Shotguns and waterfowl hunting

I don’t mind a little bit of rain when it’s needed, but this is getting ridiculous. We’ve had almost three inches of rain (measured in a rain gauge) in the last week with more still coming. I just spoke with a good friend who was planning to moose hunt north of Talkeetna but literally couldn’t get into the area and hunt using his four-wheeler because a large part of the countryside is underwater.

While watching it rain, I’ve thought about how miserable hunting would be, especially if you were staying in a tent to access your hunting area. I haven’t been out yet, but I hope to day-hunt when I do go, commuting and using my six-wheeler. That is, if it ever dries out enough that I can get my hunting implements sighted in.

All this water from the rainy and cold spring and summer hasn’t been good for the grouse populations and snowshoe hare numbers are in the lower range of their cyclic population rhythms. Small game hunting is still going to happen, but the numbers of harvested animals will be lower than normal.

The waterfowl season opens Friday, Sept. 1. This is one area where the general population forecasts may not be as bad as everything else has been. Population estimates for this year have recently been released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While overall numbers are down, those numbers pertain to breeding estimates and not total numbers of birds.

While hunting and harvesting waterfowl is not predicted to be great this year, there should still be near average numbers of birds available. I’m hoping to get out later in the season with a friend who also enjoys duck hunting and shoot some birds while learning a few places to go. I had hoped to get up into the Delta Junction area with my RV and do some goose hunting, but you already know how that worked out.

Speaking of goose hunting, my Remington, ten-gauge, model SP-10 shotgun is still at the gunsmith’s getting an aftermarket refinish on the metal to protect it from weather like we’re currently experiencing. When I bought the gun used, the previous owner had applied a homemade camouflage spray paint pattern over the entire firearm, including the wooden stock and forearm. I stripped the paint off the entire gun to clean it up. The metal, except for the trigger guard, was in decent shape, but I wanted a protective finish to keep the metal in decent shape.

I bought this gun specifically for goose hunting and have yet to get a chance to use it on geese. I did, however, harvest a few ducks with it on a hunt a few years ago over on the Susitna Flats. It’s a heavy gun to carry around and wouldn’t be my first choice for just ducks, but there was a chance over on the flats of getting into some geese. I didn’t get an opportunity but one of the other guys shot a couple of geese while pass shooting.

While you can find relatively inexpensive steel shells for the other gauges, virtually all ten-gauge shells start at around $30 per 25-round box. I just missed a real deal at Walmart some time ago when they were clearing out all their 10-gauge shells for $3 a box. Somebody else beat me to it and purchased all the available shells. “You should have been here….”

I have yet to begin handloading 10-gauge shells because I haven’t shot up enough to have a good supply of hulls. Way back in the 1990’s, I wandered into a close-out sale in Anchorage where the business had boxes of 10-gauge steel shells for something like $5 per box. I bought everything they had. The shells are a brand name and have been stored in a watertight storage box ever since. I occasionally pick up a box when prices are right, and the shells are in stock. As you might guess, 10-gauge shells aren’t stocked by every sporting goods store.

I purchased a 10-gauge steel shot, shotshell reloading tool at a gun show a while back. It was new in the box and priced at about half the new tool retail price. When I spoke with the seller, he said he intended to goose hunt with his SP-10, but life got in the way, and he sold the shotgun. With the gun gone, he didn’t have a use for the reloading tool, so it was expendable too. Now, I just have to go goose hunting!