New regulation changes!

[Finlander]

From the StarTribune:

• Removes a requirement that Minnesota's waterfowl season begins the Saturday nearest Oct. 1. That means the DNR could open this year's season on Sept. 24.

• Removes the 9 a.m. duck opener restriction, meaning hunting may start a half-hour before sunrise.

Sounds good to me the sunrise opener!

[Superduty]

Let's hope we don't sacrifice late season mallards for September teal! I sure hope the shutdown period doesn't stop action on a split season so we can have both.

[life=outdoors92]

yaaaay, lets just murder all the ducks opening morning and drive them away and have nothing for the second morning or, lets slaughter them again on sunday like we did the day before...it was easy enough shooting them on sunday

[mulefarm]

yaaaay, lets just murder all the ducks opening morning and drive them away and have nothing for the second morning or, lets slaughter them again on sunday like we did the day before...it was easy enough shooting them on sunday

And your point is?

[waterfowl74]

Im with superduty on this one, I would hate to give up the late season mallards and late big water diver hunts to shoot teal and swat mosquitoes!

[Maxxed Out]

We're only going to get 60 days either way you slice it. So if we start 7 days early we'll lose 7 days at the end.

I wouldn't mind if they split the season by taking 5 days off at some point so we can have both. They used to do that with honkers on Lac qui parle and it wasn't a big deal

[theharvester]

mark my words there will be a lot of accidents that first morning people wont know where everybody sets up

[Finlander]

If your ignorant enough to set up close to somebody or let somebody set up too close to you, then you're putting yourself in harms way!

Opening morning on Saturday won't be any different than any other morning. Haven't heard of any accidents in the last few years!

[TruthWalleyes]

I'll buy a license and float down the demoines river again on opener, eat some ducks, and throw away my license... I gave up on duck hunting anything public two years ago, with the exception of a river. Too many knotheads out there. The same risk is present at sunrise on sunday morning as it will be on saturday...Just too many stupid people with guns.

[troutkingmaster]

I'll believe these changes when I see them in the regs. Keep in mind last year the feds allowed 3 Woodies and 5 Mallards(I think), yet the MN DNR decided to limit us for some reason. Just saying that because a restriction is removed, does not necessarily mean a change is iminent.

I also do not believe we will see an increase in accidents opening morning. Think about it, you don't set up in the same place every day, so the risk is no greater than any other day during the season.

[jparrucci]

I agree troutking. Let's see if the dnr actually follows through on this, I have little confidence. The earlier opener gives us a chance to actually harvest the local ducks we produce, instead of adding to southern states bags. The 3 woody limit better happen or I will be protesting at the commissioners residence. The state and the season both need to be split as well. This gives the early season hunters a chance to take more birds before the teal and woodies head south. I think this will help with hunter recruitment and retention as well. Not all duck hunters are as crazy as some of us. The split gives us die-hards a chance to break ice and chase late mallards.

Seems like some posters here don't want us shooting ducks. I thought this was a pro hunting site, not peta. Increase hunters take and opportunity, increase hunter numbers. Hopefully the 9am and 4pm nonsense goes away too

[dabber]

What's wrong with shooting teal? I think it's more sporting than shooting Mallards. Plus they taste a heck of a lot better! I for one,hope they open it up before as 80% of the teal and 50 % of the woodies take off before Oct. Hunted for over 40 years, and it seems they always take off around Sept 24th. Seems that their biological departure clock is based on daylight hours. A strong North wind might speed it up. I've counted up to a thousand woodies $ teal dumping in to Mud lake in the evening every year before the end of Sept. Then Oct rolls around and the count is maybe down to maybe 200.

I do wish they would keep the 4:00pm closing till the 3rd week. AND I do wish they would have a split season to satisfy us early teal hunters and us late season mallard hunters. The late season hunters seem to have more pull with the DNR.

[theharvester]

finlander i beg to differ more people on opener usually people hunt the same spot on sat and sun so they know where each other is hunting but wait and see and there are a lot of morons who will hunt down wind of other peoples decoys and shoot at ducks circling

[bemidjibasser]

It depends upon where you hunt... I hunt northern MN primarily and I was shooting wood ducks consistently through october and into early november... So to say that they all leave by October is not true...

