NAME THAT DEEK!!

Although the Mafia blog has been "still" for a long time, that's all about to change.  Season is right around the corner, which means new adventures are knocking at our doors.  Not to mention several new opportunities.

Recently, the Mafia was asked to participate in a traveling decoy promotion.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it's when someone ( a sole individual, or a group) sponsors a decoy, and then sends it around to several people to use while they hunt.  Each host is responsible for recording how the decoy was used, taking photos of how the decoy was utilized in their decoy spread, and also for recording the results.  The reports are sent back to the individual who sponsored the decoy who will compile all the information provided by the hosts. 

The Mafia wasn't just asked to participate...we were also given the opportunity to "name the deek".  This was not a task to be taken lightly.  The name should invoke all the joy, emotion, intensity, blood, sweat and tears it takes to be a devoted waterfowl hunter.  And so.....the clock was ticking and the Mafia had a job to do....name the red head deek.

Believe it or not...this was one of the hardest things we've had to do in awhile...we weren't playing with our own product...this was someone else's...and we wanted to make him proud...we wanted to make EVERY WATERFOWL HUNTER proud.  So keeping that in mind as our criteria....we named him "CHAOS".

We chose this name because there's so much of "it" going on in the field...in the sky...on the ground...in our souls.... 

CHAOS in the sky:  When these ducks see this hand-carved, custom red head  deek, the chaos in the sky will ensue! No bird will second guess the life-like detail of this decoy and they will commit without reservation! We are confident of that!

CHAOS on the ground:  Your deek spread is going to have a new boy in town to live up to!  All other deeks will pale in comparison... the chaos will come from realizing that....you're gonna need more custom red heads!

CHAOS in our souls:  Ya know that feeling you get in the split seconds between the moment you know the ducks have committed to your spread, you've got the duck you want locked in your sights, the safety comes off and someone yells "SHOOT 'EM!!!" and you pull the trigger???? THAT...is whatcha call chaos in the soul!  And it doesn't end there! What follows is the chaotic feeling of "Did I miss?" "Did I get him?" And hoping that when your faithful retriever comes back, he's got a mouth full of feathers!

The creator of this traveling decoy promotion is Adam Young (@waterfowlhunter on Twitter; http://www.waterfowlhunter.tumblr.com/) and the decoy artist/creator is Jim Crowley of Hook and Hunt TV (@hookandhunttv on Twitter; http://www.hookandhunttv.com/). See below for further info:

Traveling Decoy Promotion Guidelines/info:
Adam Young with the help of Jim Crowley of Hook and Hunt TV will be sending a hand carved cork Redhead Decoy all over the country. Jim is carving this decoy as we speak.
The decoy is starting on September 11th in Wisconsin. Each person will host the decoy for one week. During that week we want the decoy to see as much action as possible. When the week is over the host will be responsible for sending the decoy to the next person on the list. We ask that everyone involved take pictures and tell the story about the time spent with the decoy.
When the season is over we will compile all the pictures and stories in a book form and include it with the decoy for auction. The money raised will be passed on to a really cool foundation to be announced at a later date.
Please direct message @waterfowlhunter via Twitter if you're interested in hosting the traveling decoy.

WHY DO YOU ENJOY IT?

The Goose Mafia's latest guest blogger is a friend of mine, Brian King.  A litte bit about Brian:

"I was born in Michigan and grew up in West Virginia. I began hunting and fishing at a very young age. My grandfather introduced me to shooting and reloading. For that matter, my hunting and fishing influences came from him, too. As a kid, I spent a lot of time target shooting and hunting on my grandparent's farm. I come from a large family that enjoys the outdoors. 

After getting my degree, I joined the U.S. Air Force. I served stateside, in South Korea, and a tour in Desert Storm. 

I enjoy many outdoor activities including hunting, shooting, fishing, archery, ATV's, camping, and photography. My military and civilian careers have provided me extensive training in a variety of weapons. I've also spent the last dozen or so years being involved with horses."

You can follow Brian and all his antics at www.heybjk.com, where his blog is appropriately titled: Thoughts from the woods, water, and wherever."  Because folks, there isn't a corner of "wherever" this boy hasn't written about!  From hunting to fishing, product reviews and insights, to just loving life and being a great dad...this blog covers it all! 

