# Salt Lake Hunt



## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Went out to the Salt Lake yesterday and shot a few birds... kinda my "welcome home" present to myself. That, and my dog needed to get out and get on some more birds... I also wanted to break in my new (to me) 20 guage single shot. All I can say about my shooting is... yeah, I suck. But it was sure challenging knowing I only had one shot and if I missed at first, then that was that. Boy... I've got some work to do on crossing clays.....I missed pretty much every crossing shot I took, with one exception. I did wind up with five birds though so my dog and I were happy. I shot one hen goldeneye that I had to wade out into waist deep water to catch... she was only winged and my dog couldn't get her because she'd dive on him.... so... I went out to catch her and wound up getting into crystal clear water, watching her swim underneath me and then plunged under the water to grab her as she went by. It was cold and wet but a fun experience. :lol: The very first teal (and I wasn't going to admit this but what the hell) was a greenwing that didn't spook with the rest of the birds off the shoreline when we showed up so I sent my dog for it and when he brought it back, it was alive and well except for a broken wing. Oh well... at least it didn't die slowly out on the water somewhere. That was the good part of the day.... plenty of shooting (although quite poor accuracy and technique by me), a few ducks, a tired dog, and a nice day alone on the lake. Now for the bad part......

I HATE SLOBS!!! Whoever hunted the lake shore with jet sleds, coffins or whatever and left all your $hit laying there when you left.... I had better not *EVER* catch you out there doing it again... or I will turn your sorry A$$ in to the DWR and do everything I possibly can to get your hunting privileges removed for that year if not longer. As it is, I have photo evidence that you left four empty boxes, empty soda cans, probably sixty shell casings, and two DEAD SPOONIES laying in your holes you dug in the sand for your sleds. I'm wondering if the other eaten and rotten spoonies in the water weren't your handiwork as well. The photos will be going to the DWR and you had better hope they don't go out and check the scene...because I'm sure you a**holes left plenty of fingerprints on your boxes, casings and two cans of Coke on the ground out there. It was absolutely disgusting and obviously I'm as pi$$ed as a wet cat about what I saw when I walked a mile out to the lake to hunt. If you pack your crap out there, pack it back in. Whoever went out there had at least five people, if not more and retrieved ducks, only to leave them lay when they left. Folks like this are who we need to keep our eyes peeled for and get rid of these scum before they get our access and our sport taken away from all of us. If I see trucks out there, four wheelers, more trash or whatever, I'll set up and figure out just who's doing it and rid the hunting world of these idiots. You know, I do what I can to clean up, do things right and whatever and I've heard all the talk about guys stomping birds or leaving trash and all that but I can honestly say I've never seen it first hand and it truly is a disgusting sight. :evil: Man... it made me extremely angry. If you're not going to eat something you're hunting... then for gods sakes, leave the **** birds alone. Its not THAT hard to tell the difference in teal, spoonies and whatever else is out there..... if I can tell the difference without my contacts in, then anyone else should be able to see whats what as well. I'm sure all the crap left on the shoreline would have been much lighter to pack out but some folks are just too lazy to pick up after themselves I guess. Unfortunately for them, its found by folks like me who do care about the animals, the resource, the area and aren't willing to let others like these slobs ruin it for us. Don't worry, they'll get theirs.... sooner than later hopefully. :x

Here's the pictures of both the hunt and the mess these idiots left.....

What I saw from a distance......









What it looks like when they all get up at once.


















They didn't go far.


















End of a good day with my "Buddy".


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Here's the "evidence"..... such crap!!! :x There was also a dead seagull out there that had been shot in the back and several other carcasses that I believe might have started out as gulls also... so I'll be reporting that as well.

The preliminary view.....









The rest of the carnage... close up. |-O-| |-O-| 

















































































Seriously.... this ain't your mommas beach.... pick up after yourself or stay the hell home!!!


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## STEVO (Sep 13, 2007)

Man, I aggree, People can be such slobs. A ass kickin as a kid would have prevented alot of the disrespect these people have.

Looks like a good hunt, good job!!!!!


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## ntrl_brn_rebel (Sep 7, 2007)

:shock: 

What a mess, somepeople need to be kicked in the nuts :evil: 

Looks like a great hunt though except for the mess, neat pics of the birds!!!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

It was a good hunt.... and although I was immediately ticked when I saw what the folks had left, I put that aside and had a good time with my duck hunting buddy anyway. The lake has been good to me with quite a few teal this year... I love those little buggers. I need to find a way to set my dekes so they come in for a crossing left to right shot.... they kept coming right in over the dekes and then swinging out to my left and for a left handed shooter on your knees, thats a dang hard shot to get your body all twisted around for. Crossing shots period... I need to go throw some clays.... I really shot very badly... so bad that I'm not about to say that I shot a box of 20 guage through the single shot for four dead birds.... OH... oops. Well, its out now anyway.  :lol:


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

That's really unfortunate to have come upon all that mess. It looked like a couple of those boxes were lead shot too. No regard for wildlife or the law. How hard is it to get out to where you were? Is there wading involved? I need to go out hunting ducks, as I haven't been yet (ever) and want to find a place that is relatively easy to get to. I don't mind a long walk, but I don't want to have to wade through 8 miles of swamp to get there. My waders fit well enough to put on for bird retrieval, but not to hike in.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

ChaserOfAllBirds said:


> That's really unfortunate to have come upon all that mess. It looked like a couple of those boxes were lead shot too. No regard for wildlife or the law. How hard is it to get out to where you were? Is there wading involved? I need to go out hunting ducks, as I haven't been yet (ever) and want to find a place that is relatively easy to get to. I don't mind a long walk, but I don't want to have to wade through 8 miles of swamp to get there. My waders fit well enough to put on for bird retrieval, but not to hike in.


I didn't look at the federal boxes really close but for some reason, their lead shot boxes look the same as the steel. :? There were two boxes of Winchester Xperts too. According to maps I've looked at, its a mile and a half as the crow flies to the spot I hunted..... it is a long walk, especially with stuff on your back. If you're going for a first time, there are easier places, like walking out the south end of Farmington to find open flows in their various canals and such. If you don't mind shooting spoonies, then yeah, hunting the lake is probably a good bet... but you certainly feel it the next day..... my legs are killing me right now.


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## BRL1 (Sep 12, 2007)

That is disgusting. Sunday I picked up a garbage bag full of empty shells, boxes and pop cans as well. I didn't find any birds that had been left but slot of everything else.

But the thing that got to me was people still shooting 30 minutes after shooting hours ended.


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## wingmanck (Sep 7, 2007)

I hate to give these douche bags even an ounce of credit but the Feds are steel at least. Add my name to the list of people sick and tired of idiots in the marsh who have zero respect for anything. I am tired of picking up other's empties and trash, tired of early/late shooting (everyone's watch is a bit different so a minute or 2 doesn't bother me but 5, 10 and even 30+ is total bulls***), and tired of a**hole behavior in general. If you must be an a**hole, be one at home. We don't want to see/deal with it. I haven't been lucky enough to catch anyone red-handed yet but I won't hesitate to turn someone in if I do. Actually, my buddy and I thought we saw 2 idiots who were shooting over a half hr late get busted once but when the CO stopped them, they accused us of being the ones shooting. (we were the only 2 groups on the whole marsh) Obviously, when the CO stopped us, he was less than polite. His mood quickly changed when he realized after asking us a few questions that he had let the guilty party go. We tried to catch them and get plate numbers but they were 10 minutes ahead of us and we never caught up to them :evil: :evil: :evil:


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## huntducksordietrying (Sep 21, 2007)

Thats too bad about the slobs. I never knew there was any walk-in access to the GSL. Thats good that you had a good hunt. My first duck gun was a single shot 20 ga. I sucked at first but got better with time. Just as I was getting too be a good shot with it I went to the 12 ga pump. I love it when ducks duck under on my dog. He is funny, he will actualy duck his head under the water and look for the duck. Its quite a sight.


