Still think TITNC3: Return of the Iceberg was peak

Those mornings when ice starts forming around you as soon as you stop moving. I've had more then my fair share of those. Favorite meal in a duck blind was always wood duck breast meat. We'd shoot a few at first light then fire up the stove. Got stopped by federal wardens on the way out one day. Your legally allowed 2 wood ducks. Between my buddy and me we had 4. 2 where breasted out. The wardens had a laugh and thanked us for keeping the birds mostly intact to they could make an easy ID. lol

 

Burnt spam, MD2020, and a shotgun at 5:30am. Nothing can possibly go wrong with that combination in one's system.

 

When stocks go to hell we go to the backup plan- talk food smack. lol

 

I always felt bad shooting wood ducks. They're such cool looking birds.

 

They are indeed pretty birds. They also eat 80% acorns. Which makes them the best meat of any duck. By far.

 

Haven’t hunted in years but felt the same way about deer. What a beautiful and graceful animal.

And damned good eatin’ I might add.

 

Yah, If you're tasty, I'll shoot you no matter how pretty your plumage is. Sorry fancy ducks.

 

No doubt wood duck is one of the better tasting ducks out there. Shoot plenty of them around here. My favorite to pan fry is a teal though. Breast it and pop that on skillet with cracked black pepper and cracked salt and only seer for about 30seconds a side…..

I’m still living to tell the stories, barely


But their ain’t nothing better than shotguns and beer

https://youtu.be/52nAPP2xWXs

 

Teal is good. The breasts are also the perfect bite size. No cutting needed. lol

 

Best of the “legal” waterfowl

 

We shoot mostly mallards on the west coast. Some teals. Mallards are best chunked up and wrapped with bacon and BBQ'd.

Wood duck is fit for Duck à l'Orange


I remember as a kid accidentally shooting a merganzer once and my dad made me eat it. Will never make that mistake again

 

I still have the first shotgun I bought at the age of 16. Harrington & Richardson 16 gauge single shot. Held a shell in one hand dove hunting, shoot, flip the lever to drop the barrel down, reload and be ready to shoot again in 2 seconds. Also still have the Marlin 336C lever action 30-30 bought at 17. Love those guns.

Update: Here’s a good video I found with the H&R model shotgun like I have.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aAD6_dOWJgo

 

Potsemag? The hell is that?

 

Lol they’re so terrible, surprisingly I’ve only killed 3 in my life. 2 hooded and one common. That is a hard bird to hit but fun to see fly by

 

Uh-uh... No way I even say it. It's like Harry Potter.... the name that can't be mentioned.
Dusseldorf or whatever they called him.

 

Yep. I've only shot one thing in my life that I haven't eaten. That was a hen Black duck. At the time you where only allowed 1 male black duck. No hens. Problem is they look EXACTLY like a hen Mallard. The mallard has 2 white lines on the back edge of the wing. A hen black has 1 or none.

So, this duck is coming right at me. I can't see the wing edge but also haven't seen a black duck all week. I take the shot and the bird folds about 20 feet from me. As soon as it hits the water I realize it's got zero lines. FUCK.

I wade over near it and pretend I'm looking around. After wandering that area for a bit I put my boot on that poor bird and grind it under a hummock. It never comes back up. We hunt the rest of the day and limit out.

As soon as we hit the truck two wardens show up. They check our bags and our shot. We're all legal. Then the older warden asks me about the bird I dropped in the middle of the marsh about 8 AM. I informed him I was unable to locate that bird and it must have done a death dive. He looks at me pretty sternly and says: "That's probably a good thing."

It was. That ticket was $500 at the time.

 

Dude. That was my first shotgun too lmao. One of the family members won it at a duck's unlimited raffle. No idea where it's at now. It probably got sold, but it might still be in the family somewhere.

I remember it being hard as shit to break open the action as a kid

 

Normally I bitch and moan like crazy about our state-run liquor stores because you can't find half the shit you want but....

...They also have monopoly price controls and sell at MSRP so despite inflation it hasn't cost me any more to stay lit up on whiskey 24/7.

So, yay for silver linings I guess.

 

I got to eat a Robin once. 10 years old or whatever and I got my first red ryder bb gun. Got told multiple times to never shoot at any living creature with it. What's the first thing a dumbass kid does? Shoot a bird of course. My folks were very lenient, but very strict if you broke the rules.

 

Hey thanks.
But I do understand why they do it.

This is one busy ass forum. I wonder what it's worth. A lot I bet.
The reason I say that, about it being busy, is there's a ton of sub-forums, and I have never really looked at the off topic ones. And 95% of the on-topic ones for that matter.
They probably have, and obviously you guys know, but just talking here, they probably have a no-holds barred political forum somewhere.

I don't care enough to even look. They're all crooks imo. They can't ban me for saying that I hope.