Does anybody hunt ducks anymore?

[fishvik]

Went out yesterday and tried my luck on the wet and dry side. Started out at the local marsh and figured that it being Sunday most of the sky busters had gone home. I was wrong. Does anyone work ducks into decoys anymore(Wings cupped and you can see their eyes)? Shoot within 15 to 30 yds? Or has the advent of 3 1/2" magnum loads paired with super fast cycling autos and wonder chokes made the majority of waterfowlers into just long range gunners and not hunters? I'm afraid I already know the answer.

Anyway it was a bust and I didn't get any birds so at noon I was off to hunt sharpies and sage hens. Didn't flush any sage hens but sharpie hunting was better. I actually picked up two with one shot and Puck worked them well considering how dry it was.

[birddog1968]

The state of waterfowlers anymore is pretty poor, skybusters and Bafoons seem to be everywhere. I spent my whole young life taking geese and ducks with 2 3/4 shells. Cupped and backflappin is the way to taken waterfowl, these moron pass shooters with their 1400 dollar 3 1/2 inch autos make me chuckle and cry at the same time. Imagine a young fella growing up not even being able to use 3 inch shells....you learn to get em close and shoot em in the lips.

Everyone wants to be Jeff Foiles, well now all you skybusters can go to jail with him..... I hear he'll be blowing straight meat (one of his calls)

[ultracarry]

The amount of high flyers I see getting locked down on a day at the refuge (that's one of the only places you can hunt them in ca) is amazing. The amount wounded has to be 10x.

I might only hunt upland this year considering there are reports of three hatches of chukar and quail... population had to have tripped based upon the scouting reports!

This year is a 20 gauge season for me.

[Thinking]

This season I'm so far around 75% waterfowl hunting. I tend to gravitate towards the marshes, where there are few to no other hunters, and having a reliable dog is essential to recovering birds. I try to only shoot ducks that are committed to the decoys, however I'll admit to occasional pass shooting if it's slow, my pup is just a year, and the more action he gets the better off he will be for it.

[nj gsp]

Skybusting takes no skill or challenge. I'd rather work birds over decoys and call 'em in. It sucks when you go through the effort to set a spread, get a good hide together, and then have a bunch of skybusters set up near you and pop off shots at birds coming in to your spread. That's the bad thing about public land; it's better to have a private spot, and better still to have a private spot on the X.

[northern cajun]

Did a little walk in duck hunt and got some woodcock on the way out.
I aint in the picture

[ultracarry]

I want a wood duck!!! That thing would be mounted so fast it would make your head spin. The best I did last year was 1 red head Drake and 6 cinnamon teal Drakes

[northern cajun]

I want a wood duck!!! That thing would be mounted so fast it would make your head spin. The best I did last year was 1 red head Drake and 6 cinnamon teal Drakes

Here a tease for you Ty.

This beauty.....



Can get you this.....


Like this..


and for you Ty....


and.....


and to show versatility......





I would love to see that dog above on the prairies.




Remember trials are great ( I LOVE EM!) but IMHO you got to hunt the blank out of your dog. If you know what to look for in a dog, is not this the truest test of a dog? Just joking but maybe not

Good luck at the trials this fall, I do plan on running into you at a trial one day and sharing a beverage.

[ultracarry]

Ahhh man those are freakin good pics. I can't wait to get my dog home. I'll be out in chukar country at least 2 days a week if not 4. It's killing me without my dog. Bird season out here doesn't start till Oct 15 so ill only miss two or three weeks because she is running at eureka this year (open gun dog).

But back to the topic... duck hunting gets slow ill puddle jump any day.

[jarbo03]

I hunt more waterfowl than anything, mainly cause I can do it 5 minutes from home, the local quail have disappeared and pheasant are a couple hours drive atleast. Unfortunately this is what waterfowling has turned into, the latest crop of hunting videos and mainstream hunters have not helped the situation. I grew up and learned to hunt on public marshes, if I go to public land nowadays it will be during the week, and there is still a buttload of these inconsiderate hunters there. Luckily I have quite a bit of private ground to hunt on, they dont hold as many birds or as often, but when it is good, it is real good. Been hunting without a dog for a couple years, excited about getting back after it with the new pup on board. Looking forward to a few more days like these.

mallards2.jpg

n1142226302_30080686_119.jpg

buck with goose.jpg

[GWPtyler]

Well where I live, hunting ducks is just a given. While I've been a bit preoccupied with the ruff of late, I've dabbled in a bit of waterfowling:

First duck retrieve of the fall:


My GWP after our opening limit:


A true trophy: Nodak wood duck!