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

Nice job on the ducks riverrat. I'm just as pissed as you about the garbage. :evil: Give me a call if you ever want some one to come with ya. I'll bring the garbage bags.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks guys.... I shouldn't have gone off but man, that really is an angering thing to see, especially in a spot you really have to work to get to.... you'd think most guys that would go that far out of the way to hunt would pick up their stuff too.... oh well. It was a good time... crazy how close I could get to the ducks on the shoreline.... If punt guns were still legal, there could have been some massive carnage from forty yards away. :shock:


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## mezner1 (Nov 19, 2007)

Yep I agree. Pick it up or stay the Hockey puck out of the marsh. I went to a spot with a buddy and we packed out about 5 boxes of empties two days later there all back. Oh man those pics just make me sick.


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## woollybugger (Oct 13, 2007)

GSL- I know the place well  ... I used to hunt it often years ago. Too bad that the slobs had to trash it. Looks like the spooners are still thick as can be out there. I haven't been out there in more than 8 years. I heard that the area around the state park has been closed to all hunting, except airboats that come in from the lake?!?!


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## 16 Gauge (Oct 15, 2007)

It is a shame that that the thing that will put and end to hunting will more than likely be hunters and there slob behavior. I have been hunting for 30 years in Utah and Idaho and every year the behavior of hunters seems to get worse. I mainly hunt the south end of FB for duck and the list is endless of crap I have seen other so called hunters do. I have seen a goose shot 45 mins. past shooting time (I called that one in and the people that did it were cited by the DWR). Last night people were shooting a good 20 minutes past shooting time. I constantly hear guys shooting without plugs in their guns either that or they are really fast at reloading their gun! Guys walking the dike in tennis shoes and no dog just how will the retrieve any bird shot? I usually pick up a load of garbage every time I hunt water bottles, empty hulls, shell boxes-a boat seat, 5 gal. buckets. I was taught at a young age that you police your camp, blind, etc. before you leave its just not that hard to be clean! I pay my son a nickel for every shotgun hull that he picks up when we hunt that's not ours if we take a long walk down the dike he can make some good money.

I could go on and on about the crap I have seen whether its duck, deer, chucker, dove or pheasant hunting. I doesn't matter some people have no respect for the wild life or the environment nature etc. I my opinion we don't have to worry about PETA or the Humane Society putting a stop to hunting we will do it to ourselves.

Sorry for the rant but I do fell a little better.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice ducks Riverrat.

It's great you all are picking up litter. I haven't made it to the marsh yet to pick up my share, but am keeping busy cleaning crap from the Bear River up here in Hooterville.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

woollybugger said:


> I heard that the area around the state park has been closed to all hunting, except airboats that come in from the lake?!?!


I hadn't heard that... I'll have to check it out but if thats the case, I'd walk out into the lake and then over to get to my spot if thats what it takes... Doesn't bother me to have to work hard to get on birds. It'll probably make it less likely for other folks to hunt there as well. I did talk to a Holly Betteridge from the DWR and emailed her the pictures I took as well as a description of exactly where I was hunting so that they can go check it out. I really hope they pull some prints or something else that helps them find the shooters.... and wring out their wallets to the tune of a couple hefty fines.... wish I'd taken shots of the seagull I found shot as well... that would probably add to the fine by quite a bit if they're the ones that shot that also. :? Don't know if it matters... but she didn't mention any restrictions on hunting that spot to me.... Hopefully I'm not out of line by hunting there. :|


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## coolgunnings (Sep 8, 2007)

Glad to see you made it out and shot some ducks. Sorry about the lazy slobs that left thier sheet out there. Bet you felt like you were hunting at the garbage dump, its sad. Hey call me about this weekend.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Will do. If you don't want to make the long run, lets go halfway... I have a feeling the birds will be there. 8)


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## Leaky (Sep 11, 2007)

Finally back on line. Have a few problms yet to be resolved but hopefully minor. Damned computers. :x Anyway, I'm kind of glad I wasn't able to join ya. I would have been pissed to see that mess. At least you had a good hunt.  When I get back from our trip I'll get in touch. Until then good hunting and say howdy to your new wife and Kassey.
Leaky


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## Duurty1 (Sep 10, 2007)

yeah this morning out at the slough my dog brought me back 2 shovelers that i didn't shoot and a guy i ran into out there was shooting lead. he had the nerve of telling me that walmart put there lead and steel together and he didn't mean to buy them. yeah needless to say i made the call and he got a nice fine for it. and on top of that i think i picked up about a case worth of beer cans out there to not to mention a backpack full of hulls and trash


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