I meant to post this earlier, I really did. In fact I meant to post some of this during the season, then I got distracted and so on.
Anyway hunting season this year started with a green wing teal the Saturday before the moose hunt. This was the first duck I shot with grandfather's Remington Model 31 16ga.
I'll admit it, I'm a filthy water swatter but a duck is a duck.
The next week was spent driving the north Maine woods looking for, and mostly not finding, moose.
We did find some spectacular scenery, this was in Garfield plantation and it definitely felt like we were on the top of the world.
The weather was against us for moose hunting, it was warm and the moose were mostly hanging out in the swamps. Considering I was hunting with a mostly elderly crew, it was my uncle's moose permit, we weren't going to be tramping through many swamps.
Warm weather was good for finding partridge.
I managed to bag 13 in the week which is an all time record for me. Grandfather's 16ga worked overtime. I wish I had a picture of the one I bagged at 50 yards, tight choke on that gun...
One night Angie made us partridge nuggets. She cut the partridge into chunks, dipped them in BBQ sauce and then rolled that in pretzel breading. Boy were those good.
Strangely I don't have any pictures but in 2021 I got to go on my first goose hunt from layout blinds. It was a typical "You shoulda been here last week" kind of day but we got 6 geese. At one point the birds were trying to land on the blinds which was a crazy feeling...
I kind of bungled pheasant season. The picture above is the second day I hunted and I managed a hen and a cock with my 20ga over/under. I decided that was too "easy" so I didn't hunt for a week. I don't think there were as many birds stocked this year, there certainly weren't as many out. Alternately its likely a bunch of hunters found the field I was hunting and there wasn't as much cover this year either.
In last year's
hunting roundup I mentioned that I was working on an article for "MuzzleBlasts" and would you believe it actually got published. Check out the October 2021 issue for the whole story.
Back in August I wrote about the
Ward shotgun I'd gotten. It got a chance out on the pheasant field too. This one was probably the best shot in the air I've ever made. The bird jumped up in front of me and flew right by me, I swung around and knocked it out of the air clean.
I wish I had better pictures but this was my first solo wood duck and the first duck I was able to successfully jump shoot. I stalked in to a little pond Ben and I have been hunting and got within about 20 yards of this guy. Woodies are really jumpy so if you can stalk in on one you're doing a good job. The old 16ga really rocked him, he dropped right where he was.
Finally I managed these two buffleheads. We'd originally thought they were geese but up close I could tell the difference. These are the first two ducks I shot from the kayak although I did get a goose a few years ago.
Deer season was such a cluster I don't even really want to talk about it. I missed taking a shot at a buck on our first day in Maine and never recovered. I had a shot on a doe but no doe tag and that was the only other deer I saw all season...
Anyway, it's February, only 2 more months until turkey season opens.
