first sea duck hunt of 2023-24 season

[mazzgolf]

Anyone out sea duck hunting these early coastal days?

This was the start of our second season hunting ocean-side in my buddy's sea duck boat. Still learning the ropes, but I think we got our go-to spot for the birds.

I don't think we could have dialed up the weather any more perfect. Low to mid-40s, some clouds, a bit of wind and a slight chop in the water that keeps the birds moving, but still comfortable in the boat. Plus, guys are still out fishing for striper and all those boats kick up the birds and keep them moving.

As for me... I'm just here for the ride, my buddy drives the boat and shoots all the birds  I had a terrible, no good day of shooting, but still had fun and we did end up with our limit each (although I'm a little over a full box lighter in ammo )

Here's one of the few bright spots ... a double (as you can see, I was a spectator here - I wasn't doing the shooting):

 

The first bird that looks 'hit' (before the double) - he ended up diving, popping up later, and flying away. These scoters are the heartiest waterfowl I've ever seen. We had one scoter in the boat that we thought was dead, he jumped up on the seat, and then jumped to try to get out of the boat - my buddy had to reach out and catch it by the neck before it actually flew away. The will to live in the animal kingdom is amazing - deer and duck alike. We see crazy things with these scoters.

One final cool thing that happened was during our way back in (still ocean-side) we caught sight of some dolphins about 50 yards away from the boat.

[JD48]

congrats, nice going

[ratherbhunting]

Nice

[Rusty]

Cool video!  

[Faster]

How many deeks you guys sinking there lol. Seaduck is tons of fun. We used to do it on the Long Island Sound quite a bit. 

[mazzgolf]

4 hours ago, Faster said:

How many deeks you guys sinking there lol. 

Lol .. in fact, I texted my buddy when I was looking at my videos... I found one where he shot three dekes with one shot 😂 .... They are foam-filled - they take a licking and keep on ticking.