RBHarter
West Central AR
Ben is building some great stories !
I know we all have some and some little thing or other brings up something you hadn't thought a thought about in forever , although sometimes it seems like it was just the other day 3? yr ago .
So how about ? A tall tale/short story thread ?
My oldest girl was my hunting buddy . It didn't matter how cold it got , wind , rain , snow , she did tend to nap some on those warm sunny mornings in the duck blind and I only know that because when she slumped just so she'd snort or snore or something and everytime she would start a little and wake me up when she kicked me .
She also had this knack for finding the only restricted drake in a swarm pushed off a pond or something or just in a mixed flight . Like me she wasn't much on clays hand thrown or otherwise , but she had the skills in the field .
One morning we had decided to call it a wash about 9:45 having just plain old picked a lousy place to set up on a point that always had some kind of action hitting it except that day . I'd run a classic big J 8 decoy out to the left over about 25 yd and 6 coots , 2 sleepers , a butt , in a bunch about 15 yd off to the left with 6-7 stragglers out to 50 yd or so . Nice set up we just couldn't get a bird within a half mile even the resident mudhens were a mile away on the other end of the reservoir ...... The truck was well covered , and well away . Unless there was coyote working or something I don't know was wrong . We talked of this and that , balls of string , spinning tops and sealing wax like Dad's are want to do as the prime days of time spent with they're little girls are coming to an end .
We packed up , she grabbed the sleepers , and the butt then picked up the J while I got the rest .
Walking back to the truck we were anything but quiet and had to go over a hump and up along a tree line . Something must have spooked a whole pond off because about the time we turned at the Russian olives we heard the ducks . I don't how many but through the trees the bigger slower birds were starting to break out and separate into layers . So we turned heels a beat it back about 25 or 30 yd up to a big sagebrush pile and just in time for the teal to break over the trees . We held for just a few seconds and the big flight was on us ,I was looking for pintail as I scanned through the shovlers but no long necks so I picked a trio and shot my 3 shots . She picked out a bird too , and when she shot it folded up but it's wing man was to fast and far . I picked the pair of drake mallards and we walked over to hers . I would have guessed 2-300 birds so probably more like 125-50 . Keep in mind that at that time it was only the second season that Pintail were legal again after a 15 year prohibition , red heads were 2 either sex , 1 canvas back , 1 hen mallard separately or in agregate . She killed 1 of 3 Cans in that whole bunch . I'd bet that's why she didn't get a second shot .
There was a little good natured ribbing on back to the truck .
We get one shoot all day and she shuts down the hunt until we can eat it .
It was a trend that followed the whole season of her shooting the oddballs or special rules birds .
A different lifetime , at a Padre's game .
I know we all have some and some little thing or other brings up something you hadn't thought a thought about in forever , although sometimes it seems like it was just the other day 3? yr ago .
So how about ? A tall tale/short story thread ?
My oldest girl was my hunting buddy . It didn't matter how cold it got , wind , rain , snow , she did tend to nap some on those warm sunny mornings in the duck blind and I only know that because when she slumped just so she'd snort or snore or something and everytime she would start a little and wake me up when she kicked me .
She also had this knack for finding the only restricted drake in a swarm pushed off a pond or something or just in a mixed flight . Like me she wasn't much on clays hand thrown or otherwise , but she had the skills in the field .
One morning we had decided to call it a wash about 9:45 having just plain old picked a lousy place to set up on a point that always had some kind of action hitting it except that day . I'd run a classic big J 8 decoy out to the left over about 25 yd and 6 coots , 2 sleepers , a butt , in a bunch about 15 yd off to the left with 6-7 stragglers out to 50 yd or so . Nice set up we just couldn't get a bird within a half mile even the resident mudhens were a mile away on the other end of the reservoir ...... The truck was well covered , and well away . Unless there was coyote working or something I don't know was wrong . We talked of this and that , balls of string , spinning tops and sealing wax like Dad's are want to do as the prime days of time spent with they're little girls are coming to an end .
We packed up , she grabbed the sleepers , and the butt then picked up the J while I got the rest .
Walking back to the truck we were anything but quiet and had to go over a hump and up along a tree line . Something must have spooked a whole pond off because about the time we turned at the Russian olives we heard the ducks . I don't how many but through the trees the bigger slower birds were starting to break out and separate into layers . So we turned heels a beat it back about 25 or 30 yd up to a big sagebrush pile and just in time for the teal to break over the trees . We held for just a few seconds and the big flight was on us ,I was looking for pintail as I scanned through the shovlers but no long necks so I picked a trio and shot my 3 shots . She picked out a bird too , and when she shot it folded up but it's wing man was to fast and far . I picked the pair of drake mallards and we walked over to hers . I would have guessed 2-300 birds so probably more like 125-50 . Keep in mind that at that time it was only the second season that Pintail were legal again after a 15 year prohibition , red heads were 2 either sex , 1 canvas back , 1 hen mallard separately or in agregate . She killed 1 of 3 Cans in that whole bunch . I'd bet that's why she didn't get a second shot .
There was a little good natured ribbing on back to the truck .
We get one shoot all day and she shuts down the hunt until we can eat it .
It was a trend that followed the whole season of her shooting the oddballs or special rules birds .
A different lifetime , at a Padre's game .