Hunting 2018

Just kicked off the New Year with a Sea Duck, Diver Duck and Goose Hunt in Chesapeake Bay MD. It was frigid; 6 degrees and 13 mph winds!

We went out at St. Michaels MD harbor and chopped ice the whole way out into the channel. The water was like a giant Slushy. No Sea Duck hunt as the Bay was 4' waves on Tuesday and jammed with Ice so thick we could hardly make it to open water. We turned back and went Canada Goose hunting instead and bagged 2 Geese.

Wednesday it was a balmy 19 degrees with only 2-3 mph winds. However, the harbor at Neavitt MD was solid 4-6" ice. The guide hired an Oyster boat to break the ice at the boat ramp and clear a track all the way to the channel.

Great day shot a Bluebill a Goldeneye and 20 Buffleheads. Had to keep clearing ice out of the decoys. Great fun!

Tom Flynn

Burrrrrrr!! That's some dedication, I salute you.

Pap

Tom,
A hot barrel makes a great hand warmer!!!

Instead of grass and straw on the duck blind boat, it looks like you needed chunks of ice!

Billy,

That is true; you go through a lot of shells. They seem to fly faster as you bring up the barrel.

Tom Flynn

David,

That was funny!

When we booked the hunt, we new it could happen. You are still surprised a bit, to see this many days in a row of frigid temp's. This was Southern Maryland.

Tom Flynn

Tom,

Living on the beach all year round south shore LI, I used to see rafts of ducks on the bays; literally thousands at a time. Those were the days. Mid 90's I built a 14' blind on a skiff and would launch in Flanders near Riverhead, NY. One trip, I had a hard time getting out through the ice to my spot just 500 yds away but almost didn't make it back when the tide and wind got the ice flow moving. Tough trip back. The local Bay Constable helped me get my rig on the trailer. He was watching and I was happy to see him.

Warren,

Ice on the water is much more serious than I ever thought.

The MD Officer saw us load in the morning and was still there when we got back to check bag limit, licenses and MD & Fed Duck Stamps all signed. He also checked the Guide's doc's. We must have been the only fools out there in his neck of the Bay!

Tom Flynn

Nice photos Tom. We were breaking ice (only 1-2" though) on the Tennessee River here last weekend too. Managed to get a few ducks but not much flying. It's been around 5 degrees here with the wind chill lately and we don't like that much down here in Tennessee.
Even the dog was ready to go in..

Dwight,

Great pic there; you're dog looks like a great one!

Keep on hunting, the freeze will be over soon. One of the longest I can remember. Ducks love a puddle to drop into. Chop a hole and they dive right in.

Tom Flynn

Just bought a prototype gun from a custom manufacturer in Pennsylvania, Bobby Hart. I know Bobby for 15 years and he has accurized all of my Colt Sauer rifles. I have also done his long-distance shooting school in PA.

This is his first all carbon hunting rifle-a carbon fiber stock from New Zealand with a Tikka T3 .300WSM stainless steel receiver with a turned down stainless steel barrel with a heat dissipating carbon wrap on the barrel. I did not weigh it but 6lb stainless steel gun+/-.

Gave my son the Vortex 4-16 x 44 scope that it came with for his -06' and I am mounting a Schmidt & Bender 4-16 x 56 illuminated scope with Talley rings.

Cannot wait to get it out to the range!

Tom Flynn

Tom,

Tom we have a 300 and 450 yard range a mile away if needed. Besides, I'd love to see that gun up close and personal. Sounds like a fantastic gun.

Thanks for the invite; let you know once I get it and sighted it in.

Tom Flynn

Let us know if the rifle deserves the scope.
you sure have great taste in optics.

Seems a bit much for ducks, if you ask me.

Not just ducks! Mountain Goat for this one.

I like the Schmidt & Bender scopes. Have them on all of my guns. Always clear and the light gathering transmission on this one of more than 96%, puts the 4-16x56 Polar T96 over the top.

Should be a tack driver. Just bought Nosler Accubond long-range 190 grain ammo, see how they group. Buying the 300WSM die and then I can play with the loads. Thinking of going Nosler Accubond long-range 200 grain for the goat and possibility of coastal black bear on the trip.

Tom Flynn

Tom,

As you know I'm a big S&B fan too. My 3-12 x50 Zenith is incredibly crystal clear. Been reading a bit about your new one. With a 34mm tube that's a big scope. No wonder it has the light transmission. Superb get all around.

Decades ago I learned to love days like today, whether in-season hunting or hunting with a camera and a .22 for whatever shots. Temperatures in the 40's, drizzle, dark, little foggy, no/little wind, ground soaked,......QUIET......& BEAUTIFUL. Can walk & walk, slowly & silently, in dark camo & blend in, AND, nobody else in the woods. I just wish my photo attempts at red fox & bobcat were better than blurs. Spring Gobbler opens early April. I love these big birds.

