I love hunting in the snow, so I grabbed the dog and hit the trail.
Wouldn't you know it, the first thing the idgit does is jumps through the ice into the lake, and lays down. Then wants to play all lovey dovey. Sheesh.
Kinda hard to shoot like this:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...mananddog1.jpg
I stopped by the lake, but did not call any in. I've had some luck here in the past but not today.
So we hit another lake, but stayed in the pines.
I love pines:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ronharris1.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ronharris4.jpg
Nothing happening here either. Back to the other lake.
Passed a forlorn looking snowman on the way in:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...snowman2-1.jpg
I got tired of dragging the darn camera with, and of course that's when I hit the jackpot. Maybe I'll leave it from now on.
As I was hiking down a trail, I noticed a flock of coots on the lake, acting rowdy. But the dog gave me the look "ya see all them crows?"
Yup, she was right. There were twenty or so of them, and they were pissed at something or other. I tried to outflank them, but there's only very tall, mature pines along the shore here, and I scared them off.
Not to be discouraged, I found a nice hide in the crook of three downed trees on the lake edge. I set the caller to wounded crow, and put it twenty yards or so behind me. The crows were on the other side of a finger of the lake.
I generally have no luck calling birds across water, but Chuck showed me that it can be done, so I gave it a try.
Well those birds were still ticked, and they came over in a group to help their wounded buddy. Unfortunately the trees here are prob over eighty feet tall. I picked a crow in the middle of the group (hoping to splash him) but he did the glide of death into the trees instead. I missed all my other shots; I prob would have had more of a chance with Chucks full choke w/ #6 method, but I rarely have high shots so I go with #8 / mod.
I wasn't too disappointed that it was over so fast cuz I was sitting on a pile of snow in the shade, and the wind was really whippin across the lake.
I moved down the finger and set up in the sun. Three actually came over from all the way across the lake, but they busted me and stayed at high altitude. I didn't care much.
Off to another county for some deep pines. These pines are a little thicker and taller than I like, but Chuck and I had some luck in this kind of stuff a couple of years ago. I killed two directly above me using just the hand call. Probably because I left the camera in the truck.
It's strange hearing pellets falling through the pines all around me.
The stupid dog left me in the lurch. I usually follow her out, but she disappeared within 20 feet of me. It took me a good 45 minutes to get out of there. I had a nice little hike back up the road to where my truck was at. So much for my bushwhacking skills; I came out about 100 yards west of where I thought I was at.
Next stop was a couple of miles down the road. There is a nice trail here. I wasn't feeling adventurous after that last messup. These pines are perfect for my type of hunting; about 10 foot tall and not too thick. I called in three but did not get a shot - they stayed out of range and gave a warning call. Some idiot (and I think I know who) must have educated them.
But on the way out I heard one call not 10 yards away, so I gave him a toot on the old Darrell Gibson, and sure enough two came right over me.
I missed both. Easy shots, too. Oh well.
Time to head home and chop some wood.
Sorry for the paucity of photos guys. Hopefully I'll do better next time, but here's one to leave you with.
The dog comes with:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...n/chloe1-2.jpg
Thanks for reading!
