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!

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!

This has been a pretty interesting week for us here at the Hunting Sensei. Earlier this week we posted our first video — more to come! Then, last night, we received our first reader email. How cool is that? The reader asked “what type of guns do you and Big Steven use when you’re out hunting duck and dove?”

I’ll get in to what I shoot in another post, but Big Steven shoots a Benelli Nova 28″ in camo which I won for him at a shooting tournament back in 2006. Up until that point he had been borrowing a gun from his father-in-law. When I was at the tournament and saw that they had a Benelli Nova as a prize I knew that I wanted to win it for my son. Read More »