Danger in duck hunting

[laduck]

There is danger in duck hunting, and it increases when you are hunting in the cold, on new or big waters, and in regions that you are not familiar with. How many of you hunt on the big lakes or the Mississippi River? Most of us can walk out, or spend the night somewhere if we have to. How many of you have had this happen on a hunt? Tell us and we can all learn from these experiences.

Shoot them sprigs on their first pass!

[BPT]

I havent had to spend the night out in the woods yet but im sure i will someday. I have been lost on lakeview one day. It was so foggy you couldnt see 2 feet in front of you. We went around the lake for hours tring to find the boat ramp. I kept tellin my dad we were passin the same place over and over but he would not listen. I was right and we finally got outa there. We tried followin the bank all around but some how we would end up in the same place. I dunno? But we got out. Thats the closes iv come to havin ta stay out all night.

[damnyankee]

Sadly every year back home(Northern IL) someone is lost to the river, IL or MS. If they don't find them the first day they wait 3 days. I'm told that's how many days it takes the body to sink and then resurface.
I remember one time when my father looked at me in the boat and told me take my waders off. I'll never forget the look on his face, from that day on we took 2 boats or less weight.
I'm sure you guys go through this also on the Miss. but it's amazing how fast something can blow up in late Nov. or Dec. One minute your in your blind and everything's fine then in a few short minutes it goes to heck.
I have spent the night in the blind because the river was too bad to try and cross to the boat ramp.
Hope we all have a safe season this year.
Reading duckman's post reminded me of being lost in the fog. Hunted the same spot on the river for as long as I can remember but could not find the blind or the shore hardly!!
The combination of fog and the current make you think you've gone a mile but you've really only gone about 100 yards. If I hunted the river today I'd probably invest in GPS I can see how that could save you alot of time or maybe your life.

[ July 07, 2001: Message edited by: damnyankee ]

[DUCK KILLA]

Here in Louisiana at Catahoula Lake it normally claims 1 a year. That lake will get wicked swells with the slightest breeze in no time flat enough to make floating duck blinds snap 1in steel cable. Most people go out in too small a boat with too small a motor. One advise I can give is "life jackets , they float you dont!" [img]images/smiles/icon_sad.gif[/img]

[Po Monkey Lounger]

"Danger" is my middle name. Hunting with some of the characters I hunt with, I'm damn lucky to be alive. All kidding aside, safe hunting begins before the hunt with proper preparation. Know the hunting area (the predawn darkness is not the time to be in an area that you are not familiar with); make sure you have the right equipment to hunt the chosen area (large enough boat,proper type motor, sufficient amount of fuel, paddles, tools, extra spark plugs, first aid kit, and ER gear); wear your life jacket while the boat is moving; do not wear your waders on the boat ride to the blind/hunt area; do not load your gun until you arrive at the hunting site; when through hunting, unload your gun before the trip back (that duck you might kill while picking up your decoys is not worth the risk); do not drink alcohol while hunting; make sure someone (other than the persons on the hunt) knows genrally where you will be hunting and generally when you should return; be cognizant of the weather and forecast; never wade an area you are unfamiliar with unless wearing a life jacket or holding on to a boat, etc.; and never, ever point a gun (loaded or unloaded) at anyone. Most duck hunting accidents I have ever heard of could have been prevented by following these simple guidelines.

I have learned the hard way; having been lost in a large expanse of flooded timber at night during dense fog; having paddled my way back to camp (several hours) due to a fouled plug; having walked back to camp (several miles in waders) after running out of gas and not having a paddle --pushed boat to bank with large limb from tree; having experienced the cold, heart stopping feeling of going completely under ice cold water while wearing waders --- all my partner could see for a few seconds was my floating cap; and having experienced several other mishaps, too numerous to mention, which luckily did not have a tragic ending.

[img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]

[Bluesky]

I never have hunted on the river, but one day I was hunting a deep slough with J.Alex, bodiene and some other guys!! I remember I was in the boat with J.Alex and I was wearing waders and he was wearing hip boots, I remember him saying "if we go under YOU CLIMB ON MY BACK!!, I don't care what happens CLIMB ON MY BACK!!" we didn't go under but him saying that to me was just a wake up call of some sort, like "this is serious business"!! I will always remember that!!

