Jewelry- Duck Bands

[jblabsnduck]

Tom, I also am not going to argue about this. You believe one thing and I believe another.
I will say this. I was helping out with banding birds in CA. I hunted the same lake that we netted the birds on. Guess what, that's right still haven't shot a banded bird. How can that be if it is location? I took many limits off that lake.
Maybe I just have been cursed by the duck gods for some reason.
Maybe you can see why I don't believe it is location.
Good luck to you on the up coming season.

[Guest]

I know a few guys, (notice I said know, because I do not consider them friends and hate to even consider them aquaintences) that have their laynards FULL with bands by less than honorable means. One of these guys, some of you might have the misfortune of knowing him, (he's a dubious goose guide in the Bemidji area) makes it a point to show off his bands every chance he gets. Reality is is that he takes all bands from the geese he cleans for clients claiming them as his own. A few others I know buy them off of hsolist.

The only person I personally know who has a lanyard full that were legitimately shot from his gun is Bemduckboy. I know there are a lot of other honest hunters out there as well.

It's just that the whole band-on-the-lanyard thing has become such a status symbol amongst waterfowlers it's almost to the point of being a sickness. Don't get me wrong, I think having a few bands around your kneck is pretty cool, but when we start judging people of how good or how avid of a hunter they are based on how many bands they have is just wrong in MHO. Look around here on this thread alone how many of you have only a few or none at all. Does this mean you are any less of a hunter than the guy who has 50?

Well, it's time to make the final preps on the duck boat and get all the dekes in order. It's right around the corner boys and girls!!

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Ice Leaders

www.stonelegacy.com

[bigbucks]

Well said Tom, I never understand anybody that wants to just buy something like that. If you didn't shoot it yourself, where's the fun in it? I can see if you had the bands passed down from a deceased friend or relative, but even then who wouldn't say to anybody who commented on them, that some of them were given to you? To me in that instance bringing bands like that would be kind of like bringing that old hunting buddy along with you each time, that would be totally different.

[Guest]

Speaking of bringing old hunting buddys and changing the subject a little...lol...it's always been my wish that when I die I want to be cremated and have a portion of my ashes loaded into shotshells and have my buddies go out hunting with me. Morbid? Yes, Cool? DEFINETLY!!!

[PikeTipper]

There is definately a lot of luck to getting a band too. My brother has 4 and I was with for each one but I'm still stuck at 0. We'll drop birds out of the same flock but the banded birds must like to fly on his side... I too don't understand why anyone would want to buy a band. Why spend money on something that is truely meaningless?

[jlm]

Bands are pretty easy to get. We give them away at our MWA fund raisers. I have never placed one on my lanyard, that would be like mounting someone else's deer head and claiming it as your own. I agree, it is all about location with a few exceptions! Good luck all!

[TrashDux*]

posted by PikeTipper...

There is definately a lot of luck to getting a band too. My brother has 4 and I was with for each one but I'm still stuck at 0. We'll drop birds out of the same flock but the banded birds must like to fly on his side...

Maybe he can just see them. Over half the Greenheads I have shot banded were ducks I seen the bands on...and singled them out.

All it takes a little patience...to let them backpeddle over the deeks a while...and quickly scan their legs. The bands are suprisingly easy to see...especially the newer shiny ones!

[Eric Wettschreck]

I've been duck hunting many years. I've never shot a banded duck or goose. However, I do have 1 banded phesant. I thought that was pretty cool. It was banded by the high school FFA about 35 miles from where I shot it.

So, if I don't have a band on my lanyard am I making a hunting fashion faux pas???? Cuz, I hate to not be "with it."

[SEwalleye]

I've always found that the band makes the meat taste funny. That is why I pick out the ducks without the bands.......Okay maybe it is just a good excuse until I get a banded bird!

[hanson]

boilerguy-

You are acceptable fashion wise. Not having a band isn't a big deal.

Now if you mix your camo clothes, say a Mossy Oak shirt or jacket with Realtree pants or waders, I think people will start pointing fingers and snickering

[This message has been edited by hanson (edited 09-10-2004).]

[Guest]

Not quite a lanyard full but 12 bands in 22 years. I say most of the time it is luck but I was hunting with Tom on "The year of the bands" and had the limit of been 6 instead of 3 we would of increased our take of bands dramatically. Last year I was fortunate enough to hunt a field that I'm sure had many banded birds come in and we got zip. I know there were well over a dozen banded because I followed the flock and seen the birds and couldn't believe we got none. I shot one goose on a guided hunt many years ago and it managed to fall directly into my pit and hit me. It was banded and the guides tried to talk me out of it. All other birds shot during the day were retrieved by the guides or their dogs and brought back to the guide pit and distributed to the hunters so I suspect I know where a lot of their bands came from. You can put the odds in your favor by knowing where the banding has been done! Not a sure thing but definately increases the odds. I have got one banded goose out of 7 so far this season.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Hanson, Now I know why everyone was pointing and laughing at me last fall!!!!

Good thing I'm an emotionally stable fella, or I'd feel bad. Anyone out there have a tissue?????

[Pooh]

well since opener morning we shot 31 geese and one had a band. it was a goose from maryland and it was shot here in mid-minnesota. that bird is a long way from home. cooler yet the band had a bb dent in it that had rusted over so the goose had bee shot at before. i personally have no bands but have been with people who shot birds that did. that is almost as thrilling, but you just dont get the band for the prize and pride.

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this is just my 2 cents
Pooh

[This message has been edited by Pooh (edited 09-11-2004).]

[Nitebiter]

Got a banded goose this weekend around the Chaska area, but the guide i was workin for gave it to our clients hopin for better tips.... %@$&*%$#& didnt give either of us a dime and i lost YET ANOTHER BAND!! Now i remember why i like to hunt by myself..

