Southern Proper Duck Camo Frat Hat

Tonight I happened to glance at the Southern Proper website and noticed that they are now offering a Duck Camo Frat Hat. Previously, Southern Proper's only camo offering was in what appears to be some type of Realtree or Mossy Oak camo. As someone who doesn't really do any deer hunting, I was hoping that they might eventually offer an alternative, preferably in something similar to the "old school" duck camo that was popular from the 1940s through the 1980s. Well, ask and ye shall receive.

I also noticed that they're offering a Frat Hat in waxed cotton. This looks like this would also be a great hat, even in the duck blind. Especially on those cold, rainy days.























Both hats can be purchased from the Southern Proper website for $25 each (along with the original camo Frat Hat). 

2011 Duck Hunting Trip

Two weekends ago, before ice and snow brought Atlanta to a grinding halt, I headed to South Carolina for what will likely be my only hunting trip of the 2010/2011 season. A classmate of ours from graduate school invited us down to his family's plantation for the weekend, which was obviously an offer that we couldn't refuse. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Before we headed down to the Lowcountry, my friend Ralph and I were able to go hunting on Friday morning on some land that another of our friend's has up near Greenville.

Ralph (of the soon-to-be blog, A Ralph Down South: an online tour of the places Ralph has thrown up in the southeast), on the lookout for ducks.

Ralph's Browning A5 Stalker and the wood duck that he got.

The lake we were hunting on, as the sun came up.

Unfortunately, I came up empty-handed that morning.

After we wrapped up, we headed down to our friend's plantation, which is down near Edisto, in the ACE Basin. They've got about 600 acres of impoundment and are right next to the Combahee River. For those in the know, this means a TON of ducks.

In order to get ready for the hunt the next morning, we decided to stay up around the fire until about 12:30 AM drinking some of America's finest macrobrews (Natty Light and Busch Light, of course), and two pints of Mr. Boston Rock & Rye (which is delicious, by the way).


The next morning, my friend William and I were set up in our blind and ready for the ducks.

A view from our blind at dawn.

William and his dog, Joe, after downing a drake shoveler.

After the hunt.

William and I had an outstanding morning. We both managed to limit out in just under and hour. We were covered up with ducks, though they were mostly spoon-bills. In fact, between the two of us, we shot 10 drake shovelers, one hen shoveler, and one teal. No complaints, though. We had an awesome hunt.

The plantation was beautiful and amazing. Here are a couple of photos, though they don't do the place justice.




That night, after an afternoon dove hunt, we celebrated in the only fashion appropriate for the ACE Basin. We headed over to bustling metropolis of Yemassee for a steak dinner at Harold's Country Club.

Harold's is a local institution and was definitely the place to be on a Saturday night, though we didn't stick around long enough to have enough to drink to actually participate in karaoke. Next time...



All in all it was an awesome trip. On Sunday, before the snow hit, we even got to go quail hunting at our friend Kyle's parents' farm. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

A special thanks to Rusty, James, and Kyle for their generosity.

Barbour Jacket Alternatives

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me that he was in the market for a Barbour-like jacket and asked if I had any suggestions. I came up with a list for him, and while a number of these have been pointed out on some other blogs (like Dreams of Perfection), I figured I would compile them all here as a sort of guide to waxed cotton field coats. I'm assuming that pretty much everyone knows about the Barbour Bedale and Beaufort, as a well as the Filson Tin Cloth jacket, so I have not included them. Without further ado, here are the jackets.

LL Bean Upland Field Coat- $99
Arguably the best value of the bunch. The padded shoulder pads are a nice touch, and the fact that it's available in a version with a blaze orange upper half makes it a good candidate for a quail hunt.


Lands End Waxed Cotton Field Coat- currently $119
Clearly a Barbour knock-off, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The sale price of $119 is pretty tough to beat.
**UPDATE- According to Greg from Manifold Destiny, this jacket fits like a Beaufort in terms of length.


LL Bean Signature 1947 Field Coat- $185
A slimmer version of the classic in Millerain canvas that also comes with a button-out liner vest.


J. Crew Woodland Jacket- $278
A J. Crew original; the snap front with clasp-fastening storm flap makes it a bit different from the rest of the pack.


Eddie Bauer Waxed Expedition Cloth Saddle Coat- $299
Somewhat of a surprising offering from Eddie Bauer with some nice features, but the contrasting color of the moleskin collar could be a deal-breaker for some.

Barbour Ursula Jacket at Orvis- $379
Said to be a reproduction of the jackets provided to crews of Royal Navy submarines, while it's not technically a field coat, this jacket is pretty awesome. The lack of a hood (or means of attaching a hood) makes it a little less versatile.


Barbour Derwent at J. Crew- $399
Described by J. Crew as a "tackle jacket," this wouldn't make a bad choice out in the field, especially with the built-in hood.


Eddie Bauer Upland Field Coat with Blaze Vest- $429
Another great offering from Eddie Bauer (which I actually wrote about last September), this jacket has some great features like the padded shoulders, shell pockets, and removable blaze orange vest, but the price is pretty steep. However, like the Eddie Bauer Saddle Coat, some people may not care for the blaze orange collar.


