Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Anybody duck hunt?

I skin or breast out all my waterfowl, plucking them is a pain in the extremities. I'll pluck them if I have a commercial bird plucker or the Hutterites will do it for $2 but failing those, skinning is the primary option.

Cheesy (and others) do you practice with clays..?

I used to shoott a lot of farm pidgons on the wing, and found that if silo fed they were pretty tasty, as well as being good practice for any moving target.

I usually skin, but these ringnecks were just ripping the breast meat off. Maybe try a filet knife to assist?

At various times a year I’ll shoot skeet, trap, sporting clays, 5 stand or simple backyard clays. I don’t near as much as I used to though. Maybe go to an actual range for official games 3 or 4 times a year. Backyard clays once a month or so.

Thanks for the response.

Backyard clays rock.!

One of my little brothers loaded up for some back yard clay action with an old 16ga SBS. My dad slipped a 16ga shell foster slug into the mix and wouldn't ya know it my bro swung through and (unknown to him he was about to squeeze off a slug) busted the clay.

Dad and I just raised our eyebrows a little and mumbled...

I shoot on a sporting clays league (50 birds/week, 20 weeks), 300-500 registered sporting clays per year to maintain my classification, two 500 bird trap leagues, two 500 bird skeet leagues, and a winter 410 skeet league of 400 birds. That does not include backyard practice with the three automatic throwers I have, starling, pigeon, or crow shooting, birds shot for dog training, and hunting.

This is way down from my peak when I shot over 5000 registered sporting clays every year along with the above mentioned leagues. I also took several hours of instruction each year which added a couple thousand rounds. I think 13,000 rounds of targets was my max for a year, I moved three classes that year.

I do pretty well shooting, when I remember to do the basics correctly. I have a terrible desire to lift my head when I shoot game which does not lead to desired results very often. My experience allows me to do a fair job analyzing my misses so I can correct for the next opportunity. That is very helpful as it lessens the likelihood of repeating the same mistakes over and over in succession.

Hunted Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning on the Pamlico River (between Bath and Belhaven) - saw a lot of divers staying out in the middle and just a few big ducks flying high. Never pulled the trigger.

I've seen natives use a torch to burn the feathers off their ducks and geese.

took out dog last week shot a few

Had a barrel making day on redheads and buebills. Today, even got to chop ice out of the boat launch, and unthaw gas lines

It's been six weeks since I last saw open water, yesterday I had to point the hair dryer down into the well piping to untoward the water line. Need some snow as these temps are pushing the frost line too deep. I worry about the septic lines- those backing up would really suck.

What kind of duck is this?
I’m thinking hooded mergansers but the coloring ain’t quite right.

HoodedLizzard (HisXHers)

Saw bill AKA hooded merganser. The teeth are a sure tip off.

Yes.....

CommonLizzards gunning, ...yields 'bout 6Mo'Nugitz, per Bucket (so they say)

great pic

Well needless to say I won’t be shooting any more of them.
Didn’t taste very good. 💩

LMAO!

👍

that aint Perch ur Carving.....

For real.

Left 40 degrees in central Texas this morning to see -1 tonight here in southwest Missouri. Still open ponds around Oklahoma City and there were ducks on about every one.

I35 with freezing drizzle in FT Worth was entertaining to see.