Kaiser Tribute

For months now I've tried to finish this tribute to Kaiser. Overwhelmed and not sure exactly what I wanted to add and how I wanted to edited it, I started and deleted more than a few attempts. Then I just held off on completing it out of frustration. Last night I realized today would have been his birthday and decided I would complete it for this day. Not sure if this really how I wanted it to turn out but this is what I put together. Kaiser would have been 10 today.

In Memoriam

"KAISER"

Frank vom Desert Dancer
Son of Auzie vom Grousehafen and Enck vom Orion
February 10, 2008- November 10, 2017

Goodbye Sweet Boy.

Went Out. No Luck.

Finally we were able to make it out afield this season for some quail and duck hunting.  It proved fruitless though.  The first day I decided to check out an old quail spot that I've left alone for years due to the drought.  The area has completely changed, brush is now sparse and looks more gambels terrain than valley quail.  There were a number of jackrabbits which makes sense.

We gave up on the quail and started our way north.  With only a few hours of light, we checked some new areas.  We did find raft of mixed ducks in a pond but we were running out of light to make a stalk.  In the same area we did find at least five cow elk grazing which was nice to see.

The next day we were hard pressed to find any waterfowl.  After hours of searching we did find a trio of ringnecks.  I put a stalk on them and managed a shot after they took flight.  The shot managed to drop one to the water.  As it struggled swimming I decided to place an insurance shot at him before I sent the dog after him.  Once the spread hit though all the sudden he decided to muster all his strength and amazingly took flight.  Once I reloaded he was far out of range.  I eyed him as long as I could hoping he'd realize he should be dead but managed to fly out of sight miles away.  Seemed to epitomized the whole trip but it wasn't complete bust though as I was able to see my friend Dave before he moves away for retirement.  He was also kind enough to give me quite a bit of venison meat he managed this season.  So at least I came home with some quality game meat.

Oh Yeah Part II

Kaiser Is Finally On Facebook...

...If you care to befriend him.

More Hiking With A Gun

The hiking with a gun series continues but in this case I at least managed to take home a little meat.  After driving around looking for a few huntable fields we stumbled upon a few dove roosting on a tree.  I put a sneak on them and ended up idiotically flock shooting them as they flushed.  Singles and pairs would sporadically come in.  Miss after miss I finally connected with one.  We would drive around about without any success.  We never did see any pheasants.  I did speak with a pair of hunters that did see a rooster earlier in the day but before legal shooting time.  As it sucked I chose to head home and bypass the last day.  That's it for pheasants for this year.

Another Hunter But Seeking A Different Kind Of Game

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.

The East Side For the First Time This Season

Weather is predicted to reach us by the end of the week and with that in mind we decided to hit the river in attempt to jump a few waterfowl.  We had only little more than two hours to work with and while we attempted some old and new areas none could be found.  While heading back to the SUV we did flush a few quail and with No.5 Bismuth I took a few shots at them.  I managed to nail one but even after a gallant attempt to retrieve it we ran out of light before surrendering him to the wild.  The setting sun forced us to town for a French meal where we met a nice couple from Turlock who managed a nice 3x3 Buck earlier today.  Tomorrow we try again.

Last Hunt Video Day 2.

Video From The Last Hunt

I finally downloaded, edited (poorly), then uploaded the video from our last hunt.

Double Limits Menagerie

Day One.  It seems that any plan I make, it only ends up being altered.  I had planned on hitting the Sierra earlier in the week only to have that canceled.  So rather then head north I decided to head south for the weekend and chase pheasants.  On Thursday Jeff called and let me know his regular hunting partner cancelled on him and asked if I wanted to sub for him.  In a heartbeat I answered in the affirmative.  Jeff had ran his dogs on Tuesday at the club and saw an abundance of big ducks.  The northern arctic freeze had pushed the birds down and Jeff predicted a good day.

Not an uncommon sight for the spectacular day

At 3am my alarm went off and I packed up the shotguns and headed to the duck club to meet Jeff.  Unlike our last outing Jeff would have to draw a new blind for this time around since he didn't like the blind he was assigned to for this round.  Luckily he drew number one and chose blind 15, one of the best of day's vacant blinds available.

In the darkness of night while heading to the blind, we could hear the variety of ducks teasing us within the various ponds, pintails, wigeons and mallards before legal shoot time.  We sat patiently as quality ducks flew overhead teasing us as we waited for the buzzard to inform that we could begin hunting.  By 5:56 am Jeff began skillfully calling them in. The first birds to fly by were shovelers and we let them pass, waiting for the quality birds that Jeff was so confident would eventually pass.

