We killed a few Scoter at Indian Lake in Ohio. Probably birds that got confused on their migration path when they left Lake Erie. But it was just a few and never something we tried for. When I was hunting up on the Eastern Shore I made friends with a Sea Duck hunter. He introduced me to Scoter and Oldsquaw hunting. We shot a lot of them but a couple days gunning really stick out in my memory.
We were hunting out of Rich's 22 foot, white, Mako sportfishing boat. Sitting in the middle of Eastern Bay, just south of Kent Island. He put out 3 long lines of plastic jugs painted black with some mixture of paint and pitch. He had a pretty neat way of winding the long line and having all the jugs hang a certain way. He had been doing it for years and was an accomplished Sea Duck hunter. So anyhow, that day my brother Tom, Rich and I were shooting Scoters with pretty good success. Tom and I were sitting on milk cartons in the stern of the boat and Rich was taking his turn in the bow (just in case ducks would circle the boat). A pair of Black Scoters came right up the decoys and got to within 25 yards of the stern of the boat so Tom and I shot. I killed my bird with one shot and Tom missed his bird all 3 shots. So I emptied my gun at his bird. The bird circled the boat and Rich also emptied his gun. We reloaded as fast as we could and the duck came around the boat again. 17 times we shot at that bird, and for all I know he is still flying around Eastern Bay laughing at us.
Another interesting hunt was near the mouth of the Chester River. Rich and I and a friend of Rich's were set up on a really cold, windy, miserable day. The other fellow had brought his Lab out to retrieve for us. It was so rough the dog got sick. Waves were breaking into the boat and the entire deck was awash with pink stained water from all the duck blood. The other hunter was having a rough time with the weather conditions. He was sitting down in the bow of the boat trying to calm his dog down when I noticed that he had set his gun down in about 4 inches of water in the bottom of the boat. I hollered at him, "Get that gun up out of the water, that's a Pigeon Grade Model 12!" He answered, "It's alright, it's not mine, I borrowed it." Whatever, I killed 21 Oldsquaws with one box of shells that day. 4 dram, 1 3/8 ounces of #6's. Used the small shot because we were shooting Oldsquaw not Scoter, even though it was awful windy. Good day for me, not so good of a day for the other guys.
We were hunting out of Rich's 22 foot, white, Mako sportfishing boat. Sitting in the middle of Eastern Bay, just south of Kent Island. He put out 3 long lines of plastic jugs painted black with some mixture of paint and pitch. He had a pretty neat way of winding the long line and having all the jugs hang a certain way. He had been doing it for years and was an accomplished Sea Duck hunter. So anyhow, that day my brother Tom, Rich and I were shooting Scoters with pretty good success. Tom and I were sitting on milk cartons in the stern of the boat and Rich was taking his turn in the bow (just in case ducks would circle the boat). A pair of Black Scoters came right up the decoys and got to within 25 yards of the stern of the boat so Tom and I shot. I killed my bird with one shot and Tom missed his bird all 3 shots. So I emptied my gun at his bird. The bird circled the boat and Rich also emptied his gun. We reloaded as fast as we could and the duck came around the boat again. 17 times we shot at that bird, and for all I know he is still flying around Eastern Bay laughing at us.
Another interesting hunt was near the mouth of the Chester River. Rich and I and a friend of Rich's were set up on a really cold, windy, miserable day. The other fellow had brought his Lab out to retrieve for us. It was so rough the dog got sick. Waves were breaking into the boat and the entire deck was awash with pink stained water from all the duck blood. The other hunter was having a rough time with the weather conditions. He was sitting down in the bow of the boat trying to calm his dog down when I noticed that he had set his gun down in about 4 inches of water in the bottom of the boat. I hollered at him, "Get that gun up out of the water, that's a Pigeon Grade Model 12!" He answered, "It's alright, it's not mine, I borrowed it." Whatever, I killed 21 Oldsquaws with one box of shells that day. 4 dram, 1 3/8 ounces of #6's. Used the small shot because we were shooting Oldsquaw not Scoter, even though it was awful windy. Good day for me, not so good of a day for the other guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment