What time did the shooting start where you were at?

[BLACKJACK]

Was sitting there at 8:49 AM, decoys are out, shotgun not loaded yet, eating a bananna, when some dipstick starts shooting on the far side of the slough I was on!! Then to top it off, one of my cohorts in a blind 100 yards away opens up and drops a duck that starts drifting my way - he yells and wants me to send my dog after it! Not on your life! At 10 AM I would have, but not at 8:55. When we confronted him on it later he said "everyone else was shooting". My brothers response was "if everyone was jumping off the cliff, would you follow?" To top it off, this guy had his teenage son with him.

What causes people to shoot so darn early? We all want a shot at those easy ducks that come and land in your decoys early.

Yeah, I know, people will be saying call TIP, but its one thing for a CO to show up and catch people with overlimits but how does he catch people 'on the far side of the slough shooting early'. Plus I don't have a cell phone, I don't think they belong in the duck blind or fish house, but thats another story...

[MIKE IN lINO III]

I was with my Dad this weekend up to my property, first time I ever hunted for Ducks. We saw a couple of geese fly into a back bay that I know had hunters in it and I was wondering why they did not take them. 5 minutes later all h$ll breaks loose, they waited until 09:00 to fire. Good for them.

Question for you guys, I know you have to let the ducks land in your decoys if it is not time to shoot but what about during the day? Do the majority shoot ducks that land or do you shoot them as they are about to land or on their way into your dekes?

We shot at a few but didn't end up getting any, we had a nice flock turn and come to our dekes only to flare at the last minute. Pretty cool, I think I'm hooked.

Mike

[hanson]

Mike in Lino-

When do you shoot the ducks you ask? On the water, while landing, or flying? My dad and myself were chatting about this again in the blind this weekend. I don't think its wrong to take a duck on the water but it isn't as fun as dropping one out of the air for me.

In my earlier years of hunting, my dad would let me shoot at the ducks that landed in the decoys. When I was 13, that might have been the only way for me to actually hit one. So for awhile in my life, I shot ducks on the water. But after you've shot a good handful on the water, it gets old IMO. Now, we've worked on becoming better wingshooters and calling the shots just before the birds are going to touch down. This can be pretty tricky with divers since they are moving so fast. We have also been concentrating on shooting drakes only and passing on many birds that are obvious hens or indistinguishable immature drakes. We knocked down 6 drake ringbills on Sunday and easily let dozens of hens fly, including those that landed in the decoys.

I think it is just part of your evolution has a hunter. Nothing wrong with taking a duck on the water but I think you will have more satisfaction knowing that you shot a double out of the air.

[Sartell Angler]

shoot 'em as they are cupped up over your dekes...if you wait until they land you shouldn't be out there.

SA/wdw

[lawdog]

I think the first shooting I heard was about 8:43. I just shook my head and showed the youngen my watch and told him we would be waiting. He just couldn't understand why they'd be shooting before it was legal and I just told him its because they are not good hunters...

[mpester]

All hell broke out at 8:50 where we were hunting. The first bird down was a goose about 100 yards over from us and about 100 yards up. I yelled over to them that they were starting too early but got no answer and they just kept skybusting. After that, the other ten groups started shooting. We did not load our guns until 9 and we were done by 9:30 with eight teal. The other groups were still banging away at high birds when we left at 10:30. Lots of birds that wanted to decoy in but the a*****es just kept shooting at birds 75 yards or more away. I guess you need to scare the birds out of the state as quick as you can. I wish our hunt had lasted longer but I was very happy to get a limit and look forward to hunting on Thursday and Saturday this week.

[FI Guide]

7:30 i couldnt believe it, I almost wanted to go and kick this guy in the arse. Good thing the dnr is on speed dial that guy got a nice surprise around 8:30.

[FOOT]

We heard a shot at 8:10 but it turned out to be a neighbor patterning his new shotgun.

The first shot at a duck was about 8:55, no too bad. Our first shot came at 9:15.

No I wouldn't shoot at a duck on the water unless it's crippled. Takem' while thy're flyin.

[MIKE IN lINO III]

Thanks guys, that's what I figured, not much sport in shooting them on the water.

[radke22]

Sunday morning, Shooting time was 6:56 in eastern Minnesoa, these kids started opening up at 6:36 nearly an hour before sunrise. Than they proceeded to shoot at anything within 300 yards and winged 1/2 dozen ducks into the thick cattails and never made an attempt to retreive them. On top of all of this they left their decoys on public water over night.

[Dotch]

Quote:

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I think it is just part of your evolution has a hunter. Nothing wrong with taking a duck on the water but I think you will have more satisfaction knowing that you shot a double out of the air.

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Nice post and couldn't agree more. As I age I find it's less and less about how many I have in the bag and more and more about how many hours of enjoyment I have. In my younger days, I hunted mainly over field dekes in ND as a resident. We had many, many hunts where we limited out on both ducks and geese and it was primarily about how many we shot. Think I swatted a snow goose only once though and that's because the guys hiding in the slough were napping when it landed. I was in my white coveralls laying in the decoys and they about crapped when I shot it!

