First Limit

As the orange sun began to set on the blue and gray North Dakota sky, I was truly amazed at what I was experiencing. Standing next to our truck, I watched in utter disbelief as hundreds upon hundreds of ducks, (pintails, mallards, wigeon) and other species starting descending into the surrounding potholes. A [...]

Good Morning Missouri

By PJ Maguire
It was mid-morning on a bright sunny, March day in Mound City, Missouri.  Chris Coffey, J.D. and I had just ordered breakfast at a small diner. Seated and standing in the diner around us were camo-clad clients, make-up wearing waitresses and cracker-jack snow goose guides.  The tail end of the snow goose migration [...]

The Best MN Waterfowl Opener

By PJ Maguire
The noon opener of the Minnesota duck season was the hardest thing for me to wait for when I was young. Typically this would be the first time I hunted waterfowl for the year. Now-a-days I am accustomed to hunting in the early goose seasons that are provided in Minnesota and other states, [...]

The Worst Hunting Day of My Life

by Bernie Eckert
Editor Note: This essay was submitted to us by a high school teacher for one of her students.
Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes wrong? Well, trust me, you haven’t had a bad day until you go duck hunting and everything goes wrong.
Back in the day, my [...]

Josh’s Duck Strips

Josh’s Duck Strips – Duck Recipe

Yields Two Duck Breasts – An easy, yet quick way to enjoy your ducks in a unique way.  One of my favorite duck recipes.
Marinade Needs (You may want to change upon your own taste)
¾ cup A1 Steak Sauce
¾ cup Heinz 57 Steak Sauce
2 tbsp French Dressing
1 ½ tbsp Chocolate Syrup
1 [...]

Internet Scouting – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

It was early in the morning while we eyed our watches waiting for shooting time. Mallards were constantly buzzing our heads in their pursuit to land in our decoys. Finally, the little hand hit the 12 and the game was on. 15 minutes later, myself and my 2 close friends were picking [...]

Prairie Pothole Region Finally Getting Moisture

As I write this out of my Bismarck, ND office, it’s still snowing.  When I woke up and turned on the television, they announced that we had broken the single month record of snow ever in a month timespan since it’s been recorded (around a century).  The first thing came to my mind – the [...]

Painting a Drake Mallard Decoy

By John Potts
In this article, I wrote it to be a very simple gunner paint job. But at the end, I put a few techniques to fancy it up a bit. If you’re planning on trying that, read the entire article before you start to paint the decoy.
COLOR LIST=Gesso ( white ), Titanium [...]

Calculated Shotgun Shell Pellet Count

The pellet count in shotgun shells is useful information for hunters and reloaders. Sometimes manufacturers’ shot counts are hard to find. People commonly post on the DHC Shotshell, Reloading, Ballistics, and Choke Forum
requesting pellet counts for various loadings.
For my own use, I assembled the following tables which give the calculated pellet counts [...]

15 Below Goose Hunt

If you’re an extreme waterfowler, you have to be a little nuts. I’ve experienced and read about more stories of guys doing crazy things, all in the pursuit of some birds. I’ve heard of guys braving high waves and nasty tides in the Pacific Northwest in layout boats with many “close calls”. [...]