Our first pintail

It wasn't long before we had birds falling from the sky.  Jeff was dead on with his Beretta auto taking the first bird, a greenwing teal.  Jeff had several before down before I finally connected with my first bird, a hen spoonie.  My first several misses were caused by my over thinking each shot; I was trying to calculate the lead rather than letting it come naturally.  Once I finally shut the brain off I was connecting with some regularity including my first pintail, a drake in eclipse plumage

Jeff readying himself for a shot

Time in a blind is often spent waiting staring at the sky with a brief moments of action which was the case the last time Jeff invited me to his club.  Usually the only thing to pass the time is excellent conversation but on this day it was not the case.  In fact most of our conversations were abruptly cut off with someone interrupting to point out birds flying by.  For the first several hours it seemed nonstop.  Jeff hooked many and got them to commit to landing in the spread but was ultimately foiled by our neighboring blinds that foolishly skybusted birds.  I thought duck clubs had a better class of hunters than refuge hunters but I guess this is not the case.  Naturally this type of nonsense inflames Jeff and rightfully so, most of the birds the neighboring blinds had taken were because Jeff managed to get he birds to commit and work the area.

I expelled more shot than I care to admit.  Shooting Bismuth, Hevi Shot Classic Double, and Tungsten Matrix, at an average of $3.00 let's just say it was an expensive day.  I actually feared I might run out before we reached our limits.  That would not be the case though thanks mostly due to Jeff's dead aim.  On the advice of Jeff he suggested I ditch the side by side in favor of a gun that can shoot steel.  I agree and if he invites me again, I'll take my Model 12. Financially speaking I think this is prudent especially if we have another day like this one.  I'll keep the Merkel Model 8 for jumpshooting.

We managed our limits and had a just about ever species in our bag.  Three mallards (two of which were drakes), one drake pintail, three greenwings (two drakes), one drake cinnamon teal, one hen bufflehead, one hen spoonie, one hen ringneck, one hen gadwall and two hen wigeon.  It was quite a day and I am truly appreciative of Jeff's generosity and not to mention his patience with Kaiser.   while my drahthaar is an outstanding upland dog, a decent jump shooting dog, he is unfortunately an annoying blind dog.  He simpy wants to run.  Sitting and patience are not his forte at least when it comes to hearing gunfire or birds in the air.

We limited out at around noon.  Since I was already packed for pheasants and my drive already cut in half I decided to continue the day looking for roosters.  I drove down and had about 2 hours of light to work with.  I tried a few new fields but had no luck in finding any.  I headed toward town for some burgers at In-N-Out before looking for a motel to rest up for the next day.

Quality Time On Youtube

Illness has kept me down for the past week or so.  As a result I've been spending much of my time on the web trying to pass the time.  I think I've found my new favorite channel, Shooting Photography by Jonathan M McGee.  Here is just a sampling of his beautifully done videos. 

He has even done the trailer for the reborn John Rigby & Co (now properly located in London once again).

Sweatlinin' It

With less than an hour of sleep, I woke up at 1:30am this morning getting ready to head out once again to San Jacinto.  This time though Ed and I would sweatline it in the hopes we'd be able to get drawn for a blind from one of the no shows.  Ed arrived and we were on the road by 2am.

In about an hour we made it to the wildlife area and waited for another hour until all the reservations were processed.  This being the second to last weekend of the season, more than usual number of reservation holders showed up.  I believe 37 out of the 50 reserved blinds showed, a greater average than normal.  We waited for an hour or so for those guys to be processed and hoped we'd be drawn for the remaining 13 empty blinds.

We didn't make the cut unfortunately but Ed's buddy Min did and choose blind W12.  Ed and I would have to hope for a early refill draw.  Name after name was called.  Finally we were called.  20th of maybe 30 or so.  So we wouldn't be expecting a blind anytime soon.  By this time it was 5:30am so I returned to the Rover and slept in the front seat for another hour or so.  When I woke around 7, I figured hunters wouldn't be leaving their blinds for at least another hour or more and suggested we head back into town and get a bite to eat.  We headed to Harry's Café for a less than impressive but adequate gut busting breakfast.  Chicken fried steak and eggs for me, enough calories to hold me over for a week.

After finishing our meals, we headed back to the office.  D1 had been refilled and A1 was now available.  No one ahead of us seemed to want it.  Refill number 19, the guy ahead of us debated whether he wanted it.  Since this blind is deep and really only shoots well in the morning and without a dog he choose to pass.  Ed and I debated whether we wanted it or not.  I figured we should take it.  Being very close to the end of the refill order, any "good" blind would be taken once it became available.  So we'd be waiting for a long time.  The mentality of both of us was it's better to be miserable at the blind with a slim chance at birds than waiting at the office being miserable with no chance at all for birds.

