black powder gunner Posted January 29, 2017 Report Share Posted January 29, 2017 Its been the worst season for many years this is due to it been a dry winter and I shoot over 6 miles of ings land and inland marsh and none of it has flooded so we have very few geese and duck coming onto the ings . Last year was our best year ever with all the meadows flooded for most of the winter so this year built some new hides and built a new sneek boat to go decoying out of have not used either. We have shot the odd goose and duck of the river and had a few of our flight pond but very little compared to last year . Early last week I was talking to a farmer up the road who said he had a spring open up in a 50 acre field flooding about a acre of land he had his sheep on most of the winter when he moved them last week he noticed a few feathers on the water so he said I could go and try for duck. So Saturday afternoon I had got all my jobs done on the farm so got the dog and the ten bore and went over to the flooded land about 4 pm. Took a hide with me because there was no cover got set up and waited over an hour nothing came just thinking about packing up when two teal came thundering past and landed at the far end then two ducks appeared and headed straight for me safety catch of gun up then just in time noticed a lot of white on them put the gun down and watched two shell ducks land with in ten feet of me they swam to the far end and left me in peace. Then a widgeon flew past just about to shoot when I heard the sound of geese six greys coming straight to me gun up bang bang never touched a feather then another eight appeared dropped the fist one missed the second one a quick retrieve. Another ten minutes past and it was starting to get dark then fifty came in hit one hard then finished it of with second barrel went to open the gun took the right empty cartridge out but the left had jammed and ejector had gone over the brass end the gun would not close properly it was stuck in the chamber tried to free it with my knife but it was not moving so had to pack up then the geese started to come in must have been over two hundred I was pleased with my brace and left them in peace hope to catch up with then in September. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret664 Posted January 29, 2017 Report Share Posted January 29, 2017 Good read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Sorry to hear you haven't had the best of seasons B / P / G , ours haven't been brilliant but we have no reason to complain , the marshes I shoot on started to get enough water on in early November and from then onwards it increased to just about right , a good Widgeon flight is about half a dozen now but the conditions have to be right , where this season we have had a lot of still evenings and light winds , not the ideal combination . Geese have been about in big numbers this year numbering into there 1000s , with decoying on the growing crops been banned this year I don't think the numbers have been shot as in previous seasons although most of the local fowlers have had a few. Enjoyable read and THANKS for posting . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandgun Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 (edited) just got in, with my first grey this year ive spent many happy thoughtful hours out by some splashes and grazed areas with a few mallard and several missed greylags and was wondering just what i was doing wrong, re-loading patterning etc, This evening I noticed about 100 greys grazing on the wet machair, parked up, i managed to skirt around them and make for a distant point that flanked the estuary and a place i guessed might be under a flight line for a possible roost, a longish wait after sunset helped by a mostly clear sky eventually the geese moved and headed straight for me about 20mtr high. first bunch i missed with first barrel second bunch missed again but slowed down and dropped the last bird with the second barrel that folded dead in the air, nice to finish inland on a optimistic note, Edited January 31, 2017 by islandgun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted January 31, 2017 Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 Nice one islandgun , they must have thought they had survived the season when the stars came out on the last night of the inland season ,that was until your local knowledge came into play , one very happy island gunner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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