Mark Spence
01-02-2006, 09:54 AM
I finally hit it big!!! We had a fantastic field shoot for mallards the day after Christmas. We went in with the intention of shooting some geese as they were traveling the creek, well, we ended up shooting a couple limits of mallards instead. The morning started off kind crappy...the wind picked up big time and it started to snow (the wet heavy stuff)...we were cleaning dekes before the spread was even set. We finally finished setting the spread at about 6:50 and settled in for a long day...or so we thought!!! Just after legal shooting time we had some ducks buzz us...SWEET - here we go. We worked them a little with no success. Next thing you know all you hear is "wwoooooosh." We had a bird sneak in behind us and land in the duck spread....it was a nice drake woodie. My partner, Tim, busted him up out of the spread and took him at about 10 yards.....ugly - patternmaster with 3.5" 2 shot!!! From that point on, it was on like donkey kong. Singles and pairs worked us all morning. Every duck that gave us a look......DIED!!! Ended with a limit of mallards, a drake woodie, and a couple hybrid ducks.
Now to the Jack Miner band....I consider myself lucky or maybe God just meant for ME to have that band. It was a single that had worked in behind us...we hit him with a little whine and some feed chuckle and around he came....lining us up strait down the middle!!! Well, I had shot the last single so it was Tim's bird. Tim is very good shot and usually does not miss too often. Well, at about 20 yards, he pops up out of the Finisher and hammers on him. He hit him will all three shots and the bird did not fall. He seriously pulled feathers with all three shots....well, I was standing up at this point and I grabbed my gun only hoping to bring down a crippled bird before it got too far out. Well, my first shot was behind it (35 yards) and my second folded bird at about 40 - 45 yards. Remi, my dog, was on the bird in about a second and brought it back. Tim kept saying, "I know that bird is banded, I know it is, I know it is....it's my luck, a gimme duck and I can't bring it down...that bird is banded!!!!" Sure enough it was banded....but not your normal band - a possible ONCE IN A LIFETIME trophy band......a Jack Miner Foundation Band!!!!!
Here is a pic of my field limit of mallards...with a bonus hybrid blackduck:
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9154/birdsongate7ln.jpg
And here is a close up of the band:
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9710/jmband5ms.jpg
Now to the Jack Miner band....I consider myself lucky or maybe God just meant for ME to have that band. It was a single that had worked in behind us...we hit him with a little whine and some feed chuckle and around he came....lining us up strait down the middle!!! Well, I had shot the last single so it was Tim's bird. Tim is very good shot and usually does not miss too often. Well, at about 20 yards, he pops up out of the Finisher and hammers on him. He hit him will all three shots and the bird did not fall. He seriously pulled feathers with all three shots....well, I was standing up at this point and I grabbed my gun only hoping to bring down a crippled bird before it got too far out. Well, my first shot was behind it (35 yards) and my second folded bird at about 40 - 45 yards. Remi, my dog, was on the bird in about a second and brought it back. Tim kept saying, "I know that bird is banded, I know it is, I know it is....it's my luck, a gimme duck and I can't bring it down...that bird is banded!!!!" Sure enough it was banded....but not your normal band - a possible ONCE IN A LIFETIME trophy band......a Jack Miner Foundation Band!!!!!
Here is a pic of my field limit of mallards...with a bonus hybrid blackduck:
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9154/birdsongate7ln.jpg
And here is a close up of the band:
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9710/jmband5ms.jpg