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

Agree, not all are capable. However, shooters shoot and take satisfaction in developing the skill to do so. They take little satisfaction in shooting Ducks in a barrel.

Something that escapes some.

The question had nothing to do with sneaking up and jump shooting.

So after reading through the 5 pages of this thread, do we have a consensus? I'm trying to figure out when I can shoot ducks. 40+ yds is too far and you are a sky buster. Pass shooting is for those who can't work ducks. On the water and you are a pot shooter/water swatter. Shooting them coming in, cupped up or on the rise takes little skill as they are almost stationary. In summary:

On the water- No
On the rise or coming in- No
Pass shooting- No
Sky busting at 40+yds- No

I guess I should make some phone calls and let Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl, and any other conservation groups and let them know their services are not needed.... seems the duck population is going to be doing just fine! I might take up Unicorn hunting, seems I might have a better opportunity at getting a shot off sometime. Nah, someone will still tell me I'm doing it wrong because I didn't do it their way!

It's not complicated, really. Wingshooters will always look scornfully upon the ground swatters, with kids being given some grace. Skybusters will be called out by both groups for being the Aholes they are.

No need to go overboard....Have some friends that would invite me to go Duck hunt with them..They were serious and got into the Ducks. After a few times, I realized I really didn't like having a bunch of Ducks come in and all four of us stand up and shoot. With that many Ducks I would rather have 2 shoot this time and another 2 on the next. Well, that wasn't the way the wanted to do it. So, I now
no longer go. We still hang out together, shoot together, I'm invited to the ones camp. NBD just because we don't agree on how to shoot a Duck.

One of the best hunts with them was when the Ducks really wanted in and you couldn't keep them out if you wanted to. We quit shooting and just watched them come in, Big fat Greenheads, coming from somewhere. Finally went out to pick up the Decoys and while doing so, they were landing around us. We could have swatted them from 10 feet...but it wouldn't have been all that much fun.

me too... anytime we have more than two hunting, we take turns...

I couldn't make the proverbial pimple on a real Duck hunters ass...But if you have never been next to a couple people who know how to work a call, with Ducks or Geese moving in strings from all directions, swirling, turning, looking, with some obviously committed, while joining in with the concert....your hunting bucket is far from full.

My post was MOSTLY tongue-in-cheek. They’re enough people out there who don’t want us to hunt at all. I really don’t care how anyone decides they want to do it. Nash Buckingham often talked of taking the “tall birds”. He also mentions taking the first one on the water. Worked for The Godfather of waterfowl conservation.

Battue- what you describe is how it should be, if you don’t like they way someone does it, just don’t hunt together. You can be friends otherwise.

There is skill in shooting birds. There is skill in working birds.

And if you hunt a beaver hole in the Southeastern US that is barely bigger than a postage stamp, good luck getting the woodies to coast in feet down…. More like kamikaze rockets that hit the water before you see them half the time!

As you allude to, it takes skill to be successful at hunting, it's just in different forms. With some, the emphasis is on shooting skill; others its in being able to pick the vicinity the birds want to be, place the decoys to properly position the birds to land, and have the calling ability to convince the birds to commit to landing in the decoys. Others find satisfaction in being stealthy enough to sneak into range of resting birds whether from the land or the water.

I've done all the above to varying degrees and find satisfaction in all. Often, being versatile in one's approach may be what allows one to put something in the game pouch. More importantly, when guiding having alternatives can give the person paying out their hard earned money a better chance at the success they think they are paying for.

I still have three methods of taking waterfowl on my bucket list besides a punt gun. The first is to catch a duck by hand as I've read accounts of those in Egypt and Japan. That would be a real test of stalking.

The second would be by net. Not a mist net or throw net as I have done the former but a long handled fishing type net as the bird passes by. It would be limited to puffins as it was them I saw taken by this method.

Last, taken over a tolling dog. This is one that I hope to accomplish this fall. I don't have a toller but I know someone who does and hope we can accomplish that goal. It appears to be pretty difficult but the attempt should be amusing.

Oops, one I forgot. Night flighting (shooting) geese. It's one I'll aver t add to the punt gunning when I make it to the UK.

I had a friend that hunted ducks in the 60's, by sneaking up on them as they sat on the water. He would take a john boat and wrap chicken wire around the perimeter of boat and stick in cat tails and corn stalks for camo. He'd paddle up and keep low till he was close enough for a shot.

That sounds like the first duck hunting trip I was ever on. Everything was frozen up and we did a river float trip like that.

No one has answered.

Do you academics shoot deer and other ungulates in their bed?

This is the Waterfowl sub forum. If you want to discuss pot shooting deer you will need to go to the Deer Hunting sub forum.

If Deer could fly you may have an academical question. Since they can't you don't. One species flys and the other....well???? Historically, what are the normal traditions of how different animals are hunted? Which happens to be the essence of the question.

If they could fly, would you be willing to send a bullet out into space not knowing where it may touch down a couple miles away? Hey!!!! You could shoot a Deer flying, so why not?

In your State, is it legal to shoot a Deer swimming across a lake or river? In many it isn't. Seems odd one can shoot them while sleeping but not swimming. Asking for an academic friend?

Yes it is in my opinion it is unethical. I would only do it if I were starving and needed the meat . That goes for all Bird hunting. I don't shoot at running game either with the exception of rabbits being run by beagles. I like to eat wild game but I do not have to depend on it for my food supply and neither does 90% of the rest of the population. Shooting sitting birds and running Deer is in my opinion un-sportsman like and hunting for me is sport and recreation. I don't fish with dynamite or quick lime either.

It is not unethical at all, being a decoy carver, I love watching birds commit and land among blocks I carved. Dead is dead whether it be 15 yards one foot above the water or 15 yards sitting on the water. You gonna tell me a couple of feet makes all the difference?

Just dont shoot the decoys!

Still hunting and deer drives are definitely something you should avoid....In addition to a Southern tradition of running Deer with Dogs.

Why is shooting running deer un-sportsman like? Because there's a higher risk of wounding? But then it's un-sportsman like to shoot sitting ducks because the odds of hitting the duck are too high? Seems pretty contradictory and arbitrary. Shooting moving birds good, shooting moving deer bad. Shooting sitting birds bad, shooting sitting deer good.

The new Deer hunting ethic….if you can’t bring them to a stop with a grunt tube…don’t shoot.😳

and is it really hunting when you are sniping them 100 plus yards out? That's just shooting, get them in close, shoot them with a bow, and not a crossbow.