2023-2024 preseason...

[Darren]

Speaking of super duper loads and chokes, Rick, I can't fathom the amount of birds that have been crippled or flat gotten out of your little honey hole unscathed due to some long distance Patternmaster (well extended AND ported, of course) chokes said to crush every duck anywhere by so many these days. Their "Code Black" and "Black Mamba" always give me a laugh.

From the ad on Mack's site:

Once again Patternmaster has gone to the limits to make a top-of-the-line shooting accessory for the extreme hunting experience. The ducks had better watch out!

[5 stand]

Rick he's talking about my lead in my excuses, now Darren he's talking about my chokes, anyone else want to pile on...

[Rick]

Kinda sorta. I'm one who never got mad a steel and still enjoy picking that scab.

[Deltaman]

Took a few years for me to belly up to the bar on steel. When it first came out, it was terrible! I opened a few shells, and the majority of the pellets were not uniformly round Glad they finally fixed that wagon, and lucky I never got caught with my 15 or so lead shells per hunt back then.

[SpinnerMan]

Took a few years for me to belly up to the bar on steel. When it first came out, it was terrible! I opened a few shells, and the majority of the pellets were not uniformly round Glad they finally fixed that wagon

I don't think not being round was the big issue with early steel shot. Your lead pellets are not uniformly round when they leave the barrel. They deform quite a bit under pressure before they leave the barrel.

I think the big problem was the lack of speed to compensate for the lower density and resulting lower down range momentum causing less damage.

[Duck Engr]

Rick he's talking about my lead in my excuses, now Darren he's talking about my chokes, anyone else want to pile on...

Hahaha I caught a stray while he was talking about chokes too. Somebody has gotta shoot them getting out of the hole after my buddies have missed!

But I too laugh at the marketing.

[5 stand]

Rick he's talking about my lead in my excuses, now Darren he's talking about my chokes, anyone else want to pile on...

Hahaha I caught a stray while he was talking about chokes too. Somebody has gotta shoot them getting out of the hole after my buddies have missed!

But I too laugh at the marketing.

Lol.. I was just trying to be funny, I use my sporting Clay chokes for everything...

[5 stand]

Took a few years for me to belly up to the bar on steel. When it first came out, it was terrible! I opened a few shells, and the majority of the pellets were not uniformly round Glad they finally fixed that wagon, and lucky I never got caught with my 15 or so lead shells per hunt back then.

I missed the early days of steel so I don't have a clue what it was like, didn't start duck hunting until 1998... Don't think I have any hatred for it when I put it in my gun I just adjust accordingly, same thing with lead...
I've been loading TSS for several years now but I don't shoot enough of it and I keep adjusting my loads, so I don't know it's true performance yet...

[Rick]

We had to use steel for waterfowl in Ohio's North Zone very early on in the switch, and our primary targets there were big, dumb Canadas that finished so well the early steel 4s everyone "saw bouncing off birds" and was all I could get my hands on failed to bounce off their faces.

Mind you, I still did my Ohio South and River Zone waterfowling with lead and continued with it while still legal after moving down here. But the steel stigma missed its chance at me.

[Duck Engr]

Tighten up, Rick!

Started to post "Hadn't had my fourth cup of coffee yet." when I realized I had your post in edit mode, too.

As Dad was fond of saying, "Don't get old."

I can adjust the settings on your log to protect you from you if need be. Just let me know.

[Ericdc]

Speaking of super duper loads and chokes, Rick, I can't fathom the amount of birds that have been crippled or flat gotten out of your little honey hole unscathed due to some long distance Patternmaster (well extended AND ported, of course) chokes said to crush every duck anywhere by so many these days. Their "Code Black" and "Black Mamba" always give me a laugh.

From the ad on Mack's site:

Once again Patternmaster has gone to the limits to make a top-of-the-line shooting accessory for the extreme hunting experience. The ducks had better watch out!

everyone likes an anaconda choke every now and then.


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[Rick]

I can adjust the settings on your log to protect you from you if need be. Just let me know.

Thanks, but I'm taking a crack at that learning from my mistakes thing.

[Rick]

Speaking of super duper loads and chokes, Rick, I can't fathom the amount of birds that have been crippled or flat gotten out of your little honey hole unscathed due to some long distance Patternmaster (well extended AND ported, of course) chokes said to crush every duck anywhere by so many these days.

Often saw it over rice, as well. The ol' "clean kills or clean miss" choke belongs in the hopeful myth drawer,

[Rick]

everyone likes an anaconda choke every now and then

Brother Eric's feeling frisky.

[Rick]

Boredom turned into a ride to Cherry Ridge to see where the marsh is yesterday and, of course, saw too much of where it isn't:

001a.jpg

Our boat stalls were high and dry when we picked our part of that marsh over two weeks ago. But I've now a more readily accessible base line for my morbid curiosity to watch and imagine the mud hole's goose weed island's spread to 2011 proportion:

2011season021a.jpg

[Ericdc]

everyone likes an anaconda choke every now and then

Brother Eric's feeling frisky.

No love for the anaconda choke?



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[Rick]

Haydel took a fit to sell chokes some years back, and a set I was given were the only after-market chokes I've ever owned. Appreciated the gesture but gave them to a fellow at the camp without ever taking one out of its blister pack.

