Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

[Rick]

As far as trying to keep birds as pretty for the table as we can, what do y’all think about bigger or smaller shot size?

When they started making steel in small sizes for upland use, I tried 7s and 6s, both of which stoned head on and sideways birds but left too much steel in the bird for me. 5s are as small as I'm willing to go for our table, or the next fellow's.

[aunt betty]

As far as trying to keep birds as pretty for the table as we can, what do y’all think about bigger or smaller shot size?




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Good question.
IMO bigger shot with tighter choke.
That's crazy talk but...if you can aim and hit them in the head it's not.
Knockin' heads off.

#2's is what I use.
Not saying that I never ruin one but will say that it's rare and most often the breasts are un-touched ask my wife...lol
Rabbit huntin made me chute better. You want to head-shoot them too.
We eat a lot of ducks. Once you bite hard on a steel pellet you start thinking about "how can I avoid this?".
Lots of ways but if you shoot them in the head you're doing great. Good eatin'.

[Ericdc]

Considering bringing 2 guns this year and having one rigged for decoying ducks with 3’s and an open choke and the other loaded for ducks that hang up and specks with 1’s and a tighter choke. It would not be hard to do in my pit with the magnetic barrel holders we use to keep guns steady.


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[aunt betty]

I bring two guns but one is a spare, is an 870 wingmaster, and extreme last resort. I bet I'd forget to pump it. Maybe.

[Rick]

Considering bringing 2 guns this year and having one rigged for decoying ducks with 3’s and an open choke and the other loaded for ducks that hang up and specks with 1’s and a tighter choke. It would not be hard to do in my pit with the magnetic barrel holders we use to keep guns steady.

Doc Charles was famous for doing that - and often grabbing the wrong gun, anyway.

[Ericdc]

With the big road levee we have now we are thinking about driving to within 50 yards or so and not making tracks all the way to pit.


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[Ericdc]

For us, I noticed a big difference in how they acted last year in that big slick, too deep for most of the season bean field as opposed to the rice we had 2 years previously while having the pit brushed the exact same way.

Decoys and calling were, if anything better last year.

I just think the decoys look a lot better in the rice stubble than super slick water.

So I’m excited about having some stubble again this fall, and with the field releveled we should be able to get the water depth right.


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[SpinnerMan]

I think it’s almost impossible to get specks close with tracks in sight right up too or beside the blind,but that’s me.

I don’t think it matters too much on ducks but I am convinced geese see those ruts and know the drill

Here in the suburbs, when the geese have been here awhile, they avoid the middle of the fields and will be right next to the roads

I like the convenience of driving right up to the pit, but it sure looks like a sore thumb to me when everybody stops and turns around at the blind. I'd like it better if the tracks didn't stop at the blind, but drive right past it in a straight line.

[Rick]

I think it’s almost impossible to get specks close with tracks in sight right up too or beside the blind,but that’s me.

I don’t think it matters too much on ducks but I am convinced geese see those ruts and know the drill

Please, please tell that to the lazy boneheads Doug hires to do 4-wheeler donuts at and around our blinds. Like a necessary foot path on the levee, it's a whooooole lot better if a necessary track along the levee edge continues right on past the blind a goodly piece, but none of our 4-wheeling geniuses seem to have figured out that the specks would rather not go to places that look like the last however-many blew up when they did. Grrr...

[Rick]

For us, I noticed a big difference in how they acted last year in that big slick, too deep for most of the season bean field as opposed to the rice we had 2 years previously while having the pit brushed the exact same way.

Decoys and calling were, if anything better last year.

I just think the decoys look a lot better in the rice stubble than super slick water.

I think it's a lot easier for them to see a decoy for what it is on open water, clean finely plowed ground or a rye grass field than in a roughed up spot. In which cases I'm even more inclined than usual not to give them many to study.

Unless, of course, someone has a few hundred good full-bodies they want to haul in and out, so instead of dazzling 'em with our brilliance we can baffle 'em with our bull a' la the old white spread days.

[Ericdc]

Another issue in my area is the landscape, so much of it is plowed up in the fall and when flooded it’s just a big slick.

So, being that our farm does not plow the rice stubble up, when they say a few hundred acres of flooded rice stubble it must be pretty inviting to a speck.

16-17 was our most recent rice season and we roosted specks from the split in early December to February. We had a roost and a feed, it provided speck opportunities from dawn to noon.

The only specks we had get in our field last year would only go to the unflooded portion of our bean field and feed on the green sprouts. We were able to pull a few here and there, but we just didn’t seem as attractive to them as we were in the 2 previous years in rice. Harvest numbers proved that out too.

Like John always says, they are getting tougher each year though.




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[Ducaholic]

Considering bringing 2 guns this year and having one rigged for decoying ducks with 3’s and an open choke and the other loaded for ducks that hang up and specks with 1’s and a tighter choke. It would not be hard to do in my pit with the magnetic barrel holders we use to keep guns steady.


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Always bring 2. You hunt 20 times a year. No use in losing a good day to a malfunctioning gun.

[Ericdc]

Considering bringing 2 guns this year and having one rigged for decoying ducks with 3’s and an open choke and the other loaded for ducks that hang up and specks with 1’s and a tighter choke. It would not be hard to do in my pit with the magnetic barrel holders we use to keep guns steady.


