Where are all you Waterfowlers?

[Specklebelly]

Lets talk waterfowling!!!!!!!

Anyone out there like to hunt ducks and geese?

Tell us some stories.

[horse25cal]

Im atleast one  thats here huntin new ideas for next seson and already getting ready for next seson, and have got ? about a gun I have seen at Dunhams for next year.    Has anyone tried the turkish over/ under that they are carring, and how does it act with steel, all your coments would be usfull in the desicion wether I get one or not for this comming seson.  thanks all and goood hunting  :coffee:  

[Specklebelly]

Has anyone tried the turkish over/ under that they are carring, and how does it act with steel, all your coments would be usfull in the desicion wether I get one or not for this comming seson.  :coffee:  

I do not know anything about the gun your asking about, sorry.  I always like autoloaders for ducks.  The third shot is nice, especially with my bad eyes.  :lol:  Look at the Remington 11-87 or SP-10.  I use them and my NEF for ducks/geese and rarely have problems.

C130- Duck blind drawings in July?  When does your season usually start?  Our drawings as the last Saturday in September.

[Specklebelly]

C130E

Forgot about teal season.  Our blinds are good for duck only which usually starts in October/November.  

Teal in Oklahoma is first come first served for blinds.  The way I like it.  I don't mind getting up real early. :wink:

[horse25cal]

speckle ,thanks for the coments and ideas on guns  as for drawings here its first come first serve here in sentral iowa slewws, no drawings except over on the Missipi. Our seson starts around end of september and its mostly teal ,woodys and local ducks, and buy the looks of whats around right now going back north we may have a bunch more canvas, and reds   rest up new sesons coming   thanks again and have a good one    Horse

[horse25cal]

I m really wondering what has happend to all the duck hunters out there because there has been only the 3 of us on this line , and i have already started my new blind for this next seson and still looking for new ideas  for impovements on old ideas.  ive even repainted my boat just to get my ideas started for constuction and what will work for next seson. The guns next and then I will start on the decoys, have a good one all  I am going ta get to work on my blind ,    see ya out there.     Horse.....

[Specklebelly]

I am thinking of a new shotgun though. Been looking at Mossberg's 935.

I have been thinking about a new gun as well.  I am getting a new job and want to "reward" myself.  Been thinking about another 11-87.  This time I am looking at the 12 gauge SP.  The no-glare stock and barrel are great for ducks.  My SP-10 is the same finish and I love it.

Good luck on the Mossberg.  Those are great guns as well.

[dukkillr]

I absolutely love my Browning BPS.  The pump draw is a bit longer than either the 870 or the Benelli, but if you go with a 3" gun it's still fine.  I shoot an old 28" 2 3/4" mod Model 12 most of the season and switch to the BPS when i want to shoot 3" shells.  I also use the "work gun" when it's raining, muddy, or if i'm going to be in a boat blind.  To me that combination is the best for accuracy, speed, and personal preference.

[lhonda]

Hiya boys. Saw the 'where are the waterfowlers?' question, thought I'd chime in.  Count me among the ranks.  Hunt ducks and geese a bit here and there. Mostly we're in the coastal, and slightly inland waters of MA and NH.   Swamps, ponds, lakes, salt marsh, river, ocean...you name it, we hunt them all we can, from brant to eider to scoters in the salt, to teal, woodies and mallards and back around again.  I average around 110 days out per season.  OK, so I lied a bit earlier. I'm a absolute waterfowling nutcase.  Let's talk ducks!  

How about a list of what kinds of birds you guys get, both normally, and every now and then. I'll start.

Here, we shoot:

Teal, GW mostly, but some BW
Mallard
Wood duck
Black (home range is here so we have tons, although only 1 bird limit)
Hybrid black/mallard
Eider, almost all common, rarely someone lucks out and gets a king
Scoter, white wing and surf,
Scaup/bluebills, both greater and lesser, but last few years not many about
Bufflehead
Goldeneye/whistlers
Ringneck
Brant
Canadas
Gadwalls, sometimes
Widgeon, sometimes
Mergies, both, by mistake on occasion. :c)
Rarely redheads, pintails (holy grail for many here), canvasbacks, shovelers, ruddy.

Maybe a couple others I'm forgetting.  

Anyway, nice to see some other duck/goose nuts on here.

Cheers,

Leighton, AKA quackhead

[lhonda]

Most guys here would give their firstborn for a crack at a bull sprig.

RE your comment about a nice mixed bag here: yes, indeed! One of the things I love so much about waterfowl hunting here is exactly that; one never knows what's going to come in next. Hmm. That sounds strangely familiar....

Cheers,

Leighton

[horse25cal]

mallards and all pairing up and nesting every where along with the geese around here and you got to watch where you walk when hunting mushrooms, I almost stepped on hen merganser and got scolded severly by her for my eforts to stay quiet and not scare the woodys that I did see about 15 feet ahead of me that had chicks in tow.   I hope your days are going well all,  have a good one ......Horse.  :grin:

[Specklebelly]

How about a list of what kinds of birds you guys get, both normally, and every now and then.

