Was chatting with an old hunting buddy…

[Uptonongood]

This post is a function of a conversation I had this morning with a hunting partner from a decade ago. That phone chat brought this image back: one must rise at 3:30 a.m., load a truck with gear, gun, dog and self. Then one must drive an hour and a half through the dark, cold, pouring rain to a wind swept area of flooded pasture. Then one unloads decoys, hunting bag, gun, dons chest waders and , leading his dog, trudges a quarter mile to a small shack like structure. There he distributes decoys onto ankle to waist deep water, uncases the gun, sets up his small propane heater, starts brewing a mug of tea and to sit, cold, wet shivering for 30 minutes or more until legal shooting hours.

The hunt may last a couple of hours to half a day depending on the number of birds encounter and the marksmanship of the hunter. When the hunt ends, one retraces the above process in reverse, gathering decoys, casing the firearm, packing stove and heater, and slogging the quarter mile back to the truck where everything, including the Labrador retriever, is packed back in.

The hour and a half return trip home ends with unloading dog, decoys, equipment and firearm. The ducks harvested are processed for consumption, the firearm cleaned, equipment stored, dog cleaned and fed. Then the hunter tends to himself with a hot shower and quick meal before falling asleep watching a meaningless football game,.

And all of this to harvest birds that are poor tasting unless made into sausage.

Nuts, isn’t it? Did it for 50 years…

The Diagnostic and Statistics Manual for Mental Disorders really should have a section on duck hunting.

No foolin’. Best selling author Patrick McManus wrote a book titled, “A Fine and Pleasant Misery”. He hunted ducks, too. Go figure.

 

[tucker80]

I love it. I've had to slow down a little over the years, but still it is a still passion of mine. I try to take new guys with me now and I tell them all up front "it's a love it or hate it sport"

 

[gawildlife]

Never chased ducks but I think I would enjoy it. Is it crazy just want to in the outdoors enjoying God's creation.

 

[basstrkr]

I feel your pain, but to get back in the truck and get warm, then to get home and get clean and dry and then to get fed, it all feels so good but you can only appreciate it if you endure the earlier conditions.

 

[Havana Dude]

I got in late in my hunting “career “, lasted about a decade, probably a little less. Everything described in the original post , I’ve endured, plus trudging through chest deep swamp to set up a deer stand for my son, return, take guns to spot, return, get son, carry on shoulders through swamp, etc., and repeat in reverse. I’m a die hard deer hunter. During my time duck hunting, I’d kick myself for not going deer hunting, and while deer hunting, I’d wonder how the guys were doing. Now I just enjoy my deer hunting till the good lord calls me home. I thoroughly enjoyed duck hunting, but I don’t miss the work and aggravation.

 

[MudDucker]

I started duck hunting when I was 12 years old and had my first single shot shotgun by jumping ducks and shooting creeks.

Now 54 years later, I'm still at it. There is still nothing like the sun rising and ducks cupped in the decoys. Only difference now is there are fewer ducks and more idiots hunting.

 

[kingfish]

"Thus we see that the lot of the duck hunter is not a happy one. He is the child of frustration, the collector of mishap, the victim of misfortune. He suffers from cold and wet and lack of sleep. He is punished more often than rewarded. Yet he continues. Why ? Because one great day-- and great days do come, days when the ducks are willing and the gun swings true-- repays him manyfold for all the others" Ted Trueblood "This Mania We Call Duck Hunting"

Been at it 51 years now. The only thing that's changed for me is my attitude. More people and fewer birds just means you have to be better than the crowd and a little more tolerant. I actually find myself going to areas with fewer birds and hunting more during the middle of the day rather than fighting the crowds at the ramp at 4 in the morning. Limits mean nothing anymore. Kind of like deer hunting for me, all I want is a place or two to go and I can take care of the rest.

 

[JustUs4All]

I am not a duck hunter but I do appreciate that first post. I don't dislike duck hunters and have a strange admiration for them. But the fact that there are already some out there means that I don't have to do it myself.

I have thought for a very long time that duck hunters were some special sort of crazy. They pick the coldest day of the year to go stand in the water and toot on little tooters. I have expanded my belief to include the thought that they must take a geat deal of pleasure from the end of the hunt when the pain and discomfort, ceases Something akin to feeling better when the beating stops. LOL

 

[hawkeye123]

I started duck hunting when I was 10- 50 years ago, I had killed a black duck & pintail by the time I was 15 .. went to Butler Island every year with my dad from 12-18 , it was great back then! Fishing creek on Clarks Hill was a twice a year trip killed a black duck there in 1978, we had beaver ponds along the Flint that had other ducks beside wood ducks in em , I was blessed to have dad that always had bird dogs & boats growing up.. OP you must have shot a lot of divers, because puddle ducks are my favorite wild game bird beside pheasant.. great thread !!

