Redemption 20+ years in the making

A day to remember that's for sure, couldn't get any better.
As for me we got the cold we wanted but the rain came with it,river is too high to hunt...............again. RATS!!!!!!!!
 
Ha ha Jode as you know us Jersey folk ain't all bad...

I think this GoPro screencap captures my excitement well... (some artistic license taken)

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Craig

Nice bird and your photos really add to the beauty of the hunt. Somehow I thought pintails were somewhat common to the marshes of New Jersey. I guess not. Congratulations.

Eric
 
Eric I would say they are common in certain areas, but still hard to get on. I say I've been trying for 20+ years but in all honesty up until the last couple I never really gunned "where they live" ie certain areas of the state where they tend to be more abundant. I compare it to say fishing for tuna in the bay, is it possible? sure, but is it productive? absolutely not. So now I try to gun places I know they hang out when conditions are right. Today finally paid off. We are blessed to have such a variety of birds and habitat in this extremely crowded state so I just try to travel when I can and learn new areas every season.
 
So Craig, very much enjoyed your post. I grew up on the North Shore of Long Island pretty far out. In the sixties and 70s when I haunted all the bays around Stony Brook, Setauket, Port Jefferson and Mt. Sinai, anything other than black ducks and mallards were largely unusual. Might see a widgeon or often hear them when returning at dusk.

I was weaned on the sporting books of the previous 50 years, and recall Eugene Connetts' remark from "Duck Shooting Along the Atlantic Tidewater" about shooting at a pair of high sprig and killing one. On the North Shore, in those days, that diversity of puddlers was not present.

But in 1971 on home from college, Rodney Dow and I ventured into Conscience Bay in Setauket on a brutally cold day this time of year, rigged out boats in the marsh and set out a black duck rig on the falling tide, soon to be mud flats. On the South Shore, the Great South Bay was froze up. A world of black ducks visited us and we killed limits quickly. Waiting for mallards and what did the red gods of Christmas provide but a flock pintail, wheeling and turning and stooling in the bright sunlight and the strong NW wind. I killed one and Rodney missed. He was a few years older and had hunted with his family throughout the area and had yet to killed a drake pintail. So we waited it out, and another flocked stooled and he got his drake, too.

So unusual were pintails that a much older hard bitten waterman who worked the North Shore and hunted hard for many years, call me a liar when I claimed that we killed two pintails in Conscience Bay.


So I later began hunting Bellport Bay in the 70s where the South Shore puddler ducks are more diversified, much like Jersey. Was mentored by some great hunters, and one day in '73 or '74 was rigged on the barrier beach with a good lee in a NWester, and I saw a dot to the east over the bridge to the National Seashore and I kept watching and it did not change, no wingbeats-just set up, got closer and closer and made two large circles, again without moving its wings pitched into the decoys, a drake pintail which I had the same experience with the first you shot only luckily recovered it.
 
Thanks for sharing your own experiences James, I love hearing about the 'good old days' from family and friends. My dad likes to tell me about all his 10 pintail limits from the points system days. Now I have my own good old days stories to tell, and lots of photos and videos to go along with them.
 
Congratulations Craig. Nice pair of Pintails.
I can remember my first drake pintail years ago. It took me about 10 years to get one. It was so pretty flying overhead and hit the mud with a huge splat. That was the prettiest muddy duck I had ever seen. I've take a fair number since then but you have one thing on me, I've never taken one with a sprig like that. Seems like most of them leave here before they grow them.

Tim
 
Well this pintail is truly the gift that keeps on giving as I finally received all of my swag from Banded Brands and Benelli this week for winning their #MyBenelliStory contest with my photo and story about it. I couldn't sweet talk them into sending me a SBE3, but I'm excited to put this new SBE2 25th Anniversary edition to good use next season. Hopefully on a few more sprig!

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Well this pintail is truly the gift that keeps on giving as I finally received all of my swag from Banded Brands and Benelli this week for winning their #MyBenelliStory contest with my photo and story about it. I couldn't sweet talk them into sending me a SBE3, but I'm excited to put this new SBE2 25th Anniversary edition to good use next season. Hopefully on a few more sprig!Break it in after cleaning with something around 1250 fps. Win handicap trap loads work good. Their great guns if broken in right to start with. Only downside to them is the lightness out front, or at least for me it is. Counterweight in place of mag cap fixed that for me. Leave the 3.5,s at home and thank me latter!

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Click to expand...
 
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Much nicer case than my SBE-II. I noted very little "improvement" over the SBE-II for the increase in price...and a decrease in aesthetic appeal for me. Still shoot my first generation SBE most of the time.
 
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