duck hunting

[SO7mm]

Picture is not of me. I only have a handful of bands, I just thought it was humorous.

Lots of funny (silly) stuff in this thread.

Beat up M1 Super 90 for me.

+1 on the beat up Super 90.

 

[huronmtns]

Picture is not of me. I only have a handful of bands, I just thought it was humorous.

Lots of funny (silly) stuff in this thread.

Beat up M1 Super 90 for me.

Speaking of only a handful of bands. Me too. Some people hunt in areas that have a high concentration of banded birds.
I guess I was lucky for a while from calling in and reporting band. They gave me the data on this band pictured. I shot this Canada Goose many years ago. The person I was talking too was acting kind of surprised.

This bird was banded for twenty five years. It was banded as an adult. The person I was speaking too was in awe because the oldest banded Canada Goose at this time was also twenty five years but banded as a juvenile. Technically I had shot the oldest Canada Goose on record at the time of reporting. Now I see data has changed and they have this species that have been banded and aged at 33 years.

Look at the heavy wear on this band.

 

[BrentD]

This bird was banded for twenty five years. It was banded as an adult. The person I was speaking too was in awe because the oldest banded Canada Goose at this time was also twenty five years but banded as a juvenile. Technically I had shot the oldest Canada Goose on record at the time of reporting. Now I see data has changed and they have this species that have been banded and aged at 33 years.

[/QUOTE]


That is super cool. Was it a bit chewy?

I've only collected one web-tagged juvenile snow.

 

[huronmtns]

That is super cool. Was it a bit chewy?

I've only collected one web-tagged juvenile snow.
[/QUOTE]
The way I was cooking goose back then was to make a goose stroganoff. Boil the breast meat, shred it, then make a sauce out of cream of mushroom soup with other spicing. Then add the shredded meat and let simmer for a while. Then put this sauce over flat noodle pasta. It didn't seem to matter how old the birds were when cooking them like this. They were all kind of chewy but tasty.

 

[huronmtns]

Another observation on one off the banded Canada Geese that I had shot was that the bird was banded as a juvenile in Indiana over 300 miles South of where I shot it. I shot it migrating South a few months after it was banded. This bird had moved North since being able to fly. Maybe this bird migrated North to escape the summertime heat in Indiana, who knows. The one thing that surprised me was, that this in my mind at the time was this is atypical. To be hatched, raised and developed to fly, and migrating North 300 plus miles for maybe a month or so, then migrating South again, all in about 6 months time. Interesting migration behavior.

 

[Slightball]

Thread Hijack: What choke does everyone use most often while duck hunting? Just curious and there was a friend debate going on

 

[mtmiller]

I use IM. One tipster mentioned full. Not very good advise for steel.

 

[huronmtns]

Honestly, I think you have to shoot one shot into paper to pattern each choke tube with the shot shells you plan on using. My over and under shot gun patterned the best with improved cylinder. A nice even pattern of pellet spread. I tried the same out of a semi-auto and the full choke had the same pattern and spread. I found out that the semi-auto gun with one of the other chokes in it the pattern was not centered on the aiming point. It was shifted almost a complete pattern spread to the left of aiming point. Just what you don't need to happen if you want to kill birds cleanly. I also observed shot patterns that had a tight clusters of pellets and not a good even distribution across the spread. Pattern the gun to find out would be my recommendation. I know it surprised me when I did it.

 

[Nick87]

Speaking of only a handful of bands. Me too. Some people hunt in areas that have a high concentration of banded birds.
I guess I was lucky for a while from calling in and reporting band. They gave me the data on this band pictured. I shot this Canada Goose many years ago. The person I was talking too was acting kind of surprised.

This bird was banded for twenty five years. It was banded as an adult. The person I was speaking too was in awe because the oldest banded Canada Goose at this time was also twenty five years but banded as a juvenile. Technically I had shot the oldest Canada Goose on record at the time of reporting. Now I see data has changed and they have this species that have been banded and aged at 33 years.

Look at the heavy wear on this band.
View attachment 156744View attachment 156745

Oldest one I've killed was ten years banded as a juvie. I thought that was old until I researched to find about the 33 year old one. Even the ten year old that I killed was worn thin also.

 

[Nick87]

Thread Hijack: What choke does everyone use most often while duck hunting? Just curious and there was a friend debate going on

I've had best luck with hevi-shot brand chokes. As for factory chokes IM is your best bet.

 

[MT_Chad]

Ha who ever he is hunts more than I will in my lifetime based on that lanyard.

That is Fred Zink, owner of Zink calls and Avian X.

