OT-Tried duck and goose hunting for the first time

[Jason_W]

I can see it being a lot of fun, but I have no idea what I'm doing or how to go about it other than sitting in a swamp waiting for something to fly over.

I already made the beginner mistake of getting excited and shooting at things that are out of range

[Blaine]

Find someone that has experience to mentor ya for a few trips and things will fall into place for you just like water off a duck's back

[TedH]

I've killed a few ducks and geese. It was fun but once they were on the dinner table I was not impressed. I don't like to kill animals that I won't eat. Besides, the Game Warden would frown on my 30-30 goose rifle.

[Buck Elliott]

Somehow, it makes little sense to me to go out at 0-dark:30 to sit on your butt in a cold, wet, stinkin' duck/goose blind, to maybe (maybe not..) get a fleeting shot at something that tastes like the mud it lives in, by the time you pick it, clean it, and get it to the dinner table.

My favorite goose hunting (by degree...) was to jump 'em off farm ponds in the evenings.
Now that was kinda fun, and some of those grain-fed gooses didn't taste too-awful bad, IIRC.

Still, I prefer my meat to come from 4-legged critters, if possible, or maybe fresh fish...

If I have to shoot dinner out of the sky, make it pheasant, turkey, chukkar or huns...

[shawn_c992001]

I'm actually going to go the first time here soon and looking forward to going.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Love to hunt ducks but cant eat them. Someone said they taste like mud. The ones here taste like muddy old fish!! Where is the puke smiley when you need it???

[BenT]

Find somebody to show you the ropes. It's alot of fun. I used to get up at 4:30 shoot some ducks and get to work by 8. I just cut the breasts out of ducks and geese. Soak them in salt water a few days and change water daily. Then marinate in wine. Then cook hot and fast on a grill or low in slow in a crock pot.

[Hobie]

Duck tastes better if cooked correctly BUT I do prefer grouse, quail, turkey... I don't know why, but even turkey seems easier to prepare. I have bought a stamp every year and have had one box of steel loads which is still unopened... Lots of resident geese around here begging for hunters.

[wm]

And just remember the success of hunt is measured in your enjoyment and feeling of renewal and not in a body count.

I've been waterfowling for a few years now and my advice is......

Join Ducks Unlimted - The practical advantages are some really nice discounts, a helpful magazine, valuable fellowship with other hunters (I've learned a lot cussing and discussing hunting at area DU events), and their work at improving local, national, and continental habitat.

Buy some duck & goose decoys and a book on how to place them. Don't buy two because no two experts agree and you'll just drive yourself nuts trying to figure out who is right (the answer is neither one). You have to factor in wind direction, migration pattern, and your blind location when setting decoys up. And then trust to good fortune that you and the waterfowl are thinking a like that day.

Take a course in blowing a duck & goose call. There lots of guys giving seminars but I suggest asking around to some of the guys who have been to them. Blowing like you do to win a championship (yes there are competitions in duck and goose calling) is much different than calling in the field. Make sure the guy is teaching you hunting calls and not showing off his lung capacity.

Stay safe.....I hunt some secluded coastal marsh areas and out on the big water of the Saginaw bay on Lake Huron (Great Lakes surronding Michigan). For all intents and purposes you and your hunting buddy are on your own. Jeff and I invested in inflatable flotation vests and even hunting coats with inflation vests built in (Stearns). Hunters have drowned in flooded fields and swamps as well as lakes. Respect mother nature because she can be unforgiving if you don't.

Get a physical from your doctor and maintain a fitness regimen. Waterfowl hunting, particularly in the north with sub zero weather, can be very demanding. If you are not up to slugging through a swamp or swimming to shore you can die. It (strokes & heart attacks) happens and don't for a second think it can't happen to you.

Have fun....IT really is fun but it is not a sport for the uncommitted. It can be expensive (boat, blinds, decoys, waders, garments, shotgun, chokes, steel shot, floatation gear, thermals, etc) but most guys add a few things every year and carefully maintain what they have so after a few years they have a pretty complete kit. A lot of guys form small cliques or clubs and pool their stuff. For example my buddy Jeff and I share a boat and blind. We hunt with decoys, 2/3 are his and the other third mine. We use my trolling motor and truck to transport. Hopefully in a few years we can use my new pup to retrieve. Etc.

And if you ever figure it all out.....the when and the where and the how to hunt with certain success....quit and save yourself the embarassment of realizing just how wrong you were. Those darn ducks and geese keep changing the rules......I swear it must be true!!

Wm

[wm]

Oh and as to preparing the ducks ...... chop the meat in to bite size pieces marinate in butter milk over night. Mix the meat, a bag of mixed vegetables from the freezer section of the grocery store, some chicken stock, a little fresh buttermilk and some salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl and let stand for 15 minutes. Pour it all a pie crust and bake. And then you have Duck Pot Pie. (http://www.deltawaterfowl.org/hunting/r ... potpie.php )

Another nice thing about being in DU are the wives of the other members.....what a great resouorce for cooking up duck and geese.

