Bucket List for '16-'17 Season

[SpinnerMan]

I think this was a fun thread last year so figure I'd try to get one started for this year.

Last year I had 3 goals 1. Sea ducks, 2. 6 duck limit, 3. get a mature buck with the bow. And I completely failed on last years bucket list.

Although, I would have gotten my first 6 duck limit if my hunting partners were able to ID birds leaving me short in order to stay within the "group" limit. I was left with 1 bluebill for the "group" limit when it was my turn in the layout. I ended the day with 3 goldeneye, 1 bluebill, and getting to watch the most incredible show of bluebills decoying. I probably would have got my 3 bluebills throwing baseballs. The next day I missed on a flock of bufflehead and ended up one short on the limit although I did get a merganser, so I had six legal ducks, but not a limit. The sea duck hunt fell through, forcing us to go for divers instead which was great, so no complaints. Deer season was a total bust. Never saw a deer of any variety

With early goose just 3 weeks away, I'm thinking more and more about the upcoming season. For me it is tough to try and put together a list of goals that I will actually try to achieve for this season. This could be one of the most interesting seasons or one of the least hunted seasons in over a decade. I am moving to Florida in mid October, but will be back here and traveling quite a bit for work.

I may revise these, but I think this will be my "bucket" list for this year.

1. Kill a duck in Florida, any duck.
2. Hunt at least 20 days. I have average more than 30 for over a decade, but getting out will be a lot tougher this year
3. Kill something new, a hog, new species of duck, etc. Anything new to me.

Good chance that if I achieve 1 I will achieve 3 since I have never gotten a BWT, ringneck duck, or a Mottled, which are among the most likely from what I gather about Florida. So I'm going to up the challenge a little, my first duck in Florida only counts toward #1 regardless of species. So if I shoot a BWT, I will have to get a ringer or something else to claim success on #3 as well just to make it a little more challenging.

[aunt betty]

The biggest item on my 2016-17 season bucket list is finishing the season...legally...with a gun. My spidey-sense has been tingling over political anti-gun agenda stuff and I can not turn it off.
Real goals. I'm hoping I survive another year of waterfowl hunting with all my body parts still working.
It'd be nice to kill some ducks too.

[SpinnerMan]

You could add hunt with SpinnerMan during early teal and get him his first BWT

If the offer still stands, I think I can get down any Friday, Saturday, or Sunday during Early Teal. Just shoot me a PM closer to time on short notice if you plan to go and don't mind company.

[Woody]

1. Kill a surf scoter
2. Make it home to Michigan to hunt 3+ times
3. Kill a limit out of a layout.

[Botiz630]

Hunt more times than I did last year.

[aunt betty]

You could add hunt with SpinnerMan during early teal and get him his first BWT

If the offer still stands, I think I can get down any Friday, Saturday, or Sunday during Early Teal. Just shoot me a PM closer to time on short notice if you plan to go and don't mind company.

Man the conditions at Clinton are un-known until I get there and I mean "availability of sites". Those crazy bastards camp in boats for days to secure a blind-site so there's no way of knowing. I'll go scout it out but again it's public, competitive, and these kids with beards walk in at the last minute on you and mess things up a lot so they can shoot limits of kildeer.
Have gained a rep for being a real prick about this stuff and the GW knows me well. The BWT ain't happenin imo. Of course I'm wrong half the time 50/50.
Clinton holds wood ducks and GWT early and some grey ducks too maybe. When actual season starts they got all sorts of birds but they get goned fast. It's east-central Illinois, off the flyway, and you get what you get. Not stellar hunting that's for sure BUT it can be if you hit it right. You know...weather. First snowstorm I'd head here and get here B4 the storm if I were you. Clinton gets hot for a few weeks and "they're gone". That's my cue to head south.

Sept 3, 3:30 am, Parnell Access, Clinton Lake. You'll be going thru a town named Farmer City I bet.
I'll bring stuff to cook breakfast in the boat.

BWT is funny. If I were on a quest for that duck I'd go to my camp in Arkansas and hunt Mallard Lake during teal season err...I mean cottonmouth season. Not many people hunt teal there because it's too snaky but damn they got the birds.

Tell me about your dimensions, size, and weight. My boat and blind is sort of set up for hobbits like me. It's adjustable and we can adjust it to man-size. You shoot sitting down? It's not mandatory but is a whole lot easier on both of us if we can sit n shoot. Boat is only 40 inches wide. I usually beach it for stability.