[DUCKAHOLIC]

I can tell you from experience DONT RIDE ON THE BOW OF THE BOAT IN A STUMP FIELD. I was riding up there to look for stumps on the out so the boat wouldnt hit them and, wham the boat stopped and I didnt. I learned some important lessons though, 1.My columbia hunting jacket is not 100% water proof. 2.A berretta shot gun does not float (I got it back though). 3. You can swim in waders but they have to fill up with water first <this is true I had to show some friends in a swimming pool before they belived me,but it is scary as hell till they fill up cause the water rushing in pulls you down. 4.Falling in water below freezing takes your breath away. and 5. Once your hunting buddies know you are ok they will laugh their asses off at your misfortune and think everytime they get in a crowd the story needs to be told over and over and over and over.

[Welldoggie]

Hey Duckaholic,
Point number 5 is right on the money. My buddy went to adjust the decoys, caught a stump about mid shin and pitched forward. His neoprene waders were somewhat buoyant and he had to flop around in the water to get his boots under him again. Of course, we waited for the cussin' to start before we started laughing. And now today, falling in the water is officially known as doing the "free willy".

[Jeff]

One thing that has always made no sense to me as it is so simple to fix is working running lights. I can't tell you how many people I know in S. Louisiana that have no running lights and run at night constantly. All it takes is for you to break down and be working on the engine and a boat run right over the top of you cause they didn't see you in time. Boats don't have brakes. I have never been stuck out in the cold, but broke down during last teal season. Just kept the lights on and waited for someone to come by that could toe me back. However I will now carry a cell phone with me in case of break down or something like that.

[MSDuckmen]

In 1995 my hunting partner and I was going to the MS River through Chotar, The river stage was at 31 feet and many logs had jammed the entrance to the river. We slowly made our way through pushing the logs under as we went. One log caught the foot on the motor and cracked the transit.

The crack was better than an inch wide and it took no longer than 5 min to completely sink the boat.
It was 3:15pm we had just enough time to grab our guns and climb into a tree that was hanging low to the water. We spent the night hanging on to that tree and the next morning some local hunters picked us off the tree on their way out to hunt.

The temperature went to below freezing that night and it was all the two of us could do to stay put. We played games and cussed about the gear that we had lost, the worst part of it was that our feet were wet and it took a day just to stop the pain.

Never did get the boat back so if ya find a 16ft Luner with a 30 horse strapped to the broken transit you’ll know where it came from. [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Didn’t slow us down much we were back out in a couple of days chasing them ducks all over that river.

[GulfCoast]

We have someone killed almost every year down here, too. The main reason is that people run too fast with no lights and not hooked up to the kill switch, hit a log or other debris, and flip the boat. I always wear a life jacket if running in the dark, and have a remote spotlight mounted on the front of my boat, along with a Qbeam in the back. We have so much crap that gets washed in with the tidal action that a clear bayou in the AM might be full of logs in the PM.

I have never flipped a boat, but I have been out in the sound coming back from hunting a marsh point and had a storm blow up and waves coming over the boat and no visibility to find the channel markers. That is NO FUN in a little 16 foot aluminum duck boat in the dark in December. Next time I will act like I have good sense and stay in the blind!

[Bercy]

First time running the Mississippi River we were flying down river when I noticed something floating in the water a few hundred yards ahead. I could see parts of it every now and then when the waves dipped down. As we got closer, this floating log got longer and longer. Luckily, we killed the engine and turned in time not to hit that "floating log" that just happened to be a rock pile dike. If the water had been about two inches higher, we would have never seen it and would have hit it at about 40 mph. Needless to say, we stayed in the channel after that.

[THE DUCKSLAYER]

ole bufflenut,

if we follow all your safty rules we shoulda been dead years ago.haha!i like the one about putting the wadders on after the boat trip to the blind.We better get up around 2:00 am to make that happen.I can see you and the delta dog and shadow fighting for position to get them wadders on in that there boat. [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]