Pass Shooting with my Dad

With our busy schedules, it was a miracle that we are able to coordinate a weekend of waterfowl glory.
I had a short day on Friday and Dad came into town a little before 6pm. I wanted to show him the spots we had access to and maybe scout out our hunt for the morning. Well, as I couldn't have possibly imagined, Dad was geared up and ready to try an evening pass shoot. I was thinking something along the lines of an evening of quick scouting, and then maybe a nice dinner and a few cocktails.
Instead, we were grabbing granola bars and our shotguns, and we were out the door. I showed Dad the honey hole I was granted access to and the one I had been hunting so far. My activities from last weekend obviously had an affect on the amount of ducks out there, but I had a few more sloughs to check out. On the other side of the section there was another small shallow slough right off of the road. It was LOADED with ducks.
With the access we had, it was our plan A for the morning. I had one more spot to look at before heading home and I am glad we went out there. There was a perpetual swirl of mallards and other ducks before we even got out of the car. We collected our stuff and busted across the field to get set up between the field where the birds wanted to be, and a slough across the fence that was again, loaded with ducks. We sat in a depression and waiting for a close flock. We were taken by surprise when the birds were coming from all directions. There was a lower flock that we were finally able to prepare for and Dad called the shot.
We were able to pull out a bird each, and both drake mallards to boot!
We sat for a another half hour with a few more shots, but no more birds on the ground. It was a fantastic evening that I never would have done if Dad wasn't hunting like he was 18 again. There was a look in his eyes I had not seen in years. I remember it most when we hunting ducks and geese with Al in Canby. It was beyond enjoyable.

I had to get a pic with the two of us with my camera and new gorilla pod.

This was merely the start to a fantastic weekend of ducks galore. As we headed home Dad talked about the chances at a pintail as we saw quite a few tonight and I told him the chances were good as there were a bunch when I hunted last weekend. When we got back, Dad cleaned birds, and I made him some South Dakota walleye and onion-ed hashbrowns with peas. Shortly after cleaning our plates, it was off to bed. We had an early morning ahead of us...Well not that early...



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