Never Duck Hunted

[Big Slick]

got enough bacon and jalapenos to mask that flying liver saveur?

If it taste like liver.....it was over cooked. Medium rare for duck is delicious.

 

[onpoint]

The ducks I’ve shot in Montana were delicious. Tim just needs to up his culinary game

I possess mad wild game culinary skills.
But an artist needs fine material to start with...


For the HT "only speak/understand" memes crowd...........

I just finally figured out the reply function. Proud of that fact..........

 

[sharpshooter97]

You guys need to learn how to cook, waterfowl done at medium rare is just right. Cook it well done and it will be tough and chewy

 

[jtm307]

I'm just curious to see if those who don't like ducks also don't like sharptails. To me, a medium rare sharptail breast is right up there with elk tenderloin and antelope backstrap.

 

[jnd1959]

Duck confit instructions ( more or less)
Hang for 3-4 days at 55 degrees. Pull the feathers and gut bird (much of the good taste is in the skin) (and don't hang gut shot birds). If fat is white or off white, use fat. If fat is orange, don't use fat and skin birds.
Piece out bird. Salt thighs and legs and store in fridge for a couple of days. Place thighs/legs in zip lock bag along with some of the rendered duck fat. Cook in water bath at about 140 degrees for a few hours. Store in fridge until ready to cook. Fry until skin is crispy. Eat.

Fry up the breasts skin side down until crispy. The turn and fry just until rare or med rare. Eat.

If you are breasting your birds your wasting the best part. And rendered duck fat used on veggies and potatoes is something to behold. But don't use the orange fat, its likely they were eating critters rather than seeds.

 

[jnd1959]

Birds, more so than ruminants, taste like what they eat. Ducks eating seeds or corn, tasty. Ducks eating mud bugs or fish, sausage with a lot of pork added.

 

[beginnerhunter]

Didn't see it mentioned but important to know the regs. Regs vary greatly even within a state. Many places will have shot shell limits, mag limits, boat motor restrictions, odd shooting hours, or bans on mechanical decoys.

At the very least you can grind the meat and put it in spicy recipes.

I'm a terrible caller and calling is overrated, but seeing them react to calls is pretty BA. I have a friend who is a duck whisperer and I've seen him make them do crazy stuff.

 

[onpoint]

At the very least you can grind the meat and put it in spicy recipes.

Used to be a local pasta making outfit here. A friend of mine - who enjoyed hunting duck - had duck raviolis made. He gave me some. It tasted like raviolis - with spiced duck inside them.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

 

[onpoint]

I think that episode was called, "Watch Steve bake the crap out of the duck fresh off the poop lagoon"

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I think that episode was called, "Watch Steve bake the crap out of the duck fresh off the poop lagoon"

Nailed it, your mind is a steel trap.

 

[onpoint]

Little rusty, but it reliably and methodically catches everything that comes it's way.

 

[Northwoods Labs]

teal and wood ducks are hands down some of the best game meat there is. Those talking smack about ducks being inedible do not know how to cook

Lots of good info, I guess one thing to add that I didn't see on here is that set-up for the wind is very important. Ducks like to land into the wind, so having wind at your back is a good thing. Pretty much the opposite of big game hunting in which you want the wind at your face.

Put your decoys out in clumps, do not evenly space them. Give ducks spots to land within the spread. It will take some practice setting up in the dark as you will realize you either put them way too close or too far out (at least this happened to me when I first started). I also always throw out a few goose decoys too. Good luck

 

[BrentD]

Northwoodlabs is right about the eat-ability of teal and woodies.

6 days and a wake up til early teal season here.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Northwoodlabs is right about the eat-ability of teal and woodies.

6 days and a wake up til early teal season here.

Scouted 6 teal yesterday on a small oxbow. Hope they're still there Sept 1st!

 

[BrentD]

Scouted 6 teal yesterday on a small oxbow. Hope they're still there Sept 1st!

I have my pond picked out. It had 11 teal on it last Wednesday (and 13 mallards and one trumpeter swan).

 

[Jeremyc_1999]

I feel like I am a pretty accomplished duck hunter (unlike elk hunting. That's why I'm here I suppose). My best piece of advice - If legal in your state buy one or to mojo (or lucky) motorized ducks and a half dozen decoys. I'd rather use a single mojo and nothing else than a whole bunch of decoys. The worse the weather, the better the hunting. Wind is good because it creates waves and ducks don't like to sit in the waves.

