Yesterday was a big day in our house. Jordan waits for duck season like, we all wait for Christmas. The night before Jordan stayed up until midnight, he was too excited to sleep. He instead double checked to make sure we had everything ready to go.
The alarm set for 3:00am came way too quickly! That's the one part I always dread about hunting season, that you always have to get up so DANG EARLY!!! A cup of black coffee and I was ready to go. Jordan had the Jeep packed. So we headed out to meet a friend but we made a quick stop at Maverik for snacks and drinks. We then realized we forgot a debit card.. not a good way to start the morning off.
Fast forward, we ran home and got money to pay for our snacks then met our friend at the spot we planned on hunting. The best part about where we live is that we literary drive 5 minutes to the hunting spot on the lake. Meeting our friend we all headed out with shotguns and decoys on our backs. We headed through the reeds and knee deep water. This sounds easy but try doing it with decoys on your back, shotgun, and a backpack. Then came the mud that was so deep it went up my knees and you could hear and see the air bubbles coming up from the mud. Finally! we made it to the spot about 4:00am. I took a little bit of a nap and then we started setting up.
By 7:00am we were ready to shoot. There was three of us in our little makeshift blind. As the ducks started flying our friend realized his gun wasn't shooting. Which is kind of the worst thing that can happen on a duck hunt. While he was fixing his gun, we started starting. There was a lot of Teal (species of duck). This year we switched up my gun I went from shooting a 12 gauge to a 20 gauge. It was so much better! The recoil on my 12 gauge would almost knock me in water but I'm loving this 20 gauge. The ducks started falling, Jordan and his friend were switching off using his gun so they both could use. I started off my hunt by shooing a hen mallard. First day of the opener starting off well. We didn't get any limits, just a couple between all 3 of us but it was better then getting nothing that day.
we went home around noon, slept until 3:00pm then went out again. We went to the same spot but there were hunters about 40 yards from us so every time they shot it would scare. the ducks in the other direction
7:00pm we had nothing but we still the morning ducks... Duck Jerky anyone??
I can never explain the feeling you get when you can harvest your own food. People think hunting if just a bunch of rednecks going out, shooting and killing anything for the fun of it.. NO. It's about the satisfaction of harvesting your own food. Getting the respect for where your food comes from. And it is really fun!