Duck it!

[The_Real_TCIII]

if its ok im going to shoot a duck then send [mention=5278]The_Real_TCIII[/mention] and [mention=3175]Otto[/mention] a text with a pic and ask what the hell is it?  and should i have shot it ? 
actually i will only shoot at what i can identify. Canada Geese and Mallards Im sure on. The rest i may have to claim it was self defense. 

Roasted Griebe!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[The_Real_TCIII]

mergansers are delicious........ ? 

No they are all garbage but OMG are they fun to hunt. Puddle ducks are delicious


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Robhuntandfish]

30 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

No they are all garbage but OMG are they fun to hunt. Puddle ducks are delicious


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Oh ok. Was gonna say fish ducks....yuck.

Duck is def very good though. Would love to have a few in the freezer. 

 

[Enigma]

On 12/13/2021 at 7:30 PM, Lawdwaz said:

Rob that sounds great!  I loved all bird hunting but I guess unless I got an invite, my days of hunting the winged critters is done.  You see, for me the use of a dog was mandatory in my enjoyment.  You can kill geese in fields all day long with well placed shots but over water, unless you bring a canoe or kayak (or of course a rod, reel and three gang hook or chest waders!) it can be difficult to retrieve them.

So........the question I have is; black, yellow or chocolate lab?

 

I hunted ducks in the early 90's in LA, MS, AL and TX. Good times. The coonazzes I hunted with always had a rod/reel/triple crappie rig loaded with big treble hooks and a float for retrieving dead ducks. Borderline hillbilly way to bring them home but cheap and efficient. Blast n cast lol. Tough to have a dog in college.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Enigma

[Robhuntandfish]

Was just talking with my hunting buddy and he brought up something I had forgotten about. There was an old blind on the backside of the big pond.  The duck hunters that were here before us used to use it. Can't wait to check it out. Hopefully it's still in shape to use.  

[Robhuntandfish]

real newbie to this so forgive me of a prob stupid question.....steel shot is considered as non-toxic shot? 

[virgil]

5 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

real newbie to this so forgive me of a prob stupid question.....steel shot is considered as non-toxic shot? 

yes.

[Robhuntandfish]

7 minutes ago, virgil said:

yes.

Thanks I thought so but wanted to be sure.  I ordered and received some black cloud this week.  

[CharlieNY]

54 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

real newbie to this so forgive me of a prob stupid question.....steel shot is considered as non-toxic shot? 

There are also different types of non toxic shot such as bismuth and tungsten. Toxic shot is lead shot or any combination of shot containing some lead shot.      valoroutdoors.com 

[Robhuntandfish]

This is the pond we plan on duck hunting next season.  

[The_Real_TCIII]

This is the pond we plan on duck hunting next season.  

Looks ducky


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Robhuntandfish]

It's a big pond.....prob 5 acres. 

[sbuff]

You could get some pallets and make a nice blind .looks like a great location 

[Liquidonyx]

I read the entire 1st page of the post, but couldn’t contain my excitement. DO IT!!! Take the red pill, open Pandora’s box, go down that rabbit hole!

This was my 1st year goose and duck hunting. Made a lot of new hunting buddies (1 one with a chocolate lab) and I HAD A BLAST, no pun intended. I was very lucky to have some new friends teach me the ropes. I love bow hunting for deer and would never give it up, but the comradery, excitement and action of goose/duck hunting is on another level.

You know this, but when your deer hunting your normally alone, quiet and as still as possible. Hunting geese/ducks is completely the opposite, your with friends, when it’s slow you shoot the shit, drink coffee…one guy smoked cigars. I didn’t have a single hunt this season where we came home with nothing. 
 

I agree with everyone else…Don’t eat Mergansers. To me Geese taste like tangy beef and duck is delicious. Here’s some Duck Marsala 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Liquidonyx

[Robhuntandfish]

Def planning on it. Hopefully the ponds won't be all frozen up on us by then.  Already took Dec 5 off (have the 4th already Sunday). I'm eyeing those days to start as Geese and duck seasons overlap here for two days and by then our deer season there is about over.  Looking forward to the new adventure.  

[Nytracker]

Dont shoot tungsten  out of an older gun . It will eat your barrel.  To tight a choke on an older gun with tungsten or  steel  can cause big failures . I  shoot black cloud  for ducks and geese out of a modified  choke tube. 2 for ducks and bb for geese. I don't recall what aftermarket tube I have for geese but combined with the black cloud  it rips the geese from the sky .

[Kmartinson]

On 12/13/2021 at 6:55 PM, Robhuntandfish said:

  So I have been avoiding taking on a new hobby cause deer hunting and fishing already consume me. But next year a plan is in place to duck hunt.  

On the spot we hunt there are a couple of ponds and lots of swamp and lots of ducks and geese. After the first week of gun you can't find a deer on the place. 

So plan is if my hunting partner and I both have one deer in the freezer by then we are going to duck/goose hunt. Dec 4 opens the season in the area for ducks and also overlaps goose season for Dec 4,5.  

I actually already have some decoys and a duck shotgun but gonna try finding a spot near the ponds we can just tuck into and shoot at flyers going thru.  Should be fun and a lot of laughs mostly I am guessing.  

But am tired of seeing no deer after first week of gun and just grinding it out for nothing. So new endeavor it is!  And with the warmer late seasons we have had the ponds have stayed open.

Hardest part is of course gonna be to actually hit one but have to read up on ducks and geese and all the rules and regs and bag limits and types of ducks. Cause right now as far as I know the big ones are geese and the little ones are ducks. Lol. 

So a mission begins for next year! 

Come with me anytime. It's a riot. It lines up on days you may not want to sit in a tree also. Tastes great and you can do it while catching up with friends.