As we made our way to the same blind we hunted last timed, Ed who started a few minutes ahead of me saw three teal fly into the brush in the corner.  After we dropped our stuff at the blind we made our way to jump shoot these teal.  Ed would make his way at the other edge and I'd send the dog in to flush the birds out.  The birds flushed out.  At first it was just coots.  Then within the coots the three teals flew out.  Since I was staring directly in the sun and with coots among them it didn't register until too late that those were the birds we wanted!  Once it dawned on me they we out of range.  What a fool.   That proved to be our only chance for the next hours and we gave up at noon.  At the parking lot,  I let Kaiser run around and he ended up finding a dead hen spoonie, either thrown away from a hunter or a bird that managed to fly away a hunter's gun before expiring. 

Arriving at the office, we saw Min waiting to refill at another blind.  As we chatted, he let us know he managed only a hen greenwing teal.  Others began filtering in from their blinds and from what we saw they only had a teal or spoonie as they entered to report.  Looks like most everyone was having a rough time so we weren't the only ones.  We debated on whether to stay and re-refill but at 15th in line we chose against it.  It was too brutal.  With little to no birds flying and with temps around 80, knowing when to quit is valuable characteristic trait.  This was Ed's last hurray for the year.  For me, with one weekend left in the season I'll try to make it out to the Sierras for one last attempt to get this bad taste in my mouth.

Video From The Last Hunt

Coup de Grâce

Surprisingly the day before, we ran into or saw no hunters afield despite being a weekend.  As a result we were able to hunt all the spots I wanted to and ran into several birds.  Everyone must have stayed home to watch the playoffs.  Now with everyone back to work, I figured Monday should be better.  At least that was the theory.

Since I knew that most of my go-to spots would likely be undisturbed, I decided to start the morning checking out new spots.  The first spot was a bust and so I headed off to a pond that I had not checked out in a long while.  It was barren and half frozen.  That was okay as I wanted to make sure I remembered where it was so I could come back to it in the spring and try my luck on some largemouth.

As the pond was a bust, we drove on looking for another pond I know of and while I was unable to find it, I did find a new one.  It was completely froze off. These roads unless you drive them all the time it is easy to take a wrong road and leads you off track. 

We checked some other areas and they were also all frozen.  We then headed to one of my favorite spots.  On the first half we flushed three mallards.  I took a shot at one missing with the first shot and it looked like I nicked her with the second that caused her to spin around and changed direction, with my gun empty dad took over and dropped her down with the first shot of his Merkel Model 8 loaded with Bismuth No.4.   I tried crossing the stream thinking it was shallow but it was deceptively deep.  I wore my waders without the shoulder straps connected and had some water filled my Simms.  Kaiser and I made it across to retrieve the hen and made it back to dad to hand it to him.  We moved on and then we flushed a pair of mallards.  Having a perfect bead on the greenhead I fired but since the ducks flew behind some trees I only hit the tree.  I could tell by the impact, it would have nailed the mallard had there been no tree been there.

Having checked the rest of this area without any success, we drove off to check another section of the river I never been.    After hiking upstream some ways, I gave up on the area and moved on.  On the way out all we found was a lone merganser that I wasn't too interested in taking.  We took our lunch streamside and while eating we were buzzed by one of our Naval pilots in what appeared to be a  F-18 Super Hornet.

On another part of the river I parked along side water after checking to see if there were any ducks.  When I climbed out of the Rover, I checked the water again and from the far bank three mallards flushed.  Had I seen them I could have put a very easy stalk on them.  I walked up the river and only saw no more premium duck only "trash" ducks. 

By this time I was exhausted from four days of hunting and looked at some areas that didn't require too much hiking.  We did find two cottontails but did not take them.  With about an hour left of light, I decided to drive to an area that Dave told me was holding geese.  Having never hunted that area I drove down the dirt road and it proved to be too hard an area to hunt while tired.  It would have been a lot of bushwhacking that I was in no mood for.  The rest of the road was closed off and I had to turn around and that was the trip.  This maybe the last "trip" of the season unfortunately.  Hopefully I can get one more in but I'm not too sure that's going to happen. 

