First Duck Hunt

[wanderinwalker]

First Duck!!

Bagged my first duck today. Gorgeous drake mallard! I hit it from about 35-yards with my 20 shooting 3" steel #4s. A follow up was required on the water (two actually, I missed the first one in my rush to finish the bird). Needless to say the bird died on the bank opposite me, and I was without waders, dog or reaching net. I tried to snag it with a fishing pole and lure, but this didn't work. A swim was in order. Brrr...

I had quite a homecoming. (Father and little sis were a little, ummm, surprised.) Unfortunately I only had time to breast the bird and change for work. Which I did. Anybody have any good recipes? The people I've spoken with about it are split 50/50 on whether it is good or not. We'll see.

If duck turns out like venison (which I like, but others in my family don't), this could become an expensive obsession. I'm already looking for a synthetic 12-ga 870, a pair of waders and somebody to help me train the family Lab. Uh-oh!

Edited to add: I don't think I would take that shot again with said combo. But as my friend Leif said, "You have meat in the freezer, so it must have worked okay."

 

[TrapperReady]

Congrats!

Waders are very nice. I picked up a pair of neoprene ones from Gander Mountain and have been very happy. They're warm and way better than my old fishing waders.

The other thing I've found that works small wonders is a Mojo decoy. After a few trips of not getting anything within gun range, I tried a motorized decoy. Wow! I had five sets come in within range, and a crane actually landed about six feet away from the decoy, walked up and bumped it before flying away. Very cool!

I brought down one mallard drake, but really need to work on my shooting. The birds were coming a lot faster than I'm calibrated for... faster than clays and pheasants and grouse. The first time I had 4 ducks blow by the decoys at 10 feet off the deck, it was like being at the Indy 500. By the time I realized they were there and had gotten up to take a shot, they were 50 yards past. Somehow, wheezing into the call didn't get their attention enough to bring 'em back.

This Wednesday, I think I'm going to do a little more scouting and try to find a different spot. When I'm scouting, I'm just going to have to bring the dog and a shotgun... in case I'm attacked by grouse.