A Christmas Eve Hunt story

[Lefty]

I posted this on another forum 4 years ago

Eleven years ago I had an unusual hunt. The night of December 17th I placed may layout blind and as many decoys as I could fit inside my layout blind anticipating a short morning hunt before I had a series of planned surgeries for severe sleep apnea. I had hauled my decoys 650 yards onto a neighbor’s winter wheat field. The next morning just at first light I set the 7 decoys and rode the ATV back to the house. The phone rang; the phone call was from the surgery center, “Could I come in early? right now for the surgery.”
I was off to surgery leaving the blind and decoys in the field.
Fast forward to Christmas Eve afternoon. We had a nice meal with my teenage daughters, we opened a few gifts and all three of my daughters were off to friends’ homes for the early part of Christmas eve.
My wife suggested I go sit in the blind the last hour of shooting time, since the geese had been fairly regular the last hour of the day for the past week. I grabbed my gun and hopped-on the ATV. I unloaded the 7 goose decoys from inside the blind, shook out the snow that had blown into the layout. I was exhausted. I drove the ATV back to a fence line just 120 yards away and fought my way back to the blind and spread of 7 full body decoys.
I was just making myself comfortable, when Holly ( Holly Hunter Hauser the Christmas Dog) dropped, I looked up and 25 geese were coming onto the field. I pulled the blind doors shut. The geese landed 15-30 yards to the hard right of us, my gun unloaded I dug some shells out of my blind bag. I was too tired to move, too tired to care,.. maybe I passed-out from the exertion, pain, weakness and hunger since I hadn’t had 1000 calories and real food for over a week..
Holly is really a good dog in the blind, (and the truck, house and ATV etc,..) She woke me a few times with her cold wet nose on my face and slight whimpers; Just as she had been my constant bed-side companion since the surgery. She was just taking care of me.
After a licking and whining episode she woke me; I checked my watch. I had slept for an hour. It was just minutes from the end of legal shooting time. I peeked out of the blind flagging hole, the geese were still out there; only some geese were much closer, some just feet outside my blind.
I loaded my gun, shells falling all over the inside of my blind. I could hear the murmuring of feeding geese, and the sound of geese feet all around me.
Well, time to shoot them up.
Really, not thinking at all. Or was it residual effects of the pain meds, I sat up and swung the gun direction where the 25 geese had landed an hour before. I focused on one standing goose 20 yards out and fired, I pumped the action as I swung to another bird and fired; I pulled on the third bird as it was running to gain flight as this strange noise started to happen, the third shot connected as well. The goose was hit hard but not dead. I reached into my shell bag as hundreds and hundreds of geese got up in front of me, some of those geese had been literally at my feet. The chaos was deafening. I loaded a shell and finished off the 3rd goose. Some of the hundreds of geese were flying right over the top of me, I put in another shell, and dropped my forth goose to finish the limit just as it left the ground 20 yards in front of my blind giving me the perfect shot.
Even with the adrenaline it was pure drudgery walking the 120 yards to the ATV. I drove and picked up my gun, shell bag and three geese while Holly proudly carried the forth goose back to the house.
I walked into the house. My wife helped me into a waiting hot bath, after the bath I then crept into bed for a few hours nap. I woke to a lively house, and the smell of Christmas treats.
My daughters had surprised me. They had retrieved the decoys and layout blind, stored my gun and gear, I still don’t know who cleaned the birds. We enjoyed a few more hours celebrating the real meaning of Christmas as a family.

Merry Christmas to all

[six]

Very nice story sir.

[Indian Summer]

That is a very good story.

One thing that has been happening to me for the last 3 Christmases..... My beagles listen very well. If something completely distracts them there is always the Sport Dog collar to bring them to their senses. 3 years ago my battery died and off they went. It was well below zero out and I was worried to death. Also because I was hunting them right next to a major highway. I went home and got a new battery and came back. It took me hours to finally get them back.

So the next year I had them out. Same thing.... gone. Mind you this is only once a year. So yesterday I had them out. Right out my back door. I told myself it was only for an hour and a half so what could go wrong. I took and extra battery for the transmitter and made sure both collars were fully charged. It was like I didn't exist though! They didn't follow our normal routes and I had to run them down once. Then from 10 yards away they wouldn't even look my way when I called or blew the whistle. I had the transmitter cranked to the max... which I have never done. I pushed the button and got no reaction. For some reason on Christmas Eve it is like something blocks the collars and the dogs get one day of total freedom. Drives me nuts but I have to laugh too. Good for them I guess.

[CurlyTail]

I really enjoyed that story. Thanks for sharing!