calling contests, duck calling, goose calling

Ducks Unlimited 2011 Canadian Duck & Goose Calling Championship

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Here’s a chance for any readers in Ontario or parts nearby to get out and test your calling skills, and maybe win a prize or two.  The event is going down on August 20, 2011 at the Bass Pro Shops in Vaughan (1 Bass Pro Mills Drive for those of you who may need directions), and having been to a couple of DU calling contests (one in my youth many years ago at Wye Marsh, and one more recently in Grimsby…both with limited results) I can say with some certainty that they are a good time. 
The associated forms and rules can be found here and here, but to give a brief synopsis of the event, it looks like they’ll be running seven (yes, seven!) categories.  Three will be in the duck calling stream: senior, youth, and two-man, with a further four in the goose calling milieu: senior, youth, two-man, and a unique sounding senior’s category called Old Man Flute (where it looks as though only flute-style calls, as opposed to the ever-popular short reed-style, can be used). 
For those of you unfamiliar with the format, here’s a Cole’s Notes version for this event.  Youth callers (under 15 years of age and never having placed in a senior-level contest) will call from a blind for 60 seconds, and senior callers will call for 90 seconds.  Five judges are concealed so that they are judging on sound quality alone, and they score you on a points standard. 
Otherwise, it is just a good time.  I’ve found that most of the people that are competing and observing at these events are eager to talk about hunting and swap strategies and stories.  Who knows, you may even make some new hunting buddies.  Aside from that Bass Pro Shops is just a fun place to hang out and covet various pieces of equipment and gear.  I hardly even fish at all and I still like to go check out the bass boats.
I’ve been asked if I am attending/competing and my answer is that I hope to be able to at least come watch.  My goose call is currently in transit to Illinois (I took the extra cheap postage option so it may get there next week) so unless I can get it repaired, shipped back and get some practice in before August 20th, I won’t be competing.  Then again, I am not really a threat to win in the goose-calling arena, ditto for my work on a duck call.  I’m proficient and confident, but hardly competition-class.
Registration closes August 12, 2011.  For more info review the links above for the rules and registration info or call the Ducks Unlimited office in Barrie, ON at (705) 721-4444 or email calling@ducks.ca for more additional details.
duck hunting, goose hunting, hunting regulations

Just Out! Migratory Birds Hunting Regulations, 2011-2012 – Ontario

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The wait is over for you Canadian waterfowlers.

As of July 14th, 2011 Environment Canada has posted the national regulations here for 2011-2012.  The provincial links are all there for the viewing at the landing page, so I won’t bore you all by re-posting them all here province by province.

Usually it takes a day or two for the licenses to be distributed, but based on the phone conversation I had with Environment Canada today, all the licenses should be out and available for sale by mid-next week, if they are not out at some distributors already.

This is as sure a sign that autumn is coming as I know, and I couldn’t be happier.