[quackaddict]

Ducks are my main thing(hence the name). It is without a doubt, a sad state of affairs what most people call "duck hunting". It makes me so mad sometimes I can't see straight. I don't normally shoot birds unless they are decoying, but I will shoot at one that skirts the edge of the blocks every now and then. If I ever shoot at a duck beyond 40 yards, it's because it's a cripple and I'm trying to finish it off. I don't shoot anything but drakes if I can help it too. TV has killed the art behind killing ducks the right way.

[northern cajun]

I hunt more waterfowl than anything, mainly cause I can do it 5 minutes from home, the local quail have disappeared and pheasant are a couple hours drive atleast. Unfortunately this is what waterfowling has turned into, the latest crop of hunting videos and mainstream hunters have not helped the situation. I grew up and learned to hunt on public marshes, if I go to public land nowadays it will be during the week, and there is still a buttload of these inconsiderate hunters there. Luckily I have quite a bit of private ground to hunt on, they dont hold as many birds or as often, but when it is good, it is real good. Been hunting without a dog for a couple years, excited about getting back after it with the new pup on board. Looking forward to a few more days like these.

mallards2.jpg

n1142226302_30080686_119.jpg

buck with goose.jpg

Very Nice!! I like that second pick!

[jarbo03]

That was a special day for sure, they don't come around very often. 46 greenheads, 1 canada, and to only have 1 suzie shot with 10 guys in the field was amazing. Especially when you consider that birds were working in fairly big groups, luckily they were sitting down right in the dekes. Not bad for a day that began thinking we were gonna pound geese with maybe a few ducks tossed in.

[jimbo&rooster]

Duck hunting has gone from a sport with deep rooted tradition to the whack em' and stack em' metality we see today. I spent several years working part time in a sporting goods store selling guns and hunting equipment and in the last 5yrs or so I have seen alot of people who got caught up in the rock star persona of what the outdoor channel depicts as duck hunting. I can think of multiple occasions when young kids stomping in in their coveralls and facepaint wearing their duck calls couldn't even tell me what kind of ducks they had killed, and started showing me pictures of mergansers and coots. Or business men who spend 2 weekends a year being catered to at some refuge owned by a local bank who wouldn't know what a duckblind was if it didnt have heat and solar pannels for electricity.....

I have resided myself that for the next few years until this fad wears out i am happy to walk the woods and grass lands over my pointing dogs and my lab.

I spent many years hunting with an old timer who taught me that sunrises, sunsets and good company, were more important than a big stack of birds at the expense of tradition.
(no offense intended to anyone, those are great pics of great memories)
Jim

[cutty72]

Nice pics GWPtyler!

We do a little duck hunting, but it's mostly something we do to kill time until pheasant opens. Granted, if numbers are down as bad as they are saying, we may be doing a bit more this year

[GWPtyler]

Nice pics GWPtyler!

We do a little duck hunting, but it's mostly something we do to kill time until pheasant opens. Granted, if numbers are down as bad as they are saying, we may be doing a bit more this year

Ha! I'm not evening wearing blaze orange in Nodak until deer season...end then it will be to stock up with venison, not pheasants! I may search out some roosters in late November, but until then it's just not worth the effort. Course I've always thought of those ditch parrots as mere targets of opportunity, anyway

[britspan]

I want a wood duck!!! That thing would be mounted so fast it would make your head spin. The best I did last year was 1 red head Drake and 6 cinnamon teal Drakes

I would mount a cinnamon teal in a heart beat! All we have down here in SC is wood ducks.. They are beautiful birds though.

[Bossman27]

Mixed bag ND hunt

[fishvik]

Duck hunting has gone from a sport with deep rooted tradition to the whack em' and stack em' metality we see today.

I think it is just part of the society. Duck hunting has become a shoot'em up video game with a real gun. I remember a prof from UW-Stevens Point talking to a bunch of us Hunter Ed instructors about the 5 stages most hunters go through, shooter, limit hunter, trophy hunter, method hunter and "just enjoy the day and company" hunter. I think many today, in our instant gradification world, never get out of stages one and two. For me duck hunting is definitelly a later stage of hunting. I like to knock down a few ducks, but more to know I called them in over well placed dekes and then watch my dog plunge into the water and bring it back. The marsh surroundings, concealment that allows me to watch other wildlife and the company of buddies is more important than shooting a gun.

[GWPtyler]

Mixed bag ND hunt

Good work! Looks like you found some roosters, too. Must have been some of the lucky ones. That's more birds in one pile than I've heard of all season.