[team216]

Glad you brought this back to life spinnerman.

I only recall one goal from last year. That was for Bear to retrieve her first duck. Which she did. A drake mallard a few days after opener, my opening day. But because of the rain I wasn't able to get a picture of her. Without her I would have lost the bird. The current was pulling the bird out to the channel. She made close to a 75 water retrieve for her first bird. To me it was really cool!

For this year - 1) Bear to retrieve her first goose in water. She is bigger and more sure of herself now around feathers so I think she will be good.

2) shoot a drake wood duck with the head still attached. I think they are the prettiest we have locally.

3) Put Tori (my girlfriend) on the birds so she can get her first. She's been a trooper, 3 years without killing anything. But when our schedules allow. She's right there with me. Rain, sleet, snow she's up and is a better helper than most the people I hunt with.

[SpinnerMan]

Good luck, my wife likes to go as long as it is midday and warm She's tagged along a few times and enjoyed it, just not enough to want to rise that early or put up with the cold.

[R. Chapman]

Get my 2 elk tags and deer out of the way quicker than last week of the season like last year.

Fill my mountain lion and bear tag. Wolf too if the opportunity is presented.

Hunt hard for ducks when the snow Roy's good and It everything ices up.

[Rick]

Who eats all of that?

[DukMan]

1. Finish the blind on my new property
2. Video my pup with his first retrieve
3. Kill a limit of ducks on the new property
4. Take the boat out and kill a limit of divers
5. Fill my Black Bear tag
6. Take it to my ol'lady when I'm not hunting so she tells me to go hunt more!

[Rick]

6. Take it to my ol'lady when I'm not hunting so she tells me to go hunt more!

Am reminded of when the Human Anatomy professor asked one of the gals in his class what her significant other was doing the last time she achieved orgasm, and she replied, "Duck hunting."

[aunt betty]

#6 had me wondering as well. It takes a good six or eight solid years of hunting every available moment you can during the season to get the wife to quit saying that phrase, "are you going hunting again!?!". Another few years and she's packing your lunch, making your thermos, giving you a bj for the road, and cleaning the ducks when you get back.

There's something you ain't doing right but I can't put my finger on it.

[Deltaman]

#6 had me wondering as well. It takes a good six or eight solid years of hunting every available moment you can during the season to get the wife to quit saying that phrase, "are you going hunting again!?!". Another few years and she's packing your lunch, making your thermos, giving you a bj for the road, and cleaning the ducks when you get back.

There's something you ain't doing right but I can't put my finger on it.

Had an old man tell me one time, "son, just make sure you pack that crack, and she'll gladly pack that sack".

[R. Chapman]

Shooting a buck over 180" (but I'll settle for 140" ).
Shoot an antelope buck that scores at least 75" and doesn't cheat me on the cutters.
Shoot a bull elk over 320", but I'm trigger happy with elk so that's not likely.
Get a week straight of limits on mallards every day.
Shoot a whitetail doe with a handgun.

[aunt betty]

Shooting a buck over 180" (but I'll settle for 140" ).
Shoot an antelope buck that scores at least 75" and doesn't cheat me on the cutters.
Shoot a bull elk over 320", but I'm trigger happy with elk so that's not likely.
Get a week straight of limits on mallards every day.
Shoot a whitetail doe with a handgun.

You get that 7 straight mallard limits, post about it here, and very soon you will get checked out very closely by a couple guys with bullet-proof vests and badges. Wished I'd taken pics of them GW's in Arkansas so you could see what the guys that lurk on these duck sites look like.

[SpinnerMan]

I may revise these, but I think this will be my "bucket" list for this year.

1. Kill a duck in Florida, any duck.
2. Hunt at least 20 days. I have average more than 30 for over a decade, but getting out will be a lot tougher this year
3. Kill something new, a hog, new species of duck, etc. Anything new to me.

Haven't completed any of my bucket list this year. However, I have got out 12 times so far this year, not once yet in Florida. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about achieving all 3, but I got to get on the ball. I only have to the end of January to accomplish #1 and I haven't been out in Florida yet.

How's everybody else's season going so far (or probably went in some cases)?

I managed the unwritten but understand goal for most and picked up a banded Canadian Canada goose yesterday