Bwana
Well-known member
Last Sunday my boys were able to take there first ever swans after donning a pair of waders and sneaking into a slough holding some birds. http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=248648
This past weekend it was my turn.
Friday morning I went looking for some swans and found some in the same slough the boys had killed their's in, so I figured it was simply a matter of time before I killed my bird given I had came up with the plan that worked the weekend before. What I hadn't counted on was the perimeter of the slough being frozen. Thanks to the sound of cracking ice, I ended up scaring the flock away before I could get within shotgun range. Was bummed for a bit but then was off to find some more white beasties to hunt.
I located a large flock on another partially frozen slough and decided to try again. This time I went into ultra-stealth mode while sneaking through a mix of small open patches of water separated by long stretched of ice.
The path to where I wanted to get to was about 250 yards long, with all of it but 50 yards worth being water of the frozen variety, some of which was so thick I had to sit on it to get it to break. It took me an hour to cover the 250 yards which got me to the edge of a screen of cattails but still left me 60 yards from the closest swan.
I waited in the reeds hoping a bird would move closer but it wasn't until another group of swans flew overhead, apparently saw me, and then sounded the alarm before that happened. When the alarm call went out the whole flock started "talking" which started off fairly quiet but kept getting louder and louder until the whole flock took to the air.
What a sight to see 100 or so swans taking flight all at the same time. As the birds got closer I picked out a large-fully white bird and told myself to concentrate on the head and not the huge body 3 feet behind the bill. At the shot from my trusty 870 the big bird folded as the 3" load of Black Cloud BBB's smacked him in the face. Even though the temperature was only in the mid-20's and I was standing in waist-deep water surrounded by ice, I was sweating from the combination of exertion caused by breaking ice and trying to keep my footing in the mucky bottom and the excitement of being so close to so many large, strikingly white birds.
Sorry for the crappy picture but had mom snap a quick one as it was getting to be time to leave to visit my soon to be 95 year old grandmother.
If a person had a place where it could be hung properly it would be sort of cool to get one mounted as if in flight but it would take up alot of room as the wingspan must be all of 8 feet. Just for giggles I called a guy I know who works at a well established taxidermy shop and he quoted me $1200 to mount one. Mine is going in the frying pan.
Anyway, just thought I would share my hunt as a swan isn't something everyone gets a chance to hunt.
This past weekend it was my turn.
Friday morning I went looking for some swans and found some in the same slough the boys had killed their's in, so I figured it was simply a matter of time before I killed my bird given I had came up with the plan that worked the weekend before. What I hadn't counted on was the perimeter of the slough being frozen. Thanks to the sound of cracking ice, I ended up scaring the flock away before I could get within shotgun range. Was bummed for a bit but then was off to find some more white beasties to hunt.
I located a large flock on another partially frozen slough and decided to try again. This time I went into ultra-stealth mode while sneaking through a mix of small open patches of water separated by long stretched of ice.
The path to where I wanted to get to was about 250 yards long, with all of it but 50 yards worth being water of the frozen variety, some of which was so thick I had to sit on it to get it to break. It took me an hour to cover the 250 yards which got me to the edge of a screen of cattails but still left me 60 yards from the closest swan.
I waited in the reeds hoping a bird would move closer but it wasn't until another group of swans flew overhead, apparently saw me, and then sounded the alarm before that happened. When the alarm call went out the whole flock started "talking" which started off fairly quiet but kept getting louder and louder until the whole flock took to the air.
What a sight to see 100 or so swans taking flight all at the same time. As the birds got closer I picked out a large-fully white bird and told myself to concentrate on the head and not the huge body 3 feet behind the bill. At the shot from my trusty 870 the big bird folded as the 3" load of Black Cloud BBB's smacked him in the face. Even though the temperature was only in the mid-20's and I was standing in waist-deep water surrounded by ice, I was sweating from the combination of exertion caused by breaking ice and trying to keep my footing in the mucky bottom and the excitement of being so close to so many large, strikingly white birds.
Sorry for the crappy picture but had mom snap a quick one as it was getting to be time to leave to visit my soon to be 95 year old grandmother.
If a person had a place where it could be hung properly it would be sort of cool to get one mounted as if in flight but it would take up alot of room as the wingspan must be all of 8 feet. Just for giggles I called a guy I know who works at a well established taxidermy shop and he quoted me $1200 to mount one. Mine is going in the frying pan.
Anyway, just thought I would share my hunt as a swan isn't something everyone gets a chance to hunt.