Gettin' Better

In California, At Least For This Season, We Are Allowed Two Hen Mallards On Our Daily Limits

After yesterday's sorry showing, I had high hopes for today.  Anything would have been better.  Unlike yesterday where I was just winging it, I actually had a game plan today. First, I'd check a lake that Bob had told me that the ducks hung out at the outer edges of the lake and while you can't see them in through the binos, they'd likely be hiding in the tules.  Next I's hit up one of my favorite parts of the river.  Then to my old stand by in case I couldn't get any birds.

The Impenetrable Tule Fortress That Hid 20 Or So Canvasbacks

I arrived at the lake and I glassed all I could while in the Rover.  I saw a single bird on the eastern shore so he made our way there and tried to jump the bird.  We couldn't quite find him so I glassed the far end and saw a flock of 20 canvasbacks.  I'd never seen canvasbacks in numbers, I've only seen them in singles or a pairs.  I drove to the other end and tried to make a stalk but the tules were simply too high and thick.  I tried to find an opening so I could peak out and check for the birds but I could not find anywhere to penetrate this tule fortress. 

It was hopeless as even if I climbed through the tules, I would have spooked the birds long before I made it through and had a clear shot.  We got out of there and I made it to one of my favorite places to jump shoot ducks.

Our First Goldeneye

Disappointed that I wasn't going to take, or at least try and take, my first canvasback, We were finally finding some ducks with regularity.  It was a good mix of divers and puddle ducks.  I did take my first goldeneye.  Later I would miss an easy shot at a mallard pair.  I captured my crappy shooting on the headcam.  And as I watch it here in my motel room, I'm so pissed at myself.  Such an easy shot and I can't believe I missed so bad.  I simply got overzealous and failed to keep my cool and blew it.  The first shot was behind him as I could see the water splash and I overcompensated for the second which I believe I was ahead of him.

We Wait, Hoping For Some Pass Shooting

I missed more birds than I care to admit.  The old man managed to shoot a couple and we lost one of his birds as we were separated and by the time I got to him with Kaiser the bird likely dove and was hanging on for dear life.  We made it to one of my go-to spots and I flushed a mallard pair.  Taking my first shot at the greenhead, I missed.  Thinking I made the hit I switched to the hen and took her down with my tungsten matrix number 3 shell. 

My meal-Boudin Blanc Aux Truffles With Yukon Gold Puree And Roasted Apples

Dad's dinner-Pasta Bolognese

Afterwards we tried our luck at some pass shooting but no birds came within range.  It was time for dinner, the best of this trip.  Despite it's good food the restaurant was empty and we were the only patrons at least while we were eating. 

Unforgiving Landscape of the American West

Another Bald Eagle Sighted. Given Our Location I Doubt It Was The Same Bird We Saw Yesterday

Tomorrow is our last day and hopefully it's a good one.

Merry X-Mas To All

Kaiser and I wish you and your family a safe and Merry Christmas.  If your sense for humor is  juvenile and immature like mine this video should put a smile on your face.  If not I'd recommend you don't watch.

The video from the last hunt.  It's shitfree I promise.

Another Mauser M12 Promo

Lonesome Dove

I tried to get at least one of my buddies to come out with me but I must have heard every lame excuse this week, "I have a (bow) competition," "I have to work," "I have to go to my son's game," "My sister's baby is due this weekend." None of the them sounded legitimate to me so it was up to Kaiser and I to work the fields by ourselves.  With just the two of us I knew working the bigger fields would be difficult to get those pheasants to hold for a point.

Without anyone to wait up on, I accidently overslept an hour and a half.  I mistakenly turned off the alarm instead of putting it on snooze.  When I finally made it out I was stuck in traffic!  On a weekend before 6am.  Give me break.  I made the drive and arrived over an hour past the start of legal shooting time for pheasants.  I worked a field adjacent to thick natural vegetation.  The field proved empty at least the area I was working.  We made it back to the Rover and worked the natural vegetation.  Kaiser would go on point and I walked up.  Three Gambels quail would flush and I would miss badly despite the fact the bird looked as big as a softball in my mind.  As I reloaded a couple more could flush out.  We could not give chase as the area was too thick to ford through.  For the life of me I can not hit Gambels.  Granted I rarely go after them but every time I see one here I have always missed them.  In fact I've never taken a Gambels and its starting to piss me off.

Nice Point But These Are Not The Birds We Are Looking For

Most of the day was spent driving around looking for fields to hunt.  I finally found a few but none had even a hen within them.  I did manage to find a few dove in the ditches.  The first single I managed to take with one shot out of the IC barrel of the Merkel 147SL 12 gauge.  The others I missed poorly and I began overthinking my shots.  Swing through, pull away, constant lead, I tried them all and caused me to overthink very shot.  Worst mistake.