WHY DO YOU ENJOY IT?

Have you ever really thought about why you enjoy the outdoors? People will often say, well, I like to hunt or I like to fish. That's okay, but why do you like to hunt or fish? Are those the only reasons you enjoy spending time in the outdoors?

I hunt and fish and have been doing so since I was a little kid. They are avenues that allow me to spend time outdoors, but not the sole reasons I enjoy it. Let me give you a couple of examples from my personal experience.

My grandparents used to own a cabin in northern Michigan and it was a place we visited many times over the years. One year in particular my best friend made the trip with us. We - my friend, my brother, and I - decided one morning to float a smallish river that was a short drive from the cabin. My grandfather drove us to the river where we launched our inner-tubes and he was going to pick us up a few hours later down river.

We had been lazily floating along with the river to ourselves for a while. As we rounded one particular bend in the river, we came upon a cabin. Standing at the water's edge was an old man. He was literally inches from the river just peering into the water as if transfixed by something. Ordinarily, a scene like this would be nothing special to remember. In this case, however, the old man was wearing nothing but his flip-flops. At first sight of this old fella standing at the river's edge in all his glory, we started laughing despite our best attempts to remain quiet. Our laughter startled him and that's when he realized for the first time that he had company. He turned around and began shuffling as fast as he could back toward the cabin. Much to our chagrin, we were treated to displays of both sides. As slow as he was going doing the flip-flop shuffle, we were past the cabin and out of view before he made it back to the door. I'm quite certain that was not the first time he had stood naked at the river. Normally, he probably didn't have visitors to worry about. We nicknamed him the "Running Man" and laughed about that the rest of the trip!

Another event took place during a bear hunt in West Virginia. Again, it was my best friend and I. We were hunting in some mountains and had parked our vehicle along a river. To get to where we wanted to hunt we had to cross the river. It was flowing quite fast, but we finally managed to wade across. After hunting for several hours, we made our way back to the river. It had rained most of the afternoon and, when we got back, we discovered the river had risen considerably. It was so high, in fact, that we were unable to cross it again. There were large chunks of ice in the current as well.

To make a long story short, we were essentially stranded with very little food and were ill-prepared to deal with the cold and rain. We decided to make our way down river and hope to find a way to cross, but ultimately we were "rescued" by some locals who noticed our foolish dilemma.

The first story had nothing to do with hunting or fishing. It's about creating memories. That little float trip with my brother and best friend is something I always have and always will remember. It was enjoyable because of the company and the fun that resulted from Running Man. That was a unique event. It will never be repeated.

The second story involved hunting, but we didn't kill anything. We ended up in a serious and fairly dangerous situation. Again, it was an event that created a memory I'll never forget. I didn't necessarily enjoy it at the time, but I'm glad it happened.

I enjoy lots of outdoor activities. It's not always about the activities themselves, though. What I enjoy about the outdoors is the memories created that cannot be made anywhere else. If I was a guy who spent all my time sitting inside playing video games I would have missed out on so many wonderful events that are now memories I carry with me. It's a connection with the outside and spending time in the woods or on the water making those special memories.

Maybe you enjoy lying in a goose blind listening to the geese honk as they get closer and closer anticipating that moment when you'll bring the shotgun up and fire. For some of you, it may be getting into a tree stand before light and listening in the silence for that tell-tale rustle of leaves that whisper "deer". Or maybe you enjoy throwing that top water lure out onto the glass-like surface of a still lake and waiting for the explosive strike from below. For others, it may be walking the fields waiting for your faithful dogs to flush the pheasants.

It really doesn't matter what particular activity or activities you enjoy. What is important are the memories made during those times spent outdoors. I'll be creating new memories now as I teach my young daughter how to hunt and fish. We'll share time in the coming years that will create memories no one else will have. And that's why I enjoy the outdoors - to be able to look back with a sense of fulfillment that comes from nowhere else.

~Brian King

I'd like to thank Brian for being my guest blogger, and especially for choosing this topic.  It got me reminiscing about all my favorite outdoor moments, and surprisingly, he's right. Most of them don't actually involve the "reason" for the outing. It's all the fun, unexpected moments in between you and your destination that stay with you.

