BilletHead

Great hunt in the extreme weather. BilletHead

I was wondering what took them so long to get there from here, BilletHead

Good hunt and thanks for the post Michael. I feel for you guys that have to hunt urban at times and not rural. You all do have the benefit of open water when I am froze up. What keeps me going right now is getting to hear everyone's reports. I am lucky enough to have farmers who are friends and neighbors that call and say birds here or birds there go get them. Don't want them on there fields. I keep pretty good tabs on the fowl but it doesn't hurt to get the kill them please call once and a while. When they see me hunting of hear shots I get the opposite response you guys get. I get calls from them saying how many did you get and what were they? Fight the good fight hunting brothers. There is just people that have no clue or understand what we do. Phil has a stellar idea on how to inform the public, BilletHead

Chief, Chief, Chief! Notice it wasn't Chief's, Chief's ,Chief's Good post and hunt, BilletHead

Awesome photo John.

Another well done hunt. No snow for us. My local birds have vanished. BilletHead

How does this look RPS ? Used the goose oil. Smelled so good cooking in the oven I couldn't give it time to brown up. Pulled the skillet out and went to feasting. Thanks BilletHead

Excellent! Good pictured too and thanks for the report. I am glad you guys have some soft water to hunt in. BilletHead

Me like! thanks for sharing, BilletHead

Njardar, It was taken with a Nikon D3100. Lens was a 55-200mm. Even If I knew how to make manual settings I would not of had time. All set on auto. I know I should be more familiar with doing such things. I'll just have to add it to my bucket list. Everything was just right with sun to my back reflecting in the ice covering the tree. The cat backing down the tree like a bear cub. I just want to thank everyone for the complements, makes me feel good. Spend enough time out looking for things and sooner or later something will show up. In this case a blind hog finds an acorn, BilletHead

Now on to the Goose Fat! Awesome and More doable. This is the trimmings of a goose and a half, goose and a half you say? Yes and just the skin off the breast. One Canada came crashing in and impaled his self on one side on a corn stalk so I lost one side of skin. Did a bit different this time as recommended in my new book. Some water to the mix, a half inch in the skillet with the cut up skin pieces. Here it is working up. Brought the mix to a boil then put to simmer and the water started to evaporate. Let it work to just oil frying the skin parts. Scooped out the cracklings, What was left, Paper towel in a sieve and poured through to strain, This container is two cups so my take of oil in just a bird and half of skin is over a cup of goodness. Taste test reminds me of oil drippings off of your thanksgiving turkey out of the over but milder. Clean taste with a slight odor of waterfowl. Will be trying something cooked with it. Maybe RPS's veggies. If it pasts the cooking test and I am sure it will I will now be saving my goose skin for oil. Cracklings were yummy with a bit of salt and pepper. Ate half of them and saved the rest for Mrs. BilletHead to try, BilletHead

Oh yea Moguy, Thanks for the link and more reading. Like I said a pain in the rear to work up a bunch from wild ducks without a lot of effort. BUT I took out a couple of fat Canada geese yesterday afternoon and kept the skin to render. A lot more fat to be had and less effort for the reward. We will see, BilletHead

Nice christening for the gun! I bet it is the beginning of many, many more birds. Yea you guys might get more birds of all kinds soon. The Mrs. and I did a field hunt this afternoon. We did full body ducks and mojos. 1/2 doz Canada decoys for eye appeal. No ducks but did turn off the spinners and took out two geese. Starting temp of 43 degrees with a stiff north wind. Now 25. 19 for a high tomorrow. 2-4 inches of snow. Sunday night 0 Monday night -3. BilletHead

When Mrs. BilletHead got home from work she says "What do you want for dinner" Good Question babe how about fried eggs done in duck fat? Huh she said and I showed her what I had done. She then used about half of what I had made and fried them up. Very good and clean tasting. I wish it wasn't such a pain to get. May have to order some off the internet. Crazy expensive though. I now know why, BilletHead

We do Duane and next year we should all do something crazy together. billetHead

No Scott did not make it. My body is spent from the last few days and this put me over the edge. Duane you know what they say Birds of a feather, just glad we are from the same flock. Yee Hawwww BilletHead

Experiment, rendering duck fat. From todays mallards I trimmed off some skin from the carcasses after breasting them. Not too much as it is a pain but did acquire some. Took a small 5" skillet and threw in the skin. Put the heat on simmer. Watched as the magic began, Some meat attached, no problem got a plan for that too. Starting to heat up and getting happy, the fat and me too, Results from the test. I would say about three tablespoons of the golden stuff. The bits left? A little salt and pepper then popped in the mouth. Meaty cracklings! Pain in the rear but worth the try. I will fry me a couple of eggs in the fat. If a person plucked a whole at duck and boiled it like an old hen you would reap a lot of the fat for use later. I also wiped out the skillet with a potato roll and ate it too. On a side note duck fat is healthier than butter for you. I just ordered a book called duck, duck, goose by Hank Shaw. He says it is the most heart healthy fats in all of nature. Although this fat is not unsaturated like olive oil is, they are the least saturated of all terrestrial animal fats. Neat book with recipes and info. I am enjoying the reading, BilletHead

