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.

Vet Gives The Go Ahead

After Kaiser's bout with bloat in December I accepted the fact that the wingshooting season for us was over.  But after a visit to the vet, she had given us the all clear to begin normal life.  With only one week left in the season, I decided to bite the bullet and buy all the bird stamps.

We made it to the Eastern Sierras late afternoon on Tuesday.  I tried a small creek that usually produces but without any luck.  I then paid a visit to my old friend Dave who let me know that the LADWP had dried up some ponds and diverted it to a new location.  So we went to check it out only to find a pair of hunters leaving the area.  No birds in sight.

The next morning we hunted the river and managed to flush a pair of mallards too far out of range. Not long after I managed a shot at a drake ringneck only to miss.  Afterwards we decided to head to the Upper to do some fishing and found the river loaded with fishermen on every bend.  What the heck?  Why some many people midweek?  I didn't even want to bother so we checked out some nearby areas for duck but without any luck.  So we headed down the valley.  I was looking for some old ponds but ended up wasting time driving around.  I didn't really hunt the area last year as Jeff invited me to his duck club most weekends so my memory was bit hazing as to where these locations were exactly.  When I did find these areas they were void of ducks.  So I tried some parts of the river I knew usually held birds.  The Owens is getting harder and harder to jump shoot.  There simply is too much overgrowth.  You can barely get to the water anymore.  In a year or two a lot of the water will be inaccessible.  We did mange to see a covey of quail but they were in a residential area likely wild "pets" of the residents.

Thursday morning I decided we will head to the Upper and fish for a couple hours and hunt the rest of the day.  On the way up we saw a herd of 40 or more deer all does.  Geese lined the river but would have been impossible to hunt as there is no cover to conceal a stalk. Anyway I wanted to rest Kaiser somewhat as he is not in full hunting strength.  I did not want to push him too hard.

Jeff had suggested a new streamer technique for the Upper that he used with great success in the past so I wanted to try it.  By 9am there were all ready four cars on the river.  I managed a spot on the river and tried my luck for two hours.  No success.  We headed down the valley in search of birds.

The old man asked to stop by a shop to get some beef jerky.  I said I can do better and took him to the Mahogany Smoked Meats.  After sampling a few we ended with the elk and wild boar jerky.  We started our way south stopping a few locations.  I managed to jump another pair.  After missing the first shot I carefully aimed at the second.  Clearly missing even more.  I completely stopped my swing and shot under him as he was raising.  Eventually we flushed another pair, I connected and saw the drake mallard fall on the opposite bank in the reeds.  I had to navigate a way for the dog and I to cross.  When we did we looked for the bird only to lose it.  I can't believe we lost it.  We looked for at least half an hour or more.  I marked it well but it either dove or somehow swam away while we were trying to cross the river.  The wingshooting season ends this Sunday and it is unlikely we'll head out again but at least Kaiser was able to do what he loves at least once this year. I think in the future I will forego cast and blast type trips.  For me it's too distracting, either focus on fishing or focus on hunting.

Lufftwaffe Drilling On Youtube

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

Hiking With A Gun

This is the last chance to try and get ourselves some pheasants and doves before the season closes.  My intention was on the way here to try and intercept the covey of quail Chul and I flushed while hunting turkey last spring but with the entrance loaded with trucks I decided to bypass that and head straight to the farmlands.  But before that we had stay in cell phone range to receive an important call so we headed for a restaurant for a Persian lunch. 

We arrived at the farmlands with a few hours to roam a few fields,  no pheasants were flushed nor seen.  I managed to flush a dove in a ditch, took a shot and it landed in the nearby field so we gave chase only to have it flush again with me missing him with both shots.  Other than that it was a lot of hiking with a gun.  It was time to head into town for some Thai food and call it a day.

Second Day. Hanging In There

Day two wasn't much better than the last.  My usual spots all proved to be duds.  After visiting Dave to say hi, he gave us some venison meat that he harvested this year.  Since he bagged three in so many states, I think he had plenty to spare.  We took off to check some nearby areas.

