The Two Sides Of Luck

[marsh man]

In most sports luck is involved from time to time and shooting is no exception , we hear the word luck mentioned fairly often , when we meet someone coming off the marsh the first thing we say is , did you have any luck , or during the conversation we might say , has luck would have it , had a stroke of luck or my luck was in today, it can also go the other way like , had a bit of bad luck today or luck was against me .

Well Friday and Saturday I had around equal share of both on separate days.

Up till now the duck shooting have been really quite with the marshes been exceptionally dry for the time of the year , well after last weeks snow and the rapid thaw I had the first bit of luck , walking down the marsh Friday afternoon I could see a patch of the marsh in the distant glinting in the sunshine ,it could only mean one thing and that is water .

Walking over to see how big it was I found it certainly big enough to draw a few duck in but with it only been there for a day or so I was thinking of leaving it alone for the time being , then walking back to my motor the temptation got to much and I decided to go back home to get my seat and gun and get back to have my first flight this year on a flooded marsh .

With me now living only a mile or so from the marsh I was soon back retracing my steps that I made a bit earlier , by now it was already getting dark and the odd shot was heard from the marshes that the geese flight over but nothing from my surrounding marsh , a couple of times I saw the odd duck pass and then a bit of luck , a pair were coming in nicely , the first shot was on target but the second shot didn't connect , as I was taking the empties out the dog was rubbing my knee with a very dead hen Widgeon , a few minutes later half a dozen Black shapes came out of nowhere and at first they would have been to close but when they flaird I kept calm and shot a good right and left , I knew the first duck would be dead but I wasn't so sure about the second one , anyhow , after a lot of splashing about and coming back twice with nothing I started to get a bit worried weather we would find either one but after a lot more splashing about duck number two was gathered , by now it was well and truly dark and we still had one more to find.

After looking at the likely places where I thought it came down there was still no sign of it , so something I hate doing was giving it up as lost and calling it a day , after walking off that marsh and crossing half of the next one I noticed the dog was beside me one minute empty mouthed and the next minute he was beside me with a dead drake Widgeon in his mouth , so somehow or other that duck carried on a lot further than I realised , so I would say another stroke of luck. three out of four shots and somehow all found

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Saturday was my last free day till mid January as from now on all Saturdays are game shoot days and I was determined to have a shot at something , my plan was going down the wood for an hour then go on some different marshes I go on towards the town , getting down the wood at two o clock my first bit of bad luck was the gardener of the hall was doing some clay shooting with his mates beside the wood , so never mind I will take a walk over the marsh to see if there is any water down that end .

Having walked the reed beds and the little marsh carrs out I was drawing a blank so I will walk the dykes up and see if my luck is going to change ,I looked up the fleet dyke there was nothing apart from a couple of Coots , walking along the bank with my mind wondering about there was a splash from the small dyke leading off the other side of the fleet and three Mallard were making there escape about thirty yards away , now , I am not a brilliant shot but I don't miss many of these sort of shots and two out of the three were laying on the field one dyke over , my dog was on his best behaviour by going after the live one first and when he came back over the dyke I kept ten yards from the edge in case he came up the bank , shook his head and dropped it but there was no fear him letting it go until I told him to drop it , the second one was a doddle to him and we now had a nice pair of Mallard and my luck was back in.

Rather than carry my stool I left it near a double gate where the cattle are kept so when I walked back to get it I took a bit of bailing twine off the gate and hung my pair of duck up on the top of the post , I then went and sat near another bit of water for flight and as it turned out I never saw another duck , still I cant complain I have got a pair , or so I thought , getting back to the gate the duck were gone apart from a few feathers at the bottom of the post , **** it , a fox or something have took them , as I was looking round in the dark I did find the drake still with the bit of twine round his neck that had been cut in two , so by having a bit of luck getting a couple of duck I now had bad luck in losing one , so overall I would say the luck had evened itself out .

P S .... To you chaps who know more about foxes than me , why didn't he / she take the two together as the one I got was ten feet from where they were hung up ?

THANKS for looking.

  

 

[islandgun]

great write up mm, nice to hear you get your share of luck, perhaps the luckiest bit is having the choice/chance to be there at all, wonder if your earlier mentioned otter helped itself to the duck, whatever it was, it was in luck 

[JDog]

A very descriptive piece MM, one of your best.