Ok after Fins and feathers prodding me I thought I might make a road trip to a place he told me about. Just a check out but had the waders, gun, shells, retrieving fishing pole and a extendable hook pole. You know just in case an opportunity presented itself for a little jump shoot. Well left the house and set my GPS on zero to see what the mileage was down there. Got approx. ten miles from the house and seen a sky full of geese. Round and around they went looking for unfrozen water. Here there and yonder even working the pond where we got geese Sunday morning, it was frozen too. Then they all split up got back together and headed out. Found a place and dropped in. I thought I might know where they went, I did and it was a very small pond. 80 yards long by 30 yards wide. From the road I couldn't see water because all the geese had it blocked from my view they had it completely covered. I watched and then all of the sudden up they came in three different flights again up and round and round. A specklebelly included. I drove to the fence below the dam to really scope out the place, peeked over to see mallards and a couple of geese on there. I am not opposed to a jump shoot now and again plus this is in the middle zone which ends today. Why not I thought besides News Years day meal had been decided and it was to be charcoaled duck breast. Went back to the truck and loaded up, put on clothes for the stalk. Got closer and peeked over to see them head up peeking back. Up we all came and I picked a pair of drakes close to each other. Boom they went down and I picked two more and the other two shots dropped them, pair of hens. Now to the problem. From the original vantage point the ducks looked close to the bank next to the ice. When I got done shooting that short stretch of ice was ten or more yards from the bank. Humm ? No problem rod with attached treble hooked plug will work. Back to the truck to don waders and get the pole and retrieval hook stick. Now the ducks had floated against the ice. A couple of throws and the hens were in and on the bank. Hooked one of the drakes and got him to within range of the fully extended stick. Reached out with the jointed stick only to get it hooked on the ice edge. Instead of pushing out to unhook the darned thing I pulled trying to break the thick ice, guess what? Pulled out the end joint. So there I am with a hookless stick and ice keeps catching on my plug so that isn't working. Back to the truck, out of the waders, drive back to the house to get kayak. Drive back to the pond put back on waders throw out the kayak drag it over to the pond and launch. Paddle out and get remaining ducks and the missing joint of my stick. Then load back up to back home. Sometimes the things we do for a duck. Home I checked my mileage again. Fifty miles, what a dumb butt I thought. Oh well fresh breast for tomorrow. Am I the only one to do something stupid? I bet not BilletHead

Thanks guys, Ness you can do it. Just do your homework and find birds where they want to be. Britts in the layout. You bet I have been with Birdwatcher and seen his lab lay between his legs. Besides best part is they will keep you warmer. Do they pass gas? That would be the only drawback

Thanks for making us jealous Moodyfour. Way to go! BilletHead

Wow and neat! That is like hunting from a grand palace. Thanks for showing, BilletHead