Here in Central and Western Oklahoma we mostly shoot:

Canada's, limit of 3
Snow's, limit of 15
Specklebelly's, limit of 2
Ross', limit of 15 (included in snow limit)
Blue, limit of 15 (included in snow limit)
Mallards
Gadwall
Greenwing
Bluewing
Shovelor
Pintail-See a lot, but I usually pass on the shots

Every now and then we get a:

Woodie
Blue Bill
Ringneck
Redhead

Blue wing season usually starts the weekend after labor day.  I can't wait.

[lhonda]

Hey Speck,

we have skads of canadas here, but damn few snows, and those we do have seem to have learned that the Nat'l Wildlife Refuge is the place to be--no hunting allowed where they go.

Now, what's the story with ross, blue, cackler, speck and snows?  Are they all different geese entirely? I seem to recall that some are simply the immature version of another. Am I wrong?  Let the schooling begin, would you?

To Horse: neat on the 'shrooms. Can you recommend a good text?  I can't readily identify anything other than a few, but always come across tons of them. Unfortunately, the last time I made a 'positive' ID, I got sick. I ate a false morel, thinking it was a real one. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

TIA, and cheers.

Leighton

[Specklebelly]

Now, what's the story with ross, blue, cackler, speck and snows?  Are they all different geese entirely? I seem to recall that some are simply the immature version of another. Am I wrong?  Let the schooling begin, would you? Leighton

The snows that fly through Western Oklahoma are hard to hunt.  They are pretty wary and smart.  One bad thing about them is they have been mixing with the lesser Canada's and teaching them bad habits.  Like not getting shot and flying high.

A Snow and Blue are the same goose with different feathers.  Kind of like a black, yellow and chocolate lab.  

Both snows and blues have the white heads but the blue has a bluish/gray body.  From what I have read its not an immature/mature thing.  They are just slightly different genetically.  

These geese are hard to hunt.  You can get a couple flying by your decoys but they really like large spreads.

A Ross is a goose that looks very similar to a snow.  In fact, during flight you can't tell the two geese apart.  They even fly with the snows.  The geese are white with the black wing feathers.  The Ross is smaller than the snow and has a MUCH smaller bill.  

The snows have a "smiley patch" on their beak which is very noticable up close.  The Ross goose is about the size of a big mallard and has a bill similar to a chicken.  

The Specklebelly's are my favorite geese to hunt.  They are actually called White-Fronted Geese.  This name comes from the white markings on the front of their bills.  You can easily tell these geese from Canada's during flight because of their orange feet and black "tiger like" lines across their bellys.  An immature goose does not have these markings on the chest.  Their chests are just gray.  Specks will also decoy to Canada decoys.

Specks have been really increasing in numbers the last few years where I hunt.  We went from never seeing any five years ago, to harvesting ten last year.  

I hope this trend continues.

I am not sure about the Cackler.  I think (but may be wrong) that this is a type of the Canada goose.  There are actually something like seven different species of Canada's from what I have read.  

A side note-I have some good news.  Today my wife was driving to Tulsa and stopped by the G&H Decoy factory and bought me five dozen more decoys.  I love that woman.   :grin:

I now have two dozen more Canada's and three dozen more mallards.  That brings me to ten dozen Canada decoys.  They are nice to have but I hate to carry them.

Sorry to take up so much room.  Once I get talking about waterfowl hunting I can't seem to stop.

Later

[Specklebelly]

lhonda

FYI

I just found an excellent article in the My/June Ducks Unlimited.  If you can find a copy look at page 34 and 76.  They go into detail on the Snow, Blue and Ross goose.

[lhonda]

Speck,

excellent info; thanks much, that helps a lot.  As to the DU mag: I've been on the Boston DU committee for several years now, always pay my dues as well as the volunteer work, but since I started with the commitee I've never received one magazine yet. Pisses me off.

I think you're right about the cacklers being small versions of the canada. I have a friend in WA state, and he showed me pics of cacklers once. I seem to recall it looked just like our version here in MA, but instead of being 8-14 pounds, it was the size of a mallard. Neat bird!

BTW, your wife is obviously a keeper. I just took the plunge a few months ago, except I'm not so sure I like the fact that she's already outfished me once and laid claim to my CZ 452...

Thanks again, and cheers.

Leighton

[chaser]

Heres a story for the fella who mentiened the bull sprigg

Although we are rice farmers we have always hunted in the timber, and I had never seen a pintail killed in person (for my first 23 years of life) in the timber. My rice filed hunting buddies always killed a few each year.

But in '99 we were some of the first idiots (yes idiots, but thats a different story) who used the robo in NE Arkansas, and for that year it was common on any given day to have pintails come in with mallards, and like you said, for somebody who had never seen when while hunting it was like a buck deer coming in the hole every time, and I have my first on mounted.

That of course has petered off along with the success of the Robo, which i wished we had never used, because while our hunting was better in 99 than it was in 98, it was definatley worse in 03 than it was in 94-98. DUe to I think the lack of juvenile ducks making it to arkansas.