Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Pot shooting (sitting ducks)

This is how we hunted them in Coleman county. I liked doing that, definitely fun.

Yes it was !

Side discussion to ponder: which is ‘more sporting’: shooting them before they might land or landing them in the dekes and shooting them on the rise?

One is probably a better indicator of scouting, decoying, and calling……even if a duck or two gets shot while it’s feet are still wet.

I started hunting ducks right at 50 years ago. It was considered unsportsmanlike to shoot a duck on the water unless you were killing a cripple. Anyone caught shooting a non wounded duck on the water was labeled as a "slob hunter".
Back then if you saw another blind working a group of duck, you had better not touch your call unless the duck pealed off and quit working that blind. Back then is was called "blind courtesy"
Now a days, I have seen times when the other blind will shoot at duck to flair them just because they are not working their blind and they are like "if I can't have them, then nobody is going to kill them".

Times have changed in the waterfowl world and not for the better either.

No opinion...Done it both ways. But swatting them on the water, is usually for killing crips.

I prefer the ducks to be setting on the decoys.

I’ve been awakened from a nap when shooting slowed by my hunting dog whining to find birds in my set. Stand up, the ducks come off the water, shoot.

I guess that’s close enough to them sitting on the water, even if they were in the air, barely dragging a wet toe nail.

🦫

Nobody hates a duck hunter , like a duck hunter

I don't hate them, just never knew duck hunting was a competitive sport until resent years.

Besides being far more difficult to kill while sitting on the water, I don't do it. I figure if the duck evades my notice and lands in the decoys, they get a pass. Besides, I now have a live bird in my decoys!

Exactly.


RS

This is the camp I grew up in. Jump shooting on stock ponds and jump shooting ditches or ground slousing poted birds was duck hunting. It really is a different sport or art from than hunting out of a blind with decoys and calls.

If you go to the trouble of putting out decoys and using a calls and you shoot birds on the water you’ve kinda f’ed up. You’ve tricked the bird and missed the opportunity to shoot the bird on the fly. Whereas jump shooting and potting ducks is more about the ambush and putting up numbers”meat hunting”.

Shooting birds on the water is not the best way to put them down the low angle and shooting at the back usually yields poor results. For me both have there place but they are apple’s and oranges.

My first duck hunts were floating rivers after everything froze up. That being said, we still did not shoot them on the water, you let them get up and shot them.
That was just how I was taught, maybe it was because the same guys I started duck hunting with were the same guys that took me quail hunting. You did not shoot a covey of quail on the ground either.
I guess it all boils down to the way you were taught when you started hunting

We do both, dont care, if they land on the water it means they finished, sure is better than folks out there skybusting or shooting above their skill level. A lot times when them swim into the spread or coots, we'll let them dive in order to get our guns ready, and when they come back up its on. We also hunt over very expensive decoys so try to be careful not to hit them. They taste like crap whether you shoot them on the water or in the air.

I've done both though shoot the vast majority on the wing. The Feds are silent on this issue though some states have laws against the practice while others allow it. One needs to check the state regulations to determine if the practice is legal or not.

The most common times to shoot a bird "sitting" is geese in the fields and sculling. In the first it is often a single bird that snuck in at some point - usually when I'm taking a nap. These birds do not like to flush and are such easy targets when they do that I see no difference in shooting them then or when on the ground. Actually, there is a difference- it is easy to head shoot a goose on the ground but much harder as it tries to fly/run away.

When sculling, one is often chasing divers and they are often loath to flush from a piece of debris floating down on them. The birds will either swim in front of the boat or off to the side but often not fly. Sitting up and yelling, pounding the boat, or otherwise causing a scene is more likely to cause the birds to swim faster or dive rather than fly. Shoot one though and the others take to the sky.

I'm angry at em, but this yella dog has rage for em that is unmatched.

Great picture

Unethical? I wouldn't go that far. I'd reserve that label for skybusters, baiters and other vermin. Kids? Fine for the first few ducks. They need a body count and some for photos. I guess I'd think a little less of an adult who routinely shot sitting ducks.

Years ago, forget where, I read a comment from a federal warden who said that while shooting them on the sit was legal, if he saw someone do it, he’d find something to charge them with.

Some of the posts here describe scenarios that, not being a waterfowler, I didn’t consider. I guess I’ve lightened up a bit about it for situations like that, but still think that if I ever do hunt them, I’ll try very hard to get them in the air.

Thanks to all.

People who do it are probably the same ones who put clay pigeons up on the berm at the range, then blast them with their shotgun.

Does anyone on this thread even hunt ducks?

been duck hunting for almost 50 years