Welcome to the Toolies!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, getting to try out and test new hunting gear is one of my favorite things about the sport of waterfowling.  Yes, I love spending time with friends and family out in the field, and, yes, I enjoy the great outdoors and the sport itself, but I feel like a little boy at Christmas again whenever we get a new piece of duck hunting equipment to try out.  I’d say it makes me giddy except Big Steven would make fun of me…so, let’s just say it makes me very happy…in a manly sort of way.

One of my favorite new pieces of duck hunting gear from this past year has got to be the Otter outdoors Final Attack Duck Blind Boat.  This little amphibious duck blind was an absolute blast to get to use on the 3 or 4 trips we took it out on.  The best way to describe the Final Attack is as a great duck boat which can also be converted in to a water blind, a permanent pit blind and even a portable land-based duck blind as well.  Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Today's video episode of the Hunting Sensei takes us back down to Wister, California on December 14, 2007.  This time around it was Big Steven, myself and my nephew Chris, who had just returned from a tour of duty with the Army in Iraq and his ranger training. 

Our duck hunting was very successful, and we were able to test out a cool new decoy, the Wing Magic Decoy.  If you're looking for a way to spice up your duck decoy spread early in the season when spinning wing decoys aren't allowed, the Wing Magic decoys add a very nice alternative.

Until next time, happy hunting!

-Steve D., the Hunting Sensei
http://www.HuntingSensei.com

Welcome to the Toolies!

The 2007-2008 Duck Hunting Season was absolutely great this time around.  Nothing better than getting to go out duck hunting with your son, family and friends.  A good time was had by all.  One of the things I really enjoy doing when we go out on our trips down to Wister or Mendota is to test out new equipment.  My wife calls it “playing with my toys,” but I call it “industry research” and make sure she doesn’t find any of the receipts!

During the season I was able to test out an interesting new duck decoy called the Wing Magic Decoy.  Like everyone else I was looking for a way to add a bit more variety to my duck decoy spread, especially earlier in the season when spinning wing decoys aren’t allowed.  With a little bit of that “industry research” I mentioned earlier, I came across the Wing Magic website and, needless to say, my interest was sparked indeed. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Big Steven and I had a great trip out to Wister. We just got back today and I hope to have some pictures up in the next few days. In the meantime, one of the questions we get asked a lot here at HuntingSensei.com is “What about reloading shells? Is it worth the effort and what are the best shotgun shell reloaders to use?” Hmmm, I guess that was more than one question.

The short and long answer to the first part of that question is “Yes.” Reloading your empties can allow you to shoot for as much as 50% of the cost over the course of a season, maybe more depeding upon how much you shoot. It is also an incredibly relaxing way to start off the new season. My wife, Gina, and I spend the weekend before the dove opener and load 500-600 shells in preparation and we have a lot of fun.

As to the question of which reloader is the best: I am very happy with my two MEC Shotshell reloaders. I have one set up to load shells for Gina’s 20 gauge and one to load 12 gauge shells for Big Steven and I. There are a number of different versions of the reloaders, which I’ll post links to here in this post for you all to take a look at. My personal choice is the Mec Sizemaster. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Big Steven and I are heading back out to Wister tonight for a day before Thanksgiving shoot. We’re hoping things go a bit better than they did on our last trip which netted 4 ducks for me and a rail bird Big Steven mistook for a snipe.

There is absolutely nothing more satisfying than making a good shot while you’re out in the field. Watching as a set of ducks commits to your spread, opening up as they come in to range and then listening for that tell-tale splash as a bird goes down in to the water. And, there is nothing more frustrating than missing a shot you should have made.

Over the course of the past week or so, as Big Steven and I took a look back on that trip to see what went wrong for him, we analyzed what he was doing wrong. The first thing we discovered was that he was left eye dominant. What that means is he instinctively shuts his right eye which throws off his aim as a right handed shooter. I’ve known a lot of hunters who experience this problem and there are a few options to solving it. First off you can shoot left handed. You can wear an eye patch over your left eye during the shoot to help train yourself. Or, you can suffer through a lot of missed shots until you train yourself to use the correct eye. Big Steven doesn’t want to switch to shooting left handed so he’ll be trying out an eye patch on our shoot tomorrow. We’ll give you all an update on how it went once we get back.

