Wasn't sure if this post was worth creating a new thread or just post it here... Any waterfowlers here? I've been hunting an autoloader every day out in my waterfowl history but I've been tossing around the idea of buying an o/u for next year (Browning Cynergy with shadow blades camo finish). Has anyone hunted o/u for ducks and geese? [Reply]
Typically the birds are gone after the first shock/shot. Two is about all you get, maybe 3 if they're tight. Learned from my grandfather to shoot the farthest away and work back from there. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ptlyon:
Typically the birds are gone after the first shock/shot. Two is about all you get, maybe 3 if they're tight. Learned from my grandfather to shoot the farthest away and work back from there.
That's also what I have taken away from my time in the field. The only time I've used the third shell is on crips or hail marys. Rarely do we get a chance to triple. [Reply]
I'm not a waterfowl guy at all, But it's confession time.
During the peak rut, I climbed in a good stand
Location at a travel corridor intersection for an afternoon hunt.
I had a hot doe in a creek bed and around me within 10 minutes and some small bucks chasing. A little while later I saw a doe trot out of some tall slough grass and behind her antlers above it. .if I saw those it was a shooter. I'd had a day dream of the perfect entrance of a shooter coming in from that direction, up wind and behind a tree so I could draw but given history assumed they'd would come another spot and through a gate.
Not today....the doe came in perfect and a tall 170ish 10 point with brow tines that were at least 10" follows. He goes behind the tree along the creek, up wind, looking at a doe and he stopped at 15 yards broadside with his front leg extended.....suicide. I let an my pink breast cancer G5 fly, he recoils and scampers 50 yards to a cluster of trees and begins to circle. I knew he was dead.
I texted my brothers to let them know I'd smoked a good one. 30 minutes later I get down to see if I have heart or lung blood.....and the only thing on the arrow is mud. I missed a complete layup. How it happened I cannot fathom. I'd put a mercy shot on one before that had been hit by a car or something and had a leg falling off....and it went 30 yards.
No idea how I missed the easiest shot I'd ever had at a good buck.
Salt in the wound, I got back in the tree with an hour And a half of light left, and he circled back behind me and staired at me from the same scrub tree I'd see no a monster a week before and couldn't do anything about it.
Stuff like that can make a guy ponder switching to late season muzzy..... [Reply]
Originally Posted by Iowanian:
I'm not a waterfowl guy at all, But it's confession time.
During the peak rut, I climbed in a good stand
Location at a travel corridor intersection for an afternoon hunt.
I had a hot doe in a creek bed and around me within 10 minutes Andy some small bucks chasing. A little while later I saw a doe trot out of some tall slough grass and behind her antlers above it. .if I saw those it was a shooter. I'd had a day dream of the perfect entrance of a shooter coming in from that direction, up wind and behind a tree so I could draw but given history assumed they'd would come another spot and through a gate.
Not today....the doe came in perfect and a tall 170ish 10 point with brow tines that were at least 10" follows. He goes behind the tree along the creek, up wind, looking at a doe and he stopped at 15 yards broadside with his front leg extended.....suicide. I let an my pink breast cancer G5 fly, he recoils and scampers 50 yards to a cluster of trees Andy begins to circle. I knew he was dead.
I texted my brothers to let them know I'd smoked a good one. 30 minutes later I get down to see if I have heart or lung blood.....and the only thing on the arrow is mud. I missed a complete layup. How it happened I cannot fathom. I'd put a mercy shot on one before that had been hit by a car or something and had a leg falling off....and it went 30 yards.
No idea how I missed the easiest shot I'd ever had at a good buck.
Salt in the wound, I got back in the tree with an hour And a half of light left, and he circled back behind me and stained at me from the same scrub tree I'd see no a monster a week before and couldn't do anything about it.
Stuff like that can make a guy ponder switching to late season muzzy.....
I’ve lost sleep over a situation very similar to this. It ate at me for a good week and 3 years down the line I still think about it when the season starts up again. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Iowanian:
I'm not a waterfowl guy at all, But it's confession time.