Orvis Taylor Supply Supply Hill Climber Jacket- $495
With the shawl collar and button front, this jacket offers a unique look. Unfortunately, the $500 price tag is nearly impossible to justify, though it is made in the US.

Drake Old School Camo

Although duck season is pretty much over, the appearance of camo on several of the clothing blogs lately (as Greg mentions here) reminded me of this.

Drake is one of the better-known makers of waterfowl clothing and accessories, all of which come in a variety of the latest and greatest camos (Max-4 HD, Mossy Oak Duckblind, etc.). However, they recently introduced a line of gear in the waterfowl camo of old, what they are calling their "Old School Camo."

This stuff looks great, and if you were so possessed to wear camo in some sort of non-hunting environment (not that I am endorsing it), I think this should be your first choice. As for its use in the field, while it may not look like a photo of a marsh like some of the modern camos do, there is no telling how many thousands of ducks have been shot over the decades by guys wearing this stuff, so I would say that its pedigree is already spoken for. So whether you're sitting in a freezing duck blind at 6:30 in the morning, or riding your fixie through the streets of Brooklyn, here are some highlights:

EST Heat-Escape Waterproof Button-Up Shirt

MST Waterfowl Fleece-Lined Full Zip

Old School LST Down Coat

MST Fleece-Lined Pant

Check out the whole line here.

LIFE Photo Archive: Quail hunt

I was fortunate enough to be able to quail hunting at my friend's parents' farm on New Years Day. In spite of the cold, it was still a lot of fun, and there were a good number of birds flying. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but you can imagine that they were similar to these photos I found on the LIFE Photo Archive, except without Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Eddie Bauer Multi-Purpose Upland Field Coat

OK, so when was the last time that anyone actually bought something from Eddie Bauer? My impression of Eddie Bauer is that of a store that has completely faded from a real outdoors heritage into the mediocre blandness of the suburban American mall. They sell boring, non-descript clothes to boring, non-descript Baby Boomers (maybe this explains why they filed for Chapter 11 back in June...). So I don't remember why I even went to their website the other day, but I did, and I started poking around. I came across their "Heritage Collection" and, surprisingly, there were a couple of decent looking items.

One thing that really caught my eye is their Multi-Purpose Upland Field Coat. Now, already owning three Barbour jackets, it's pretty obvious that I am a sucker for field coats. But this one did seem to have some cool features. The recoil pads, the bi-swing back, the "Gun Carry Forearm Abrasion Patch," and the choke tube pocket (though, how often does one really change choke tubes on the fly?). Plus, it just looks good. At $399, though, the price seems pretty steep to me. You can buy about any Barbour jacket for that price, and I think I would personally have a hard time picking a jacket from Eddie Bauer over a Barbour. It does look like a good move for Eddie Bauer though, so maybe it is the start of a move in a new direction.

Safari shirts

I am probably behind the curve on this trend, but that's OK with me since I generally avoid trends. However, I have noticed bush/safari style shirts showing up lately, and frankly, I like 'em. With dove season quickly approaching, I think these would be a great option for the corn field.

While shirts with double chest pockets are pretty easy to find, I think that the epaulets really set the safari shirt apart, and as a result, they were the primary criteria in my selection (though I doubt that I would have any actual use for them). I also don't like the shirts with new-fangled zippers and extra pockets that some companies offer. No; I want just two pockets on the chest, buttons only. I was also only looking for long-sleeve versions. Here is what I found:

Cabela's Long-Sleeve Safari Shirt
Coming in at just $25.95 and available in six different colors (not that you really need more than khaki and possibly and olive one), this one from Cabela's is hard to beat. It comes in a 65% polyester/35% cotton blend, which seems to be pretty common for these shirts.


US Wings Khaki Shirt
If you want 100% cotton, look no further. This one is also available in a short-sleeve version, and at $33.95, it is still pretty reasonable. Made in the US, natch.


Lost Worlds Safari Bush Shirt
This is the ultimate version. A replica of the old Willis & Geiger safari shirt, this thing is about as authentic as your can get. I think that the large buttons really set this one apart from the other two. It is available in multiple fabrics and colors, though it will set you back a pretty penny at $165. Christmas is just around the corner though...

On duck hunting

I have clearly gotten off to a poor start for blogging in 2009. I apologize and will do my best to make it up.

Over the Christmas break I was able to get in two duck hunts. I had never been duck hunting before, but it was something that I had wanted to try to get into and so I jumped at the chances.

The weekend following Christmas, a friend from my grad program invited a couple of our classmates and myself down to his family's farm go hunting. The "farm" is really a spectacular 900 acre parcel that the family uses for all kinds of hunting: dove, quail, deer, duck, turkey and even alligators. We went down on that Sunday and did some quail hunting that afternoon. The weather was unseasonably warm (upper 70s) and the dogs were having a hard time picking up the scent of the birds. We were able to scare up a few coveys, though, and I managed to bag my first two quail. I used my Yildiz 20 gauge and it was great. I really enjoyed it, and will try to make it a priority to do some more quail hunting next season.