After we finished lunch, some serious winds hit the valley and so changing to fly fishing was not an option.  It took me forever to find the pond I met Bob two years ago.  It was mostly loaded with coots but did hold a few ruddies and three hen ringnecks.  I dropped the old man off at one edge of the pond and drove to the other end hoping to flush the birds toward him.  When I got to the side the two hens already took flight.  They were borderline too far but I took the shot anyways, missing with both barrels.  It did though turn the birds toward dad and he managed one shot at them but missed as well.

I drove back to pick up dad and we moved to a smaller nearby pond.  There we found some more hens, I wasn't too sure what they were but I believe they were gadwalls.  I told dad to head over to an opening of the reeds and see if he could get a shot from there while I swept over toward the edge.  When I made it there I stepped into the tules and felt the ground slowly give in.  I was sinking to my knees and while I tried to get out I sank even more.  By this time I heard dad take his two shots.  I managed to drag myself out of there by pulling myself with the tules but not before a rush of water entered my waders.  When I got out dad told me he nicked one and the direction of the flight of the birds and it looked like they may have flown to the pond we were just hunting.  So we drove back, while glassing the area I noticed a fair sized covey of quail on the far side running along the bank.  We made our way to them and after switching our bismuth and tungsten rounds for lead, we began our search for them.  I managed to take a jackrabbit in our search.  We eventually saw the covey of thirty flush wild afar.  We gave chase and managed to get them to rise but we missed our shots.  They flushed into a mass of impenetrable tules and we gave up before we ran out of legal shooting time.  Last night we asked the nice Indian owners of the motel we stayed at if the Indian restaurant was any good.  They said it wasn't bad for the area and it was worth a visit so that's what he did.

Last Hunt Video Day 2.

Video From The Last Hunt

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

Not Like The Day Before

After staying a night in the biggest shithole motel I've ever slept in, it was time for another day afield.  Sunday's hunt was much different than the previous day's epic duck hunt.  I knew the hunt would be difficult without a group of hunters or dogs to pressure the birds. Despite that I choose to give it a try in the hopes of getting a rooster to rise.  Early in the hunt we managed to flush up two hen pheasants but to have them only fly into a posted field.

One or the first things I noticed this year was a lot more fields were posted this year.  Some of my favorites were now off limits.  Also several fields were barren and were now dirt pits not sure if that is the result of our drought or the farmer's economic conditions nevertheless it was disheartening. But with the Santa Ana winds picking up I was caught up in some massive dust storms for a while so I drove out of those areas.

I drove around looking for new fields.  Kaiser managed to scent a bird in a large alfalfa field that ran on him.  I saw the track it left and we worked the field as thoroughly as possible but the wily bird out ran us.  I'm confident that had we had a number of hunters with us, we could have flushed the little bastard.  While driving around I found a duck club loaded with quality ducks.  Of course it was off limits to me but it was impressive to see the number of mallards, pintails,  among other waterfowl.

Hunting, as I predicted, was tough.  I only managed to flush two hen pheasants that flew into a posted field.  While I saw a number of doves while driving, I only had a minimal number of shots at them.  I did take two for the day. So at least I wasn't skunked on this trip.

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.

Duck Club Invitation

I've never hunted a private duck club before so I was excited when I received an invitation to hunt The Little Ramona Duck Club from my new hunting buddy Jeff.  I met Jeff on an online forum when I posted a picture of one of my past hunting trips and he inquired about my Merkel Model 8.  He had thought it was a Sauer, a gun that he had once owned in the past.  This struck a conversation regarding fine doubles and we became fast friends.  He asked if I would like to join him at his club and I jumped on the opportunity.

After about three hours sleep I awoke in the morning to meet Jeff personally for the first time near the entrance of the club.  After a few pleasantries and war stories we made our way to the blind (14).  Half way to there Jeff realized he forgotten the duck stamp in his car.  So we unpacked the gear once we made it to the blind and raced back to the car to get it and raced back before legal shooting time.

Only a handful of club members showed up today which meant most blinds were available but this blind was one of the more sought after ones.  The club assigns blinds for two weeks after that you move 5 blinds away.  Jeff hunted last week on the opener and managed a handful of teal and spoonies.  He did clean up the algae from his decoy spread the day before to ensure a landing spot for the birds.  When he returned again today he was disappointed to see the algae return covering the all his previous week's labor.  This meant birds would unlikely land in the spread making calling somewhat useless and also meant we'd be pass shooting for the most part.  Had he know the pond was covered in green stuff he would have taken another blind.

