Category: Waterfowl

NoDak 2017

Published on by oneshotshelby1 Comment

No one really talks about the “the grind” of fishing season. We just do it and get it done. For me getting through the craziness means a lot of coffee and lots of daydreams of what is to come; Hunting Season. 

The trailer is loaded down with all the works. Blinds, decoys, dog food, goose flags, anything and everything we might need for any situation while were traveling the vacant prairies. Just loading up the truck you can tell Miss Belle already knows. She goes right to her kennel and lays down on the fluffy bed. She waits and watches as we finish loading everything up. Camo, shot guns, and enough shot-gun-shells to start another war. Chris and I barely talk as we pack up the bus. We just shoot little smirks to each other as we pass by. We know the drill. FINALLY, we ready to head North. The bus packed, Maddie and Belle loaded up, we pull out of the driveway. Goodbye Florida!

*26 Hours Later* (yes. twenty six!!)

ARRIVED!

North Dakota’s waterfowl season allows non-resident hunters to hunt for two weeks. You pick your dates for which you choose to hunt. Chris and I, do our weeks back to back. While you are guaranteed a license, you are not guaranteed birds or land permission. You better get your riding pants and get comfy because that truck your in, will be your home. Free lancing means work, determination, and drive. The one I can always count on to align those stars is Duck Boy. There is a chemistry to the relationship Chris has with waterfowl that will give peanut butter and jelly a run for its money. He just gets them! Watching him do what he does, is exhilarating.

We drop the trailer off at the lodge and prepare to scout the rest of the day. Snow covers the ground everywhere and the temperature is 18 degrees with a 2 degree windchill. The wind was honking out of the North at 25mph. Shelby, you are not in Florida anymore! Off we go to find the perfect feed to hunt the next morning. Some people would maybe take the afternoon off after watching the sunset and rise from the cab of your truck but procrastination and laziness are not rewarded up here. A couple hours later we find a good feed. As we pull off the road to glass the field closer, a jeep pulls up. The gentleman in the driver seat rolls the window down and ask if we were the ones who called for permission to hunt that particular field. We told him no that we just stumbled upon it. Chris and Richard begin to make small talk and we learn he is actually the land owner and he likes to duck hunt! I continue to watch these mallards tornado down through the binos; Hypnotizing. Rarely do land owners actually like to waterfowl hunt. In this special case, Richard asked if we wanted to hunt that field with him the following afternoon. Access granted. We made plans to meet right there the next day at 2:00pm;  A perfect start to an incredible few weeks.

Here is a little something wrapping up the time we spent in the corn and snow. Thank you for reading. God is sooo good y’all! Enjoy

2016 Fowl Season Flashback

Published on by oneshotshelbyLeave a comment

Here is a little flashback to this past season. Thank you to everyone who made these hunts possible and a huge thank you to Duck Boy himself for always making my dreams come true! AND of course a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart to my girls, Miss Belle and Maddie May for picking up all the birds and doing the hard work!

God is Good y’all! Enjoy!

* Yes, I know these are not the best quality pics and videos but they are real. Real and uncut. This whole video illustrates what it is like to be right there in the blind with us! There are no camera crews riding with us; No professional photographers falling our every step; but I cherish every minute we spend out there.

**and I apologize in advance for my language at the end. Shooting your first official ALL DRAKE triple was beyond me being able to control my excitement or my mouth 🙂

 

“Duck Boy”

Published on by oneshotshelby1 Comment


There is a man who I call duck boy. He is tall, dark, and handsome. He has a chiseled jawline that makes panties fall off.  He is strong. He is kind. He is smart. He is right with God.

What most people see is that duck boy likes to duck hunt. Duh. But what y’all don’t see is how much he puts into each and every hunt. From hours on end of scouting and scouting looking for the perfect field, pond, river, levee whatever it may be to set up on. The misconception of our pictures is that we have a guide or pay to hunt on some plantation loaded with fowl. Well we don’t. And one thing it takes to free lance hunt is Drive.

Like Miss Belle on the trail of a wounded duck, Chris will not stop. He will NEVER stop. His drive to find birds for that perfect hunt is incredible. He won’t stop until he finds what he’s looking for. When I’m tired and half dead in the passenger seat ready to go home, he’s still driving. Looking, scouting, finding…

Without duck boy my soul would be incomplete. My duck hunts would most definitely fall short. Along with letting me be apart of his hunts, he always makes sure I’m happy.

On December 15th, 2016 Chris called in a group of 150 Canadian geese into our spread. One of the honkers was so close I thought he was going to land on my blind. After we shot and we’re done hoopin and hollerin…he looked at me and said, “You happy baby?” I couldn’t even speak. Then he said, “You said you wanted a goose hunt. How’s that for a goose hunt?” Smiling that sly Chris Kirby smile.

Yes, I am the luckiest girl in the world. There are not enough “thank yous” in the world to tell him how much I appreciate all his hard work and devotion.

God made Duck Boy just for me❤️

#LivingOURDream #TheCaptainsLife #GodisGood

Wrapping up North Dakota 2016

Published on by oneshotshelby2 Comments

While there is no place like home, North Dakota has a piece of my heart. Here’s a little video to wrap up our time in God’s country. Enjoy!

​

​
Chris and I learned so much from this trip and met so many great people. God willing this will be a new tradition for us. We plan on making this trip every year! We had a blast to say the least ❤️

Gadwall Smack Down

Published on by oneshotshelby4 Comments

Well after lots of scouting, we came across a pond 15 minutes from where we were staying. We pulled up on a hill and there she was…a secret little duck hide away you couldn’t see from the main road. After glassing it with some binocs, I’m guessing there was about 800 ducks sitting on it. Mostly gadwalls and mallards 😍 After drooling for 10 minutes we set out to find out who owned it. A lady in the house over the hill directed us back out on the main highway to another house. We pulled in and there was a huge John Deere steady working behind the barn. We parked walked over and when we reached the tractor a sweet man named Nathan opened the door. He told us it was his Dad’s pond and we were more then welcome to hunt it. We invited him to come with us and he said he had never even been duck hunting before 😱 We told him he was sitting on a gold mine and convinced him to join us the following morning. Very cool! He said that he didn’t get many breaks from the farm and with the government the way it is, farmers have taken a huge hit. “There just isn’t a lot of money in farming anymore with all the restrictions but we still work very hard to keep up.” My heart broke when he said that. All in all, my respect for Nathan and all the other hardworking farmers out there grew even more and made me look forward even more to the next morning hunt.

Continue reading “Gadwall Smack Down” →

First hunt in North Dakota, ever.

Published on by oneshotshelbyLeave a comment

First and foremost, duck hunting is not for the faint of heart. Especially not free lance duck hunting. It didn’t take long for Chris and I to realize the effort that needed to be put in to get on some birds up here. With the weather being 20 degrees warmer then normal for this time of the year, birds have been rather hard to find. I can’t tell you the exact number of hours we have drove around scouting out ponds and fields but it’s been ALOT. Some areas had 5 here or 15 here but we wanted a little more security. Finally, we rolled up on a pond that had about 80 mallards on it and there was some Canadians farther toward the back. We drove about a mile up the road to a house and pulled in to ask for permission to hunt it. Knocked on the door, no answer. About a minute later we were greeted by the cutest old man on an old International 😊 Mr. Orvin was such a pleasure and about 30 mins after to getting to know him and hearing his story and how he lives off the land, he gave us the word to hunt the pond. Very cool and look forward to keeping in touch with him. We were off back to our little hunting cottage to get stuff ready for the am.

Continue reading “First hunt in North Dakota, ever.” →