Seeth and his better half's 2023 outdoor adventures

[seeth07]

I haven't posted anything since yesterday because I've still been trying to process and settle down from the events of yesterday.

We had a very unfortunate situation where two unresponsible hunters shot us.

They were 60 to 70 yards away across the river and were attempting to jump shoot ducks that were our decoys. They snuck directly across from us and when we first saw them they were running full speed up the bank on the opposite side and I had enough time to wave my arms and yell "hey were here". Immediately they both unloaded 2 shots into our decoys and it was a direct line to where we were hiding.

I got the worst of the shot. My wife in neoprene waders and over here outer top she said absorbed most of the bb's in the waders and she didn't feel anything hit her arms, neck or face. I was wearing a thin sitka outer top and lots of bbs hit that along with my hands and face. I thankfully didn't take one in the eye but have 3 minor cuts, 1 on my face and 2 on my one hand. Nothing serious and no more than the cuts I have received from catching thorns walking in this area.

Our decoys did not fair well. Had 15 out and 4 are trash with 11 total taking hits.

We didn't know what to do. The hunters were extremely apologetic and wanted to make things right. They both emptied their wallets and gave us all the cash they had and we let them just walk away - we didn't call law enforcement. Was that OK to do?

We didn't hunt any more yesterday and decided we didn't want to go out this morning knowing it would be busy again with other hunters being a Sunday and instead decided to pack up and start driving home. We could only shoot 4 more ducks anyways and this just sort of turned us off completely to continue to hunt.

 

[Keep on]

Glad you both came out ok, could have been so much worse. I've had guys attempt to water swat my decoys but i always saw them coming in time.
I doubt I would have called the law either, but hopefully those two either learned a real important lesson or decide if they can be fooled by plastic decoys they need to reconsider their futures as waterfowlers.
Looks like it was an awesome trip up until that incident.

 

[F250]

Damn !!!! So glad you are both okay !!! Those two Morons should not be hunting. I think they need to be reported. Did you get names ?

 

[seeth07]

Damn !!!! So glad you are both okay !!! Those two Morons should not be hunting. I think they need to be reported. Did you get names ?

No, we didn't. My wife lost it and was ready to kill them and I was trying to keep the peace and trying to see it as just a bad accident although it really shouldn't have been because they didn't clearly follow the rules of hunter safety (identifying your target and what's beyond).

I'm very thankful that our dogs were behind us and completely shielded. Would have felt different if one of my dogs (our kids) got hurt.

 

[F250]

Again… so glad to hear no one was hurt !!!

 

[Gellar]

Glad you are ok and no one was hurt worse. I probably would not have been as calm and collected. It would take me a while to get back in the woods or swamp after something like that.

 

[F250]

While in high school a buddy and i were duck hunting in a local marsh. Similar story to Seeth07. A guy snuck up on our decoys and unloaded three shots at them from across a creek that was about 30 yards wide. We didn’t see him until he fired. We yelled and he ran. Unfortunately for him I was pretty fast and beat him to the bridge he had to cross to get to his car. A lesson in hunting etiquette was administered.

 

[WildWill]

No, we didn't. My wife lost it and was ready to kill them and I was trying to keep the peace and trying to see it as just a bad accident although it really shouldn't have been because they didn't clearly follow the rules of hunter safety (identifying your target and what's beyond).

I'm very thankful that our dogs were behind us and completely shielded. Would have felt different if one of my dogs (our kids) got hurt.

Go for you for keeping your cool situations like that can escalate quickly if someone dosen't. It's easy to second guess yourself but I'd probably have done the same thing as you. Glad everyone is okay and hopefully those jokers learned a lesson.

 

[kansasdad]

I’d be pulling stakes and driving too.

A cautionary tale for all hunters. Knuckleheads are out there with firearms.

 

[jrabq]

Crap that's terrible what happened, glad it wasn't worse. It shouldn't matter, but did you have a spinner in your spread? Might be a bit harder for a yahoo to mistake your decoys for live ducks, but who knows for sure.

I had a potentially very bad situation occur about 30 years ago at a NM state wildlife area. I had my stepdaughter with me, about 15 years old, she was sitting in my duckboat. There was a section of open water maybe 500-600 yards across that had a raft of a few hundred ducks in it. Looked like 3 kids or teenagers came walking down the opposite bank, and one or more opened up with what must have been 22s. Bullets started whizzing right over our heads after ricochetting off the water, right in our line of sight. Very scary. I exploded in a fit of rage, then tried to shield my daughter the best I could. Lasted maybe 5-10 seconds, then I started screaming at the idiots again. Total failure of parenting, or something, to have someone taking rifles duck hunting.
I was really too far away to do anything about it, and it would have taken me 20-30 minutes to wade back to my truck and drive around to the other side. No law enforcement out that day unfortunately.

 

[seeth07]

Crap that's terrible what happened, glad it wasn't worse. It shouldn't matter, but did you have a spinner in your spread? Might be a bit harder for a yahoo to mistake your decoys for live ducks, but who knows for sure.

4 flock a flickers. Lots of flash

My wife has some video of that spot. Once she has wifi I'll have access to all her stuff and you can see exactly what our spread looked like as hundreds of pelicans landed by it

 

[jrabq]

4 flock a flickers. Lots of flash

My wife has some video of that spot. Once she has wifi I'll have access to all her stuff and you can see exactly what our spread looked like as hundreds of pelicans landed by it

Damn those guys were stupid, as well as reckless, etc.

 

[SwaggyD]

My uncle peppered me from about 70 yards 8-10 years ago. Got hit with 17 pellets. All hit clothes but 3 and they are still lodged in my forearm. Even the t-shirt I was wearing was enough to prevent them from penetrating the skin, but I had 14 welts over the rest of my body.

Glad you all are ok.

 

[seeth07]

My uncle peppered me from about 70 yards 8-10 years ago. Got hit with 17 pellets. All hit clothes but 3 and they are still lodged in my forearm. Even the t-shirt I was wearing was enough to prevent them from penetrating the skin, but I had 14 welts over the rest of my body.

Glad you all are ok.

I think that all the pellets we got hit with were ricochet off of the water, decoys and gravel (decoys were in shallow water with bars). That was probably why it wasn't so bad as opposed to being directly shot at

 

[duckhunt]

Glad you both are OK but what a crappy way to end a trip. My dad taught me when jump shooting ducks that you don't shoot ducks until they spook off the water. One you know it's real ducks and two it's more ethical to give the ducks a flighting chance.