The next morning, we got up and went to some flooded timberland on their property and did a little wood duck hunting. Again, thanks to the weather, the birds weren't flying too well, but I did manage to get a drake, pictured below (they made me also hold up the other duck that we got that morning). That it my friend's flat coated retriever, Brick, in the picture with me.



That afternoon we went out to a new pond that they had built which was essentially a flooded 40 acre corn field surrounded by pines. When we arrived out there around 12:30, we were able to scare up probably 600 ducks that were on the pond, which was quite a site to see. After finishing work on some blinds that they had started building, we settled down and waited for the ducks to return. While we did end up seeing probably about 400 ducks that afternoon that returned to the pond, my friends and I all happened to be on the part of the pond where they weren't landing, so in spite of our group taking 24 ducks that afternoon, we were only responsible for one of them.



My next duck trip to was up to Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge up in North Carolina, near the Outer Banks (and by "near," I mean about an hour away). My friend won a quota hunt for this lake and invited me to go along with him. This lake has, apparently, had a fairly legendary status among waterfowl hunters thanks to the number of ducks, geese, and swan that land there. We had some great expectations and figured it would be worth the eight hour drive.

It turns out that it wasn't. While we did see plenty of ducks, the first morning out there, very few of them flew anywhere near us and the only duck we managed to get was a green winged teal that I shot. While this could have been in part due to our decoy spread or my buddy's skills at calling ducks (I am not judging as I have never used a duck call before so I certainly couldn't have done any better), I think that it was par for the course for everyone hunting that day. A guy staying in our "motel" (I use this word very loosely) said that when he left the refuge, 14 of the 16 blinds had checked out and only 12 ducks had been taken amongst all of them. We all had hopes for the next day thought.


Decoys on Lake Mattamuskeet on the first morning's hunt

Those hopes turned out to be completely unfounded. During the night a front came through that stirred up a pretty strong southwest wing. When my friend and I trudged out to the blind (blind #16, which seemed to be regarded by most of the other hunters as the best blind) at 5:00 that morning, we discovered that the wind had actually blown all of the water out from in front of our blind. Since the lake is on 2'-3' deep over its entirety, we found ourselves with nothing but mud in front of our blind. We threw out a few decoys, and set out some more when it looked like the water was coming back in (this was only a tease, we found out, as the water left just as quickly as it came), but we started packing up at 7:45 after it appeared that no ducks were going to come anywhere near us.


Decoys on the mud flat formerly known as Lake Mattamuskeet on the second morning

Overall it was a fairly disappointing trip, but we did have a good time and at least we weren't skunked. I killed two ducks in my first season (I am not sure that I'll be able to make it out again before the end of the season in January) so I guess things could have been worse. I am looking forward to getting into it more next year.

Dove Hunting

So a few weeks ago, my classmate and neighbor invited me to go dove hunting on his family's farm south of Columbia. We actually had a pretty decent number of folks go, and a good time was had by all. Here is a picture of all of the guys after the hunt with our quarry:



In this picture I have placed a circle around all of the dove that I killed, just to reassure you, the reader, of my superior shotgunning skills:



No, your eyes are not deceiving you. In spite of going through nearly three boxes of shells, I managed to come away with one dove. I will chalk it up to being an off day, though I don't think a day of shooting clays would hurt anything. Fortunately dinner that night was not dependent on what we brought back from the field and I had a great time in spite of my bad aim.

Vizslas

What kind of blog about the South would this be without a post about hunting dogs? While there are certainly a number of great breeds, from pointers to retrievers, I have a special place in my heart for Vizslas.



For those unfamiliar with Vizslas, they are a medium-sized breed of Hungarian pointers (you can read more about them here). They have very short hair and are very affectionate dogs. Because Wikipedia is more eloquent than me, here is what they have to say: "The Vizsla is a natural hunter endowed with a good nose and an above average trainability. Although they are lively, gentle mannered, demonstrably affectionate and sensitive, they are also fearless and possessed of a well-developed protective instinct."



I first encountered one of these dogs in Birmingham when a girl in my community group (group from church that would meet weekly for dinner & fellowship, a.k.a.- margaritas) had one named Gertie (her full name was Gertrude, but she was informal enough to let us call her Gertie). Gertie would often join us for community group and was the center of attention. She was the kind of dog who didn't understand that she wasn't a lap dog, but that wouldn't really stop her from sitting in your lap. Anyways, after that my decision was made to get a Vizsla, though unfortunately this won't happen until after grad school.

The fact that Vizslas often do very well in field trials is really just icing on the cake. While I definitely wouldn't mind having one out in the dove field, I guess the only down side in having them as a hunting dog is that their fur is likely too short to provide very good insulation in cold water during duck season.



If you're in the South and interested in getting one, this is a great place to start http://www.atlantavizsla.org/.

If they're good enough for Ralph, they're good enough for me