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Been slacking on posting the off-season activities but so it goes when little kids occupy most of my time.

Planted a few acres of browntop for the doves. Two fields two acres each. Don’t know if anyone here has purchased nitrogen this year but my goodness I had to take a seat when the local feed and seed owner told me the price per bag. Can’t imagine being a farmer this year (or any for that matter). No tilled behind a dose of roundup back in the spring. One field is looking good, but it looks like I misidentified a grass coming up in the other field as volunteer browntop. Don’t know what it is, but definitely not browntop. We’ll see how the “dubs” like it, as my little boy calls them.

Planted one (late) acre of Titan variety rice in the little woody hole. Conditions and other commitments kept me from getting it in the ground until July 8, so hopefully it has time to make. We’ll see. Next step will be to install a hot wire around the pond about 12” off the ground to hopefully fry some pig noses when the rice gets nice and ripe. The little tangle of morning glories out in the middle of the picture is where I intend to build the little platform blind to keep my little boy dry.

The planning and execution of that platform blind to share with your son sounds as good as any killin' that later takes place, though I sure hope there's plenty of that for yall as well.

Glad that you have a fix this year to keep those porkers out!
Good Times Ahead Dad

Thanks guys. I sure am looking forward to getting Beau out there. I sure hope he likes it as much as his old man does.

Made a trip up to spray roundup around the blind build area and drain valve Saturday. Morning glories were really taking off. Had to spot spray a couple areas out in the rice where we missed a streak or two with the selective herbicide. Morning glories are like cancer, if you let them get going they can take over the whole pond quickly. I don’t know if they emerged after our chemical application or if I didn’t mix my chemical dose hot enough for them. I noticed some that had died back on the ends but remained green at the stem.

Rice seems to have liked the nitrate.

Looking good.

What's the dimensions of that hole? Birds drop in from above or whiz through the trees?

You probably told us in a past year's preseason thread of the dimensions.

It’s a hair over an acre. About 80-90 yards across waters edge to waters edge. I’ve seen them do both, really depends on which direction they come from, but for the most part they’re closer to the tops of the trees then hit a gap and fall in. This allows for silhouetting when we’re out in the middle of the hole. Sitting on the edge, while more convenient, lends us to losing sight of them once they dip below the tree line just after shooting light. That didn’t used to bother me as much, but either age or staring at a computer screen daily, or both, has diminished my ability to see well in low light conditions noticeably over the last 5 years.

Surely a rush to see them fall in that hole, look forward to your blind build process (since we get to watch from afar and not do the work )

Haha I don’t expect it to be much of a to do (famous last words). Only plan to make it big enough for me, my boy, and sometimes Dad when the temp is just right for him. Not anchoring it in the ground so I can scoop it with the front end loader forks to get it out of the way for planting.

Duck Engr wrote:Haha I don’t expect it to be much of a to do (famous last words). Only plan to make it big enough for me, my boy, and sometimes Dad when the temp is just right for him. Not anchoring it in the ground so I can scoop it with the front end loader forks to get it out of the way for planting.

Hadn't thought of the mobile aspect of that but makes great sense, basically like a skid blind set up you could even move to the edges if you needed to hunt there. The build will be >50% of the enjoyment, lookin' forward to it.

While we’re discussin plans, I also plan to wait for it to cool off about 15-20 degrees before I tackle that.

I think I could probably get away with shootin doves off the power lines and have my dog retrieve them.
Put out a corn pile and wait.
Knock the squirrels out too.
Use the Gamo air rifle and knock holes in them.

A bag of black sunflower seeds and I'm rockin it.

I was rough on doves and any other bird in our neighborhood as a kid with a pellet gun. That wouldn’t fly today.

Me too!!!! We had a park nearby, with four baseball fields. Lawd, the doves i shot off those wires on rainy days, wooohoooooo good times!!!!!

Me2.
However if you tried saving a trophy feather my mom'd go bananas.
Think Lucy just got kissed by Snoopy again.
You're gunna die from touching a feather.


Six years later she had me picking ducks in the garage.