The morning was slow with the occasional flyby by a teal but with the low light and speed at which they came in there were no shots fired.  Eventually we'd see spoonies fly but none in shooting distance.  Typically Jeff doesn't take shovelers and lets them pass.  Since he figured not many "good" birds were around we'd take them.  Not long did one buzz through our pond.  We both fired and it fell from a lung shot.  Since it was before 7:30 and it fell beyond our pond, club rules didn't allow us to go get it at this point.  So we marked it and would go fetch it when we were allowed.  Of course this did not go well with Kaiser as he it made him whine even more.  Kaiser is not much of a blind dog.  He never was trained to sit patiently (not that he would even had I trained him to) while hunting.  He simply is too impatient and wants to run and hunt.  I warned Jeff about it and asked whether I should leave him home but he assured me that he didn't mind.  Not knowing Jeff, I was still slightly uneasy and not sure if he was just being polite I really didn't want to tick the guy off on our first meeting.  Especially since I wanted to be invited back!  I brought Kaiser though figuring he will be annoying but if we had a cripple or bird in the tules he would make up for it.  That is exactly what happened when the time came when we could leave our blind.  We worked the area we though the bird fell and after about twenty minutes of searching Kaiser the hen shoveler our of the cattails.

Hours would pass with no action.  Jeff seemed annoyed and apologized trying to reassure me but that was not needed.  I was hunting for free and in a place I have no access to, not to mention I didn't have to endure the tedious process of the "sweat line."  I was all good. If it's slow, it's slow. Nothing we can do about so I just enjoyed the company.  Jeff and I have a lot in common and we think alike so time goes fast when conversation is easy.  Eventually Jeff saw a flock of geese in the distance and he followed them down into a nearby pond.  So we loaded our heaviest loads and headed there to jump shoot them.  Jeff misjudged their landing.  They landed on a closer pond than he thought. So he had me stay put as he would back track around the brush and try and drive them to me.  When he got to them they flew the opposite direction so he took them and nailed three all specklebellys.  There were small Canadas among them but Jeff managed to avoid them shooting the king of geese instead.  I saw one drop and saw another one cripple which Jeff gave a follow up when he reloaded.  Kaiser and I walked around to help with the retrieve.  Jeff had already picked up one and let me know they were specks and Kaiser picked up the one I saw fall.  Jeff let me know he hit a third bird and couldn't find it.  So Kaiser was tasked to find him.  Eventually Kaiser found him and gave chase as the bird tried to lift off.  Finally he caught up to it and brought the bird to me.  As it was in the high 80s we were sweating and returned to our blind.  After a quick rest in the shade of the blind we called it a day at 11.  All in all it was a good day.  Kaiser got his first taste and retrieve on geese.  The king of geese no less so I was happy even though I didn't get to pull the trigger on them but that's okay.  Thanks Jeff.  We really enjoyed ourselves and thanks for putting up with my annoying dog. 

You Won't See Us Out There

Today is September First and for the wingshooter for most of the US means opening day for doves.  I did not partake.  Don't get me wrong I love being out in the field with my dog with my double barrel in hand but some of my previous outings have left me with a bad taste in my mouth.  First every numbnut with a shotgun and a hunting license is out here.  That means crowds.  While most hunters are good people there are a subset in our group that are complete idiots.  I've seen a moron shoot a dove and when it landed 5 yards in front of him, instead of going to retrieve the bird he shot it again blowing it to Smithereens laughing the whole time.  On another instance my father once took a pellet to the face from an idiot shooting low birds.  Luckily nothing happen other than a scare but he could have easily lost an eye or worse.  Fucking idiots.  Another reason is it's hot.  Africa hot.  That's not only hard on myself but it's grueling on the dog.  Also the heat brings out the rattlesnakes and that's the last thing I want to deal with.  I could always leave the dog home but I don't want to hunt without him.  So we'll see if I pass up this first dove season again or if I go out.  It's unlikely but if I do go out it will not be on a weekend when all the crowds go out or it will be because I was invited on private property and won't have to deal with the scum.  For now though the side by sides are staying in the cabinet.