4 banded honkers killed by my gun in the last 2 years.... 2 on my lanyard to show for it.... go figure!!

[decoy]

My Buddy and I hunted this weekend on private land. Saw thousands of geese. Friday night he hunted alone and called at dark to tell me he had shot a banded honker. We were both thrilled! (I was a little jealous).

Sunday Morning, we went out to the same field. I dropped a banded goose at 6:59am. The band #'s were 300+ off. Still very exciting. 1st bands for both of us.

I've hunted geese for 9yrs. 1st band... Awesome!

decoy

[jiggin' fool]

Pooh,

To begin with, are you sure the bird was "from" Maryland, or are you looking at the band, and seeing "Maryland" stamped into the band, and thinking that is where the bird was banded??? That is the headquarters for Migratory bird banding effort, USFWS, and when you contact them, they will tell you where that bird was actually banded.
Now, for some real interesting data. I work for 2 guide services here in S.E. MN, (names to remain anonymous), and last year, during the last week of November, we had a huge influx of honkers move in. One field in particular was HOT. Two guide services "shared" the field, and the field is capable of hunting 30 people. We had clients filling those pits nearly every day of that week, and I won't tell you how many geese we killed, but you do the math.., as we limited nearly every day. We DO NOT double trip, and our operation is completely on the up and up. (Our local warden will confirm that). Bottom line, in that PILE of honkers shot just during that one week.., NOT ONE WAS BANDED!!!!! Our total band take last year was 2-birds!!!! We shot more geese last year than the average Joe would ever shoot in 2 lifetimes, and only 2-birds were banded!!! So, if the percentage of banded birds that migrate through our neck of the woods is at %0.40, how many honkers would you have to shoot to have a lanyard full if you hunted our area??? Without breaking out the calculator, it would be somewhere in the 3000-plus figure!!!!! Do you plan on shooting over 3000 honkers in your lifetime here in MN?????
Lastly, keep in mind that the USFWS "targets" species that need valuable information. Scaup, (bluebills), are really receiving this attention now, and are heavily banded, AND even "dyed" different colors, to help indentify shift in migration routes, stop-overs, numbers.., any info they can get to help them solve the mystery of what is happening to this fun little duck. You have a greater chance of shooting a banded bluebill then you have of shooting a banded Canada goose, especially a Giant Cananda goose. The USFWS, last year, did ask states to step-up the banding efforts of LOCAL geese to prove that the early seasons are doing what they are intended to do.., shoot LOCAL geese. I shot 2 banded Giant Canada's last year, both banded in Rochester. The year before that, my buddy and I each shot banded honkers in the early-season, mine was banded in Iowa, and his in Illinios. I would have never shot them, had they not stepped-up the effort to band locals.
Lastly, Tom is right on the money with LOCATION. I hunt waterfowl in 3 states and a Canadian providence nearly every year, and I know people that have a TON of bands, and they are not exactly waterfowl guru's. They just live in areas where 10's of thousands of ducks/geese stage each year, and that many of those ducks/geese are from an area that is INTENSELY banded.
So the next time you slip that lanyard over your head, and it has 3 bands on it, here is one hunter that RECOGNIZES you are an avid waterfowl hunter. And if you have 30-bands, and you took them LEGALLY, well I can tell you that you didn't get many, if any of them, from this area!!!!!!
Have a great fall folks..., and if you shoot a banded bird, PLEASE call it in, get your certificate.., and where that band PROUDLY!!!!!!!!

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"You should have been here yesterday"....,

[Pooh]

jigging i dont know i you were jsut useing me for an example or misunderstood what i wrote, but im confused. i have no bands. but have been around when one is taken. i said we shot 30 geese and that one did have a band.
just clarifying.
Pooh

[berfish]

I am thinking they must band a lot of birds from the Bemidji area. Right downtown on the lake in the little park there are about 30-100 geese year round. That is the flock or family or whatever that I saw. I am pretty sure they go everywhere together. Like everyone said before LOCATION.
bf

[Guest]

Yes, they do ban the heck out of the Lake Bemidji flock, ducks and geese both. It's easy pickins for em since the waterfowl office is right there.

[Tour. Pro 175]

Was out hunting this morning and was lucky enough to bag a banded drake mallard. Felt great to see that band. It's been Thirteen years since the last one. I hope it won't take that long for the next one!

[dkhntr]

Does the band from my Bolens Callin string count?

Been hunting for a 10 + yrs, no bands. But we really arnt in "banding area" either.

[East Rush Rules]

Hey fellas,
Im sitting in the dumps right now. I am 16 and when i was 14 during the youth waterfowl hunt, i remember breasting a drake mallard and seeing something on its legg and saying what the heck is that thing. That was my first hunt ever, and i through that dang bang out with that darn bird!!! Now to only realize what i did! I am almost crying over here!

[mwktrapper]

At age 19, I've shot a banded mallard and a banded goose. Have seen a lot of bands come out of the Bemidji area. I enjoy going down to the park and watching all those banded birds walking around down there. Out of 4 boys in my family, three of us shot our very first goose banded. We took my little brother out this year for early goose season and it weirded me out to see him shoot his first goose banded.

[Mike Walerak]

Bands are fairly common here in S. Dakota. Just about everyone I hunt with shoots them with consistancy. I personally have never shot one. I think that is why people don't want to be next to me in the blind. (either I'm jinxed or I just smell bad) Our group as a whole has shot 2 honks already and 0 ducks. A little slow compaired to last year. We did get a blue band last year which he sold on HSOList for $250.00
mw

[hanson]

Just curious how everybody did this season? Anybody get lucky with a band?

I didn't get out and hunt much this season do to other commitments. My priorities are mixed up I guess. I did manage to get a very nice drake ringneck. That would have been the highlight of my season.