Sky busting! Who needs decoys?

[ANDYCOHO]

You just knew it was going to be a great duck hunting day when you see the rain coming down sideways, birds itching to land and have good company in the duck blind.

Hunted Mudhen today with fellow ifisher Leatherneck, and we found that there is a new trend in duck hunting. No its not bell bottom waders or mid-rif wader jackets it Sky busting!

I know that there has been sky busters since the dawn of duck hunting but it truely has gotten out of hand.

We had large flocks of ducks with wings locked and zeroed in our dekes, just to be spooked by some jerk 2 blinds down taking a 100+ yard shot in a 10 mph cross wind. It made for a very frustrating day knowing that the ducks wanted to land, maybe not in our dekes, and other hunters not letting them.

Not to mention the disappointment of watching a blind full of skybusters put 9 rounds of steel into the sky and cripple a bird that lands 2 units away.

Is there a solution to skybusting? With 3 1/2 magnum shells out there, I don't know.

Any ideas?
Andy

PS. We did hear of one skybuster getting busted. The blind upwind of us was taking such long shots that they couldn't properly identify Pintails and dropped 1. Upon check out they were greeted by an officer, we were told at the check station. What he received, I don't know but I hope it was enough to make him figure out what 40 yards is.

PPS. I still had a fun time, thanks for going John!

[Leatherneck]

Lot's of duck's in the sky but it's hard to hit em when you have joker's to the right {blind 13 and joker's to your left blind 15 taking hail mary shot's. A great day to be hunting but watching guy's wound duck's all day kind of leave's a sour taste in your mouth.

[Wak]

I agree. It is getting to be a pain in the a$$. Sooner or later there will be some sort of confrontation out there that will ruin things for all of us. Hopefully something will be done before this happens. It wouldn't bother me if they removed every other blind.

[skein]

GutShotApe and I went out this morning and had lots of fly-overs (geese) and a few fly-bys (ducks). It was before the wind picked up here in the valley. We even raised up on one flock of geese, but neither one of us let loose. We just shook our heads and grinned. We never broke a cap all morning.

Sometimes you gotta feel good about the shots you *don't* take.

Skein

[ 12-15-2002, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: skein ]

[ANDYCOHO]

Well said Skein! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

People need to remember why they started hunting in the first place.

Andy

[Capin' Dan]

Most people don't want to hear this but Sauvies should put a shell limit to take out to the blinds and I mean make it a tough one. like
15 to 20 rounds per person. At least then they will be leaving sooner after they run out of ammo.

[1pump]

That's always been a big problem on Mudhen & Hunt. Narrow lakes with blinds on both sides (on Mudhen) and barely 200' apart. Somebody needs to train the birds so they don't circle so wide. It would be easier than trying to train hunters.
I feel your pain, Andy & Leather. I've spent way too many days out there getting birds to decoy, watching them circle closer and closer, obviously locked on my dekes. Then on what looks like the last pass before they land, they swing just a little too wide and the blind next door opens up like an anti-aircraft battery. If they drop 'em clean, that's OK. Just bad luck for me. But watching some geekwad flare birds all day gets really old. One thing that usually works is to yell at the offending skybusters. 9 times out of 10 the guys in the surrounding blinds will chime in with their 2 cents worth. A little social pressure works wonders.
I wish more people would let the birds work. Half the fun is sitting on the edge of your seat trying to guess which spread the ducks are going to land in while you're trying to out-call your neighbor.

[ 12-16-2002, 01:25 AM: Message edited by: 1pump ]

[steelheadslayer]

I'm not familiar with the areas you guys are talking about but it could very well be any place I've hunted the last couple of years. Saturday, my partner and I had called in a couple flocks of geese and while waiting for that last circle of commitment, BOOM, some guy a couple fields over skyblasts at about 90 yds. The geese left. Same thing happens at Ridgefield NWR each year. I got tired of it and haven't gone back in awhile.

[ 12-16-2002, 03:15 PM: Message edited by: steelheadslayer ]

[Crashin' Bait]

I like the ammo restriction, personally. You tend not to take those long shots when you're down to 10 shells and 0 birds, and it's only 8 a.m. Kinda makes it more sporting, don't you think? :grin:

[Flatfish]

Shell limits would work. But only if you remove the idiots from the gene pool. I am a mediocre shot at best. I have dumped 16 ducks with my last 25 shots. This does not include a half dozen kill shots on cripples.Even if you add that into it, I am still batting .500. All that with improved cylinder tube in. All birds shot at less than 30 yards.
On another note. If you cannot identify a flight of sprig in the air, you have never seen them, or you are blind as a bat. Long neck, wings to the rear, wingbeats are very easy to see. Let them get close a couple times. Then you will be able to tell the difference at long range.

Mark and the dog.

[Tilla]

I don't like the shell limits. I was running about 5 shots on Teal singles last week. :shocked: I do fine on everything else, but a single Teal rattles me all up.

[BuKuBass]

"They aren't high; they're just small. Keep shooting!"
I heard that thirty years ago on the "firing line" at Klammath Falls; I haven't hunted there since.