hunting, lists upon lists, random thoughts

Funny Things You Hear Sometimes

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My thanks to those of you who have emailed me to wonder if I’m doing okay.  Yes I am, but the drop in blog productivity is with good cause.  A couple of good causes actually.
First and foremost, it is July.  There’s not much to hunt in July (other than hunting for a cool place in the shade…not surprisingly, I am not a warm-weather creature).  Since it is the high summer, there just aren’t the stories that I had in the run-up to, and duration of, the spring turkey season.  Secondly, and the inspiration for this post, is that I’ve started a new job in the bustling metropolis of Toronto.  Some of the time I had previously spent writing is now spent driving home, but please do look forward to increased output from me as I slowly descend into the madness associated with chasing ducks and geese.
Now onto today’s ramblings.  As mentioned, I’m now in a new office…an experience not altogether different from one’s first few days of school.  There are new faces, names, and social cliques to navigate.  There are meetings and training sessions to attend.  And there is my personal ‘brand’ to establish.  Of course my brand is good-natured consultant who happens to love hunting and the outdoors.
This love of the outdoors did not take long to shine through (maybe the framed photo of my wife and I on her only hunting trip piqued the curiosity of my new coworkers, who knows?) and immediately I was attacked with questions from a number of people who, through no fault of their own, have never experienced the outdoors outside of a televised beer commercial.
Here’s a list (in no particular order) of the most ridiculous, charming, and downright wacky questions and statements I’ve heard since my arrival in the urban business world.  My responses (or what I had hoped they could have been) are italicized.
It’s illegal to shoot Canada Geese isn’t it?  I mean they’re on the $5 bill!
Nope, completely legal and downright delicious.  In fact bag limits are liberal so in a way it is encouraged.  Polar bears and loons though…strictly off-limits.  Thus your monetary-based system of valuing animal life is somewhat accurate.
That mean you own weapons right?
Yes, but only because I’ve grown too old to continue to chase down and tackle things.
Can you talk to animals?
Yes, but they rarely listen.
Can I go hunting with you?
You can come and watch if you want, but you’ll mostly just see me sitting still and being quiet.  You can do that in the office if you’re so inclined, and if you stay inside there is less likelihood of you being bitten by a tick…so that’s win.
What did that duck/goose/deer/turkey/rabbit ever do to you that you can just kill it?
Nothing.  That’s why I’m not trying to kill it out of spite.  It is just a challenging thing to do, which happens to have very tasty results if I’m successful…which is not very often.
When you eat an animal, do you gain its strength?
No, but if I don’t brush my teeth afterwards I do get breath that would terrify a grizzly bear.
Does this mean I shouldn’t make you mad?
I think that you are asking if you enrage me will I hunt you like a wild animal?.  Really, you shouldn’t make me mad but only because that would just be a mean thing for you to do to me; that I go hunting shouldn’t enter into it.  If you do make me mad, rest assured, I enjoy hunting and the outdoors far too much to jeopardize that privilege by doing something thoughtless and violent.  I likely will go hunting, but in a nice calm forest far away from such silly questions and where whatever you did to make me angry will be washed away by the relaxing sounds of the wilderness surrounding me.
It is too bad that stereotyping of this sort still goes on, but it does and I’m sure this is just the start of some of the hilariously absurd things that people are going to say to me.  I’ve already gotten some funny looks when I told my coworkers that I usually reserve a week or more of vacation for the dead of November.  Maybe they think I’m a skier.  This list will probably grow, and this is nice outlet for it, since I usually have to just politely answer in a neighbourly sort of way that won’t make my interrogator feel ridiculous.  After all, if they took the time to ask, the least I can do is give them an answer.
Well, actually, the least I could do would be to walk away silently shaking my head…but that would really make it hard for me to make friends in the office.
goose calling, goose hunting, hunting gear

Return of the Gearhead

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Saturday past saw me driving at a very early hour from Cambridge to Barrie so that I could go hang out with my in-laws and pick up my son (they had taken him off my hands for a few days.
Now no drive along Highway 400 North is complete with a stop at BassPro Shops.  So that’s what I did.  See, last week I was sitting in my basement blaring away on my Tim Grounds Super Mag (as is my habit) and it made a couple of funny, squeaky notes.  Since this call has been money for me (and plenty forgiving too) I chalked it down to operator inadequacy, which is usually the case so early in the pre-season.  After a half-hour or so, my wife came down to inform me that I ought to consider making practice time over, or she’d make it over by force.  The call was full of all sorts of condensation, so I took it apart to rinse it out when I noticed a couple of cracks starting to form at the tip of the reed.  This call has seen me through almost five years of hard-hunting, constant practice, and even a couple of contests, so for the reed to make it that far was great, frankly.
I would be remiss if I don’t also mention that in my haste I once accidentally slammed it in my car door in the morning darkness…since then it has had a mean chip and crack in the end piece, but it still sounds great.  Still, the small cracks in the reed and the slightly out of tune squeal were flimsy enough pretenses for me to stop in at BassPro and peruse their waterfowl calls, decoys, and gear.
I tested out some layout blinds, priced out some dekes, and attempted to try some goose calls.  I’ll be posting later this week on my findings in the blind and decoy fields, but this post is really about customer service.
I won’t be slagging BassPro; all I will say is that I can’t believe they weren’t able to find “the guy” who had the keys to the acrylic and exotic wood goose calls.  Also, they didn’t have any replacement reeds or parts for my Super Mag, so I decided to look into repairing it through the dealer instead.
In this case, the dealer was Tim Grounds himself.  I went to his website, and gave him a call that Saturday.  I got his shop voicemail, so I flipped him an email with the details on what I need.  Not only did I get an email back from Juda Grounds first thing on the next business day (i.e. today) but I also got a personal voicemail from the man himself.
Not to gush, but I’ve read a lot about Tim, watched him on TV and in hunting videos, and used his instructional tape that came with my Super Mag to nail down some pretty good sounds.  All the testimonials on his site indicate that he’s just a humble, nice guy who is passionate about hunting and hunting calls.  In that vein, the goose call he made that hangs on a lanyard around my neck has lead to the demise and preparation into delicious food of many, many Canada Geese in the last five years, and it has also been hanging around my neck during the creation of some lifelong memories; some of which I’ll be sharing with you the reader in the next weeks and months.  This phone message is about as close as I’ve come to being associated in any way with a real hunting icon, so forgive me my rock star adulation.  My wife doesn’t understand it either.
The outcome?  I’m getting a true craftsman that will personally repair and tune my call, a good story, and I don’t have to break the bank.  That’s a triple-win for those of you who are counting.

Hunting. Not Hype.