Duck Hunting Tips of the Day

[huntforever]

if you want to change your water keel to weighted, try using surround bathtub glue to hold a half of a 8 oz. lead wieght.

[mallardman77]

If you guys are like me and have a problem with sweaty, cold feet in your boots or waders, try taking a stick or spray can of anti-persperant and putting it on your feet. It'll stop your feet from sweating and keep em nice and warm!
-Kris

[Fredito]

I know a few people have talked about using decoy line to keep your gun out of the drink...I went to the old dollar store...trying to find stuff for geocaching and got the idea to buy a leash...ended up with one 4 feet long...with the typical hardware on it...I will loop the hand end around through my sling and clip the snap on a d-ring or belt loop...a lot stronger then line...if you get a bright one you can tuck it in your pocket or just throw a decoy bag over it...and when your SBE falls in the water you wont be depending on your knot tying skill

[kiwismakebetterhunters]

Place a maniquin or scare crow in your mai mai (blind) and where you feed out during the off season this gets the ducks used to people!

[Rat Creek]

The best decoy weights. Call a recycling center about lead sheets. The type used by plumbers to install old fashion shower floors. The lead sheets are a little thinner and more flexible than the lead mix straps you buy at the store or in a catalog. You can easily cut it into 1 inch wide strips with tin snips.

We cut ours a little bit longer than most, which allows you to wrap them more securely around the decoy heads. Being a bit softer, they don’t do as much damage to the decoys either.

On a cold day, it is nice to have a pliable piece of metal to work with when your hands are freezing and it is getting dark fast. Oh, did I mention it is very inexpensive.

[whitefeather]

I had a brainstorm several years back.
We had a very large snowstorm coming from the Dakotas and heading straight for us here in SE Iowa / West Central Illinois. It was guaranteed that we were going to get about 8 to 10 inches of snow, at the time we had not had any accumulated snow for the year. This was late in the goose season and the geese were very educated. I had the idea of calling a buddy of mine that worked in receiving at a trucking company and borrowed about 6 old semi tarps. I also called all of my friends and borrowed every tarp and plastic drop cloth I could get my hands on. A couple of friends and I went out the afternoon before the snow hit and covered the best part of a corn field that we had permission to hunt. We used firewood pieces to hold down the tarps. We also made 3 "bird nests" for ourselves (this was prior to the layout blind years) (positioned while factoring in the dominant NW wind) and covered them with white bed sheets and fire wood for anchors.
At about 3 am we removed the tarps and placed our bigfeet. We hid under the white bed sheets in our dry bird nests and were quite comfortable even though the weather wasn't. The geese that had flown over day after day without stopping suddenly fell in love with the pristeen snowfree cornfield and bigfeet. We limited in a couple of minutes. The snow melted and our fun was over after two days.
Don't tell any one it's a secret

[Mallyard]

allright... this took me forever to do. so ya'll better appriciate it. this is how I rig my jerk chords. I use a 2 liter bottle filled with sand, with a hole drilled in the top of the lid and on the side of the lid. I'd either use a VERY high pound test line or a decoy chord. The rest should be self explanitory.
The nice thing about this rig is if you don't feel like hauling the bottle out all the time, you can make a bunch of them and keep one at all your honey holes. If it's public just hide it in the bushes a little ways off so some other guy dosn't find it and steal it.
Cuse we all know how much a 2 liter bottle filled with sand is worth.. lol.
Here's the pic/diagram...



Mallyard

[mallardman77]

Hey mallyard, if you did that in paint thats awsome!

[ACEBLDRS]

Mallyard, I have been thinking of a way to do that with a few dekes , about 5 or 6 of them, with half of them on one line and half on another, so that you could have several diving at different times. I have been watching some local ducks, and when they feed, there is about 20 of them in a tight group all butts in the air, with 3 or so of them at a time comming up and diving again.

[kiwismakebetterhunters]

Mallyard Thats what I was trying to describe in the puddler duck forum, thats how we do it.

[ACEBLDRS]

Mallyard Thats what I was trying to describe in the puddler duck forum, thats how we do it.

