How to Paint Black Duck Decoys

By John “crewchief252″ Potts
This month, I thought we would do an easy duck decoy. A black duck is a good first decoy, very little fancy techniques, a few basic colors, and you have a nice working decoy that will bring in the birds.
Mars Black
Titanium White
Ultramarine Blue
Yellow Ochre
Raw Sienna

First off, if you are painting an already [...]

The Beginning of Duck Bands

By Chris Hustad

It was right around first light when I ventured outside of our sleeping quarters at J. Clark Salyer National Refuge Headquarters near Upham, ND last week (in early September). I noticed the picnic table was still full of grills, empty plates of goose, and some empty beer cans. Luckily, I packed it in [...]

How to Paint Scaup “Bluebill” Decoys

By John “crewchief252″ Potts
I use Liquitex acrylics, but any paint will do, and they are all very basic colors.
TITANUIM WHITE
MEDIUM PURPLE
MARS BLACK
BURNT UMBER
PAYNES GREY
HOOKERS GREEN
CADMIUN YELLOW ( MEDIUM )
First off, if you are painting an already painted deek, refer to my previous article about painting decoys as to how to prepare the decoy. If it [...]

Goose Hunting in Montana

By Chris Hustad
My phone rang late last summer and my good friend Lyle Sinner was on the other end. His call was straight to the point, “Hey Chris, are you interested in heading to Montana to goose hunt?” While it took all of about 2 seconds for me to decide, my decision was an obvious [...]

Hunting the Common Eider in Maine

By Tony “Duckdiesel” Beal
The Early Bird Gets the Worm, not so…
As a life-long learner, I embrace what life has to offer and love to put my thinking into action. Generally speaking in terms of great sea duck hunting in Maine and elsewhere, one must be set up and ready before the first crack of dawn. [...]

My First August Goose Hunt

By PJ “pj” Maguire

When I first sat down to write this article I wanted to title it, “One Wedding and a Goose Hunt” because one of my best friends was getting married on August 16th. I was the first to inform him that the North Dakota Game and Fish had the opportunity to open the [...]

Canada Goose Hunting Tips

By Chad Haabala

Each evening when I watch the sun sink down into Montana, I put another X on the calender and tally the number of days left. Not the number of days until my birthday, and no, not the number of days until Christmas, it’s something even better than that. I’m talking about early goose [...]

Public Land Pursuit

By Darren Digby
“Yamaha783″
The idea of public hunting land, for many hunters, is both a windfall and a thorn in the side. Sure it’s a place to go for a few birds, but all too often a few birds in the bag come at the cost of a huge headache from overcrowded acreage. After all, [...]

GPS and Hunting – A Primer Course

By Erik Laing (kiskadinna)

Every year, without fail, there is a new gadget that comes along – designed to improve the lives of duck hunters. But in reality, many quickly fade in popularity because they just aren’t useful. However, every once in a while something comes along that truly does make our lives easier as hunters, [...]

The Molt Migration

By PJ Maguire

One thing that waterfowl hunters can always learn more about is the migration patterns of ducks and geese. To be successful as a waterfowl hunter it is important to understand how and why ducks and geese use certain migration patterns. Of course weather, moon phases and the calendar all play a major role [...]

Painting Decoys

Painting Decoys
By John Potts (aka Crewchief 252)

I see this question come up on every duck hunting website I have ever visited. I’ve also seen a dozen ways to do this, and they all seem to work. It’s just a matter of which one you want to use. This is my technique for repainting duck decoys [...]

Shotgun Shell Ballistics & Penetration

By Marvin McDonald ( J J Mac )

I have investigated the effect of shot size and velocity on penetration in waterfowl. I decided to publish the results because others might be interested as well.
The recommendation most commonly encountered in the DHC Forums for adequate penetration for clean kills with steel shot is a velocity of [...]