Free: Contests & Raffles.
So this last Saturday, I met up with a buddy of mine and his girlfriend for a hunt at potholes. He was coming from EWU and I was heading over from CWU (go Wildcats!!) and he had a good spot in mind. Upon arrival we realized that even his good spot that had held open water was frozen over!! Well after setting up in the dark, the hunt began and the birds were few and far between. I decided to take my kayak out to try to jump some ducks up, for my buddy and I. I dragged the kayak from my Jeep down across the thick ice and then slowly slid my way across the thinner ice and eventually into the near frozen water. Almost right after I hit the water some birds landed around 75 yards away from me on the main channel. I slowly drifted with the current toward them and at 50 yards they busted but immediately circled back to try and land. After their third or fourth attempt at landing I was around 25 yards from their honey hole and one duck finally dropped in. I rose my gun and shot. Its all downhill from there, right after I shot, I overcorrected for the recoil and flipped right over into the water. The initial shock of the frigid water prevented me from yelling but I eventually got my friend's attention and let him know what happened. His girlfriend ran up to get a car warm for me. Around this point I noticed my waders were filling up but my boots were still stuck in the kayak. I was able to free myself from the footholes and I used the overturned craft to float my way to the edge of the ice. I was finally able to touch the bottom and after several attempts of boosting myself on the ice, I made my way onto it without the ice breaking. I crawled on all fours to where my kayak floated to the ice and used it to slide back to where we had set up. I then realized that I had dropped my gun into the water in the chaos of tipping over. Finally, making it to the heated car, I began to regain feeling in my extremities. My fingertips still tingle a little bit. I've heard of this kind of thing happening to unfortunate hunters but I never imagined it would happen to me. Thank the Lord for His help in getting me back alive, and for giving me a good friend.! P.S. If anyone finds a synthetic Remington 870, let me know please!!!
I am glad it ended well. I'm assuming you had a life jacket on, if not I'm sure you will for now on. Look up magnet fishing on youtube I bet you can retrieve the gun.
After their third or fourth attempt at landing I was around 25 yards from their honey hole and one duck finally dropped in. I rose my gun and shot.
Kayaks and canoes aren't the most stable platforms. Unless shooting directly over the bow, I would've passed. Even then, I don't think I would've shot from a kayak. Glad you're ok and chalk it up as a learning experience.
Sorry I haven't gotten back, school and work keep me busy!! So looking back on it I definitely see the stupidity in most of the decisions I made that day. I was not anticipating a shot while on the water, it came up and I thought I had set myself up to not tip over. I thought wrong, and I will not hunt out of kayak again any time soon. I am very thankful for God's supervision in all of it!!I have been back once to try to recover my gun and discovered that the water is only 8-9 feet deep. I tied two big magnets from home depot onto some 550 cord and started going over the area that I expect the gun to be. I will try again soon, my buddy is trained in free-diving and scuba diving so he is going to give me a hand. I think we will find it.And about the bird... It was a Shoveler drake and I remember it folding when I shot but I tipped over so fast I couldn't watch it fall. Once I got back to my buddy, neither one of us wanted to go back out on the kayak to look for it
