An unusual hunt

Al Hansen

Al Hansen

Well-known member
I watched Chip bring this drake mallard to me and was proud as a peacock of my young yellow lab. He gets it done.


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Well, this made my final duck for my 6 duck limit even though I only had 5 in the blind with me. It was maybe 20 minutes earlier when I had a lone hen pintail swing past my spread of decoys. She presented a great shot so I took it fully expecting her to drop but she didn't for some reason. I watched her intently as I do with all the ducks that fly away. Knowing she was hit hard but flying sometimes is hard to grasp but I have learned over the years that one should never give up until they are out of sight. She flew on until she was approximately 250 to 300 yards from me when all of a sudden she folded in mid air. She dropped like a rock stone dead or at least it looked that way to me. The one thing I did do was use reference points and I had a good mark on her.

For quite a few years now I have quit shooting when I have shot 6 ducks. Some times if I or my retriever can't find a duck then I will go home with just 5 ducks. This is my personal feelings about the matter that's all.

With all the decoys back in my sled and packed in the Mule, with Chip at my side, we left for home. I had to drive 1/2 mile to the spot where I thought my duck had landed. The old gravel road that I was on is not used much and as I got closer I coudn't believe my luck. There in the middle of the road was my hen pintail.


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This shot I took while sitting in my Mule looking down at her. I bent over, picked her up, and continued to drive home. This time with a grin on my face because everything worked out so easily. Had she fallen 15 feet farther to the southwest she would have been in some mighty dense ragweeds and who knows if Chip would have found her.


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Upon arriving at the house Bev came out and took this last shot. I sure was happy about how my hunt ended. Normally when I lose a duck it bothers the living heck out of me. This hunt was different.
Al


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I agree and respect your choice to consider a lost bird part of your bag. I do the same.

It is amazing how far a duck can fly already dead isn't it?

I lost a bird this year, a drake mallard, and it still bugs me. I haven't killed a green head in over ten years and I guess I just have that sort of luck for some reason.

As a side note, we fish Erie for Walleye, arguably the greatest walleye fishery in the world. After several trips, we tend to have the fish we need for the year. But catching limits is part of bragging rights there.

I frequently by mid summer slot limit myself as I only like to eat fish of certain size. More than once others on the boat kill their six and I will release several and bring home a couple. They look at me like I'm crazy. Hey, I caught my limit, and decided to put some of MY fish back. If they need MY fish that I didn't keep for a picture then I guess I will just disappoint them.
 
Congratulations, Al, good mark on that bird! Those birds that drop stone dead into cover are the hardest to find, even with a dog since you have to have a mark on them that enables the dog to get within a handful of feet of the scent plume. I would much rather try to find a distant bird that dropped into cover alive, due to the better chance of the dog "hitting" its scent trail. The only thing to do on a dead fall is to get a good mark and work the dog quartering into the wind...and hope for the best.

Do you see many wood ducks out there?
 
It is interesting to hear of others that do count lost birds and released fish. We certainly are not hunting and fishing for survival but for some other reason probably none of us really understand. Great story about your found bird. I remember my first labs last retrieves like they were yesterday and they were for someone else who was ready to give up on a couple woodies in the wild rice. I offered assistance and my old Yukon Jack just found and returned those birds without any fuss at all. Turned out to be his last. Memories last much longer than meat.
 
Don't you love when the story had a good ending?

About 10 years ago we had a drake redhead come in feet down, 1' off the water and it was my shot. Centered him wth the pattern and he raised the landing gear and headed out to sea. Buddy and I are just dumbfounded. Just like you, we watched him fly about 1/2 mile and then just fold and fall a 300' and make a big splash. Cranked up the boat, drove out and he was dead as your pintail. When I cleaned him there one pellet that had gone clean through the heart.
 
What a great day Al, you and chip certainly earned your dinner that day. Body hit birds really are amazing - never could figure out how they could still fly so strongly and then drop dead in an instant. Nice recovery.
 
Good deal about finding the bird. I don't have a retriever, but I've learned some tricks to finding birds without one over the years. If I drop a bird into cover (try to avoid it but it happens) I'll usually let it be for a little while before I go look for it. If you let it sit for a while it will usually expire right near where it went down. If you go over there right away and the bird is still alive, it'll run deeper into the cover or dive down and potentially never come up.

Of course you don't want to wait too long to go look for your bird. One time I was hunting a river oxbow in IA and had a wood duck sail off a few hundred yards down the pond. I made a note of where it pitched in a planned to go look for it once the morning flight slowed. While I was hunting I noticed some crows making a racket down the way but just figured they were hassling a hawk. When I went to go look for my bird, I learned that the crows had found my duck and torn it up to the point it was not salvageable. I've also had problems with turtles in warmer weather.
 
Great tale, Al!

It certainly brings back many times with these "heart shot" (probably liver, actually...) birds that drop out of the sky after long escape flights. Sometimes you just "know" it's been hit and you remember to follow its flight. Most of those I recall have fallen into water - so the splash has sure helped.

...and then there was the time a Barred Owl "retrieved" a Black Duck for me.....

Congratulations!

SJS
 
Good to hear that you do that also, Kevin. I can still remember a can I shot when I was in high school that seemed to fly forever before he dropped.
When you talked of Lake Erie, it seems to me that at one time it was almost considered a dead lake with hardly any fish at all. Was that back in the 50s and 60s? We lived in western Minnesota where the mouth of the Minnesota River was. I remember watching that area die. I think it was DDT and a host of other things.
Al
 
Hey Rick. Thanks for the comments. I agree with you on what you said regarding scent trails, etc.

As for woodies, we have them down here. In fact this was my best years ever so far shooting 5 of them. Got two on Saturday and one yesterday afternoon sitting at the pond.
Al
 
Good to hear from you, Tom. Probably the biggest reason that I stop at 6 is because that is the limit and I have taken that number. I realize that I might not have them on the duck strap but I am the only one who knows what I lost. I care not to have that on my conscience. That is also why in duck hunting if it says shooting starts at 6:10AM that is when I begin. I know too many hunters who say, "What the heck is 3 or 5 minutes and open up early. The mystique of duck hunting is lost if that is done.
Thanks for telling me about Yukon Jack. That had to make you so proud.
Al
 
Hello Elk Hunter! Good to hear from you, Pete. I did have a milk bone in my jacket pocket and he got it for sure.
Al
 
That was some good advice, Andrew. Down here I lost the only blue wing teal I shot one morning during our early teal season. Chili and I had gone for a walk to see if we could jump some teal but never saw any. When we got back my teal was gone. Later on my way home I was stopped by federal agents to check my gun, bag limit etc. I told them about the bird and they both started to laugh. They had driven past my spot where my decoys were and the duck. Just before getting there they spotted a coyote with a duck in its mouth dashing across the road. He was the culprit!
Al
 
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