Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Wood Ducks in the cypress swamp

We have been having unusually cold temperatures for eastern NC. I shot a couple of Wood ducks last Saturday morning and the dog couldn't walk out on the ice to retrieve them, so I had to break ice in the beaver pond to go get them myself. Lots of fun waterfowling!



These are my first kill's with my new 12 gauge Benelli M-2 (traded a hunting buddy my Ruger .257 Roberts for it last month). I like this shotgun pretty good so far, my first new semi-auto since 1976 and the first one I have owned with a 3" chamber. I shot the Wood ducks with 2 3/4" Winchester X-pert #4 steel shot.

Very nice. I think the majority have fled Colorado for warmer climates. Need to find a lefty Benelli one of these days.

Still waiting on numbers of birds down here on the coast.... send em this way, but they'll sweat as we have been in the 80s the last few days.

Odessa -

Great hunt. It's crazy seeing you have to break ice in NC. Here in eastern Nebraska, ice breaking is a way of life for late season waterfowlers, but I gotta figure that's pretty rare out your way. Out here, we were breaking through 2+" thick stuff weeks ago...

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-10/61371/Icefromthelake-5Dec2010.jpg

Now, you can walk on virtually any still body of water.

Great job on those woodies. Ours were gone months ago and we never get to shoot them when they're in full breeding plummage like yours. Color me jealous and congrats!

You are gonna love that Benelli M2. It's the easiest to maintain and cleanest (not to mention, lightest) semi-auto shotgun I've ever used. I bought a new one this year because they are one of the few companies that make a quality lefty semi-auto (moosemuncher, take note!) The pricetag hurt a bit, but the buyer's remorse is long gone. It's the best investment I've made in a firearm in a while. Yours is even nicer than mine with that Max-4 camo. I'm gonna have to get mine dipped since I bought it in matte black. That camo makes a big difference when the birds are spooky and looking for any excuse to break away from your spread.

Got my eye out for a lefty version. Thinking I could buy either one and would view it as pure utility. If I get a black one I'll just rattle can it as it won't be sold. The righthanded super black eagle I have has been really nice and figured that M2 would be as well.

I have the black one and my only beef with it is the finish is a rust magnet. If it gets even a little bit wet during a hunt, you have to wipe it very thoroughly and then hit it with an anti-corrosive or oil all over the barrel if you want to avoid surface rust. It might cost a bit more, but if I could do it over, I would get the one Odessa has purely to mitigate that one issue.