Did the holidays absolutely fly by for anyone else? Seriously, did Christmas and New Years even happen? If it weren’t for some awesome hunts (with photos to prove it), some great gifts and gear, and the terrifying  memory of a bad hangover (thank you, Castaways), you’d think they never happened! But, like I said, I have photos to prove it.

Tomorrow’s hunt is supposed to be a chilly one – polar opposite to the ones we’ve had lately. I hunted Christmas Eve Eve morning (the day before Christmas Eve… In case that was unclear) with my dad and father-in-law, and we really had a great hunt despite the weather. It was extra foggy morning so the ducks flew a little later, but they definitely had plans to come in at some point. So… we waited. We waited and chitchatted and I snapped some pictures while the fellas continue to chitchat. Honestly, we could barely even see the decoy spread in front of us, so there wasn’t a lot we could do.

Finally, the ducks started coming in, and it was steady from there. The fog showed no signs of letting up, so it made for some sportier shooting. You could hear those ringnecks wayyy before you could see them, and then suddenly they would appear out of the fog in a fast fury, giving you just enough time to take a shot. We ended up with a three-man limit, almost entirely of those supersonic ringnecks, with a few mallards stuck in there for good measure.

I apologize for the awful photo quality – humidity + fog + an old iPhone = this ^ … My bad. Needless to say, the holiday weekend it was off to a great start!

Straight from the duck hunt, off to Georgetown we went to spend Christmas Eve with the Lumpkins, and to sneak in an extra hunt the next morning. The boys opted for a duck hunt, but for some reason I had a bee in my bonnet about getting in the deer stand. I knew there was only one week left of the season, but didn’t know what our schedule would be through the new year. There’s nothing worse than thinking you were going to get to hunt again, only to find that you just don’t have the time or won’t even be in town to do it.

So, alarms went off bright and early. The majority of donned their waders, while I laced up my snake boots and strung my rifle across my back. Yes, I said snake boots. The weatherman was calling for a high of 82° for Christmas, and I wasn’t taking any chances. It was warm, and both snakes and alligators haven’t gotten the memo that its December.

[Side note: my cousin-in-law posted a photo with her family Christmas with a hilarious caption, and I couldn’t resits telling you: “T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house, the AC was running because we live in the South.” (Thanks Kathleen!) Welcome to South Carolina, right?

Anyway, I climb in the stand a few minutes before daylight, got out my binoculars and started looking. The wind was not exactly in my favor for the field I was hunting, but I’d be alright if anything tried to sneak through the woods directly in front of me. Thankfully, the one or two cold snaps we’ve had meant that the underbrush had thinned out some, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to a thing out there. Sure enough, about 7:45 to does were meandering along the edge of the swamp directly out in front of me at about 150 yards. I know I got a big deer earlier in the season, but there’s only so much ground venison one can eat. Plus, the rest of the family had somewhat sparse freezers in terms of venison, so I was instructed to take a doe if I saw one. Well! You don’t have to tell me twice! I pulled up my rifle, got the larger of the two does in my cross-hairs and gently squeeze the trigger. One shot, one kill, didn’t move an inch. Success! That’s how I like to do it.

I had also been told that if I saw two does and had the opportunity to take them both… Well… Take them both. We’ve got plenty of tags and plenty of freezer space. The second doe ran off after I shot, somewhat confused, but came back to figure out what was going on. As it was walking away for the second time, I knew my timing was key. Unfortunately, moving deer quartering away from me is a little harder to shoot than one might think. I did pull the trigger, but missed on the second shot. Instead, the deer galloped directly into the swamp, never to be seen again. Either way, we had a nice big doe on the ground, ready to restock the freezer!

It’s hard to tell from the photos we took, but this thing was l.a.r.g.e. – almost 120 lbs. I tried with zero success to load it on the 4wheeler myself, so Paco came to help me. It was all we could do to drag that thing out together without keeling over. I know, I know –  #deerhunterproblems, right?

But wait! “What about the duck hunt,” you might be wondering. How’d those guys do? Well… their hunt wasn’t too shabby either. In fact, ol’ Mr. Wuan came out of the pond with a banded duck!

Two bands for the Lumpkins in one season? Yes please! Looking at the bird, you’d definitely call it a black duck. We did, at least. Very dark (much darker than this photo shows), and zero white on the speculum’s trailing edge. But, the speculum was definitely more green than blue and after reporting the band number, it was confirmed that he had indeed shot a mottled duck. Hey man – a band is a band, though! Congrats, Mr!

Merry Christmas from (and for) the Lumpkins, indeed!

Don’t worry – the holiday hunting doesn’t stop there. Check back tomorrow for another duck season adventure! Preface: lots of rain in the midlands = I’m not the only one who had water down her waders.