Pictures worth a thousand words, even if the words are kiwi. :mrgreen:

[AlaskaRedneK]

Mallyard, you are heck good w/ that painting thingy.....

-Stouff

[Gooseboy]

:withstupid:

[whitefeather]

If you have an old john boat with lots of holes in it and is just taking up space at the duck club or your back yard:

Fill the bottom of the boat with rynoliner (the spray on truck bed liner) it plugs leaks bigtime.

[Mallyard]

:withstupid:

When hunting VERY cold conditions, use neopreen gloves, as just regular waterproof gloves will freez solid and wear out the gortex FAST. After the glove freezing once or twice you mydaswell (gotta love that spelling) use them for either a dog toy or turkey gloves, cuse they won't be water proof anymore.

Mallyard

[doane25]

ducks love muddy water. right before shooting time, or when the ducks aren't flying go on out and walk around a bit and dirty things up. helped us many of times.

[doane25]

after you shoot at a flock of honkers instead of sending the dog (or the youngest guy in the blind) get back covered up and get on the call. some fast double clucking and a little luck will sometimes swing the flock back around for another shot, but don't give up a fresh flock heading your way to work some you have all ready busted. just trying to help

[doane25]

even the most experinced duck hunter can still get all excited when working a flock of ducks. take a tip out of jeff foiles playbook, take the shine off of your face by using camo on your face or wear a mask. this also makes it easier to see the ducks working most of the time so you know what call to blow. not to mention all the looks you'll get when you go to class, or the local wal mart after the hunt.

[Gooseboy]

apply a small coat of petroleum jelly to ur dekes. restores color.

[doane25]

spend the money and but a decent lay out blind. i have a finisher and a migrator. we used them in the fields, pulblic marshes, private ponds. well worth the money

[paduckbuster]

I keep a spare set of cloths (camo sweats) in space bags, ya know the kind you suck the air out with a vacum. They take up almost no space in you bag, and if you get wet you have dry cloths to get into and finish your hunt. I've spent one too many cold wet days duck hunting. Now I always have a set of dry cloths.

[huntforever]

Last Sept., 4 of us went to a frest cut bean lot. The geese where flying great, Got some down and lined them up where we were sitting. The flocks started flaring, must of seen the dead. We brought them back into the field and tuck thier heads under thier wings. They were long term asleep. The geese started to come back into the decoys and we limited out. That was a great hunt.

[pintail21]

Always let the first bird of the day work untill its clear the bird is gonna leave NOW, or its landed. Odds are unless theres a significant wind/weather change, thats what the next birds will do. If bird no. 1 lands short, open up more space for em and double check the camo. You can have the best spot in the world, but if the birds aren't comfortable at landing in your spread, they're not gonna finish em. Also experiment with calling styles early to see what they want on that particular day.

Tip #2, if you're in a slump, take target practice on low pressure targets like coots, mergies, hens and other nongame but legal to shoot birds like starlings, pidgeons and the like (be sure of your target, your state's regs and use the meat). Focus on your form and only allow yourself one shot. I find having a target where there is no pressure really helps you get back to the basics and focus on what you are doing. I mean is anyone here sad they missed a shot at a coot? I always do this when I'm hunting a spot that has no shell restrictions.

Which brings me to #3, to clean a coot place it back down, grab its legs and pull, a quick way to get a lot of meat

[Greg Wile]

allright... this took me forever to do. so ya'll better appriciate it. this is how I rig my jerk chords. I use a 2 liter bottle filled with sand, with a hole drilled in the top of the lid and on the side of the lid. I'd either use a VERY high pound test line or a decoy chord. The rest should be self explanitory.
The nice thing about this rig is if you don't feel like hauling the bottle out all the time, you can make a bunch of them and keep one at all your honey holes. If it's public just hide it in the bushes a little ways off so some other guy dosn't find it and steal it.
Cuse we all know how much a 2 liter bottle filled with sand is worth.. lol.
Here's the pic/diagram...Mallyard

And if you don't want to be bothered drillin holes then use old bleach or any type bottle that has a finger hole "D" type handle on it for your chord to run through.

[wa.duckhunter]

:withstupid: we've used gallon milk jugs. Same idea (no drilling, or sharp edges to fray the line)