duckht183

Here's the last of my 2010-2011 season pictures

So this morning I was helping my buddy train his new pup when these two birds came over the top of me... The dairy that sits next to my field is full of pigeons but out of the 150+ birds that I have killed over there, this was my first double banded one. This was a bird from the American Racing Pigeon Union and it belonged to a guy from Vacaville, CA (that was the info that I got from looking up the band number) I guess they need to teach those birds to fly a little faster

Yeah I wouldn't recommend it, because I find myself sometimes in wierd positions when im pulling up on ducks. I will say though that my buddy and I went through a box of clays with his Benelli M3 (with the folding stock and a pistol grip) and it was a freakin blast! He has the M16 style open sights on it, which made it a little tough finding the target in the air, but after I shot, the target looked as if I shot it with my Franchi I-12...Nothin But Smoke

So whats the deal with you not using the wire bases anymore? Just curious, because I would think that Big Foot's would blow over fairly easy. I was reading the reviews between the full body Final Approach vs GHG Honker's and the majority of people were saying that the Final Approach weren't worth a damn... The Big Foot floaters though are definately on my list .

You definately hammered'em this year! Good work mudhen I sent you a PM with my name and phone number if your blind partner is looking to breed his Yellow.

Im ordering a 6 pack of Final Approach full body Honkers for next season... I cant wait! Mudhen is that Yellow you have there a male?

I killed that one on the San Joaquin River just North of Airport Way in Manteca, that part of the river is full of them because they are working their way to and from the San Joaquin Refuge (which for whatever reason has never been opened so it's basically a giant close zone for the birds). This was my first time hunting that part of the river this year, I pulled 3 Aleutian's outta this spot along with some Honker's so im already pretty pumped for next year.

I dont even think lead shot at under 5 yards would do the the trick on that thing!

Ended the season with this Aleutian.

Those were Sac Valley rice fed birds right there! The geese just showed up in the grasslands this past weekend.

That's a nice lookin pile of birds you've got there!

The Snow's have finally arrived down here! My dad's buddy hunted the club Saturday afternoon and he said those geese were stacked in there. He unloaded his gun 4 straight times (12 3.5" shells total) at geese that were 35 yards above him and he did not drop A SINGLE ONE! Lets just say he's gonna here about this one for a very long time...

That makes since becasue you guys are breakin ice over there. I've been looking at a few boats lately and that cover that you guys built looks pretty sharp so thats gonna be the project for next year...

I'll check that out, did you start with a 18' flat bottom?

Nice video. Did you buy your duck boat like that or did you have the top made separatly?

I had a feeling you were going to get into them...again Im just disappointed in the lack of birds that are in the grasslands right now. In years past, the ducks may be wary but you still end up seeing a huge number of them and it takes some skill to pull them in. But this year im not seeing the numbers anywhere down there. I hunted Volta NWR yesterday and every drake that buzzed around pond #23 I was able to pull into my dekes and kill. There was a good number of guys hunting yesterday and I heard very few shots. My club backs up to the southern close zone of Kesterson NWR and usually that place is stacked with ducks and geese right now but that's not the case yet. So we'll see how Saturday goes. Hey I guess some years you get into'em and some years you dont...

Another slow day at the refuge... Here we have two weeks left of duck season and it feels like it's early November out there! Where are the ducks?

So does this mean the price of a new SBE II is going to drop? Lets hope so because im not a fan of that Vinci whether it's chambered in 3.5" or not.

Winchester HV #3's with Franchi's extended modified choke

Nice birds mudhen! Im hitting the refuge on Wednesday and then im chasing Snows on Saturday.

I'm just hoping it drops down into the 30's before season ends but I don't think it's going to happen because next week it's supposed to be in the mid 60's over here... The birds are liking the rice up North too much to leave.

I would stick with your SBE II for a few different reasons. First off the 3.5" capasity is a big factor me, whether you shoot them or not, it's always nice to have that 3.5" option. The second thing is the number of avaliable accesories that the SBE II has vs the Vinci, I haven't heard any talk of Benelli even making an extended mag tube for the Vinci yet so thats something to think about. The deciding factor will be in 5 years or so when we see if the whole "Vinci easy takedown" will hold up to the abuse of the duck blind....If it can take the constant pounding 3+ days a week, year after year, I would recommend buying one but personally this shotgun is still too new.

That Can on the right is a tank!

I didn't see any ducks this afternoon because some guys from the state were working on levy repairs right by my spot but I did manage to scape a few of these guys...