Matt's Hunting Trips

October 9-14

Matt and his friend (and coworker) Jordan McMahon took a trip to hunt ducks on my dad's property in North Dakota. Matt was planning to pull the camper but he actually didn't need to - Uncle Louie already had a camper set up on the property that Matt and Jordan stayed in. As it happened, there was a pretty big snowstorm that happened while they were in ND, wouldn't ya just know. :( Matt and Jordan ended up leaving here late afternoon on the 9th and driving through the night to beat the incoming storm. The unfortunate weather really provided some EXCELLENT duck hunting for the guys, though - they both shot limits of ducks four days in a row. That's pretty impressive! They hunted in the morning and then had plenty of time left to burn because they had both shot their limit well before noon. Louie came out to the property and chatted with the guys one day. He was so hospitable in helping lead the guys to ducks and letting them stay in his camper. One day the guys ended up at Laurie and Tom's. They styed for dinner, and then it had started to snow again (is that right?), enough to where Matt got stuck on the way back to the camper. Tom came to the rescue and then Matt and Jordan stayed the night at Liebing's that night. On Sunday, after getting their fill of ducks, Matt and Jordan drove to Fergus to spend time with Matt's parents. They stopped in Fargo and watched most of the Vikings game at the Swenson's house before heading to Fergus. They spent the evening there and then drove back to the camper late that night to be ready to hunt on Monday morning. After a few more hours, they cleaned up and headed home that same day. Matt and Jordan both had such a great time! 

The weekend after ND duck hunting, Matt went up to northwest Colorado to hunt with the group of guys that he hunted with last year. He didn't have a tag for that section so he just went to help the guys if needed. Sure enough, one of the guys shot an elk on Saturday morning, so Matt helped him carry it out. In return, Matt came home with a leg quarter! He just stayed a night or two and it was a really quick trip with a nice reward. Matt processed maybe 25ish pounds of elk meat for the freezer. His elk tag is for the 4th/private land season in December. We'll see if he shoots one then!