[marsh man]

12 minutes ago, islandgun said:

great write up mm, nice to hear you get your share of luck, perhaps the luckiest bit is having the choice/chance to be there at all, wonder if your earlier mentioned otter helped itself to the duck, whatever it was, it was in luck 

Thanks islandgun ...... I wouldn't have thought it being an Otter , whatever it was would have had to reach close on five foot and I don't think an Otter could reach that high and if so would it have eaten a bit off each one ? , I might well be wrong  anyhow it must have thought Christmas had come early , annoying, but good luck to whoever nicked it  .

15 minutes ago, JDog said:

A very descriptive piece MM, one of your best.

THANKS for your kind words Mr JDog.

[anser2]

Couple of nice little flights there marsh man. Off to try for my first wigeon of the season tomorrow evening on the Ouse washes. Will let you know how I get on.

 

[marsh man]

11 hours ago, anser2 said:

Couple of nice little flights there marsh man. Off to try for my first wigeon of the season tomorrow evening on the Ouse washes. Will let you know how I get on.

 

Thanks answer2..........  All the best for your flight later on today Robert , last year you struggled getting your first goose of the season , now this season both you and myself have had geese before we have had a Widgeon , just goes to show no two seasons are ever the same.

[figgy]

Good read Marsh Man foxes can be odd creatures to try and understand. 

[Whitebridges]

Enjoyed reading that MM, thanks for posting. 

A fruitful couple of sessions there and btw there's another saying that says you make your own luck. 

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, figgy said:

Good read Marsh Man foxes can be odd creatures to try and understand. 

Cheers figgy ...... I have only ever shot a couple of foxes in my life and I cant ever see me shooting any more , in a way they are hunters the same as our selves , pity they don't just stick to road kills , but lately I have seen a few that have become victims themselves  while looking for a meal on the roads ,

 

3 hours ago, Whitebridges said:

Enjoyed reading that MM, thanks for posting. 

A fruitful couple of sessions there and btw there's another saying that says you make your own luck. 

THANKS .. Whitebridges .......... I am sure you do make your own luck with the decisions you make , being in the right place at the right time and then take advantage of any luck that come your way .

[figgy]

Foxes are very good hunters but they don’t kill one and take it they kill all they can. It is what makes them such a target to be taken out round any livestock.  Fella I’ve shot with for years told me when out Wildfowling years ago he put a laid ducks down on the ground after shooting them to pick up on his way back, one of them was missing it’s head as he caught the fox starting to eat it. It was scared off but a lesson was learned.

Edited December 5, 2017 by figgy

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, figgy said:

Foxes are very good hunters but they don’t kill one and take it they kill all they can. It is what makes them such a target to be taken out round any livestock.  Fella I’ve shot with for years told me when out Wildfowling years ago he put a laid ducks down on the ground after shooting them to pick up on his way back, one of them was missing it’s head as he caught the fox starting to eat it. It was scared off but a lesson was learned.

I never seem to learn my lesson when it comes to foxes figgy .

I was walking down some marshes a few years back to flight a flooded marsh near the river on the north side of the town , walking down the track as it was getting down there was 3 or 4 hundred Pinks getting ready to lift about three marshes over . I knew within a little where they would come over when the lifted and they were already getting fidgety so I knew it wouldn't be to long , I got down the side of the dyke and within ten minutes they were up and heading straight in line to where I was waiting .

Time they got to me they had spread out to a couple of hundred  yards and only 25 / 30 yds up , so not one of the hardest shots in the world but you still had to shoot straight and two shots later accounted for two geese , so far so good , rather than carry them over to where I was going to flight I left them hanging up with there heads under the top closing shackle on a five bar gate .

The fight itself was the same result as last Saturday ..... total blank .... when I got back to the gate where the geese were hanging my old dog I had with me at the time must had seen something because all his hackles went up when we were a few feet from the gate and believe it or not, the whole goose was missing with hardly a feather to be seen , weather he / she came back for the other one, or it might have only just left with the first one that made my dogs hackles go up , is something I will never know .

[figgy]

I left our marsh one morning after a flight and stopped and watched a fox running into the geese on the ground. They just jumped out the way but after a while it ran down a ditch along the fence line and tried to get closer but failed. I videoed some of it on my phone but it don’t show very well due to the distance. They are good at what they do.