Arkansas Opener

[Feathers and Fins]

Slow day on Beaver lake, saw maybe 50 birds today but the night before several thousand, I was concerned it was a staging flight I saw and this morning proved it out. Still not bad 4 ducks 4 geese including a collard bird. Managed to pick up a few whites and small stripers as well. Needing a few more cold fronts to bring in some more birds to the big water.

[Jeff Olson]

Hey F&F,thanks for the report.I was wondering how you would do today. that is what I have been seeing up here on the rock.quite a few birds one day,and then only a few the next. im out of town now, so I wont be able to get out until next sat in Mo. hope to hear more reports on how everyone is doing. ( did you hunt all day today?) happy hunting everyone !

[Feathers and Fins]

Jeff The shooting for ducks was over by 9am, SE Wind sucked and the birds obviously bailed out so we switched ot fishing mode, The honkers were shall we say STUPID. They let us drift right up to them I was looking over the flock for some snows and specks that had been in with them to take them out when i saw the collar and that provoked me to shoot. We were out all day but not much in the bird department. Shad were in the back of prairie creek FINALLY but the only thing really on them right now is smaller whites and stripers. Maybe in a couple weeks the Bigger class stripers will move in.

[Jeff Olson]

thanks for the update! hope you are having a good day out there today!

[Feathers and Fins]

Yup another good day took a whopping 1 hour to get these

Would have been faster but had to wait for church to get out and the people to get home and get their dogs to take for a walk lol. Gotta love predictable people and know what the geese do when they see a dog leashed or not.

[Feathers and Fins]

I just wanted to add a little to this, Ive been using Heavy Shot 1oz 1/2 #6's all season and Must say it is very impressive, very pricey at 40 bucks a box of 10 but knocks the birds down stone cold. That scaup was taken at 83 yard ( rangefinder used ) I normally will never take a shot over 40 but really was curious to if it could be done. It stoned the bird 2 in the head, broke wing, broke leg and 2 in the breast. ( Let me state I shoot a lot of trap and skeet through the year and am very confiedent in long shots but still do not like taking them thsi was purely a " lets see thing" )

Im always looking for something that can do it all when it comes to shells and so far this specific load seems to be working, the other thing is that due to its price it forces a person to make only shots they are 100% sure of unless your rich and like dropping 4 bucks a shell. It has deffinately increased my harvest and decreased the amount of iffy shots. For instance left to right shots im very consistant with same going away or comming in but for some reason right to left shots im about an 80% shooter so I have been much more careful about those shots and im seeing a differance in harvest to shell rates.

In short if you want a shell that stones geese and ducks under 40 yards its certainly capable of it, almost 0 cripples! I know many shells will bring them down at that range but the cripple rate seems much higher requiring additional shells or chase downs and that is why I started trying these shells and they work for clean kills.

[BilletHead]

Good going Scott,

Looked around up here this morning. May be slim pickings here Thanksgiving morning but we will be out none the less,

BilletHead

[mic]

What does the collar represent? Do you send it any where?

[Feathers and Fins]

Collar is a form of tracking the birds movements, it alone is only moderately helpful, the leg band is much more important as it possitively ID's the animal. You can go online to http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/bblretrv/ to give the information. You keep the leg band and collar as a sort of trophy. After some time it will show up here http://flyways.us/surveys-and-monitoring/banding-and-marking-programs/bands-across-america where you can see where birds were banded and where they were taken.

[mhowerton]

I totally agree on Hevi Shot number 6s being the best duck load I have shot. I started duck hunting after lead was banned so I can't compare to lead, but they are way better than any steel load. When I was single that is all I used, but now with a wife and kid I went back to steel. No worse feeling than trying to quickly load your shotgun and you far finger it and hear the splash of a 3 dollar shell hit the water. I have been shooting Rio shells this year and have had good results.

I just wanted to add a little to this, Ive been using Heavy Shot 1oz 1/2 #6's all season and Must say it is very impressive, very pricey at 40 bucks a box of 10 but knocks the birds down stone cold. That scaup was taken at 83 yard ( rangefinder used ) I normally will never take a shot over 40 but really was curious to if it could be done. It stoned the bird 2 in the head, broke wing, broke leg and 2 in the breast. ( Let me state I shoot a lot of trap and skeet through the year and am very confiedent in long shots but still do not like taking them thsi was purely a " lets see thing" )

Im always looking for something that can do it all when it comes to shells and so far this specific load seems to be working, the other thing is that due to its price it forces a person to make only shots they are 100% sure of unless your rich and like dropping 4 bucks a shell. It has deffinately increased my harvest and decreased the amount of iffy shots. For instance left to right shots im very consistant with same going away or comming in but for some reason right to left shots im about an 80% shooter so I have been much more careful about those shots and im seeing a differance in harvest to shell rates.

In short if you want a shell that stones geese and ducks under 40 yards its certainly capable of it, almost 0 cripples! I know many shells will bring them down at that range but the cripple rate seems much higher requiring additional shells or chase downs and that is why I started trying these shells and they work for clean kills.