 

[2ski]

Jesus people it is waterfowl hunting not rocket surgery. The birds have a brain the size of walnut. Find birds, figure out how to hide yourself, put out deeks, shoot birds. It doesn't matter what you wear if you can hide, decoy brands don't matter, shoot what shotgun shells you feel comfortable with and know will kill birds.

If you choose to jump shoot then good on ya. I have done it as well and it is a ton of fun.

I Started with a garage sell spread of used decoys, burlap to hide under, old military camo and Carhartts. Now $15,000 and 15 years later have a V Nose 14 foot cargo trailer stuffed with blinds, 15 dozen full body goose decoys, field and water duck decoys, robo ducks, goose flappers, flags, snow covers, etc etc and guess what it still boils down to scouting, hiding well and shooting birds.

Nemont

Okay okay okay. I will go hunting with you. Lol

 

[OntarioHunter]

I shoot modified in my old A5. However, once I forgot to switch chokes after shooting a night of sporting clays. Next morning I passed on shooting at the first flock of honkers as they circled the decoys. Thought I could get a closer shot. Instead they landed three hundred yards away. Bad news! Live geese in the field and my spread is useless. Honkers kept trickling in but they all went to the live ones. Then it started raining hard. I moved back in the trees and worked my way down to be as close as possible to the geese in the middle of the field. The hope was I'd get some shots as they left for water after the morning feeding. The problem: it was raining and they had enough water in the field. After two hours I was getting soaked and about to give it up when a late family group circled at the limit of my gun's range. I took a triple and killed each bird dead ... with IC choke! Go figure. Keep in mind that steel shot through IC choke should produce a pattern approximately the same as modified with lead shot and that is certainly not a bad density choice for waterfowl.

 

[SO7mm]

Speaking of only a handful of bands. Me too. Some people hunt in areas that have a high concentration of banded birds.
I guess I was lucky for a while from calling in and reporting band. They gave me the data on this band pictured. I shot this Canada Goose many years ago. The person I was talking too was acting kind of surprised.

This bird was banded for twenty five years. It was banded as an adult. The person I was speaking too was in awe because the oldest banded Canada Goose at this time was also twenty five years but banded as a juvenile. Technically I had shot the oldest Canada Goose on record at the time of reporting. Now I see data has changed and they have this species that have been banded and aged at 33 years.

Look at the heavy wear on this band.
View attachment 156744View attachment 156745

That's a cool story. Did that goose come into decoys when you shot it? I've gotten quite a few duck bands over the years and the couple I got jump shooting were older than the typical ones we get over decoys. Figured that made sense that the older birds steer clear of the decoy spreads.

 

[cwitherow]

Thread Hijack: What choke does everyone use most often while duck hunting? Just curious and there was a friend debate going on

My gun patterns well with the cremator medium and long range, so those are my duck and goose chokes. I always pattern any choke and load combos I plan on using.

 

[huronmtns]

That's a cool story. Did that goose come into decoys when you shot it? I've gotten quite a few duck bands over the years and the couple I got jump shooting were older than the typical ones we get over decoys. Figured that made sense that the older birds steer clear of the decoy spreads.

Yes, the bird came into decoys that were in water.

 

[huntin24/7]

I’ve had good luck with my patternmaster over the years. My benelli with the pattern master actually shoots lead really well too when I occasionally take it pheasant hunting.

 

[duck wrangler]

I use a Briley black oxide IM for #1's when hunting geese.
I use a Code Black (duck) for #2's and smaller for ducks.

l pattern different loads through them onto cardboard to see what the patterns look like.
These two work best in my SBE.

 

[OntarioHunter]

For years, actually decades, I shot 1550 fps BB steel through my 870's fixed full choke. Those were one of the few barrels made back then that could handle steel ... but nothing heavier or hotter than the above loads. I never patterned it because there was no point. It's what I had. Also, it was very effective so why bother. Eventually my eyes started falling apart and I switched to a more recoil friendly old Belgian A5 Magnum Twelve with Miroku barrel that has old style Invector chokes. I patterned it at the range with trap loads and discovered it generally shot way high so I added a slip-on recoil pad to lengthen LOP. I have never patterned it with goose ammo. Again, if I'm batting a thousand or close to it, what's the point? No need to try fixing what isn't broke.

 

[MNElkNut]

Ah, banded geese. My boys had just started hunting and my neighbor and i brought our kids out. The geese were thick and we shot 6 bands that morning out of 5 different flocks. We were all excited to see where they were banded....Canada? North Dakota perhaps? Maybe south like Arkansas? Nope, they were all banded in town about 2 miles away.