Joshua
09-02-2009, 11:00 AM
Took off from OC aroond 11 PM> Wasnt sure about the traffic because of the fire in Oak Glen (off the 10) so I decided to take off early.
Made it to our spot around 2am.
Got a little rain around 130 and once again as we tried to sleep in the car.
Everything looked good. My favorite field has new grapes and barley in the rows. I envisioned a quik shoot with birds everwhere. Just after legal shooting time, I see a couple cars drive into my field. This was strange because I am on private property and didnt expect any other shooters this year (other than the occasional trespasser) Then a parade of cars pull in. These were field workers? What the F??
I retreat back close to the car so as not to shoot anyone> The foreman shows up later and told me that they would be working the new field and picking raisins in the older fields. I had a small corner to shoot and could only shoot in 2 directions. This really sucked. I shot at 6 birds between sunrise and 8:15. 3 were in my bag.
We decided to try other spots. I didnt feel comfortable shooting around the workers. As we drove out, I went by the new grapes. We flushed a couple hundred birds in about 200 yards. This was the spot, just couldnt shoot it. Frustrating:Angry:
We hit up another good looking field We had to walk it and force the birds to fly. We bagged a few more and headed to town for breakfast.
Went to our hang out for the day (a packing plant that provides some shade and an irrigation reservoir for swimming and fishing).
Realized this is where we should have started. Some of our friends were there and said they all had quik limits. 2 of them were younger kids that shot dove for their first time. Spent the majority of the day, watching the birds fly around this spot. There was steady bird movement all day.
Final stop was to my killer evening spot. This spot was been incredible for the evening shoot for the past 10 years. This year was a bust. We took one bird. And my nephew almost got shot by some idiots. Fortunately, we expected these a-holes to be stupid and inconsiderate. My nephew noticed this guy was pointing the gun in his direction, so he hit the dirt. We returned fire to let them know that we were upset. Yelled a few choice words. I told me nephew that he needed to shoot next to me because I was out of range.
Not too many people out there this year. The temps with in the low 100s, which is better than the 113 I was expecting. The birds were concentrated in a few areas.
Somewhere on the North End of the Salton Sea West of HWY 86. They do alot of shooting. Not sure if it is a small group that shoots alot or an area that has alot of birds. That area always has the most shooting in that entire valley.
Made it to our spot around 2am.
Got a little rain around 130 and once again as we tried to sleep in the car.
Everything looked good. My favorite field has new grapes and barley in the rows. I envisioned a quik shoot with birds everwhere. Just after legal shooting time, I see a couple cars drive into my field. This was strange because I am on private property and didnt expect any other shooters this year (other than the occasional trespasser) Then a parade of cars pull in. These were field workers? What the F??
I retreat back close to the car so as not to shoot anyone> The foreman shows up later and told me that they would be working the new field and picking raisins in the older fields. I had a small corner to shoot and could only shoot in 2 directions. This really sucked. I shot at 6 birds between sunrise and 8:15. 3 were in my bag.
We decided to try other spots. I didnt feel comfortable shooting around the workers. As we drove out, I went by the new grapes. We flushed a couple hundred birds in about 200 yards. This was the spot, just couldnt shoot it. Frustrating:Angry:
We hit up another good looking field We had to walk it and force the birds to fly. We bagged a few more and headed to town for breakfast.
Went to our hang out for the day (a packing plant that provides some shade and an irrigation reservoir for swimming and fishing).
Realized this is where we should have started. Some of our friends were there and said they all had quik limits. 2 of them were younger kids that shot dove for their first time. Spent the majority of the day, watching the birds fly around this spot. There was steady bird movement all day.
Final stop was to my killer evening spot. This spot was been incredible for the evening shoot for the past 10 years. This year was a bust. We took one bird. And my nephew almost got shot by some idiots. Fortunately, we expected these a-holes to be stupid and inconsiderate. My nephew noticed this guy was pointing the gun in his direction, so he hit the dirt. We returned fire to let them know that we were upset. Yelled a few choice words. I told me nephew that he needed to shoot next to me because I was out of range.
Not too many people out there this year. The temps with in the low 100s, which is better than the 113 I was expecting. The birds were concentrated in a few areas.
Somewhere on the North End of the Salton Sea West of HWY 86. They do alot of shooting. Not sure if it is a small group that shoots alot or an area that has alot of birds. That area always has the most shooting in that entire valley.