[Gordie]

All this will do is to just allow everyone to blast the local ducks out of here that much earlier and then there will most likely be a longer wait for the northern flight to happen.

I not agaist the earlier opener but I am against it closeing earlier in the season

[jparrucci]

I agree elmwood. This is why we need a split season, or do something like no hunting on Tuesday. Or have a 2 or 4 day early season and then restart a week later than usual. There are many ways to do this, but something needs to change. People worry about chasing out local birds, but many local birds are already gone by opener every year

[Muthagoose]

What Elwood said DITTO...............

[Finlander]

It's the standard Minnesota nice to grow ducks here and watch them fly away before October so all the states with a Teal season will have more Teal to shoot!

[Gordie]

finlander thats why they call it MIGRATION nothing to do with being nice..

I agree that something needs to be done but I really dont want any days of the season to close I dont bow hunt cause I waterfowl hunt. I do however rifle hunt for deer only because my kids want to other wise I would on BIG water tring to take my 2 bills and other divers as often as I could during the deer hunting season not a problem finding places to hunt that time of year.

I also think that its wrong to say well lets just have a teal season I feel that to many other ducks will get shot during this so called teal season.. Maybe I'm wrong but I have seen it happen with the closed canvasback season.

[Muthagoose]

Elwoods dead on its called migration............

If you like light ducks, then travel with the flight its what everyone else does thats serious. Put yourself in a staging area with good numbers and enjoy.

I dont hang it up when they birds leave NE Mn I go find em.

Late season is the best,cant imagine passing up nice big roaster mallards for a couple days of teal and I LOVE teal on the grill but to have weeks of gunning versus a few days Ill take redlegs anyday..

Loved reading in the past the early goose season drives the ducks out. The youth day hunts drive the ducks out and the dove season would drive the ducks out. Those guys and vegetarians make me laugh...

[Finlander]

I have shot geese over water during the early goose season and the ducks were there when we got there, and were there when we left! Mostly teal and wood ducks. I like the idea of letting the kids hunt, but if you want them to make sure they get there duck then let them shoot first. Thats what happened to me in the 60's! Nothing made you a better shot than knowing if you didn't hit that duck on the first shot my uncles and his friends were going to!

[Riverratpete]

Like the fact that they rid of the STUPID law about the closest Sat to 1 Oct. Would now love to see a split season, have a couple weeks the middle of October to give the birds a rest(most are incredibly decoy/gun shy by then anyways). This will encorage people to do other things ie. pheasant hunting, fishing, football, etc etc etc. The Chambers of Commerce will still get their pound of flesh. Face it, like it or not, most of Minnesota's duck hunting is dictated by the weather and not some goof ball politician. I'm still not totally sold on the sunrise opener though..have to wait and see how it fleshes out.

[bemidjibasser]

As far as blasting all the ducks out of the state early, if you hunt your areas responsibly and don't hammer on the birds every single day they will stick around a lot longer... Like I said above, I hunted the same bunch of woodies and mallards for the majority of the season, but gave them a few days of rest between hunts to let them settle back in, and I shot woodies into the early part of November. Responsible hunting, regardless of when the season opens, will help maintain birds in your area longer given the basic survival needs of the flock are being met.

[Finlander]

Well said bemidjibasser!

Everyday pressure moves ducks and geese out of the area.

I use to be able to go out on a popular waterfowl lake on the weekends knowing that nobody hunted the lake during the week and have good hunting, not anymore, seems like 7 days a week pressure is the norm now, and the only way you shot anything is if a cold front pushed new birds in from up north!

Seems like there are more hunters hunting duck than ever!

[Muthagoose]

""not anymore, seems like 7 days a week pressure is the norm now""

I must have grew up in another world.

We used to wait till the weekend warriors left sunday night and by tuesday the birds decoyed again.Its how I hunt still even up here...

Prime example of MID week was last year Oct the big low that came through. Started tuesday and ended friday morning.One of the best shoots I've had up here in years.

Lived 3 blocks from the Bigstone refuge guided that area for years.It holds a hundred Gs worth of geese and ducks that handle pressure daily without moving on. Just had to move according to flight.

The only time they left there was weather freeze up, bottom line...

Look at the Rochester,Fergus,Metro ducks and geese they stack up big time and get hit daily.Again moving around doing traffic control.. ..

Give them santuary they will stick around..