 

[DRBugman85]

A Duck hunter is the passion of Brain dead men that is instilled in their soul at birth,To hunt when Mother Natures weather is at the worst,Sitting in a cold and windy blind with a wet dog at your side and waiting to see ducks over the decoys and smell the gun powder and hopefully a splash of birds hitting the water and seeing the pups first retrieve is a PASSION, The pre dawn sounds of wings over head with a hot cup of coffee in hand with anticipation of a good hunt is a PASSION that only a waterfowler can understand,To share that moment with a buddy that has the same passion is a gift that only GOD can give to us the Duck hunter.Its a tuff sport on the body and wallet and for me after almost 60 years of duck hunting I still have the passion instilled by a father that had the same passion that past the years of experience of waterfowling to his sons.That my friends is a great passion of every true duck hunter, A PASSION of Brain dead men.

 

[WOODIE13]

I am glad and sad to see waterfowl season end...does give me time to fix things, plan, scout and get some much missed sleep in preparation for the next opener.

 

[georgia_home]

I stared out jumping puddles with friends in a place similar to the barrier islands of Georgia or the Carolina’s. i found deer hunting before i got to the level of needing boats. A lease or two on goose fields. (Corn/beans etc)

that probably saved me big time $$$

then again, deer hunting was never cheap, but still much less than boats.

that said, it’s the folks you need and the friends. the 30 year crew has lost some folks recently and that sucks. But the ones still around, they’re good folk. I’ll keep going as long as possible.

 

[Evergreen]

Never chased ducks but I think I would enjoy it. Is it crazy just want to in the outdoors enjoying God's creation.

It's not crazy at all, but it sure is cheaper and possibly a little more sane to just go watch the sunrise at a park. If you ever start chasing ducks you won't ever stop. For me it's not about the kill atleast anymore, which is a great bonus but not my end game, sure it was at one point, seeing a good dog work, watching a guy truly work a call, to see the birds work the decoys, getting in early to hear the wings of woodies leaving and coming in, the sounds, the sights, the dogs, the guys ya like to be around, some childhood friends I only get to see in a duck blind nowadays, the smell of powder burning, the way the water "tornados" around the bend of a shallow river, how small you can feel in the vastness of a big lake or the coast, fog rising on the water, the look of a child with his first bird, catch my self watching the joy on my sons face when birds come in, can't be replaced.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

If you’ve never done it you could never really appreciate or understand it. Good luck to all who chase them in the am...

 

[pacecars]

I started duck hunting first with my dad on small ponds. We would start the day before Thanksgiving and of course on Thanksgiving morning. Our county used to only allow Duck hunting on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and Thanksgiving and the day after and on Christmas if it wasn’t on Wed or the weekend. We would go Christmas morning and made everyone wait to open presents until we returned. Froze my butt off and loved every minute of it. Loved trudging through the mud in waders in the dark and hearing the Woodies unique squawk in the early morning. I really wish I had the chance to go one more time with my dad.

 

[WOODIE13]

Three phrases of duck hunters,
1. The beginner that tries and gets a few.
2. One that knows what he's doing, where the birds are and gets quite a few.
3. Those that enjoy the sunrises, experiences, introduces new waterfowl hunters to the sport and don't care if they get a bird or not.

Personally I consider myself a solid 2.5, really enjoy taking kids out and passing on the tradition, but also like to take some birds home every trip...doesn't always happen.

What I really enjoy about it you never know what the North wind will bring with multiple species of ducks and geese. Scoters on beaver ponds, redheads over a cornfield, specks in the Atlantic flyway, wigeon on golf course ponds, just never know

 

[Evergreen]

Three phrases of duck hunters,
1. The beginner that tries and gets a few.
2. One that knows what he's doing, where the birds are and gets quite a few.
3. Those that enjoy the sunrises, experiences, introduces new waterfowl hunters to the sport and don't care if they get a bird or not.

Personally I consider myself a solid 2.5, really enjoy taking kids out and passing on the tradition, but also like to take some birds home every trip...doesn't always happen.

What I really enjoy about it you never know what the North wind will bring with multiple species of ducks and geese. Scoters on beaver ponds, redheads over a cornfield, specks in the Atlantic flyway, wigeon on golf course ponds, just never know

Totally agree, when my crowd was in our late teens in a woodie swamp had a few buffleheads come in and about lost our minds over it, always cool to see birds out of their normal areas, can't remember seeing them in a swamp like that since, definitely on some farm ponds but never in timber like that

 

[MudDucker]

Took newbies yesterday morning. Introduced to decoy setting and missing wing shots. I had to save the day to prevent a skunk, but they had a good time and burned powder.

 

[mallardsx2]

I wish I had all of the money back that I have burned up hunting waterfowl over the last 25 years. lol

 

[au7126]

What could you spend the money on that would bring better memories?