First of all I belong to a small duck club with 4 ponds in Sequim; here is my weekend.
Sat Jan 7th spent the entire day on our pond 1 and did not fire a shot. I saw 2 yotes by the manure cannon running towards pond 4 at 0700. Had a yote come into pond 1 next to the fill pipe and me with 3” #4s at 40+ yards it was a push. Went back to the truck to get some BBBs and charge my cell and was watching 60+ swans behind pond 3. They started taking off in groups of 3 & 4; I got my field glasses out to see why, it was another yote trying to sneak on them. Went back to the blind with the BBBs and a varmint call and was squeaking away and watching a 5th yote on the way in left of pond 2. That is when 3 teal landed in the pond and me with BBB; no way do I want a teal hit with BBB. Sun Jan 8th did a sneak on the ponds after hearing birds before shooting time when it was time to split up three birds came from the pond on my left and went into the pond on my right my buddy doing the sneak on that pond flushed three smiling mallards (Spoon bills) he got one and I got one. After a breakfast of Spam and eggs in the blind we went for a scouting mission to see how the other ponds were. On my leg of the mission I found the bones of the left rear quarter of a deer with part of the pelvis still attached. We never had another shot the rest of the day. On the way home we did some scouting West of the club to see if any of the birds were staying elsewhere; we did find the Swans in a field ¾ of a mile from us and that field had another yote doing a sneak on them as well. It maybe it’s time to add a suppresser to my .17 HMR and take it to the blind along with my shotgun if legal?