This past gun deer season, I sat with my sister all of opening day.  I can honestly say, that if I were a serious hunter, I'd have thrown her out of my deer stand by 7:00 am!  We had SO much fun, laughing, joking, feeding the birds and dodging their air attacks...  We sat from 5:00 am to almost 5:00 pm and never left.  The day seemed short in retrospect...it's rare that she and I get to spend so much time together without an interuption of some kind.  Whether it be other people, the phone, chores, work, pets...this was nothing more than she and I, a big wooded box in the sky, some granola and a gun.  I am actually snickering to myself while writing this, because I'm pretty sure there very well could have been deer around us, but we were too caught up in our own little world to notice anything until we heard a nearby "wha-wham" and even then, we'd just peek around, listen for a few moments and if there were no rustling of hooves...it was back to the party!  Opening day is my favorite day...I might even rename it "Sister's Day", because there's NO hunting going on in my neck of the woods!

Thanks Brian...you rocked the Mafia's blog!

COYOTE UGLY

I'm really distraught....

The Goose Mafia crew doesn't just waterfowl hunt...no sir, we deer hunt, turkey hunt, fox hunt, and today, coyote hunt.  I, myself, "the Mafia Princess", do not take part in the coyote deal, but the boys love it.  They've had a lot of fun, but they've also had to put up with a lot, A LOT, of crap.  Landowners just don't get how it works.

To kill said coyote, one must release dogs, which catch the scent, which then proceed to run the coyote, all the while, the hunters are in their vehicles, staked out on various roads and corners, waiting for the coyote and dogs to cross. And along with that, comes the hopes of intercepting and harvesting a coyote.  But then you've got these JACKASSES who think it's fun to go harass the hunters.  These (random) guys (honest!!) will pull up to the hunters, and proceed to yell and cuss at them for no reason other than that they were driving by, saw what they were doing, and they didn't like it. And in a extraordinary effort to keep dog and traveler safe, whenever possible, someone is waiting for the dogs and coyotes when they are about to cross a road.  The crew will put their hazard lights on and even make an attempt to slow drivers and alert them that animals will be crossing the road.  Today, some idiot, took this as a sign to PIN the gas pedal to the floor and narrowly avoided taking the life of a canine.  And it's not just for the dogs...NO....random drivers will actually speed up, swerve at, and yell at the hunters while driving past them on the road. WHAT THE HELL?! The last time we checked, the roads were public domain and anyone could use them, and if not specified, one could park on the side of the road if they wanted to.  I'd say most of this behavior qualifies as "harassment toward a hunter"...and yes, that's a real offense.  One punishable by the law.  Be advised.

Another pain in a coyote hunter's ass, is a land owner with a bad attitude.  One who will come out and start yelling because dogs are running across their property. NOT across their front yard, but ya know, they look out their back window and in the middle of an 80 acre field  a quarter mile away, they see a dog running....well they just find it eminent to jump in their vehicle and find out where that dog came from. In the meantime, they find the hunters parked on the road along the way.  And so of course, a verbal battle ensues.  Here's my rebuttal...'the dog' isn't doing any harm to your property.  They are being closely monitored via GPS and tracking collar.  If they DID any harm to you, or your property, we would take full responsibility for it.  But hey, I don't see you running around chasing the deer running across the field or the birds flying across the field either.  So, what's the difference if a couple of dogs cruise through there? By the way, these dogs are chasing down the one creature all you farmers are bitching about killing your precious pheasants and chickens all the frick'n time. So show some appreciation! 

Today all of this was taken to a new level. A guy from another crew was running his dogs.  And a landowner saw them, came out and yelled at them, and then proceeded to jump on his snowmobile and chase them until he ran them over.  That, is simply uncalled for!  (Originally, there were a few expletives loaded in that sentence, but I'm TRYING to control my rant A LITTLE bit...) 

All I'm saying is........chill out.  They are "dogs" people! No one is harming you, threatening you, harming your property or anything on it.  They are just "moving through" and that's all.  It's REALLY unrealistic to think a hunter could send them out with a map and compass and expect them to stay on property where permission was granted for the harvest...so....a little understanding please? And for goodness sake....DON'T run over people's dogs....seriously.