The days are getting shorter and the nights are longer. The leaves have all but vanished from the trees. Fall is here. If you love the outdoors like Vicki and I do, now is the time to get out and enjoy the outdoors – whether your deal is with a fishing rod, bow, rifle, shotgun, camera, or all of the above.
The early teal season and early duck seasons were disappointing for me because there were not many birds. I did manage to get in one teal hunt with our student Craig Hill out near Eagle Lake. Although we only killed seven teal, I had a lot of fun watching Craig shoot. In fact, we were having so much fun just talking that we let a few birds slip through our decoys without getting a shot at them
I was using some Kent Fast Steel #4s in my Krieghoff 20-gauge with skeet and improved cylinder chokes. I was very pleased with the results. I shot four times and killed three teal. They were dead when they hit the water. That Kent Fast Steel leaves the muzzles at 1550 fps – that is fast! The ounce of #4 steel cleanly killed the birds.
I learned a few things from Craig that morning. Instead of nylon cord to attach his decoy weight to his decoys, he used heavy monofilament line. He called it “weedeater” line. The large mono doesn’t tangle because it is stiff. He doesn’t even wrap the lines around his decoys. He just drops each decoy into the bag weight first when putting them away. When he gets to his blind to hunt, he dumps all the decoys out of his bag at the same time into the water. He then puts one decoy back in the bag so he won’t lose the bag! As he picks up the decoys one by one to put out his spread, there are no tangled lines. I was amazed.
He attaches the heavy mono to his decoys with a metal sleeve and a crimping tool, the same way you would rig a steel leader for offshore fishing. He uses a teardrop-shaped lead sinker. I’m still amazed just thinking about how easy it was to put out and pick up decoys rigged this way.
We were sitting in the blind that morning and there was no wind, which I said we needed. That’s when I learned something else from Craig. He had learned when there is no wind, you are better off only using two or three decoys set out apart from each other. When there is no wind, he explained, there is very little or no movement by the decoys. With only a few decoys out, the lack of movement is not as noticeable to the ducks.
Whether that is the real reason… well, only the ducks can tell you. Craig hunts about 30 times each year and his word is good with me. It makes sense to me. You might want to try it. We didn’t do it that morning because we were having too much fun just shooting the breeze.
We were sitting in a wooden blind with our feet just out of the water. The surrounding water was about knee-deep. He put me on the left, so we agreed that I would take the birds on the left and he would take the birds on the right. The birds in the middle were fair game for both of us. That was understood as we were loading our guns.
Simple communication in the blind begins before the hunt and as the hunt progresses. It can go a long way to keep things safe and accident-free. Something that always needs to be agreed upon is whether or not you are going to stand up and shoot or remain seated. It might sound silly, I know. But if one hunter remains seated and the other stands up and they are both shooting, something bad can happen.
Think about it; when this scenario occurs, the person standing has put his or her head and shoulders above the muzzles of the seated shooter! Even if no one gets shot, the person standing won’t be able to hear much because of the muzzle blast if the seated person shoots. Agree to either stand or sit. Shoot at birds only in your safe kill zones. The person on the left shoots birds on the left, and the person on the right shoots birds on the right. Birds in the middle are fair game for both!
If the birds keep coming from only one side, take turns. That’s what Craig and I did. The first two birds to come into our spread came from his side and he shot them before they got to the middle of the spread. Two shots – two dead birds. It’s amazing to watch such an accomplished wing shooter.
After the birds fell, we looked at each other and smiled. Craig immediately said, “The next two are yours.” He sat and watched as I shot the next two birds that came by.
Safety in a duck blind is critical. I personally don’t like to hunt three in a blind. It can be a very dangerous situation. When the birds flare and go in all different directions, the person in the middle can easily swing across either of the other shooters, which increases the risk of shooting someone. Constant conversation about safe kill zones and restraint when the birds are not in your kill zone can keep an accident from occurring.We run into the same problem when hunting quail with three hunters. The person in the middle has to be on his toes to keep from shooting someone. Depending on how the birds are holding and the cover we are in, we sometimes just take turns so we have only two shooters at a time. It’s much safer that way. If the cover is open and we can stay in a straight line approaching the point, three shooters are not as much of a problem. When the cover gets thick, that’s when we will take turns and have only two shooters. It’s much safer that way.
The same can be said for shooting with three people in a duck blind. You are a lot better off taking turns and having only two shooters than you are all shooting at once. If you are hunting with a less experienced hunter, the best place to put them is either on the left or right – never in the middle. If they are left-handed, put them on the right side, and if they are right-handed put them on the left. This makes loading and unloading easier. It is also easier for the shooter with less experience to establish safe kill zones and only shoot birds in those zones.
Constant communication between hunters and restraint are the key factors in keeping your hunt successful and safe. After all, filling a limit is no reason to turn what would otherwise be a great memory into a memory you would like to forget!
