Hoping For A Better Outing

Saturday afternoon I got a call from Jeff telling me how shitting the hunting was at the club.  Shocking, considering how much weather we have gotten.  Jeff theorized even with the rain, it's been a warm rain and it's not pushing the birds.  Despite the poor outing and with his wife away for the weekend, Jeff asked if I wanted to join him for a hunt today.   Without hesitation I agreed with the hopes of getting the bad taste out of my mouth from the past Owens trip.

Sunday hunts are late affairs for Jeff, so I met him around 10:30am.  Again we had the club to ourselves and Jeff expected the ducks to tucked away in the back ponds.  So as we approached our blind we would flush the birds but the plan would be for us not take a shot and would set up and wait for them to return.  After switching blinds, it would be hours before we would see any shootable bird.  The first bird was a lone drake gadwall that came over us, I shot first and missed with both barrels before Jeff nailed him blinding himself in the process.  Last night he sprayed his gun with WD40 as it jammed on him Saturday.  When he shot the oil sprayed all over his face.  After cleaning himself and flushing his eyes he was fine.  More time would pass before we finally had a drake mallard come within range but we both missed it.  Not long after an eclipse drake spoonie came within range and I took it.  Wounded, the duck was on the move, Kaiser and I gave chase.  Kaiser dove into the reeds to dig him out.  We got some flights but none were within range.