Camo is key. Think sniper in ghille suit. Brush in your blind with natural surroundings. This is one of the most important things to killing a lot of birds! I wish I would have known this 20 years ago when I started. It is more important to get your blind camoed in than set up more decoys. I also like to have my blinds outside the decoy spread. I hunt a lot of fields and this is heavily debated between my hunting partners, but I feel even though I might have a little longer shots, I will get more birds working because they won't see me.


Rain or snow is good because waterfowl have a second set of eyelids that protect their eyes from rain and snow as they are flying and they can't see as well. Cold is good because it freezes water and if you can find open water, you will have more ducks come to you.

Calling isn't a must with waterfowl. I call to get birds to see me and while it can help bring in wary birds, it can also hurt. If you can learn a simple "quack" (made by saying "whick" into a call, that is enough to get a bird to look at you and let decoys do the rest.

Watch your shadows. Birds notice them

Watch your skin. It is a huge reflective sign that says "See me, I'm right here"

Keep your decoys clean. Ducks live in the water and are clean

Keep snow/frost off your decoys

put your decoys in clusters. I used to worry about landing areas, etc but now I worry more about a realistic decoy spread

Don't set your decoys too far out - Ducks and geese can come up short and make for longer shots. I set most my decoys 10-30 yards away (yes, I bring my rangefinder duck and goose hunting. More for setting up decoys)

Binos are good to spot birds far off and then you can call to get them to come take a look



Those are a few quick tips after over 20 years of waterfowling. I feel like I have it figured out and if someone would have told me these things when I started, it would have fast tracked my success. Many long days having birds flare and not knowing what is going on would have been avoided.

 

[Goatshoes]

I'll second that, except maybe the part about the taste of the ducks. Unless were talking about divers.

Just trying to throw the competition off. There are few things better than a properly prepared mallard.

 

[Nick87]

I feel like I am a pretty accomplished duck hunter (unlike elk hunting. That's why I'm here I suppose). My best piece of advice - If legal in your state buy one or to mojo (or lucky) motorized ducks and a half dozen decoys. I'd rather use a single mojo and nothing else than a whole bunch of decoys. The worse the weather, the better the hunting. Wind is good because it creates waves and ducks don't like to sit in the waves.

Camo is key. Think sniper in ghille suit. Brush in your blind with natural surroundings. This is one of the most important things to killing a lot of birds! I wish I would have known this 20 years ago when I started. It is more important to get your blind camoed in than set up more decoys. I also like to have my blinds outside the decoy spread. I hunt a lot of fields and this is heavily debated between my hunting partners, but I feel even though I might have a little longer shots, I will get more birds working because they won't see me.


Rain or snow is good because waterfowl have a second set of eyelids that protect their eyes from rain and snow as they are flying and they can't see as well. Cold is good because it freezes water and if you can find open water, you will have more ducks come to you.

Calling isn't a must with waterfowl. I call to get birds to see me and while it can help bring in wary birds, it can also hurt. If you can learn a simple "quack" (made by saying "whick" into a call, that is enough to get a bird to look at you and let decoys do the rest.

Watch your shadows. Birds notice them

Watch your skin. It is a huge reflective sign that says "See me, I'm right here"

Keep your decoys clean. Ducks live in the water and are clean

Keep snow/frost off your decoys

put your decoys in clusters. I used to worry about landing areas, etc but now I worry more about a realistic decoy spread

Don't set your decoys too far out - Ducks and geese can come up short and make for longer shots. I set most my decoys 10-30 yards away (yes, I bring my rangefinder duck and goose hunting. More for setting up decoys)

Binos are good to spot birds far off and then you can call to get them to come take a look



Those are a few quick tips after over 20 years of waterfowling. I feel like I have it figured out and if someone would have told me these things when I started, it would have fast tracked my success. Many long days having birds flare and not knowing what is going on would have been avoided.

Some good info right there! It's a hard learning curve if your starring from scratch, trust me.

 

[jtm307]

I bought some camo burlap and decoys last week. I might have some time to go this weekend after I take my kids fishing. Can one have some success if starting in the middle of the day?