During the peak rut, I climbed in a good stand
Location at a travel corridor intersection for an afternoon hunt.
I had a hot doe in a creek bed and around me within 10 minutes Andy some small bucks chasing. A little while later I saw a doe trot out of some tall slough grass and behind her antlers above it. .if I saw those it was a shooter. I'd had a day dream of the perfect entrance of a shooter coming in from that direction, up wind and behind a tree so I could draw but given history assumed they'd would come another spot and through a gate.
Not today....the doe came in perfect and a tall 170ish 10 point with brow tines that were at least 10" follows. He goes behind the tree along the creek, up wind, looking at a doe and he stopped at 15 yards broadside with his front leg extended.....suicide. I let an my pink breast cancer G5 fly, he recoils and scampers 50 yards to a cluster of trees Andy begins to circle. I knew he was dead.
I texted my brothers to let them know I'd smoked a good one. 30 minutes later I get down to see if I have heart or lung blood.....and the only thing on the arrow is mud. I missed a complete layup. How it happened I cannot fathom. I'd put a mercy shot on one before that had been hit by a car or something and had a leg falling off....and it went 30 yards.
No idea how I missed the easiest shot I'd ever had at a good buck.
Salt in the wound, I got back in the tree with an hour And a half of light left, and he circled back behind me and stained at me from the same scrub tree I'd see no a monster a week before and couldn't do anything about it.
Stuff like that can make a guy ponder switching to late season muzzy.....
ANYONE who bow hunts has multiple stories like this.
This season I had a nice mature buck coming down the trail I was hunting Nov 9th, right when the rut kicked off with that cold front hit us over that weekend. It was perfect. Saw a ton of action. Got in the stand about 2pm on that Friday, and about 4pm a nice probably 150-160 buck comes down the trail, very nice mature whitetail, would of been biggest I have ever killed with a bow, he comes down this trail, long story short, I'm hunting a tree line and he walks behind a bush, I draw, he comes into my shooting lane, I doe bleat at him, he stops looks at me gives me a almost perfect broadside shot at roughly 37 yards, no layup but im confident at that distance, hes looking for the doe bleat, I put the sight on his heart, shoot, arrow is going perfect for a forward center mass upper heart shot, arrow takes a sudden strange angle, hit a twig off a small bush, arrow loses a ton of velocity, angles into his back leg, he turns and runs off 15 yards later arrow pops out, he disappears, comes back into opening 20 minutes later no limp nothing hanging out eating like nothing happened. I was ready to jump out of the tree stand, you need 50 different things to all go perfect to kill a mature whitetail with a bow. [Reply]
I did see 3 very large bucks this year and I think in general it was a year with a lot of big bucks around. I was hunting the same farm as a story I posted early in this thread and i'm certain I had an encounter with a son of the buck in that story, a massive 12 point. He was an asshole though and came in behind me and mauled a hedge tree for 20-30 minutes and had a doe with him and never gave me a shot. I saw a couple of nice bucks come through, into a CRP field and across, stop and run down towards what I assume was the doe and then they must have seen him because they about turned inside out spinning around so fast and hauling ass over the hill. I had pics of a big one on my farm Aug, Sept, Oct...no pics in Nov.....which isn't uncommon...but I know I had him about 50 yards in the brush for a while one morning. I could see glimpses of anters and hear brush smashing and bucks running off when they came through, but never got a shot. It's frustrating, but its part of the deal.
What annoys me most is I've been doing this for more than 20 years and have far more years with lessons learned than heads on a wall. Then some 15 year old kid comes to town, first time hunting and smashes a 190.......or the "pros" shooting 2 in an hour.
What's ruining bow hunting for me far more than missing a deer are the "pros".....those assholes are making it almost embarrassing to be called a bow hunter where I live. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin:
I try to catch my birds before they can get up off the water. Got 7 with one shot one time.
Man I get it but I'm not a huge fan of water swatting birds. Only way I will is if I saw some jewelry or it's a unicorn duck to me (Canvas back, Drake Pinny, black duck, etc). Think it takes the sport out of it if I'm shooting waterfowl that's sitting still. [Reply]
