The Robber's Barnegat Bay "Old School" Hunt

[ksherbine]

The Robber journeyed with Dave Enos, Bill Enos and myself to the fabled waters of Barnegat Bay, NJ to meet up with Bill Perry and Marty Vandergrift from Maine and John M Taylor from Shooting Sportsman magazine for a "traditional hunt". Guns were muzzleloaders, hammer guns, Foxes, and classic Parkers. Clothing was traditional oilskins (from Filson), and decoys were hand carved Brant from our own Bill Perry, and black ducks from our Classic Barnegat decoys, with a few other carvers thrown in. We hunted with Reedy Creek outfitters, who I'd HIGHLY recommend. They worked their butts off, knew where the birds were.

The first day the seas were too nasty to get out on the big bay, so we had to hunt along one of the little bays going out to it. We saw a good number of birds, but only fired a few shots.

This picture shows the robber in among his friends of Bill Perry brant, Dave Enos canvasbacks, and Classic Barnegat canvasbacks and blacks.

Dave Enos and John Taylor in a 12' and 14' Classic Barnegat. The first day we didn't grass up our boats as well as we should have. The second day we grassed them until they disappeared and had much better gunning.

Here's the robber again at day's end, along with some of our blacks and Bill's Brant

Bill Perry loading his muzzleloader

Day 2 was much better for hunting, not so good for taking pictures. We ended up limiting out on Brant, and Bill Perry and Marty, who were hunting a few hundred yards away shot their brant limit in an hour or so.

Dave Enos in a NJ salt marsh

Overall it was a GREAT hunt and great experience. We got to meet some new friends, hunt in a new territory, experience duck hunting the way our ancestors did it, and just have an all around great time. Having the Robber there to hunt with us only added to the experience.

Take care,

 

[Sean C.]

Very cool photos Kirk! Looks like a wonderful time

 

[John Klingenstein]

Very nice pictures of the salt marsh.

I enjoyed hunting Absecon a few times.

The boats look good.

 

[Eddie Kershaw]

kirk Thanks for posting those photo,s it just made me wish I was on the other side of the pond
Eddie.( Who knows one day maybe )

 

[perry]

Kirk: What great pictures Dave looks good in his barnegat,he should be an actor in a great out door film. Bill

 

[ksherbine]

Thanks Bill. I re-did a bunch of those pictures in sepia and black and white and they came out really good.

Thanks again for coming along for a great hunt.

Take care,

 

[Mike Trudel]

Best post this year! I have considered burning a local marsh, just so the cattails would be low enough to justify a bbsb!

We have an "oldtimers" hunt on the last weekend of the season, where SxSs and fur hats are mandatory. Pete McMiller thinks we should also require kerosene lamps and wool blankets, to place over our legs and the lamp. We always hunt with all wood decoys.

The traditional boats, clothes and muzzleloaders sure give you guys the edge! Great pics and post!

 

[ksherbine]

Thanks Mike.

We talked about making it an annual event, maybe not traveling to NJ but just taking a certain day and hunting "old school". A buddy of mine has a deer camp where they have one weekend where all the guns have to be their grandfathers', all Woolrich, etc. He said it's really fun and the guys all look forward to it.

I've been hunting with the muzzleloader more and more, and actually picked up a Model 12 Heavy Duck that I'll hopefully use as my "standard" gun. To me it really adds to the hunt.

Take care,

 

[perry]

Kirk: geting a lot of great coments locally on the pictures you have posted.