Running Out Of Time For the Day And For The Pheasant Season

This outing unlike last week, I had more opportunities to take game.   I even ran into another covey of Gambels in another area in the thick stuff.  One bird flushed out of a tree and I put my bead on him and shot without continuing my swing.  Missed with both shots.  Gambels need not worry about this hunter apparently.  Pathetic.

I managed to take down two more dove unfortunately I was unable to recover them.  Nothing upsets me more.  The first one few in stuff so thick I'd need a bulldozer to get him.  The other fell into an adjacent alfalfa field but we had two canals we needed to navigate past and when we finally made it to the field I lost my mark and Kaiser was unable to find the bird.  Legal shooting time now coming to an end I called it quits and headed back to the truck.  I had talked to a few hunters throughout the day and all of them flushed hens.  Despite bringing provisions for another day of hunting I decided to head home instead.  With no promise of roosters and without enough hunters to thoroughly work a field I thought it prudent.  We have one weekend left to see if we can get ourselves a rooster and with Ed committed and others interested we'll see if we head back out next weekend or if we try our luck on something else.

Such Is Hunting

South of here lies farmland rich with game.  Pheasants were our target but would be happy to take a Gambel's quail, dove, waterfowl or cottontail if presented with one.  It's been a few years since I've hunted this area, at least five years.  Despite poor hunting years, I have always managed to at minimum come home with some sort of game so I hoped for the same this year.  I generally don't travel south as the hunting options are more limited and the fact that I would be sharing fields with illegals hopping the border fence with Border Patrol giving chase.

 

Worried not having been here in so long, my concern was that many of the fields may have been posted and hunting areas more limited than before.  It seems that this is not the case as most of the areas I wanted to hunt are still open to the public. 

 

Normally I don't hunt with rookies.  I don't want to have to worry about the gun safety of a novice, the safety of my dog and the safety of myself or the newbie.  It's tough enough trying to keep track of Kaiser let alone worrying about the muzzle disciple of another who has never felt the excitement of a wild gamebird flushing.  But despite this I took my buddy out for his inaugural hunt.  I made some ground rules before handing him my spare Merkel Model 8.  First until I feel comfortable with him in the field, he would carry the shotgun broken open and when a bird flushed or when Kaiser went on point would he be able to close the gun and prepare to fire.   Of course I went over the basics such as field of fire, muzzle disciple, use of safety and such.   After working a few fields, I was comfortable enough to carry normally with gun on safe and action closed.

All in all it was tough day, not surprisingly given this years state of hunting but we did see birds.  Hunting here is not really my cup of tea.  Don't get me wrong I like hunting farm fields and I like hunting pheasants but I don't like having to hop scotch to one field to the next.  Much of the day is driving around looking for the next field to hunt.  As Chul described it, it's like fishing a Blue Ribbon Steam, you end up driving looking for open holes more than you actually fish.  Its not physically exhausting but more mentally.

 

As we drove we must have flush over 60 doves and a handful of quail for the day with the Rover while searching for the next field.  None of them were really hunted as by the time we could give chase they were gone.  On our very first farm field, Kaiser became birdy and went on point, adjusted as the bird zigzagged trying to escape.  It flushed before me but as I began my mount, I realized it was a hen so no shot was taken.

We would spend much of the day driving around looking for areas.  Kaiser would give us three or four more points throughout the day but all the birds would elude us and no more pheasants would flush in the alfalfa fields.

Earlier in the day we worked more wild habitat and I managed to take a jack.  Toward the end of the day we worked the natural habitat near the fields.  I have had success here in the past flushing roosters, dove, quail and rabbits so this would be the last chance if we wanted to come home with some meat.

We would eventually flush a few pheasants none of which were within a firing lane nor were they easily identified as a rooster so no shots were taken at them.  Also quail flushed wild too quick and far for a shot.  They flew into the most dense area, impenetrable for us humans so giving chase was nearly impossible.  A few quail did run in front of us about a hundred yards but by the time we were even close to them they were gone too.

On the hike back to the truck, I did manage to take a dove with the last few minutes of legal hunting time.  With the light now fading fast it was time to drive back home.   I decided to give my harvested meat to my buddy so he could try it and also take the hide of the jack so he use it for tying or for use as lining on his new bow quiver.  It's was too bad I wasn't able to get him on any game but such is hunting.

We went for a white truffle burger at a new joint I hadn't tried yet.  Although it was fine, personally I should have just ordered a regular hamburger.  I'm not quite sure of these so called "gourmet" burgers, sometimes they are more gimmick than anything else.