Had a friend down for our fourth annual fowlfest. He has time off between Christmas and New years. We hunt from two to three days. Here we go, he got here day after Christmas about two thirty in the afternoon. I said lets take a look see around the block. Our block I live on is two miles by one mile. As the crow flies less than a mile from the house we see ducks working a cornfield. Darn he says are we going after them? Sure I exclaim lets get the decoys. Run home get the layouts, two dozen full body ducks and three spinning wing decoys. I said we got mud to walk through. I can do that he says. When we get there the ducks were gone. We set up and soon we see great groups lift off the roost a mile and a half away. Some head our way, others split off and head elsewhere. soon we have clouds of ducks coming in in the great tornado. I heard him mumble from his blind I have never seen anything like this. (his first field hunt and I know that feeling from last year on my first) Down they came and the shooting started with ducks hitting the mud with a splat. Three groups later we had out limits of mallards, Next morning we hit a field with bigfoot decoys looking for geese. We seen them, big flocks, big flights paying no attention to us as they headed to the great roost lake(actually a large farm pond) dumping in, we did see ducks in another field too. Not much luck but in the wind some snows flew pretty low and one went down after a pass shot so we had a snow that morning. We repeated another field hunt for ducks that evening with a tally of three greenheads and three wigeon in the corn. Next morning a combo hunt for ducks and geese where we had seen ducks day before on a knoll. Transition between corn and bean field. Very soft field, mud again but a grass strip to run the atv up with a trailer behind to haul decoys. Mrs. BilletHead was going too. We had stuffed on the trailer three dozen bigfoot and two dozen full body ducks, three layouts, three spinning wing decoys and our carcasses loaded. I thought right there this might be trouble as we took off Pat and I on the ATV with Brad hanging on the back of the trailer. We made it to the set up as there was a bit of frost in the ground in the field but the grassway the narrow tires on the trailer sunk in bad. Set up and settled in. Soon birds flying by the bunches. I could not describe how many. Right over us with only a few cocking there heads for a look at us. Again no luck as they had been feeding all night as the funneled to the roost. Good morning show we had though and we picked up. Cannot compete wit our little set up with all those thousands of birds a couple miles away going down on the pond. On the way home I stopped and walked across the field to peek at the roost. I could not believe what I saw there. I had posted a photo in the all quiet thread and you would have to triple that picture or more to estimate the birds. Mallards covered the water and the pond dam. Canada geese were overflowing into the fescue field covering acres. What a sight but how to compete? I asked Brad what do you want to do this evening and he said geese. He did then say I like to hear them hit the ground. I then instantly thought of Birdwatcher when he said about geese "Its all about the thump baby". So we decided to do a bit of pass shooting that afternoon. We knew where all the geese were going in the evenings to a field off limits as in no permission. To get there the geese were only flying treetop high over pastures and a crp field from roost to a bean field. Figured 4PM would be about right to get there. That is when we arrived only to find hundreds of geese in the air. We loaded our guns and scrambled in to the deep grassed CRP field and hunkered down. Go figure I had the last flying flock go over me and I took out two for the hunt. Went home and cleaned the geese. Then we discussed the next mornings hunt. Decided to hunt water for geese, other flocks then we had been harassing a few miles from home. I knew of a place with more than enough to hunt. Another loafing, roost set of ponds. We could set up and let birds scatter out and wait for there return. This was night the temps were to drop which they did. Got up to 32 degrees with a stiff North wind. Loaded up to the spot and sat up with a couple dozen bigfoots and a half dozen goose floaters. Getting light out and they started flying off the roost over our heads. We did not shoot but looking back should of popped out of the layouts and took them out. Birds scattered and soon a nice flock came back and pitched in. I got three and Brad two. One of my birds still alive with head down snaking his way across the pond heading for the other side, one of Brads did too. We got up to pursue our birds. I got mine with a final shot but Brad's went into the timber and vanished. As the temperature dropped we seen flocks starting to get together in the distance and go down other places. I called time and temp at the bank, it had dropped to twenty degrees. Ice was starting to form on the floaters and along the sheltered pond bank. We picked up and called it a day. Then I got a phone call from the Mrs. She had went to town early and going out of the house she heard shots close to home, then driving out to the highway an open gate and a truck on the hill over the now giant bird roost. On Brads and my trip home truck was gone and I took a look see to find a half dozen ducks left. Cannot be mad I thought as it was good while it lasted. Besides I knew it would be found sooner than later. Landowner Father and Son. Son is a classmate of mine and a DU member with his other friends too are. I was hoping he would not find it, a bit stingy on my part. Should not be that way I know but it was like I said a god run. Our Geese from that morning, We elected not to hunt his last Afternoon. Actually too tired to tell you the truth. Had a nice fish fry instead. Fun times with a friend. Hopefully next season will be the fifth fowlfest. He had a good time and got to take birds home to boot. I made a run yesterday looking for the scattered mallards. Found a few and here is hoping some stay to start up another pattern for me to figure out but the bulk are gone. BilletHead

Another great report Duane. Pretty neat to get calls in two days with stories from you, Birdwatcher and Feathers and fins. We all got to trade stories with each other. Twenty-six more days here in the South zone for ducks to fight ice, mud then ice again and more mud. Then deeper thicker ice and mud to the knees. BilletHead

Way to go Kayser! I still remember my first Canada goose. Similar cooking to the guys above. Jerky, pound the meat good and chicken fry. Make gravy out of the drippings and a side of mashed taters. Slice really thin for fajita meat of meat for soft tacos. Another hint for seasoning the fajitas. I kind of get tired of fajita seasoning so we have been doing it a bit different. Take some Canadian steak seasoning, put it in a coffee grinder. Grind to a powder to season the thin cut goose for the fajitas. Totally awesome that way. Be sure to cut the meat thin. Goose is tough as boot leather. I say an eighth to a sixteenth inch thick. Again way to go on the first goose. BilletHead

Thanks for the replies and great discussion. Over the years I have trapped and called in bobcats. I remember when we did not have any, then we could take them South of I-70. Now everywhere. In my opinion there are the most lethal predators we have in the state. Ok I know we have lions I'm not including them. Ever watched a house cat hunt? Multiply that tenfold and you have the bobcat. We once watched one stalk a squirrel and jump to take it off a tall birdfeeder. Out in the open, that tree rat went limp instantly. Do I like to see them? You bet ya but would not in an instant hesitate taking one out in season if given the chance. This one in the photo no even if I had a weapon. I was on the road and don't condone road hunting. They are cool and have there place in the wild but we as hunters and the predators that now keep things in balance. BilletHead