A Limit and A Band
I am still pretty green when it comes to waterfowl hunting. However, there is one thing I know, the two goals of knocking birds out of the sky, is to get your legal limit for the day, and the other is to get a banded bird.
For goose hunters chasing Canada geese, that magic limit is 8 geese per person hunting that day. Reaching this limit is the ultimate show of prowess for a hunter. There is no other real way to show success beyond perhaps dabbling in a variety of birds also called mixed bag shooting. To accomplish this takes an intersection of preparation, shooting skills, and in my case, luck.
The bands are a tracking system, it’s a simple serialized metal band wrapped around the leg of a duck or goose. The simple explanation is that young waterfowl are caught and banded. At that time, the location, species, sex, and approximate age are recorded. A lot of birds are banded each year, but they represent only a small portion of the waterfowl population. If an individual is fortunate enough to encounter one, most commonly by shooting it, but in some cases, if a clear enough photo can be taken to read the band (shoutout to my bird watching friends), the serial number is to be called in. You tell them where, when, and how you encountered it, and they tell you their information, which is already pretty fascinating to me. They also send you a certificate to thank you for your participation. To my knowledge, they use this information to understand life span and mortality rates among waterfowl. For duck and goose hunters, that little metal band is a very coveted possession. The bands are often clamped onto a hunter’s lanyard as both a power display and a lucky charm.
Well, with all that said, I managed to get double lucky this fall. It started like most waterfowl hunts, I asked my buddies to take me out. As luck would have it, my buddies Dylon and Tyler were free, Dylon’s father-in-law, Andrew, also came. We decided on an afternoon hunt because that was the only time we were all free. We grabbed the goose trailer and went. The goose trailer is the greatest luxury I am aware of, a trailer loaded with waterfowl gear at all times, just hook up and go, THAT is living. If I ever win the lotto I’m going to have a different trailer for everything I do. We got to our spot just as the rain started to come in. We considered shutting it down right then and there, but well, we were all there and it looked like it might all clear up. As we were putting out the last of the decoys birds were starting to come in and the rain started to slow.
We jumped into our blind and got organized. It took exactly one pass of birds for me to realize 2 things. 1. I was rusty, very rusty. 2. Andrew knew what he was doing, I watched him nail a double with a Remington 870 (shooting 2 birds in 1 pass with a pump-action). I hadn’t met him before that day and was unsure of his experience, he clearly had more than me. Anyone of any skill level would of course be welcome, but it’s nice to know I’m still the least experienced in the blind. As the evening progressed it became clear we were really onto something with this spot and this spread. The geese came in in waves. As time went on I shook off some of the rust. Eventually, the thought occurred to us that we may be getting close to our limit. Inbetween passes of birds we took a minute to count them up. For four people we were allowed 32 geese, we were sitting in the mid-20s. We decided to start keeping closer track. As luck would have it, we managed to hit our limit. Sadly, as we packed our decoys and gathered up our empty shotgun shells off the ground, birds were still flying over and having a look at us.
We got back to the shop and the reality hit us, cleaning that many birds was going to be a real chore… Well, nothing to it but to do it. We all set to work on cleaning. As we were working we were chatting and I was asking a bit about bands and how rare they were. Dylon had explained that he worked briefly for an outfitter, a professional taking paid clients out nearly every day would see about 2 bands a year. Almost at the same moment, I noticed something flash from across the table, the bird Andrew was cleaning had a band on it and no one had noticed. I gave an immediate “hey look look LOOK!” there was silence, then a lot of celebration. It was the first band any of us had gotten, and everyone else there had nearly a decade under their belt. Dylon looked like he might do a flip he was so excited. We immediately checked all the other birds just in case. From there we went online and turned in our information on the band. When it asked for the hunter, we had no idea who had downed the birds (statistically it wasn’t me). So we opted to put “Primula Outfitters” it’s sort of a joke among our group. The area we hunt used to be called Primula, according to the old farmers in the area. There’s also a bit of animosity toward outfitters so it’s kind of a joke against them. Local outfitters get paid thousands for a hunt, my buddies get the occasional case of beer as payment. Although the standard is to clamp the band onto your lanyard we didn’t know who it belonged to so we just decided to put the band, still on the goose’s foot, on a plaque and hang it on the wall of Brad’s shop. He didn’t come with us on this hunt, but he often does come with us, we hunt on his family’s land and use his shop every time. There you have it, I was able to get double lucky on my first hunt of the season and hit two big waterfowl milestones in a single outing.
We were informed that it had been banded near Edmonton in 2017, it was a male, and at the time of banding it was too young to fly.
Posted in Huntingwith 1 comment.
Thoughts On Single Shots
This was originally published in the March/April 2020 Canadian Firearms Journal you can subscribe to the magazine by joining the NFA at www.NFA.ca
As I write this, the current Canadian government is promising gun control which would see a ban on semi-automatics. In light of this fact, let me state clearly, immediately, and without apology. I do not support ANY gun laws. I want to be clear, I fear, what you may have read, is that I don’t support tough gun laws. What I meant was, I do not support any. Licenses can be made nearly impossible to get and work as a restriction in themselves. I want people to be able to own full-auto, unregistered, and suppressed. All these anti-gun people want to do is sell you the idea that there are good guns like hunting rifles and bad guns like assault rifles… then all they have to do is slowly lower the bar until all guns are moved from good guns to bad guns. So DO NOT mistake this article for a “no one needs a semi-auto to hunt” article. If you fall for that flimsy argument it ends with “if you need a compound bow, you’re not a very good hunter”.
