Oh Canada

Oh, Canada. The year was 2016 and I get a call out of the blue from my old man one sunny June day: “We’re going to Canada in early October to shoot some ducks”. I wasn’t given a chance to say no, nor did I want one.

On an oddly warm October morning we jumped on a plane to Edmonton ready for anything to come. After the hassle of checking guns on a flight to another country, I was ready for a nap on the nearly 3 hour drive we had to the border of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

We arrive at the outfitter’s cabin to a trophy room adorned with everything from rocky mountain sheep to a mountain lion and giant moose. Every wall was covered. There was even a mandarin duck which has been atop my bucket list ever since.

The first morning comes early and we start with geese. Layout blinds in a cornfield with a megaphone call. Seems like an ordinary day of fantastic hunting to me but the outfitter said it was slow, even though limited out in about 2 hours.

Then the snow came. By the time the afternoon duck hunt rolled around there were maybe 3 inches of snow on the ground. Yeah, Canada.

We set up about 500yrds from a small pond that looked black it was filled with so many birds. What came next was simply put, the best afternoon of hunting I’ve ever experienced. There must have been 5,000 birds on the near acre sized pond. A group would get up, we’d call them in, bang, reload, repeat. These green heads came sucking in like kamikaze pilots. I’ve never seen anything like it. That on top of a light snowstorm that made it feel like grandma just shook up her snow globe. A truly miraculous day.

The next three days were the exact same. Wake up early, limit out on geese in the morning, ducks in the afternoon, have a damn tasty meal with a big glass of wine and get ready for the next day.

On the last afternoon we were lucky enough to come across a moose that made all of us wish we’d brought a rifle. Canada is a remarkable place, and I can’t wait to do it again.