Duke aka "Turkey Whisperer"

Duke,

Spring is almost here; getting ready for Turkey hunt, opens May 1st here in NY. Turkey in NY have made an amazing comeback. Many suburban neighborhoods are having trouble dealing with them.

Thanks for the pics! Enjoy the view.

Tom Flynn

Same here, Duke. They come out of the woods behind my house almost everyday and come to the front porch to taunt me.

Funny part is many times they are either roadside or blocking the road. Go figure?
Opening day try to find one.

Hit 2 blankety-blank big deer last week, hard, in under 90 seconds & less than 3/10 mile. A first for me. On a 1&1/2 lane, asphalt road, truck on my butt, about 2 miles from my home; killed 2nd one straight out (& No, I wasn't trying, damn it!). Driving my Mazda CX-9 & involved both front bumper/fenders, AND, did no damage.....not a dent or a crease....just hair & blood....on a maroon car. Unbelievable! Why I gotta' walk in the woods; & spring season here is early April & goes 6 weeks.
I can't imagine how turkeys can be a problem; & what a shame. VA stocking turkeys in 50's & 60's, & their return, is one of/or the most successful in our country. I'd never seen one until mid 60's, rare for a decade after & ran all over the Blue Ridge trying to hunt 'em then. Only time I got truly "turned around"....for 6 hours.....chasing Gobblers, hunting unknown mountain woods,& finally needed my compass. The 2 "old men" (50's) turkey hunters LtheirAO when I drug into the campfire light 2 hours after dark. Great memories for me & I thank GOD for those WWII vet uncles taking this young pup under their wings. Still have & use a wingbone call one made for me. BUT, sorry, rambling on.

Wow, interesting hunt if you can pony up $6G.
http://trib.com/lifestyles/recreation/gr...bdf38ce615.html

As for turkey problems, several decades back, a guy in my unit was blasting down a country road in his ratty 280Z at top speed, crested a low rise to meet an airborne gobbler also doing top speed and headed the opposite direction, an incoming feathered cruise missile. According to him, he had just enough time to realize he was about to die, and the turkey blasted through his windshield, tore off the passenger seat back, and embedded in the back seat well on way to making the trunk.

Warren,

That would be an interesting hunt. In New Jersey the black bear hunt protestors take photos of the hunters and try to intimidate the hunter with harassment. Hope that wouldn't happen in Wyoming.

Tom Flynn

I kept rereading the article. The writer calls them charismatic creatures. At a distance. Maybe for tourists. Only a total of 700 bears survive in the area. Like trying to keep an open T-rex range, is what it is like. Trying to introduce the hunting season would be a lot easier after one of the city folk tourists tries to hug one of the charismatic creatures for a snapchat/tweet/whatever.

After seeing this, I thought about putting my name in the hat for one of the 6 out of state, but the "hunt" regs would make or break the idea. If blasting a bear over bait simply to cull, will let someone else do that one.

Official from NJ
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/bearfacts_biology.htm

Last year at the SCI Show in Vegas there was a full body mount of a 700+ bear taken in New Jersey!

Tom Flynn

Lofty--

The turkey story reminds me of the fighter pilot who encountered a goose at altitude and head-on.

Both perished when the bird went through the canopy into the pilot's face.

Efforts afterward were to improve the impact resistance of canopies, but not sure what the situation is today and whether the canopies could be made to withstand such an impact.

Larry

Larry, do not quote me on this, but, I seem to recall old video of tests showing the F16 able to take a 20mm cannon shell to the canopy. Given most any commercial or military today is several inches thick, no using the handy knife today. Or, even a handy goose.

Do you recall the likely apocryphal story of the Brits copying our air cannon to test engines and windscreens using dead chickens? The Brits came back to US designers for help, baffled by the chickens going thru the windscreen, pilot seat, rear cockpit wall, and finally stopping in the engineer's rear panel, and wondering what they were doing wrong. The US team said to describe the process step by step, so they could help figure it out, starting with loading the thawed chicken in the cannon, and the Brits replied, "Thawed, you don't say?"

You sucked me in on that one!
Thanks for the laugh

In the 60's many years before I went to work for Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp in Bethpage, NY they used to cannon fire live chickens at Navy A6 canopies. That is till one day someone screwing around I'm told fired a chicken into a nearby adjacent property and it landed in a backyard. That was the end of the live bird testing. From then on it was thawed birds only. I don't know when Grumman stopped bird testing but when I started working there in 1979 it was no longer performed.