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How do you scout?

2K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  h2ofwlr 
#1 ·
I have been an avid duck hunter since 6 years old. however, i have never had anyone teach me how to scout ducks. the only hunting i have ever done is on private property. if the ducks are using mine or my friends' property somewhere, we go to them. but what about when they arent?

how do you know if a field being used by ducks is public land (probably not possible in arkansas) or if you can contact the owner to hunt it? i am now 28 and have a master hunter dog that only got to retrieve about 75 ducks this year. i would have loved to try and go to the ducks instead of hoping for the ducks to come to me! any help is appreciated.
 
#2 ·
What you need to do is find where all of the ducks are roosting(sleeping). Then go out either in the mourning untill about 10 or go out about 4 in the afternoon and follow them to where they are feeding in the fields. If your more interested in shooting them on the water then go out and follow them to the field and look for water between the roost area and the field there feeding in. That would be a good are to go. When your out driving around look for water that has ducks on it. And I usually go to the neariest house to ask for permission. Otherwise if you know a landowner ask them if you can use there plat map. Hope this helps ya.
 
#3 ·
What we do for goose hunting in Michigan is put thousands of miles on our trucks each fall to find birds. Get yourself a plot map as well, this lets you know who owns what piece of property. The most important part is to log where and when you find birds. This will help you figure patterns out.

There have also been times when it is the middle of the season and none of us can find birds. This is when we get out our log book and see where we killed geese at that time in years past. Generally that is where the geese will be.

good luck
 
#4 ·
Lots of driving is involved as mentioned above. Basically you are looking for ducks feeding in a field. Once you find them, then you try to secure permission to hunt them. It is nothing unusual to put 500 miles on in a weeks time when scouting.
 
#5 ·
i guess in Arkansas, i assumed that just about every piece of property gets hunted already. so, seeing birds using a field, i figured the guys who leased the property or owned it were gonna be lucky in the morning. i will try it out next year and not "assume" anything.
 
#8 ·
In the northern plains, you can still freelance hunt (no leases) which means you can go look for locations where the birds are, whether it be ducks or geese.

Also a plat and topo books are very useful too.
 
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