Swans

We have been really lucky with our Swan hunting. For about 20 years all of my partners got drawn for Swan Permits. Not these past few years, but for a long time we really had it going. Mike McGee and I killed our first Swans out in the Goose Creek Impoundment. But since then we have hunted them in fields in Hyde County. One of our friends and neighbors in Lowland just happened to have some cousins over in Hyde County that owned farms really close to the Pungo Refuge and we had tremendous success.

For years we just used a dozen silhouette decoys. That was all we needed. Brought those huge birds within 20 yards of our guns. They are a little tough to kill since we went to non-toxic shot, but at that range you could kill them with slingshots. Usually hunt them in Winter Wheat fields. The Swans need to eat a lot to survive, so they are easy to decoy when they think a good meal is waiting. I would have to say that after being shot for 25 seasons they are more wary now than when we first hunted them. But my friends that hunt them regularly always get their birds.

I know some guys who do a little guiding for Swans and they have all killed banded birds. Even a few with leg and neck bands. I saw a neck banded bird once when Dad and I and my sons were hunting. But I was so intent on getting good shots for the boys that I didn't even see the bird with the collar until it had flown by and landed out in the wheat field. I made an attempt to run it down and get a shot, but I was slower than the Swan and never caught up with it.

I was on a goose hunt up there one year with Emmet Rice and we had hundreds of Swan decoy to us over the 2 day hunt, maybe thousands. I watched for a real trophy bird and late the second day I bagged a huge bird. 26 pounds after I gutted it. That bird reigned supreme until Kevin topped it. The picture of him above shows just how big that bird was. Kevin is not a small man and you can get an idea of the bird's size. We did a lot of measuring after we got the bird home. The wingspan was 98" and the bird weighed 29 pounds. My previous record would have come close if I had weighed it before field dressing it, but not in the overall size of the bird. I can't imagine what a Trumpeter Swan would be like. Supposedly they average 40 pounds.

Years ago the Professor up in Maryland told me he killed a Swan and it tasted so bad that he would never kill another. I think they taste great. Of course the young birds are a lot more tender, but it is hard for me to pick out a juvenile with all those white monsters coming to the decoys.

We all used to joke about working out some contest with the winner getting to shoot all the Swan he could on a pass, and the losers tagging them. But with the 'one bird per year limit" we never followed through with our plan. A couple years back I was helping out a guide with a crowd of first time Swan hunters. The guys talked a good game, but couldn't hit anything. After about 3 passes that they failed to score I was getting a little worried that they wouldn't get a bird and my guide friend would have to refund their money. The 3 of them were in the blind and Kelly Murphy and I were hunkered down in a ditch right next to the blind. The next flock of birds that came by I told Kelly to go ahead and get her bird. She folded a big mature bird with one shot and then the 'sports' opened up. I also started shooting. 2 of the guys happily ran out into the field to retrieve 'their' birds, and I picked up mine. Everybody was excited except for the last man. Sorry. I couldn't fit 4 shells in my gun.