WATERFOWLER'S HEAVEN WITH JOHN E. PHILLIPS
The Beginning of a Great Hunt
Editor’s Note: Ducks and geese rained from the
sky like a giant black cloud. Although making an exact
count was difficult, the cloud appeared to have 300
to 400 ducks in it, a flight of 20 speckle-bellied (white-fronted)
geese and about 50 Canada geese. I waited in my Ameristep
bale blind for Bob (Rip) Clark of Edmonton in Alberta,
Canada, to call the shot. When I finally heard him say
the words I’d been waiting for, “Take ‘em,”
the Canada geese had dropped down through the swarm
of ducks and were right in front of my layout blind.
The first goose was less than 20 yards and still coming
down when I fired. The second goose was in that “Oh,
my gosh--what have I done” position, trying to
change gears from down to up. And, the third goose was
now full throttle in the straight-up mode when I squeezed
the trigger on the bird. I’d tripled on geese
for the first time ever. The Browning Gold Hunter, which
shot 2-3/4-inch to 3-1/2-inch shells in the Mossy Oak
Shadow Grass pattern, had proved its worth. The Winchester
Xpert Hi-Velocity 3-inch steel shells carrying a payload
of #2 steel being shoved out of the barrel at 1,550
ft/s had proven to be more lead than those three geese
could eat at one sitting. I learned that when I tripled
on geese on the very first flight, I believed my guide
to be the greatest in the
world and his calling unmatched and no shotgun, shells
and camo pattern anywhere could be better than what
I had.
For this hunt, I wore the new Mossy Oak BRUSH pattern,
which would be introduced at the 2005 SHOT Show but
not on the market until fall 2005. Although primarily
a western open-lands pattern, this pattern worked great
for hiding from waterfowl in Alberta. I’d heard
you never could be sure of the weather conditions when
waterfowl hunting in Canada, since temperatures might
be in the 70s or down below freezing in October. Clothing
could have been a major problem, but not with Mossy
Oak Apparel’s APX three-system approach. I always
wear Mossy Oak Apparel Base Layers whenever I’m
hunting in cold weather because the clothing closest
to my skin is the most critical for comfort. Base Layers
keep moisture away from the skin and insulate the hunter,
are available in Mossy Oak camouflage and can be removed
as needed, if the weather warms up drastically. The
insulating layer served three functions on this trip.
If the weather was cool in the morning, I’d wear
the insulating layer, which was warm, soft and extremely
comfortable, over my 6-pocket pants and shirt. I also
found another use for the insulating layer when I hunted
in waders. I put the insulating pants on before I put
on the waders. Because the water was cold, this insulating
layer provided a barrier against the
cold, yet I could walk comfortably. The insulating layer
also provided a barrier against the cold in-between
my pants and shirt and my external layer, which was
waterproofed APX for really-cold weather. By carrying
a complete set of APX clothing with me to Canada, I
could mix and match my clothing to fit constantly-changing
weather conditions that occurred not only on a daily
basis, but throughout the day. During that first big flight
of waterfowl, I was so excited about tripling on geese
that I didn’t see how the rest of the shooters
on the hunt had done. However, when Clark started picking
up birds and hiding them under shell decoys, I learned
that everyone had gotten at least one or two of the
geese in the flock. No one had opted to take the ducks.
Three more flights of geese that morning allowed me,
Phil Bourjaily and Brad Fenson to limit out on geese.
Too, wave after wave of ducks continued to come in,
so the three of us also took our limit of ducks. This
hunt with Rip Clark at Dog ‘N Duck, in Alberta,
Canada, was the greatest three days of waterfowling
I’d ever had. The
area around Alberta is target-rich for waterfowl and
some of the best waterfowl hunters in North America
travel there each year to test their shotguns and shot
shells on the webfoots. “I like H. S. Waterfowl’s
Bill Collector Duck Call and H.S. Waterfowl’s
Bad Medicine Goose Call to call in the waterfowl in
our area,” Clark explains. “These calls
sound really ducky. They are low-maintenance calls,
and I’ve found that I can work ducks and geese
in right to the blind better with these calls than I
can with any other calls.
To learn more about: Mossy Oak’s BRUSH pattern,
go to www.mossyoak.com;
Mossy Oak Apparel’s APX and Base Layers, visit
www.mossyoakapparel.com;
Hunter’s Specialties duck and goose calls, check
out www.hunterspec.com;
Dog ‘N Duck, call (780) 913-1337 or (780) 416-3825,
e-mail clarkrd@shaw.ca,
or visit www.dognduck.ca;
Winchester Ammo, check out www.winchester.com;
Browning guns, visit www.browning.com.
TOMORROW: EXCITING HUNTS AT DOG ‘N DUCK
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