Remarks from the guide

One of the days we went out, we hired the guide that does the scouting for the hunting lease. I rode on the front of his four-wheeler while i watched my brother along with my dad trail behind with flashlights. I was set to bail the blind while everyone else put out decoys. The funny thing about hunting with Bruce is he always loves to hop out of a blind and chase a cripple down half way across a flooded rice field. It took a while, however, for his first opportunity to come. The first time this particular day, B desperately made a move to hop out of the blind and the guide said, "Bruce, get back in the blind ducks 2 o'clock." All 220 pound of him at this time crashed down on the fiberglass bench and I wouldn't doubt if he knocked some of his own shells in the water in the blind. His opportunity finally came that day and he usually disappears for 20 minutes and you eventually see him on a perpendicular levi trying to call in ducks. In the end, if it weren't for this, we may save a couple opportunities to get our limits...

Poppin' Sandhills

The routine day started off as usual... Toiled Flushing, Sliding door flying open, and Bruce getting me out of bed. Bruce and I made our way to a pond where we picked up a decent amount of ducks but the wind had shifted so we had to change our approach to our hunt. We got out of our blind worked our way down one side of a pond on the levi and we heard Sandhill Cranes approaching us. Bruce quickly signaled for me to bunker down side by side and hide from the birds. We sat there and he told me, "when I say the word... unload on them. At this point in my hunting career I was shooting a youth model 20 guage that is for children and Big B had his 12 gauge "meat chopper".
   So there we were laying side by side listening to the Sandhills with their rolling call and I started to pick them up in my vision. Bruce Gave me a warning that we were about to pop them. They came almost directly over the top of us way up high and he said, "Get Em!" Still on our backs, I unloaded my first shot and had to pump the gun, by the time I pumped the second time, a bird had fallen, then on my 3rd, the other fell.
   The huge birds hit the ground with a boom and off went our dog that was sitting with us the whole time. Since these were some of my first sandhills, I didn't understand the concept that they can stay alive easy if not hit right. So, I saw bruce get up and waddle about 15 yards behind the dog and he said as he was running, "It will poke her eyes out". Sweetie, our dog, was about 10 yards from the bird and i saw my dad shoot his gun almost right at the dog. Luckily he shot where he was aiming and nailed the sandhill before the dog got to it. It felt pretty good shooting a bird with a 5 foot wingspan.

Deep Mud

The day started out with the routine wake up from Bruce as the toilet flushes and he storms out to wake me up. I try to throw a early morning punch but miss easily with the clumsiness of a fresh day. He usually has a cup of coffee each morning to wake up the mind for driving in fog, I simply stay with a bowl of cereal until we get back for the delicious breakfast.
    The next big event in the morning is the draw. Everyone draws a ball with a number on it for first pick on blinds. We were lucky I drew for a blind that morning because Bruce always gets lucky number 16, the last ball in the cup.
    After arriving at the pond and getting our guns and dog out of the car, we made our way down the levi to the blind. This day ended quick for me but long for Big Bruce. Putting out decoys, he quickly discoved a hole in his waders and reached down to double check for some reason and got knocked over by the dog. Its hard to stay up when your feet are a couple inches sunken in a flooded rice field. Although he was lucky his waders didn't fill up with water from the fall, he only got a little bit of water straight in the face.  We got our limits in literally 15 minutes and we were out of there and dodged a big bullet. Just a peek at what to come...