Last day of hunting

So today was the last day of duck hunting in the state of Washington. A friend and I met down at our spot where we go when we only have a short period of time to hunt. It was 08:30 and it was sunny and 19 degrees outside.

The walk down to the water was easy because the horses and deer had been keeping a good trail packed down in the snow. When we got close to the water we could see there were lots of ducks sitting in a very hard place to get to.

So we decided to put a "sneak" on the ducks. We hunched down and got to a big wood pile about 75 yards from the water. There was no trail where we were sneaking and the snow was not helping. It was about 1.5 feet deep with a inch of hard crust on the top. Looking over the pile our next move was to a pine tree about 10 yards in front of us. At this point we could only belly crawl so the birds wouldn't see us. From the tree we had to crawl over a log to get behind a snow bank. (you should also know that my dog Remi was also crawling next to me this whole time.) We get to the snow bank and I peak my head over to see where the ducks are. Since the snow had a crust on it, it wasn't exactly quiet. All the ducks were looking right at me. We didn't really have any other cover to move to beyond this point. We were approx 50 yards. But the ducks made up their mind and flew.

As I got up to shoot my back went into lock down, I am assuming it was because of the weird angle I was trying to shoot at. Anyway I got a few shots off, taking feathers out of two ducks but neither of them falling. As I lay there on the ground in pain my buddy asked me if I was alright. I asked him "did you get any?" he said he thought he dropped one. So after a few minutes of trying to stretch my back out I sent Remi out to look for the duck. We figured the duck should be on top of the snow. Remi looked like she was on a scent but we could not see a duck any where. Remi did the stop and a very quick 90 degree turn (if you hunt with dogs you know what I mean) she stuck her head deep into the snow and pulled out a hen mallard.

The rest of the morning was slow and we couldn't get the ducks to go where we wanted them to go.

Even though I didn't get a duck on the last day of the year, I still got to work my dog and see her get a great retrieve in.

Now the count down starts for next year.