Preseason Warm Up

With the season forthcoming and since I haven't shot with Mike in a couple years, I decided to hit the skeet range.  I was also able to meet Mike's new pup, Lizzy, a pointing black lab.  The old man and I shot our side by side Merkels but Mike left his side by sides home in favor of his Benelli Ultralight.  This is the gun he takes every year to South Dakota for pheasants and since he is required to shoot nontox there he has moved away from hunting with his double barrels.  He used to use his Garbi, WC Scott or AyA but he grew tried of paying for bismuth rounds and now sticks with the Benelli that can shot safely with steel.  Mike as always showed us up  but  I actually shot better than I expected considering I haven't picked up a double since last season.  I still need to shake the rust off though.

Make Room On Your Bookshelf

Time to pay a visit to your local Barnes and Noble as they (at least my local store) have a true gem in the bargain aisle.  Treasures of the NRA National Firearms Museum by Jim Supica, Doug Wicklund and Phillip Schreir is a coffee table book that showcases all the jewels of the NRA collection. 

Considering my latest posts were all regarding airguns I thought it is appropriate to show some of the airguns in the NRA collection.  The most interesting is the Girardoni (often misspelled Girandoni) repeating air rifle, as carried by Lewis and Clark.  Google or youtube this airgun and you'll be impressed with it's ingenuity and history.

Other airguns include President H.W. Bush's Crosman Air rifle.  I recall reading about this gun in one of my father's airgun magazines.  Also contained in the collection is Prince Charles' Omega air rifle.

Theodore Roosevelt's gun collection is well represented including his .405 1895.  There are several other presidental guns from Eisenhower and Kennedy.

The book includes many of publisher Robert E. Petersen's collection which include the last Purdey .600NE ever produced. 

Among the 425 guns donated by the Petersen family is some fascinating odd ball guns like the Hoenig over-under double rifle with a twist action in equally odd .225 caliber round.

As a fan of Teutonic guns, there are several Nazi guns including one of my dream guns, a Luftwaffe survival drilling, a belt buckle gun and Hermann Goering's Merkel.

Obviously this is just a sampling of, the book and museum there are many guns of different eras and styles.  The NRA collection is so diverse and likely to please just about any gun nut, from those interested in ancient guns carried by pilgrims from the Mayflower to modern military guns to everything in between. If you consider yourself a gun enthusiast buy this book or better yet go visit the museums (one in Virgina at the NRA headquarters and the other in Missouri at the Bass Pro flagship store) in person.  I need check out these works of art.  Several of these guns shown on this post and many others can be seen and discussed on NRA museum's youtube page.

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).

Last Weekend Of The Season

For the most part it's the last  weekend for wingshooting this year.  The snipe season is extended a few weeks but since I can't tell the difference from snipe to a dowitcher to any other small shorebird, I won't be hunting those unless I can figured out how to properly identify them. 

Waking up feeling somewhat ill and with a neck sore, the day did not start out well.  It seemed to be the theme of the day.  We arrived around 1pm and after a quick sandwich we took a look at a little pond I hadn't looked at for years.  It was void of birds.  Not even a coot.  We drove off to my favorite ditch and when we started to walk the banks I notice footprints that indicated someone had already been there.  We walked one side and while returning to the Rover we saw the owner of the footprints after a quick talk he let us know that he didn't see a thing.

Leaving to another area of a river, we kept running into hunters or at least their trucks.  Of course armed with tungsten and bismuth duck loads, Kaiser and I ran into a few quail.  Kaiser managed to point one when the old man called me on the phone.  While trying to dig the iphone out of my waders Kaiser pointed another and the quail flushed.  I had No.5 bismuth in both barrels so I took a shot.  Missed with both barrels.  We decided to check out some creeks that I never seen.  The water proved too steep to hold ducks, so we moved on.    Rest of the day was a bust so we headed to dinner.

The starter- escargot imported from Burgundy

I ordered the Merguez (North African lamb sausage) with Harissa sauce, pommes frites and salad.

Dad ordered the NY Steak with peppercorn sauce with spinach and pommes frites.

The hunting was poor, the meal was not.  We saw no legit ducks, not even at an no hunting pond that always holds ducks.  If tomorrow is a bust, we'll be calling the trip early and heading home.  Let's hope we get some or at least see some tomorrow.

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.