[Ericdc]

Haydel took a fit to sell chokes some years back, and a set I was given were the only after-market chokes I've ever owned. Appreciated the gesture but gave them to a fellow at the camp without ever taking one out of its blister pack.

The only aftermarket I ever bought and I used it in my browning gold for all wing shooting and clays was the Terror .700 made by Jeff and the sure cycle guys.

I still have it for my Maxus after the Gold died.


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[Deltaman]

I've got a .675 Terror tube I bought 10 or so years ago. Don't use it in tight quarters, but for open water Gadwalls, and cripples at 50 yards, it is deadly.

[Rick]

Spoke with our camp's office manager yesterday, and there's still been no word on either the marsh or access lease, which is turning out to be a good thing, given the falling marsh and late date. At least Doug's widow won't have poured those investments down the drought.

Also spoke with Cherry Ridge's manager, who suggested we might still hunt September teal - at their boathouse. But, at our current rate, even that deep hole could be dry by then.

Nonetheless, I continue tooting calls and shouldering shotguns, as though business were as usual. Hope apparently being the last thing to dry up.

[Darren]

Sorry to hear of the less-than-rosy outlook. It DID rain at my house yesterday, twice, for a sum of maybe 10 mins.

As always, if you want to take a ride east to where there's guaranteed water, but no guarantee of birds......though I'd probably rather take my chances overlooking a spinner in Cherry Ridge's boathouse!!

[Rick]

...though I'd probably rather take my chances overlooking a spinner in Cherry Ridge's boathouse!!

Perhaps "we'll see..."

[Duck Engr]

Good news Rick. I did a little tinkering under the hood of this thing and have managed to restrict moderator powers to delete only. So there shouldn’t be any danger of you editing or not editing but thinking you did of other posts.

Am still pulling for you to get water and leases ironed out.

[Rick]

Good news Rick. I did a little tinkering under the hood of this thing and have managed to restrict moderator powers to delete only. So there shouldn’t be any danger of you editing or not editing but thinking you did of other posts.

Am still pulling for you to get water and leases ironed out.

With any luck at all, I'll not have occasion to notice your work on my behalf. But thanks,

Re: leases and water, I disappointed another grandson with the current state thereof this afternoon. Hating that,

[Rick]

Some of the kids came by yesterday with horror stories from the burns and "middle marsh" (between Little Chenier and the big one) that sparked my morbid curiosity about our local marsh. So back out to Cherry Ridge I went for a peek at it's current level:

004a.jpg

Down four inches since I measured a baseline eight days ago, and even the turtles have been looking for shade:

005a.jpg

Did see where a private camp has been able to pump a skim of water on a piece they own where hunting takes precedence over crawfishing and, while there weren't teal on it, there was a little ball of the tiny shorebirds that precede them each year, along with our resident birds.

And, naturally, the return to normal summer pattern showers initially predicted to begin early this week has been pushed back to next Monday...

[Darren]

Forecast has been doing that for weeks, showing the next week as the point of return to normal summer pattern of 90's with decent rain chance most days, then we get to that week, and it's 100's and no chance of rain. Pretty tired of that, all of us.

[SpinnerMan]

Hopefully some of it heads down your way. We've had pretty good rain now for a few weeks. About to get rained on again here in the next 30 minutes or so. We were crazy dry this spring and early summer, but we've got the relief we needed. Lakes and rivers still seem pretty low as we haven't got a lot of rain hard enough to produce much runoff, but the garden is in pretty good shape and the grass isn't dead. Although I did find some yellowjackets Saturday that are going to die. I was finishing cleaning up the brush around the duck blind. Almost done and I accidently knocked on their door. I had been in there with a chainsaw and had no idea they were there. Wonder if they moved in after I cleared it for them. I guess my good fortune was that I only got stung once. Last time I hit a yellowjacket nest I got nailed 6 times.

I sprung up that bank like a much younger man. It's amazing how much quicker you can move with a pissed of yellowjacket stinging your ear

[Bud]

Yes, the things that get us going. I am positive a few days of hard rain with more in the forecast would be as such to everyone there!

Problem being how dried up some lakes and even rivers have gotten over the year from high pressure that wouldn't move. Fires and winds have made a mess out of a lot of acres in the US and Canada. It has been a nightmare for thousands of folk and much wild game. Happy the marsh is still there. The hurricanes may give us a wet way, if there are any(right). Some sweet rain with no damage would be great.

Proud of you, Rick. There when Miss Mary needs you the most. However, you have always been like that. I could never turn my back on those who helped us help each other along the way. If it is meant to be, it will be so. If not, it causes us more blood, sweat, and tears to do what we can. Silence may be golden, but the looks, smells, and sounds of a forgiving rain on a tin roof
make the pot bigger, and helps us to stay in the game looking at it. Good luck to you all.

I appear to be back on my feet again without dragging a leg or limping. Will know for sure end of this month. Glad this Covid came in August rather than some other time. Be happy if this new RX tomorrow will help it to go away. Been out of commission all month, but hope again keeps us smiling.

Sure do miss the old Federal Buffered Power Magnums in lead. When I found those, they went to steel the very next season.
I'll pray for rain.

[BGkirk]

From my neighbors who are in what I would call the middle marsh; but right off the road. We are heading to check out things for ourselves in the morning


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[Duck Engr]

I can see that cub cadet’s tongue hanging out from here.