First Time.
Today I took my father in law to hunt with me for the first time. He turned 64 last year and got a lifetime license when he did, but didn't have a Federal Stamp so he just went along with. We hunted a spot that I hunted a couple weeks ago, a little public walk in river swamp wood duck hole in the lowcountry.
The drive from the house was a little over an hour and we spent the time talking about a few up coming things (his church's skeet shoot, one of his other daughter's upcoming wedding, etc.) In between topics he would dose off for a couple minutes regularly, which is always funny to me for no real reason. We got there, got our waders on, and made the 3/4 mile hike in with ease. We wound up getting set up about 45 minutes before shooting time. For the first time since our son was born in November I was "on time" by my standards, for this spot at least. We listened as a mud motor pulled into the swamp off the river and worked their way towards and then back away from us. They wound up stopping and setting up a good 500 yards away so I didn't have to say anything and all was well.
With about 7 minutes to go before legal shooting time we heard a few shots off in the distance. He made the observation that he could still hardly see much which gave us the opportunity to chat about regulations, shooting times, and how a lot of the folks out there are just plain ignorant. About 30 seconds after legal he heard his first wood duck squeal. I love people's reactions the first time they hear that sound in the dim morning light. Right after that a pair of teal were cruising about 20 feet above the trees. As they started to cup up and drop down they saw something they didn't like and buzzed off before I even shouldered the gun. About two minutes later a pair of wood ducks dropped straight through the trees about 25 yards out. I whiffed on two shots. I never even fired a third shot out of just pure shock that I hadn't even cut a feather on the lead bird. Oh well, I thought, we're on the X.
Well, I was wrong. For the next 30 minutes wood ducks kept dropping into the swamp periodically just out of sight, but close enough to hear them clearly splash down. The only problem was they were landing all around us and no two groups committed to the same spot in the swamp. Adjusting our location wouldn't have really done much so we stayed put.
We wound up going home two shells lighter with nothing to show for it, but it was well worth it. We had a blast talking stories about the turkeys I had chased in that same swamp, his experiences squirrel hunting as a kid, and how much fun it was to just get him out into the woods. Chances are he won't be able to go with me again until next season, but you better believe he'll be ready to go. To those of you who have never done it, take your father in law or other family members hunting. Do things right. Most importantly, have fun. My only regret is I didn't take a single picture.
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Originally Posted by BigBrother
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