John you need to drink more coffee.

I don't hate the birds as much as I used to. I live for those wonderful naps in the blind. Dash has caught on too. He spent most of the last two mornings curled up in the foot of my layout. Kept my feet warm too.

Hey John glad to see you had some action. Was wondering if they were starting to show up in the area. Going to try for them Saturday morning. I have had the best success with a little wind and cloud cover and they are calling for it Saturday.

There are more birds in the area now than I have ever seen before. The cloud cover will be welcomed. The sun had my decoys lit up like a candles. I'm going to try and stay through Sunday now. Saw ducks on our limited water today too. First of the season here other than wood ducks.

Hang with them Sniper. Some days your the hammer, and some days your the nail....

That's awesome that it works that way for you. The birds we hunt wouldn't even think twice about leaving if they saw that blind. Trafficking cranes can't be done either where we hunt.
If you have a place to put it, a flag works for cranes too we've found out.

This morning my neighbor has a bon fire with a big smoke plume on the edge of the field in the direction my birds usually come from. And riding atvs some up and down the fence line. My flyaway has moved South of me.

I've got to find some land out that way. I see cranes over the house each fall and spring. Family thinks I'm a dork for stopping to watch. As far as sleeping, I have a long family tradition of sleeping in blinds. One time in a deer blind I woke up to see a field mouse staring at me on my gun barrel.

Glad to see you at least got into them.

John - we need to meet up some time and do a hunt. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow morning.

Get after them John

Glad you got'em

Looks like fun

Congrats on the birds John

He didn't shoot any you big dummy.

Got skunked. Heard birds but the fog was thick all morning.

I only had one group. I pulled them down out of the thick fog with my call, but they did not like what they found. Only shot would have been over my left shoulder before they flared. My decoys were sparkling as if they were diamond encrusted. I pulled all my gear. In the morning I might go back down with just the full bodies in the snow for a short hunt. I have been running traps doing varmint control on the lease, so will be up in the morning anyway, but for the most part looks like I was the nail this time.

There was no snow when I set up. Then boom. Whiteout.

That’s a cool photo! I duck hunted this morning and had success before the snow hit here. Will post photos when I get to the computer.

Here is my shot of the decoys in the fog. I had us facing the river and 2 cranes actually snuck in behind us and were walking on the edge of the decoys. They did not make any noise until they flew off. For some reason it seems like they are not very vocal in flight when it is foggy.

This is a big winter wheat field with a slough. Had some ducks buzz us as well.

...and this was the more successful duck hunt back home in Palo Pinto county.

We got some domestic ducks this year and the back pond has been pretty decent this year. One of the pekins has a loud quack I think that helped bring more ducks to our back pond. Last year I did not even see any ducks until after the season was closed on any of our ponds.

Yesterday morning I got 4 wigeon and 2 gadwall and 4 Pekin/Khaki eggs.

No mojo, jerk string only, minimal calling. Done in the first 20 minutes before the snow hit. Then it was snowman building and UTV sledding with the family.





Life of the hunter gatherer.







Fun Stuff.

You hand loading that tungsten shot? Or buying it?

I'm really good at skipping rocks....

In all seriousness though I just have a lot of shells left over from last season. I bought a bunch in the beginning of the season last year to only shoot one shot all year.

I pulled my decoys after that picture I took. The hunt was over before it ever started. We never heard or saw anymore cranes while I was there. Hunting partner killed a hog. Dash and I stayed around camp and played in the snow as well. Dash had the zoomies in the snow. I should have duck hunted instead as there were ducks on fish creek. If the question was about my ammo. They are 10GA reloads that I normally make up for field hunting Geese in OK. I stocked up on shot years ago when it was cheap and available. Time to start thinking about moving on to Snipe hunting.