My love of the M14 aside, I have always had a strange love of single shots. In fact, my patriotic love of Cooey firearms recently led me to jump at the chance to pick up a model 84 for a wallet-draining $50. The previous owner had lost the front sight, so a quick comb through the old parts bin and a bit of filing and it was right as rain. The first three shots out of that gun resulted in 3 dusted clays floating to earth.
I love making old guns work again. This fascination likely started when I was young, about 12 I believe, and I restored my first rifle. A Cooey single shot bolt action .22. The barrel had to be sanded and re-blued, it still bears my fingerprint from touching it too soon. The stock was sanded, wet sanded, given a once over with steel wool, whetted to stand the fibers up, and hit again with steel wool. I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder of a project. I spent a lot of my high school years pushing ammo through that gun.
Years later I treated myself to a Ruger 10/22 and sold it shortly after. I found I killed fewer gophers with it because my shooting fundamentals vanished into thin air when I knew I had a followup shot… at the time I had 25 followup shots, actually… but the gun control state changed that. I sold that rifle and went back to my Cooey, occasionally rotating in my bow, an old pump action .22, and most recently a .17hmr bolt action. They all work well but I still find the single-shot works best for me. Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor.
Next in life, I started to dabble in long-range shooting. I started with a $100 used Savage 110 in 300 win mag. I found a hand-load recipe that worked very well for it. I also treated it as a single shot so I could index the brass. Allow me to explain: I take a marker and make a black line up the side of the case right above the “3” in “300 win mag” on the headstamp. I then make sure all casings are resized and loaded on my press with that line facing the same way. When I load them into my gun the line is up. This way, if there is anything out of alignment on my press it will be consistently out of alignment in my ammunition. As a result, I have stretched this gun out to 1000 yards (walking it into the target), I am confident in my cold bore (first shot on target) out to 500 yards. I actually ended up taking my first mule deer with that Savage.
Gas guns and bolt guns, with magazines, can be amazingly accurate, of that fact, there is no denying. There is a reason PRS shooters use them. However, it is still worth a mention that for a budget gun, a single shot will do impressive things. A true single shot bolt action will also be more rigid in the receiver, and rigidity leads to repeatability and accuracy. This may explain why so many long-range and precision shooters, such as F class and benchrest, use them. Funny, and telling, story… My mother once used a custom .223 wssm built on a Gaulin single-shot action at a “poker rally” long-range shoot. She ended up with a full house and won a custom .260 Remington built by EM Precision. My mom’s a cool lady.
Most recently I found myself getting into waterfowl hunting. Some friends and I went out and I brought with me a beautiful Benelli Super Black Eagle semiautomatic shotgun. I had a great time, but sadly, I found I circled back onto my old gopher shooting problem. Perhaps some people, such as myself, just shouldn’t hunt with semiautomatics. The next trip out, mostly as a joke, I brought my old H&R single shot 10 gauge. I bought it cheap, used, many years ago for no reason other than the price, $60 if memory holds true. I actually ended up finding I had better luck per fly over with the single shot. All this season it is all I have been using. It feels very weird to leave a Benelli behind for an old break-action, but the heart wants what the heart wants. Despite my friends telling me “you can’t hunt with a single shot” I haven’t noticed myself lagging behind the group. Maybe I just need to work my way up to a semi-auto. So should I now buy myself a nice double-barrel shotgun or a nice pump action as the next step toward my recovery?
I spend a lot of time waxing poetic about cheap single shots, which, let us be honest, is my wheelhouse. However, I feel I would be remiss if I did not mention that there are some beautiful single shots in existence that I would be plenty happy to own. A few examples that come to mind, of guns that I have shot, are: the AR-50, a single shot, bolt action, 50 BMG, look it up, its as fun as it looks. Another is the Ruger No. 1 a high wall action well known for its ability to handle powerful cartridges. My step-father used one in 7mm Remington Magnum as his go-to hunting rifle for many years. A funny story comes to mind, about a pumpkin. It was late fall and some of my step-dads friends had come over to sight in a new 7mm one of them had purchased. Sufficiently satisfied with its grouping and placement on paper, they decided to try and shoot a medium-sized pumpkin at 200 yards. After 5 or so attempts that struck little more than dirt, Darrel, my step-dad, ran into the house. He returned with his No. 1 and one of his hand-loaded rounds, the only ammunition his guns see are hand-loads. A quick aim and a gentle squeeze later a medium-sized pumpkin was a big sized mess on the hill. That story more shows the importance of practice rather than the superiority of single shots, but I still felt like sharing. The last firearm of note is a Blazer K95, I simply do not have the vocabulary to explain the beauty of this gun. It is miniature in stature yet feels a natural size when shouldered, as though it were made for me. The attention to detail is staggering. The one I handled had the full-length wood stock, from bow to stern all of the grain of the wood pieces aligned. It’s the kind of gun I felt I needed white cotton gloves to handle, it shocks me that people would subject them to the abuse that hunting often demands… but maybe someday when I am rich I will understand.
So, perhaps it’s true, that I don’t need, or currently want, a semi-auto for hunting. But it will be a cold day in a well-known hot place before I tell someone they shouldn’t have one for hunting, or really any other reason. That reason, of course, being none of my, or anyone else’s business. My gun safe has a great many single shots, and they sit right alongside my semi-automatics, and hopefully, they always will.
Posted in Hunting, Marksmanship, Published Workwith no comments yet.