But if you don't want to cook them you can donate them to wild game dinners (locally the Red Cross and DU host some big ones) or donate them to a taxdermist. They use them a lot in dioramas for musems, stores, etc. My buddy Jeff does this and gets a credit towards the work he has done for his own collection at home.

Wm

[Wind]

Hey there Jason - This whole duck and goose hunting thing is a matter of elevating your learning curve. There has been a tremendous amount of good advice given in the previous responses. I've got hours of squatting in a muddy blind, wading around in water over my waders trying to recover decoys, laying in a shallow grave with a white sheet pulled up to my chin in sub zero temperatures waiting for any, or all the above to fly over.

Now here is what really works. Get yourself a half a loaf of stale bread. Head on down to your local park with a pond. Back into a parking space near some grass. Drop the tailgate. Get comfortable sitting on the tailgate and keep your espresso close to hand. Tear off little pieces of bread and start throwing them on the grass in a circular pattern around your feet. When a bunch of ducks and geese come running up, pick your target and scoop him up with a big trout or salmon landing net. Be careful you don't knock over your espresso with the handle while doing this. There ya have it. Hope this helps (.........?) Wind

[Chuck 100 yd]

[geobru]

I used to hunt ducks, and had pretty good success too. The problem was that at the same time, I was shooting pheasants, chukars and huns. If I had to choose whether to eat a waterfowl or an upland bird, waterfowl come in a distant 105th.

After failing miserably at finding a way to make duck taste like something other than duck, I was invited to friends house for a duck dinner. His wife presented a platter of baked duck that looked like something out of Gourmet magazine. I thought to myself, I will finally find out what duck is supposed to taste like! With eager anticipation, I cut into the bird, raised it to my lips, tasted it, and found out that it tasted just like the duck that I had cooked!
That ended my desire to shoot ducks.

When I was in Idaho, I was offered a goose by a co-worker. I asked him if goose tastes like duck, because I don't care for duck, and he said if you don't like duck, you probably won't like goose. Thus ended any hankering I might have had for a goose dinner!

[GoatGuy]

Well, it's obvious this site doesn't have a good representation of southern Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and deep East Texas members. More's the pity. Those are the folks that can make a good argument for duck/goose hunting and how to prepare them for the supper table. Some of the best wild game table fare I had while living in north Louisiana was duck. And while the hunting conditions were sometimes miserable, and as cold and damp as that hunting was, the excitement of seeing those flocks and singles respond to really fine calling and watching retrievers do their thing was worth enduring the foul weather. And truth be told, I can't say I've always been all that tickled sitting on a stand or glassing for hours at a time in cold weather and with freezing feet waiting for a legal buck or bull to present himself either.

So, I guess what I'm saying here is that all hunting is as good as what one makes of it. And all game can be good table fare if one approaches the experience with the attitude and the gratitude of being able to enjoy our various great American hunting traditions and the terrific variety of species we can enjoy harvesting.

[gumpond]

I think any opportunity to be in the woods is great. I personally prefer duck hunting to any other. If I'm on the deerstand in the evening and ducks start coming in, I just can't resist. I'll climb down and check them out everytime.
I guess we are blessed with plenty of game and are very fortunate to be able to enjoy a varied hunt.
We have a dsvaried hunt the first weekend after deer season each year. We start with a morning duck hunt, we then hunt rabbits, and after the barbque we hunt quail plantation style(pen raised). It is great fun and enjoyed by all.
Still my favorite is the time from 6:00 am till 7:30 am when the ducks are flying.

Duck cut into 2"x1"x1/2" strips, Marinade in what ever you prefer, I use teriyaki. Wrap around a pepper, wrap in bacon. Grill till the bacon is done. Will be the best you ever had.

[shawn_c992001]

^That sounds good!

When I get lucky enough and get a turkey, I always cut it into chunks batter it in flour and eggs, salt pepper and garlic powder. Then deep fry it. Viola, turkey nuggets! My wife has eaten wild turkey before this and had second thoughts until she tried it. She was standing there waiting for it to come out of the fryer!

[GoatGuy]

... Duck cut into 2"x1"x1/2" strips, Marinade in what ever you prefer, I use teriyaki. Wrap around a pepper, wrap in bacon. Grill till the bacon is done. Will be the best you ever had.

That's the ticket, gumpond! And that's exactly the recipe we cooked in Louisiana, except we used a worchestershire sauce marinade. The pepper we wrapped our strips around was jalapeno, and then the smoked bacon wrap. Yummeeeee! If you don't like duck prepared way tasty like that, it may just be you don't know a mallard from a mudhen.