IRAQI Veteran Hunt at Pintail Farms

The hunt started off with "luv2brode" and "Guy" not being able to make the trip. We sure wished it could have worked out for everyone that planned to come out. I was concerned about the hunt because everything at Pintail Farms was frozen over for several mornings prior.

Just before the Veteran's Hunt, hunting was very slow. I was not sure if we lost birds going North or South. I did know one thing though; birds were not moving around during the day, but after shooting time, in the afternoons we were seeing thousands of teal coming in and roosting. The forecast predicted a good chance of rain.

Mark arrived at the lodge around noon. We got settled into the lodge and took him on a tour. It had been raining on and off all morning. As Mark and I looked out the windows from the lodge, we noticed the rain was constant, but we started seeing birds moving around 12:30, so we geared up and headed to the blind.

Terry Griffin one of the club members came along for the hunt. We pulled up to the blind on the "Max" (6-wheeler) and about 150 birds or so got up from the lake we were going to hunt, known as "Bare Lake". As we were putting the gear in the blind, we had at least 300 to 400 Teal trying to land in the decoys.

We unloaded and parked the ATV and as I walked toward the blind, I couldn't but notice the birds, one group after another. Mark couldn't believe the birds we were seeing. Probably about 90% Teal with a few Pintails and Mallards scattered in. It was looking like we were in for a good hunt.

We got in the blind and loaded up. Within 5 minutes or so we had our first bunch come in. We took 1 of them. A Mallard drake and hen came in and suddenly we had a group of 100 or so working us, so we held off on the mallards while they lit in the decoys waiting for everything to come in. All of a sudden they bugged out. I told Mark it is like that sometimes, however, the action was as fast as it gets, lots of shells were being fired and everyone had a limit by 4:00. We had group after group of Teal coming in, up to 300 to 400 in a flock.

We ended up with 13 Green Wing Teal and a Spooney Drake and Hen. The Spooney Drake was one the prettiest I have seen. It is now at the Taxidermist for Marks first mount. Thank you for the rain. It always brings the Teal in this way. If it starts raining in the morning then you always want to get in the blind. It is nice to be done early especially if it's cold and rainy.

After hunting, we went to the lodge and took off our cold wet gear, warmed up by the fire place and talked about the awesome hunt. We had a good meal and watched a funny movie called "Wild Hogs". If you have not seen it, it's a "must see", for a good laugh.

Mark is now stationed back in the states helping tend funerals of soldiers. He got a call at the lodge Monday night and unfortunately, had to cut the hunt short at 8:00am Tuesday to be back tending the funeral for a fallen comrade.

Mark and I got 3 Teal and 1 Ring Neck that morning. We should have had our limit that second morning, but we had to leave the blind at 8:00am to get him on the road to serve his country. As we were saying our good byes we watched the birds coming into the lake we hunted, but it was time to return to duty.

Hunting with Mark was a real pleasure. He's a wonderful person. It works out that we both grew up 30 miles apart in Georgia; it's indeed a small world indeed. Our soldiers put their lives on the line everyday for us to have what we have. Thank you Mark, and every other soldier out there.

Mark, call me next year and we can do it again.

Rockie Martin
Pintail Farms