Coot Shoot

A friend of mine, Jon Jones, invited me, and subsequently Michael Parker, on an opening day duck hunt in southern Iowa near Red Rock. He had scouted out the spot at the end of the week and had found ducks. He and two of his friends got to the parking lot at 3am and got their spread out and ready. Michael, Mocha, and I arrived at 6am. At 3am there were about 5 vehicles in the parking lot. When we got there at 6 there were upwards of about 30-40. I counted 18 boat trailers....When we finally got towards our group, Michael and I got into the water and Mocha was a champ. As soon as we hit dry land I decided to unclip the leash she was on.

I immediately regretted that decision.
She bolted for the water and I see as about 500+ coot swarm away from the splashing hound. It didn't matter what I said or did, she was reminding me that she is still indeed a dog. When I caught up I was a sweating, slobbering mess, and I clip on the leash without a peep.

We met up with our group and waited for first light. We had ducks and coot pouring into our spread before legal light. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Unreal.

At first light the gunfire began. We had serious problems trying to pick of the ducks amongst the coot. The first volley was pathetic. The second volley I was able to double on a pair of shovelers. The 10 gauge sure has reach.
At one point I made a horribly bad call and started shooting at a flock of decoying pintail that were swinging away from us. I pulled one down but was unable to find it.........

We were able to get two wood ducks, and two gadwall as well. Then the coot shoot ensued.

The guys were getting bored and the ducks were not flying and if they were, they were not decoying. SOOOOO, they started blasting at any coot that got near. Fish in a barrel is more challenging. After shooting a handful the three amigos left to chase down some on the water. Michael and I stayed put and just let them push the birds back to us. I let Michael try the ten gauge as he rand short on his own shells. He was having some connection issues and we let the coot flights help iron them out. We ended up with 6-8 of the vile creatures. When they guys came back from their shoot, their tally was right at about 45 birds. I was glad they were taking them home.

As we trudged back to the car my phone buzzes. I wait to check until back to the car as we still had 500 plus yards of decoys on back and carrying gear, and dog.
I open my phone to see 8 missed calls....Early in the morning Rachel informed me that she locked herself out of the house and had to get a ride to the vet school for her morning wet-lab. What I neglected to tie together was that she may indeed need a ride back. She had been waiting for an hour and we were still an hour away. Oops...

Quick parking lot pics and gun it.

 

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