Today was a lot of fun. I took my son out. We got to the place at 5:30. Still setting the decoys up we had two groups of mallards come in and out of our life. After a bit more time and now in the blind I stoned a drake as it was passing over the pond. It dropped right in the center. This was the first time my dog had ever seen ice, he whined a little at the edge of the pond not knowing what to do and then crashed his way through for a 40 yard retrieve.
My son wanted to be out of the blind a little bit after that. He was walking around with a stick smashing ice at the edge of the pond when another group of mallards came in. My shotgun was in the blind 10 yards from me. We were as busted as the ice my son was focusing on.
Back to the blind my partners took a nap. A flock of widgeon dropped in and my gun went click! I ejected the casing, seems the primer may have rusted from leaving it damp in a bucket. I figure it’s good to learn that on a no pressure hunt like todays.
After I inspected my remaining shells and reloaded another group dropped in an hour later. 3 shots, 3 misses but then one bird started losing altitude and landed in the stubble 300 yards away. I lined my dog up and sent him across the stubble. At 200 yards he looked back, I signaled to go and he kept going. The bird saw him coming and floundered around trying to get away and he nabbed him and sprinted back so proud.
I could have shot a limit today, but this was way more fun.
