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!

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!

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 »

Welcome to the Toolies!

I’m sure you’ll all be glad to know that Big Steven and I made it in at Wister for the opening of Duck Season here in Southern California.  We got in at about 9pm the night before and got our names in right away for the “hope and pray” line.  We finally made it out to our blind at about 7am on Saturday morning.  Not the optimal time for setup, but we were just thankful our number was called.  Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Well, it is that time of year again and excitement is in the air.  That’s right, duck season opens here in Southern California this weekend on October 20th.  While I am excited that the season is just about upon us all once more, I am also more than a little annoyed.  You see, I usually go hunting in a group of at least 3 of us - myself, Big Steven and my buddy, Bob.  My wife, Gina goes from time to time as well. 

My frustration comes from us not having a reservation for the opener this year.  You see while I sent in my request on time (early even), neither one of my hunting partners got around to sending theirs in.  So, instead of having 3 chances at getting a reservation at our prime spot, we only wound up with 1 chance.  Unfortunately, that one chance turned in to no chance and we didn’t get pulled.  What that means is that we’ll be standing in the “hope and pray” line come Saturday.  This does not bode well for the beginning of the new season. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Every hunter out there has his own ideas on what the proper way to do just about anything is - the proper gun to use, the best load, the warmest jacket, the proper type of waders, the best blind set up, heck, even the best breakfast to eat.  But, the thing everyone loves to argue about and no one can agree on is what is the best strategy for duck decoy placement.  And, if you’re a newbie it can get pretty darn confusing…a lot of rookie waterfowlers seem to just close their eyes, toss out their spread and hope for the best.  Some even pray…but when it comes to throwing out the best spread to bring birds in nice and close, God isn’t on your side.  Lucky for you, the Hunting Sensei is.

Here are my top 9 tips for better decoy placement. Read More »