Made a midweek trip up to the farm yesterday to pull up hog trap T posts to re-use as hot wire posts around the rice in the duck pond. Have a neighbor who’s been having luck putting a single wire 8” off the ground and keeping them out of his 25 acre dove field. Midweek trip was made more urgent by the 5 pigs Beau and I observed strolling through the rice on Sunday. Asshats are early. Shouldn’t be in there for another 2 weeks! Plan to go back up tomorrow and get the hot wire installed.




Anyway, on the home front, I’ve been trying to get my prop off my godevil and it’s been a devil. Broke a harbor freight adjustable wrench so had to order the proper 1-7/16” wrench for the jam nut. Ended up having to put a 10’ cheater pipe over that wrench and stick an old combine tie rod through the prop. Finally got that bear removed tonight. That’s a load off my mind. Now I just hope I didn’t crack the prop shaft in the process.



It’s hot and sticky. I’m more excited to see August leave with each passing year.

To make it come off easy next time coat it with thick grease before you put it on. I broke 5 lugs off my gto.
An old guy told me to grease the lugnuts.
It works..

Yep. Antiseize will be liberally applied this go-round. Wish they’d have done that at the factory.

Duck Engr wrote:Yep. Antiseize will be liberally applied this go-round. Wish they’d have done that at the factory.

The way these things are "engineered" I'd suspect that using a stainless steel nut would be another precaution to take.

Existing nut is stainless, though it’s a nylon lock nut, so I’ll probably get another. The threaded shaft is the old design. They’ve now moved to hex shafts like everyone else since they added models with reverse.

I dread the day I have to deal with that on my motor.

It was quite a headache but at least I didn’t have to heat it. Put pb blaster on it every couple days for the better part of a month.

Is your pro drive a threaded shaft/prop too? I thought that misery was confined to go devil owners.

Duck Engr wrote:It was quite a headache but at least I didn’t have to heat it. Put pb blaster on it every couple days for the better part of a month.

Is your pro drive a threaded shaft/prop too? I thought that misery was confined to go devil owners.

Yes, I do believe it's threaded on mine. They have since changed the shaft end, so I'm told.

Guest wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:It was quite a headache but at least I didn’t have to heat it. Put pb blaster on it every couple days for the better part of a month.

Is your pro drive a threaded shaft/prop too? I thought that misery was confined to go devil owners.

Yes, I do believe it's threaded on mine. They have since changed the shaft end, so I'm told.

Why am I shown as Guest?

Godevil has also changed to a hex shaft I believe.

Not sure why you’re shown as guest. Glitch in the matrix maybe. I edited the post to show your user handle but it's not officially associated with your profile. Looks like i had the permissions wrong on my logbook that allowed guests to post. So I'm guessing the site was reading as you browsing as a guest.

DComeaux wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:It was quite a headache but at least I didn’t have to heat it. Put pb blaster on it every couple days for the better part of a month.

Is your pro drive a threaded shaft/prop too? I thought that misery was confined to go devil owners.

Yes, I do believe it's threaded on mine. They have since changed the shaft end, so I'm told.

When you do it, use a longer cheater bar on the jam nut wrench than you're using on the prop. I saw an old post where someone used a weight lifting bar run through the prop. That's what made me think of the old combine tie rod i had that we use as a tamp bar for posts.

Been working on getting an electric fence around the rice a couple evenings during the week. First day was to pull the T posts from an old hog trap. I’ve finally learned ya can’t trap and kill ‘‘em all, so have to fence them out. Next day was weed eating a path around the pond and set posts. Got the wire run Sunday and hooked up to the 25 mile charger. Tested it by sticking a coated wire in the dirt and touching the fence. Glad I didn’t try it with my bare finger!! It arched a half inch and let out a loud pop. Still shocked me even through coated wire and leather gloves. Should be able to smell bacon noses for miles!

See if any of you electric fence gurus can spot my mistake in this picture. May not be able to tell as the pic is a little grainy.


Wanted to get a little more nitrogen on the rice but it was so humid it never dried from the previous day’s rain.

P.S. Saw more doves (5) in the horse pasture than on the dove field (0). In the doves defense, crab grass took over the browntop I planted. Was finally dry enough to mow Thursday. Plan to burn it as soon as Mother Nature will allow.

What powers the e-fence? Batteries?