I've also shot a lot of 5's, when puddle jumping ducks, because it worked well in the 16 gauges I was shooting. Now days I use it in a 12 when it gets windy in SD while pheasant hunting. Last few years I've been buying it at Gary's gun shop in Sioux Falls, SD when I'm there. They carried the Black Diamond brand in real hard shot. Best patterns I've ever gotten. Was there last summer and all they had was a couple bags of standard 8's in the whole shop. Said they were also feeling the shortage and freight was terrible. I've really got enough loaded to last several years anyway. I mainly shoot hard six's in my 20's for pheasant. Love the way that Lt20 A5 sounds on a crisp December morning. December sure seems like a long ways away this time of year. Tics are getting bad too so a constant reminder.
Saw a big male wolf at my beaver contract today. They sure look rough this time of year. He'd been leaving "calling cards" in the trails to the ponds. I caught a glimpse of him coming up a low draw from the East in the center of the slash. He had to cross the road in front of me and didn't seem too worried about me or my quad. His female should have pups in den now, so I've been leaving some beaver fleshings near one of the beaver dams. Left about four gallons so the pups should enjoy that. Probably a shock to their senses when they see how much water I've moved out of that country in the last week.
This is the main road going into the property. The pipe you can see is the overflow pipe. Out of sight and closer to the camera is a 36" culvert still covered. The beaver plugged both and the water breached the road and washed out the culvert. To the East (left in picture) is the Hill River about a 1/4 mile which this flowage empties into. To the West (right in picture) and then south are two smaller creeks both leading to separate beaver ponds. For about 3/8 of a mile, on both creeks, the beaver had flooded, with four minor dams built, and two major dams built within the flowage.
Heres a better picture of the dam at the culvert and how much water it is holding. You can just see the top of the overflow culvert in the center of the dam. That used to be about a foot below grade, but is now support on the remains of the dam at one end and laying in a washed out depression on the other end.
This picture is the same location but looking farther to the south. That is a new slash this last winter, due to storm damage from last July's tornado. If you look close at the road adjacent to it you'll see there is water running across the road, and everything to the West (right) is also flooded.
This is the same culvert two days ago,after I removed the beaver(5), and cleaned it out so I could release the water in the main pond.
This is the main dam about midway through, and after I've released about 4 feet of water. I lowered it about another 3 feet today, and should about get it back to the natural level.
This is looking out onto the main pond with the beaver lodge in the center. When I started this contract last week all you can see to the tree line, and beyond, was flooded. The mud clump in the foreground is the remnant of a beaver house I cleaned out about 10 years ago. I do this contract about every two years or so. If you look real close at the beaver house, you can see the water line, where the water level was, about three feet down from the top. That pile of sticks is out front of the house and attached to it is the beavers "cache" or feed supply for the winter. The hole under it, leading into the house is the main entrance. Note the void in the bottom below the cache and out from the house. That is where the mud came from to construct the house and make room for the cache, the top 24" of which will be frozen in the winter, so they dig it out so they have access to the cache when it freezes. Good to know if your on thin ice!! Guess how I know that.
