Opening day Muzzy

Beautiful, clear and crisp day.  I went to the club and was met there by Tony and Jeff.  I went to 4 and sat behind the big rock in the morning.  I stayed in to about 10 and then came out for a cup of coffee and a nappy.  Went into stand 4 at 1:30 and saw nothing.  At about 3, there were shots from across the road but in total, it was 10 shots.  What a stupid day and time to sight in your gun!  Saw no deer but had a nice time.  When I got out Jeff said that he and Tony saw the bear near stand 12.  Jeff said it's pushing 500 lbs

Quick trip for birds

Went to Flatbrook today but didn't have much time because I was getting a tattoo.  Again, it was pretty crowded but there were decent birds and I never felt like I was trying to avoid people.   I got one in the field after Amil had put it up and shot twice (it was actually a far shot so it was pretty nice).

With Gianna

Today is Thanksgiving and I went hunting with Gianna this morning.  It was soooo much fun to have her with me.  We reminisced about old hunting days, got a bird and she shot the gun.  It was so much fun.

Spread'em

Today the bird hunting was nice.  Sure it was crowded, it's always crowded, but there was a nice amount of birds and they were spread out nicely.  There were even tree birds in the second field.  It felt like they stocked by actually driving in the field.  It was nice.  Got two.

Envy and Q

I was supposed to take the day off work today but it's supposed to pour so instead, I decided to just go bird hunting at Black River and then go to work.  I did that and there was hardly anyone there.  Perhaps the rain?  I met an older guy named Stan.  What a super nice guy!  I told him about a bird that went into a hedgerow and he invited me to hunt with him and his two dogs; Envy and Q.  I ended up getting two birds and actually had to let another fly away because I limited out.  He was such a nice, old, Polish guy.  He said he lived in Succasunna near the lake off Eyland.  I ended up getting to work by 8:30!

oh, so close...

I took the day off to go hunting today.  The weather is outstanding!  First I headed up to Flatbrook to find some pheasants.  It was crowded but not super terrible but, to my surprise, Amil wasn't there.  So Greg and I went up the hill instead of the field.  I think that was a mistake as we didn't see anything.  Well, not much anyway.  We had three birds in a tree from the lot but chose not to shoot them.  As we went up the hill, there was a flyover that I took a pot shot at but didn't hit (it was high) and then, as we came around the other side of the hill a bird was in the tree and took off (startling Greg).  He shot but missed.  That was it!  No other birds seen.

I then headed up to the club.  I brought my stand to go between 3 and 4 and had a hard time finding a tree.  I sat lower than I would have normally liked in a crooked tree and was facing the field.  As luck would have it, I had two does behind me for quite a while.  They were just picking back and forth for a while.  I couldn't turn and get a shot and was hoping they would come into the field but they never did.  oh well...close but no cigar.

Birds AND deer

Well, at least that was the attempt.  The crowds found their way back to bird hunting.  We started with a line of orange but, to my delight, there wasn't any craziness.  There were some birds out but they seemed to be scattered around nicely.  Despite the few in the trees and the one or two in the first hedgerow, so it was nice.  Made our normal loop, picked up a few birds and then went back to the truck for some refreshments.  I brought some beer for everyone to try and we just hung out talking.  it was really nice.  then I went up to the club.  I went to 4ish (sat behind the rock) and managed to see a few does coming out near 3 and stay up on the pines.  I have the feeling that they saw me, even though I was far away, because they sort of just disappeared. Greg saw nothing near 10 and Tony said he saw a few bucks chasing.  He said that he went out during the week and saw a few nice bucks too.  I'll head out again on Tuesday.

Rainy Thursdsay

I took the day off to go hunting today.  Just my luck, it's going to rain today.  Well, it wasn't supposed to according to the weather.  It was only supposed to be a little shower at 11.  That's ok because, by then, i'll be between bird and deer.  That's not the case, however.  I showed up on the parking lot a bit early and was the only one there.  By the time it was hunting time, it was me, Greg, Amil and one other car with two guys.  WHAT?!  That's fantastic.  AND there were 6 birds sitting in the trees.  I managed to scare away a few of them but the others wouldn't move.  I usually don't like shooting in the trees but Greg and I made an agreement.  If, by the time we're ready to go, no one else shows up, we'll take them out of the trees.  NEVER expecting that to happen I was surprised when it was shooting time and no one else showed.  So, I took one, Greg took one and Amil took one.  (Amil's flew away...lol).  We then started down the field and there was a nice amount of birds.  As we were coming back from our first pass down the field it started to rain and we all had our two birds.  We stopped at the trucks, got our rain coats, stashed our birds and went back out.  We made our normal loop and had a blast.  We put up more birds and shot at more birds.  Not so successfully though.  I think that the Honey Hole put out an additional 8.  We got one.  lol.  It was a fun day.

I went home intent on getting my stuff ready to go deer hunting.  I just had to take a little nap.  Well...the nap happened, but deer hunting never did.  lol.

What an opening day!

So today was opening day of pheasant and, like always, I went up to Flatbrook.  It was the usually super-crowded.  When I got there and started my hellos to everyone, there were birds talking and flying everywhere.  It was almost comical. We lined up on the field and at starting time, Greg, Me, Amil and Mike (Amil's son) started down the field.  There were shots all over.  When we got to the end of the field, the sky filled with birds and shots.  It was nuts...but surprisingly it was not scary and was fun.  I ended up with one bird out of the field. We continued on down the fields and then up the hill.  We picked up a bird at the top of the hill.  We made our way across the hill and found a bear cub at the base of a tree, probably scared out of its mind.  We continued to the honey hole and by the time we got there it was about an hour and a half after first shooting.  We still managed to see 12 birds in the hole.  I got a chance at a double and got one of the birds.  Then we headed back to the trucks.  We got back to the trucks around noon and it was time for me to head out to deer hunt.

I went behind my company and met Brueder on the way in.  He told me that there are a bunch of guys that go back there.  I went "around the corner" from him and others.  It was a really comfortable post and at around 4:00 I had three bucks walking around me.  A spike, a fork and one with three points on one side and nothing on the other.  The last one spend some time walking around me and staring at me.  Probably was around me for a half hour.  I did see a doe walking about 50 yards away but the lopsided buck chased her and she ran away.

A great day hunting!