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How to hunt ducks in fields

11K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  ByersFarm 
#1 ·
I am wondering how to hunt ducks in a field. I primarily hunt on the water but hunt geese in fields. What I need to know is basically everything. I have an Avery lay down blind 9 dozen goose shells a couple flags and goose calls. For ducks I have 7 dozen floaters in 5 different species. I have 1 dozen mallard shells that I made out of leaky floaters. I have all the neccesary calls but do i want to invest in full body duck decoys or anything. What else do i need to get started, what should a typical spread look like, where should hunters be placed or is all this the same as goose hunting in a field.
 
#2 ·
Field duck decoys are not necessary but will help your success in my opinion. We like to run the ducks in their own little bunch away from the goose decoys. Mojos, while they can be hit or miss on water are an absolute must in fields in my opinion. For some reason, they just love them (geese however do not though, so make sure u either have one with a remote or take it down for geese) . Lots of guys like to set the duck decoys right around the blinds. Haven't tried this personally but it's supposed to work. Other than that, they seem to like feed chatter mixed with light quacks. I seem to get much better response from calling in fields than I do on the water but believe it may have something to do with better concealment in the field.
 
#4 ·
Ducks will fly over goose decoys to get to the mojo. Geese will not fly over duck decoys to get in. We put the duck decoys just behind the blinds with the mojo just behind the head of the blind. It sucks the ducks in tight. Ducks are also easy to decoy into canada spreads with a mojo (we did it without before the spinners). Those spinners are duck kryptonite in the fields. The other day we had huge flocks of mallards trying to land 10 yards off the blinds. Makes for easy shooting.

Also make sure you are hid super well. 100s of eyes are usually looking.
 
#6 ·
We run a mixture of G&H duck shells and GHG or Hardcore fullbodies. We had 6 duck fullbodies out the other day and killed our limits. Day before we had out 4 doz and a doz G&H shells and still killed them. I think a doz duck shells and a mojo will kill em if they are using the field. Ducks decoy really well to canada goose decoys also. We killed alot over just goose decoys before the fullbody craze.
 
#10 ·
We sucked them into a bean field they weren't even using last night running 6 doz snow goose fullbodies and 5/8 shells, 6 doz canada decoys, and a robo. Lots of ducks in the area and we got several flocks to commit to our spread. They all wanted to land with the snows and not the robo though.
 
#11 ·
Scouting. Your best tactic. Find what field, where in the field, what time, and how long they're staying. Put your setup right where they want to be.

This year the ducks were spooky late season with mojo's. We had our best luck with using mostly canada goose decoys. Better visibility. I also have three dozen black duck feeder shells and two dozen active mallards. These work awesome for ducks in the field or near water.

SCOUT!!! :thumbsup:
 
#12 ·
Well if your like my group, we have 100 acre rice field in the heart of missouri duck country, and the next land owner over from us doesnt allow hunting and they accumulate in his 100 acre rice field. We've tried every tactic in the book and all but given up. Day after day we watch hundreds of mallards fly over our pit to get to that unhunted field. The landowner is anti-hunting so theres nothing we can do. Ive been hunting for 20 years and I realize we are screwed. It's always something when it comes to hunting nowadays. I guess I'll follow my friends advice and start playing poker online.
 
#13 ·
One word: MOJO!... when were duckn on the water we often pull the mojo's after the first split. Unless in bad conditions. But when it comes to feild hunting we religiouslly run 2 to 6... Also hunt bad weather days, while this is a no brainer in feilds its all the diffrenance with ducks.
 
#14 ·
Surely ya'll have watched a huge flock of ducks or geese light into a field at roosting time.
It kinda goes like this...
There are flocks of waterfowl all around for miles looking for the "X".
One group will land, maybe just a pair of geese or ducks.
Then as soon as their feet touch the ground the nearest flight takes notice and flies over to where the two just landed and they land too. This repeats over and over as all the flights take notice of the landing process. The flapping wings and the FREQUENCY of the wing beats is what is telling all the other birds to "come here boys".

So why wouldn't a "flock" of spinning ducks work? Of course they would. That tornado of ducks machine seems to me like if you had several of those and say twelve mojos would be like a huge duck magnet. If I only had the money to put where my mouth is.... :yes:
 
#15 ·
multiple times this year we have went to hunt geese and came out of the feild with ducks in hand they do like goose decoys and have no problem sucking into them... one thing i have noticed is they always seem to pop in around the geese flocks if we see ducks trailing the geese we will try to get the ducks to come in.
 
#16 ·
jrode237 said:
Field duck decoys are not necessary but will help your success in my opinion. We like to run the ducks in their own little bunch away from the goose decoys. Mojos, while they can be hit or miss on water are an absolute must in fields in my opinion. For some reason, they just love them (geese however do not though, so make sure u either have one with a remote or take it down for geese) . Lots of guys like to set the duck decoys right around the blinds. Haven't tried this personally but it's supposed to work. Other than that, they seem to like feed chatter mixed with light quacks. I seem to get much better response from calling in fields than I do on the water but believe it may have something to do with better concealment in the field.
i had about a thousand ducks tornado on me about a month ago and had to pretty much scream quacks at them and chatter but man we had 3 mojos and they are a must we got 5 of them mallards
 
#17 ·
We usually have ducks coming in to our goose spreads at first crack of light and the first 1/2 hr after that. Most of the time we just call them. The times we bother to set up the mojo, they can come in all morning, we just kill the mojo when geese are coming.
We did one pure duck hunt this year an a field where there were about 5-7000 ducks. Spotted an area a bunch were feeding in on a hill, there was a pond about 1/2 mile from there to the NE, another about 1 mi north, and another 1 mile south. Got up there in the AM, it was very foggy, weren't sure if we had the right spot, but, thought we were close. Put out 4 doz GHG shells on stakes ( we were in cut barley) and 2 doz honker shells and two mojos. Ducks appeared at first light coming over the hill at about 20ft in the air,
damn near landed on the blinds. We took turns shooting single shots, drakes only, were packed at 1-1/2 hrs, 24 birds with 3 guys.
Because of the fog we just laid in open blinds and shot. The two mojos did the job, we only did a little bit of calling as soon as we could see the ducks, which was at about 100 yds, there were a number of times we didn't get a shot off as they came in very fast and often at as low as 10 ft.
Most of the time it's just a matter of the mojo getting them to come in close enough for a shot. I've noticed on ponds with resident ducks they get wise to mojos PDQ. I am sure some of those flocks in the fog flared at the mojos, other just did the circle and came in, some just hit the brakes and died for that mistake.
 
#18 ·
jrode237 said:
Dead Duck Outfitters said:
So mojo's I take it are almost a neccesity
They aren't going to hurt you. In my experience it will only help, especially if you are not right in the ducks flight path. It will help draw birds from a long ways away and in the fields that can be the difference of a making a hunt go from good to amazing.
That is no where near true where I hunt. I've seen many a duck flare from a mojo.
 
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