This past Saturday I was invited to go duck hunting in Riverton Iowa. I have to admit I have been very cautious about going duck hunting due mainly to the fact that I already love to hunt turkey and deer and pheasant and my wife would be a full time single mom if I found another thing that I loved to do. But I just could not resist when the invitation came. I mean I had a new shotgun that was just begging to be used in the muck and mud. It was a great experience to say the least!!
Riverton Iowa is home to a great public hunting area. The Riverton Hunting unit is managed by the Iowa DNR for waterfowl and is one of the best local spots to go kill a few ducks. It is awesome to have the public land available to go and hunt a species I don’t regularly hunt.
The plan was to meet my buddies and drive on over to Riverton. We would be hunting a small slough that had just enough water in it to allow the ducks to land and feed. As the sun started rise the magically minute of official sunrise appeared on our watches. A dense fog covered the water. Then it was like World War 3 I have never heard so much shooting in one place. We still had not even seen a duck and I was sure some of the guys shooting had already been through a box of shells. But our time was coming.
As I stood in disbelief of all the commotion going on around the hunting area I was brought back to reality by the voice of my cousin yelling take em’ a small group of Blue Winged Teal had just found our Mojo and were focused on landing next to it. The four of us took aim knowing this group of 6 birds were in trouble when the shooting stopped 2 teal laid in the water in front of us and about 15 number 6 steel shotshells had been launched. Not quite the end I had pictured. Our morning continued with small groups of ducks dropping in and out and us being able to knock one down here and there. It was a great experience to say the least and my new shotgun worked excellent. We killed 14 teal and 2 wood ducks by 9 o’clock I am sure this was not the best day ever of duck hunting but it sure was better than working on my Honey-do list!!! I brought home 4 of the teal so my family could experience the hunt along with me. Oh and that new shotgun is the Remington 887 it is made to be carried in the mud and weather that accompanies waterfowl hunting. I am sure you will be seeing it a lot more in stories to come!!
It was a great time with great friends and in my opinion that is what hunting is all about!!! Here is the dog how did the work for us. This is Max he was pretty upset at us because there was a lot of shooting and he thought he should have a lot more to ducks to retrieve than he did.