead duck.
The next day we hunted again. A single merganser flew in. He picked his gun but I made him wait until it swam in an opening. I looked at his body and noticed the stock of the gun high on his shoulder. A quick adjustment, and by then the duck was clear. The shot was good but I was unsure if the duck was dead dead. He was excited but I was trying to look through the trees if I could see the duck. He stops me and says there another that fly in. I didn't even see it, but I gave him the gun. Another shot and another dead duck. The second duck was a green wing teal, and only the 3rd time in my life time I've seen one in this area so that was pretty cool.
He hunted with my dad yesterday and got another hen wood duck. I think he's finally getting the hang of it. The last pick was of the ride back to the house after he shot the two ducks. He was a little cold.
My family's property is upland piney wood hills but there are a lot of cow ponds that will hold wood ducks and mergansers. Since we sold the dairy cows one of the ponds has grown thick with willow trees. Makes it difficult to hunt but the ducks love it. My first hunting trip with Micah on that pond we set up on a small opening on the east side. There was probably 40ish wood ducks on the pond, but none offered a shot for him through the trees. My dad walked on the west side of the pond hoping to push some our way. Long story short I can't wait until he gets another year or two under his belt and can quickly throw down on a duck flying or even swimming about to fly. After most of the ducks few off there were a couple stragglers. He made two shots but was way off target.
After seeing how the ducks were moving I cut a lot of willow trees out in the pond to make shooting lanes. Even while running a saw in the water more ducks were trying to come in, but he needed to relearn how to shot before hunting again. He burned a half box of shells while I kept throwing cans on the ground. A few corrections and reminders about form and holding his gun up through the shot and he was hitting everything I threw.
We set up that afternoon and shortly after 6 woodies landed perfectly in one of the shooting lanes I cut. One shot and one dead duck.
The next day we hunted again. A single merganser flew in. He picked his gun but I made him wait until it swam in an opening. I looked at his body and noticed the stock of the gun high on his shoulder. A quick adjustment, and by then the duck was clear. The shot was good but I was unsure if the duck was dead dead. He was excited but I was trying to look through the trees if I could see the duck. He stops me and says there another that fly in. I didn't even see it, but I gave him the gun. Another shot and another dead duck. The second duck was a green wing teal, and only the 3rd time in my life time I've seen one in this area so that was pretty cool.
He hunted with my dad yesterday and got another hen wood duck. I think he's finally getting the hang of it. The last pick was of the ride back to the house after he shot the two ducks. He was a little cold.
