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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Novice Women's Duck Hunt - a video slideshow

For the fourth year in a row, my friend Judy Oswald and I have organized a fantastic event for women: the Novice Women's Duck Hunt.

It starts with a day of training ... no, wait. It started with a night of drinking, and THEN we started training the next day: shooting instruction, waterfowl ID, calling and plucking/gutting. The next morning, we all head off to a cluster of three duck clubs in the Upper Butte Basin.

This year's group of women was fantastic. They were excellent shots, they were super fun and a few got limits on their hunt, including one of the brand-newbies! Good stuff, for sure, and you can get an idea of the fun by watching this video:



© Holly A. Heyser 2014

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Hunting the Drought: a column for Shotgun Life

Just about every duck hunter in California went into this fall wondering what duck season would bring.

Our population of local ducks - especially mallards - is at record lows, but the migrants that just winter here are at record highs. And we're in a serious drought, meaning water for the wintering birds is seriously limited.

We had a general idea what to expect, but the way things started here didn't necessarily match those expectations. You can read about how my opener went in my latest column in Shotgun Life.

© Holly A. Heyser 2014