Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Any info or suggestions for a newbie

I grew up focusing on football and baseball and occasionally fished in some spare time. However, since I have graduated college I have become interested in possibly duck hunting. Typically I would ask my dad to teach me what he knows, but he has never been duck hunting before, and can't go because he had a pacemaker put in about 6 years ago. Does anybody have any information or suggestions/advice that you can give me?

Such as supplies, how to find a good location, what I should know or look for or anything like that?

OOH God son, just run while you still can...

Wow it's hard to put 35 years of waterfowling into a paragraph.... I am learning more and more each day...

Birds like/must land INTO the wind.. Have wind at your back at all times.. Be at the place the birds want to be.. Give them room to land in your rig, a kill hole..
Get with other duck and goose hunters and you can learn...

One day you have to be trained to train your own retriever.. That will make life worth living..

Good luck and keep us posted... Don't stop you will get there....

Go to a Ducks unlimited banquet or other similar organization waterfowl banquet. Talk to the guys there get involved and hook up with some groups to help with the learning curve.

The most important gear you need is warm socks, inside dry insulated waders.

Yikes! In a way I wish I were starting out all over again. All good advice so far. I would suggest talking to as many experienced waterfowlers that you can corner, and read as much about it that you can stomach.

Be wary of the waterfowling gimmickry that manufacturers would have you believe is the panacea of all your problems. Much of it is designed to attract hunters, not so much birds. Keep it simple. Use your head, and ask questions.

As for guns, don't be fooled into believing you need the latest high tech monster magnum to kill birds. It's likely what you have in the gun cabinet right now is all you need. Remember, the flyways were decimated a century ago by market gunners shooting an ounce of shot. The birds aren't any harder to kill now than they were then, and no smarter. Start with sane loads of Bismuth, Nice Shot or ITX and stay there. Steel sucks, no matter how much you sling at a bird. Other heavy non-tox shot is good, but hard on the gun and hard on the shooter because it only comes in high velocity loads that you just don't need. Been there, done that, and I'm not going back.

Be prepared for a lot of conflicting advice. It's human nature to believe in something with passion and then proselytize about it. Sift through the arguments and make up your own mind. In the end the wheat will separate from the chaff and you'll have arrived.

I agree with this, but go a step further and contact your local chapter about joining their committee. These are not super elite, invitation only clubs. They are always looking for help and once you make a few friends, they will take care of you. Just pay attention to not only how they hunt, but the ethics too.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I really appreciate it.

I no longer hunt ducks because I don't like eating liver or flesh that tastes like liver!

But there are SEVERAL different methods to "hunt ducks," or variations thereof ......

#1). The clssical way is over decoys in water, from a blind. Sometimes EVERYTHING has to be "too perfect" to work well.

2). Pass shooting (not sky busting) at birds within shotgun range. About as simple as it gets! However steel shot really limits effectiveness nowadays.

3). Jump shooting, walking along a creek or stream bank, after setting up short well planned stalks. Binoculars are useful spotting ducks up ahead when you can see that far.

4). Jump shooting from a canoe or small boat on a creek or stream (or marsh) with many bends and turns in the water to sneak and skull around. Works well with ONE pardner working the stern while you shoot from the bow.

5). Jump shooting from a float tube (that's well-camoflaged). You want to really go "deluxe," camoflage yourself and the tube like it resembles a muskrat mound or nest (saw a blind like that once on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom when biologists were counting and photo-ing ducks).

6). Look for opportunities to AMBUSH ducks. I killed a few ducks simply by being on a fresh water pond before the ducks arrived I knew would be coming there.

7). Sometimes ducks are killed over land and fields like geese.

8). Most unusual method I saw in the old "Duck Hunters' Bible" published in the early 1960's (check on eBay) was a fellow who used some laundry "blueing" for washing white things! Fellow mixed up his concoction and poured it on ice imitating open water when it wasn't open and frozen solid! Positioned decoys on and around it imitating ducks on water.

9). I once was able to check out a hot springs by the Sevier River in central Utah, that never froze. Geese loved it as much as the ducks!

Find a copy of the "Duck Hunters' Bible" - all the methods I mentioned are shown and explained.

A 12 gauge pump with extra chokes is hard to beat. I use modified and improved cylinder for all of my hunting. Use either 2 3/4" or 3" shells loaded with #2 steel. Carry some #7 or #6 steel for swatter loads to finish cripples if needed.

You don't need a duck call. If you get one, learn how to use it and only use it sparingly.

No sky busting. Make an effort to retrieve every bird you bring down. Do not flock shoot. Do not blast them on the water.

Boot foot neoprene waders are worth every cent.

Duck hunting isn't hunting without a lab. Get one.

And on the other side of the coin, you couldn't pay me to wear neoprene, but its not as cold down here...

I agree on the lab! Grins.

I"ve shot more than a few on the water, have no issues with that. SOme days my shooting sucks adn the dog wants to do something besides watch me miss....thats a personal thing, not a legal or wounding thing...