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Always bring 2. You hunt 20 times a year. No use in losing a good day to a malfunctioning gun.

Fingers crossed but I bought my browning gold in 2004 and it’s never cost me a hunt, a misfire here and there with the Remington’s but other than that she’s been solid.

Until now, I didn’t have a 2nd one to bring.


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[Rick]

Gave up on sandblasting but finished pressure washing and wire-brushing all of the specks I plan to paint except the Deceptions I'm holding in reserve in case something goes sideways with the others. Well, those and the half dozen '04 or '05 Hardcores that are missing. Can't recall whether I loaned them out or they were "borrowed," but like so many others over the years, they apparently didn't make it home. Have found a lot of speck decoys named "Hall" in our blinds or left in the field between seasons...

Anyway, I'm running out of excuses to put the painting off. Well, other than that I'm still not very good at it.

But the observation I intended to post is that while looking through some GHGs to throw in for a little motion I came across one that is still holding nearly all of its paint, hasn't sun-bleached gray and wouldn't surrender any paint or color to pressure washer or wire brush. Pretty sure it must be a lost orphan I picked up in the field somewhere, so I don't know its date of origin, but if Avery had just done whatever they did to make that one right with all of their decoys, they'd own the market.

[Darren]

Gave up on sandblasting but finished pressure washing and wire-brushing all of the specks I plan to paint except the Deceptions I'm holding in reserve in case something goes sideways with the others. Well, those and the half dozen '04 or '05 Hardcores that are missing. Can't recall whether I loaned them out or they were "borrowed," but like so many others over the years, they apparently didn't make it home. Have found a lot of speck decoys named "Hall" in our blinds or left in the field between seasons...

Anyway, I'm running out of excuses to put the painting off. Well, other than that I'm still not very good at it.

But the observation I intended to post is that while looking through some GHGs to throw in for a little motion I came across one that is still holding nearly all of its paint, hasn't sun-bleached gray and wouldn't surrender any paint or color to pressure washer or wire brush. Pretty sure it must be a lost orphan I picked up in the field somewhere, so I don't know its date of origin, but if Avery had just done whatever they did to make that one right with all of their decoys, they'd own the market.

Via social media, Avery is teasing a number of new offerings for 2018, to be released next month. Decoy market is getting nuts, much the same as the high end acrylic call market. All a money game, as you all know, but I like new decoys

Until they flap, swim, walk and/or call on their own, I will continue to upgrade my dekes if I feel something new offers an advantage to be had. Feel like I've about reached that peak with most of mine though as far as realism, especially those Avian X grays I went with for last years marsh rig. In the field spread, its just a matter of replacement with old to new-er where funding allows.

[Rick]

Seems I waited a bit too long to check on my cane killing project, and the boathouse was as far as I got, as the boat we'd left for summer chores isn't going anywhere soon:

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Only reason my stall was looking a bit better was an alligator's use of it:

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Maybe hoping for our shed owl's scraps:

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Anyway, the good news was that it could have been worse and I was able to shore up the roof that I found threatening to crater - again.

That, and I found clear evidence of where we'd missed a nest by the gate last summer:

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And the summer before, it turned out when one of the wee ones swam for what safety "big" brother might afford:

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And the bad news being that reopening the prairie the mudhole must now be is going to be a serious grind. And poor Marsh Fire better start eating his Wheaties, because his is apt to be a season in the kind of sludge he thought Nonk Coyote's version of walking to school through five miles of deep snow and uphill both ways.

Just how the marsh is...

[Ericdc]

Things are getting dry down that way, up here too. Big rain about Wednesday before last probably is what is keeping our area white for now.


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[Rick]

We're in that NE corner of Cameron Parish shown to be normal, but they failed to notify the marsh of it. Don't know that I've ever seen it lower...

[Ericdc]

We're in that NE corner of Cameron Parish shown to be normal, but they failed to notify the marsh of it. Don't know that I've ever seen it lower...

Not on June 2nd probably


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[Rick]

Don't know that we'll see much rain before the combines hit the fields in late July. Always seems to rain when first crop harvest starts.

[Ericdc]

We got a good shower this morning ahead of our “cool front”. Supposed to 89 for a high today and a good north breeze followed by 60 in the morning.


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[aunt betty]

The past couple days have been nice after the May heat-wave.
Brace for impact. When that nice cool north breeze changes directions it's going to sting a little.
We're on day four of "the season".

[Rick]

We're in that NE corner of Cameron Parish shown to be normal, but they failed to notify the marsh of it. Don't know that I've ever seen it lower...

Not on June 2nd probably

Heard this morning, but couldn't fact check as record lows are "currently unavailable," that Grand Lake, which we're connected to, is the lowest its been in 14 years. Closest applicable gauge is over on the Mermentau River end of Lacassine Refuge and currently at 2.56ft. So I'll be watching for around 3' before trying for the mudhole again without an airboat.

[aunt betty]

Uh oh. Sounds like drought talk. You know how a drought ends right?

[Rick]

Usually when the guys are trying to cut their first rice crop. Hurricanes tend to wait for second crop.