[Robhuntandfish]

2 minutes ago, Kmartinson said:

Come with me anytime. It's a riot. It lines up on days you may not want to sit in a tree also. Tastes great and you can do it while catching up with friends.

Awesome. We are looking forward to it , will def be a learning experience with my hunting buddy. We are gonna learn as we go hopefully. Even not knowing what we are doing I expect to get some chances at some.  Biggest issue will be if the ponds are frozen up.  We don't plan to get crazy with it. Just something else to have fun doing after the main deer season for a couple weeks.  

When you use decoys do you weight them down as singles?  I'm thinking two on a weight with separate lines. I only have a dozen and just want to get my feet wet so to speak this season and see how it goes. 

[Robhuntandfish]

On 1/5/2022 at 5:39 PM, Nytracker said:

Dont shoot tungsten  out of an older gun . It will eat your barrel.  To tight a choke on an older gun with tungsten or  steel  can cause big failures . I  shoot black cloud  for ducks and geese out of a modified  choke tube. 2 for ducks and bb for geese. I don't recall what aftermarket tube I have for geese but combined with the black cloud  it rips the geese from the sky .

Thanks. I bought a Stevenson pump about 4 years ago. Haven't even fired it yet. And my buddy is buying a new shotgun this year before season. 

[Kmartinson]

9 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

Awesome. We are looking forward to it , will def be a learning experience with my hunting buddy. We are gonna learn as we go hopefully. Even not knowing what we are doing I expect to get some chances at some.  Biggest issue will be if the ponds are frozen up.  We don't plan to get crazy with it. Just something else to have fun doing after the main deer season for a couple weeks.  

When you use decoys do you weight them down as singles?  I'm thinking two on a weight with separate lines. I only have a dozen and just want to get my feet wet so to speak this season and see how it goes. 

You can make lines and singles. I have used everything possible to weight them down. Texas rigs for shallow water, deep lake water needs heavy weights. There are special sheetwater decoys for flooded ag. Sky is the limit.

Scouting is the most important imo. When you set up your spread mimic what you see where you see it.

Then calling is important also, just respond what you hear, and just like all calling you should practice year round. Don't get heavy with the call, you have to save something for the 2nd 3rd and 4th pass. Lol

[CharlieNY]

7 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

Awesome. We are looking forward to it , will def be a learning experience with my hunting buddy. We are gonna learn as we go hopefully. Even not knowing what we are doing I expect to get some chances at some.  Biggest issue will be if the ponds are frozen up.  We don't plan to get crazy with it. Just something else to have fun doing after the main deer season for a couple weeks.  

When you use decoys do you weight them down as singles?  I'm thinking two on a weight with separate lines. I only have a dozen and just want to get my feet wet so to speak this season and see how it goes. 

I use Texas Rigs on my duck and geese floating decoys. The heavy mono line has a clip that attaches to the keel of the decoy and has a sliding egg sinker on the other end. You can wind the line on the keel and when you get to water you unwind the line and toss the decoys into the water. They usually  have a loop at the clip end so you can pick them up and drag a bunch of them  through the water when you walk in or out.      valoroutdoors.com.  

[Kmartinson]

On 12/13/2021 at 7:20 PM, Fletch said:

Sounds like a good time! Can you double dose? Hunt duck and deer same time?

I always hesitated for the fact is how do you know what the heck that bird has been eating? Like polluted Onondaga lake garbage, the sludge water next to someone's outhouse etc.... has Cornell ever tested bird meat lol?

You cannot hunt ducks and deer at same time at least during archery. Ducks do have potential contamination there have been many studies you can find.

[CharlieNY]

38 minutes ago, Kmartinson said:

You cannot hunt ducks and deer at same time at least during archery. Ducks do have potential contamination there have been many studies you can find.

I hunt in the Western zone and duck season overlaps part of the early archery season and part of the regular firearms season for deer. One day this last October my son and I went duck hunting in the morning and bow hunting in the afternoon. We got a couple of ducks in the morning and my son shot a beautiful 8 point buck that afternoon. We called it a "duck and buck day."       valoroutdoors.com

[Robhuntandfish]

3 hours ago, Kmartinson said:

You can make lines and singles. I have used everything possible to weight them down. Texas rigs for shallow water, deep lake water needs heavy weights. There are special sheetwater decoys for flooded ag. Sky is the limit.

Scouting is the most important imo. When you set up your spread mimic what you see where you see it.

Then calling is important also, just respond what you hear, and just like all calling you should practice year round. Don't get heavy with the call, you have to save something for the 2nd 3rd and 4th pass. Lol

 

3 hours ago, CharlieNY said:

I use Texas Rigs on my duck and geese floating decoys. The heavy mono line has a clip that attaches to the keel of the decoy and has a sliding egg sinker on the other end. You can wind the line on the keel and when you get to water you unwind the line and toss the decoys into the water. They usually  have a loop at the clip end so you can pick them up and drag a bunch of them  through the water when you walk in or out.      valoroutdoors.com.  

I have lines and weights. Thinking maybe I can make a line with one weight and two leads to put two decoys on it. 

Got our pond all picked out. It's on the land we hunt deer on.  We have a couple of spots along the pond we are gonna look at to set up on.  We think there might be an old blind there from years ago and are gonna check that out. 

Thanks for the tips.  

[Kmartinson]

1 hour ago, Robhuntandfish said:

 

I have lines and weights. Thinking maybe I can make a line with one weight and two leads to put two decoys on it. 

Got our pond all picked out. It's on the land we hunt deer on.  We have a couple of spots along the pond we are gonna look at to set up on.  We think there might be an old blind there from years ago and are gonna check that out. 

Thanks for the tips.  

You can use a trash pump and flood the pond when it starts to ice up and keep the pond open  for a while after all the other water freezes up too