Going over Big Steven’s problem also allowed us to come up with a list of 6 shooting tips to help make sure you fill your limit every time. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

One of the problems every waterfowler runs in to is a leaky decoy — either from years of use and abuse or, sometimes, from an accidental shot. That “accidental shot” is precisely what happened to Big Steven and I at our last trip out to the Wister Unit here in Southern California. A nice set of 3 teal burst out of the bush right at water level and flew a few feet over our decoy spread. We both took a pair of shots and Big Steven pegged a couple of our decoys in the process. Of course, I blame Big Steven for hitting the decoys because I’m the one telling the story here. He took down his bird but he also took down a pair of magnum pintails in the process.

After we came back to shore from retrieving both the fallen birds and the fallen decoys, I thought it would be a great topic to talk about here on the Hunting Sensei. It’s something we all go through one way or the other but not everyone knows how to bring a hole-filled decoy back from the dead. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Big Steven and I spent the better part of last weekend hunting out in the Salton Sea region of Southern California, at the Wister Unit.  We had a blast and brought home a few ducks…along with an egret Big Steven thought was a snipe.  Now, a few of you might be asking, “but, Big Steven didn’t really hit anything this time around,” and you’re right.  However, what you don’t realize is that Big Steven has a very specific range in which he is deadly accurate — unfortunately, that range is between 25 and 27 yards.  Anything less than that or further away and he misses…but if a bird flies into that 2 yard killing zone it’s dead.

With the aid of my son-in-law, we’ve put together the first in what I hope to be a long line of Hunting Sensei video episodes detailing our adventures in hunting. 

Once you’ve taken a gander at the video, feel free to drop us a line to let Big Steven and I know what you think.  Until next time, Happy Hunting!

-Steve D., the Hunting Sensei
http://www.huntingsensei.com

Welcome to the Toolies!

Today is a great day. Not only are Big Steven and I heading back out to Wister tonight, but I’ve got in a great reader email asking a question about hunting on a rice field. We don’t do a huge amount of hunting on rice, which tend to be a lot flatter and have more visibility than hunting in flooded timber. Because of that visibility, setting up a good blind in a rice field can be tricky.

Let’s hear what Bruce has to say about his upcoming hunting trip. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

 Well, as I promised, here are a bunch of photos from our shoot on the opening day of duck season.  Big Steven and I were at the Wister Unit here in Southern California — and we’ll be back again this weekend (November 3, 2007).  I was finally able to get Big Steven to send the pictures over for us to post up here on the website.  We had a blast and are hoping to have photos and some video of this weekend.

Check out the pictures and let us know what you think! Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Over the past few years, one of the biggest “controversy” items that has become popular is the spinning wing decoy. If you bring up the subject in a group of hunters you’ll often find yourself in the middle of a raging debate (or argument) about whether or not the decoys should be used — whether or not they are “fair” to the hunt. The whole “Fair or not” debate has always seemed a bit silly to me. If we were going to be fair, then the birds would be hiding outside of fast food joints with guns and hunting us in return…or, we’d all be standing in our regular clothing, out in the open at a pond waiting to see if any birds would come in to range. It’s all silly. We use guns, camo, decoys, blinds, bird calls and any one of a hundred other tools to help us in our sport.

Motion decoys are just another tool, and an often very effective one at that. In fact, as an experience waterfowler myself, I’ve found that spinning wing decoys have helped to make more of a difference than any other upgrade the sport has experience. This comes from someone who started out by painting out coke bottles in an attempt to make them look like birds and who shot with lead. There have been a lot of changes since I started hunting back in the late fifties and early sixties, and I believe the introduction of the spinning decoy has been one of the best for the sport. Read More »