Since those days, my opportunities to hunt waterfowl were very limited. Recently however with the restored wetland on my own place, have gradually gotten back into waterfowl hunting. I have changed. I'm more into habitat, what makes the birds tick and sharing hunts on the wetland with friends. I'm also keenly aware that due the the limited size and fragile nature of the wetland, the hunting pressure needs to be controlled. Yesterday while hunting alone, I had a couple opportunities to shoot at blue winged teal and didn't. Once because I was looking for a goose and would've made for another bird or birds to try to find in the deep weeds and the last time because they (3) snuck in low and landed directly in front of me. Could've swatted that group several times but didn't. I was more curious to know just how well camouflaged I was as I stood up. Apparently pretty well as they looked right at me but didn't spook. I watched as they swam nervously through the spread and was giggling pretty good when they picked at the smartweed seeds along the edge of the water before they took off. I let 'em go as the shot there wouldn't have been the nice clean one I wanted. That and I had enjoyed the anecdotal behavioral data they had just given me. Let someone's kid have a shot at 'em someplace. I had plenty of waterfowl to eat for one weekend anyway.

Shooting started precisely at 9 on Saturday in the area and not much at sunrise on Sunday. Was doing chores at the time. Really wasn't much shooting heard in the afternoon either day.

[tealitup]

Quote:

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Sunday morning, Shooting time was 6:56 in eastern Minnesoa, these kids started opening up at 6:36 nearly an hour before sunrise. Than they proceeded to shoot at anything within 300 yards and winged 1/2 dozen ducks into the thick cattails and never made an attempt to retreive them. On top of all of this they left their decoys on public water over night.

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If decoys are left overnight do they then become public property like a deer stand?

[dirtking]

two came through the decoys at 8:55 we let them go by and down to the bay where they proptly were shot - that started things off on the lake I was on.

I shoot ducks in the air - I have been know to throw (by hand) a shell at them to get em up - but thats just me - It dosen't bother me if people let them land

[Borch]

For us the first shot we heard was at 8:47 on Saturday. Sunday morning it was about 5 minutes early.

As far as shooting them on the water goes, I let the kids do a couple when they first hunt. After that it's in the air. Then I can pat them on the back for a nice shot.

[Dean Schellinger]

First shots in our area was around 8:40. I couldn't believe it. I heard a lot of shots in those follwoing 20 minutes too. We had some ducks coming in at 8:56 that we let fly by. It sure is frustrating when all the areas ducks are flying around at 8:45 instead of 9:00 like they should be, because people were shooting at them 20 minutes before legal shooting time. We were checked by the CO and were happy to hear a few violations were given to groups with roto ducks.

[FoolNFish]

Hmmm...decoys left out on public water overnight? I think they'd become my property or maybe I'd give 'em to some young hunter that is just starting and can't afford decoys. It would seem to me that the people that left them out there didn't really need them. Besides, wouldn't you actually be doing them a favor by picking them up and saving them the fine for leaving them out? But that's just my opinion.

[30 inch eyes]

about 8:45 near myself, but I didn't shoot until about 9:15 because most everything was sky high and haulin feathers by 9. Really good on Sun. about 10 min after legal time. mabey a few got a nice ticket to take home on Sat. and waited until real time on Sun.

[radke22]

the thing about the land is, from all angles, it appears to be private. If some was to know the proper right of way for the area, anyone could hunt it. That being said, i've hunted this area for 8 years and have only had 1 other person hunt the same pond, and that was only for 2 weekends. I believe that these people live on the pond and have just recently got into hunting, they looked pretty young, maybe 13-17 year old range.

[syd2nd]

Sunday was an interesting morning. At 6:40, I asked my son to double check the time we could shoot and he took out the regs and read them without a flashlight. It did seem light enough to shoot. We had a couple of teal and a hen mallard come in in the next 15 minutes and it was fun to watch them get nervous. They were gone by shooting time, though.

[riverrat56]

Sunday around me I believe legal time was 6:47, heard the first shot about 10 mins before that, I still thought it was to dark to shoot. I didn't shoot till after 7:00, we ended up with our 4 woodies in about 15 mins after that (2 guys) had a few opportunites at teal and didn't take them. As far as shooting them on the water, if you do everything right and get them to land in your spread go ahead and water blast them, been there done that on my first 3 ducks. Found it is much more rewarding to drop them out of the air, also found out that I can't shoot ducks on the water for some reason, first woodie I shot dropped on the edge of the spread and was hit in the wing, it dove and when it came up I was going to finish it off, and I missed......Opps.....we rowed out and got it about a minuet later.

[Harty1384]

saturday shooting started about 5 min early but on sunday the first shot was taken about 15 min early maybe some people need help with there basic math.

[farmislandeye]

10 minuts before shooting time. Even though i was ready for it. Every year there is at least one dope that fires early. Not only is it againsed the law but it screws all the other hunters on the lake. I wish a DNR was there to give um what they deserve.

[SlabSlayer21]

In our are I believe the first shots were fired around 8:57, so it wasn't bad, and from there on out at 9 it was a hayday for about 20 minutes or so. We saw thousands of ducks, many were mallard groups of 20-60, but whenever they would start coming down to our spread, another group on the other end would shoot at a teal or woodie that buzzes them and miss...it was very frustrating, but we still did great.

[gophers 'n' eyes]

I was hunting down near Hastings on public land and was very pleased with the people who were hunting around us. Im used to hunting down near Shakopee where people open up a good 20 minutes before opening every time i was out. Im not one for making the first shot of the day, but we were the first and we waited till right at nine, and let me tell you it wasnt easy, haha. We had three gadwalls land in the dekes at 8:58, two woodies set in at 8:59 but i told my brother and friend that we werent going to be the first to shoot and we waited. Finally the watch said after nine and we let some teal have it. I was really impressed with the hunters i met and talked to and how courteous everyone was. It was nice to see. Good luck to everyone the rest of the season.

[fishface5]

Shooting on the water is FAR BETTER than shooting them at 60 plus yards! First of all most people way under estamate the distance! Kind of the opposite of the fish exageration problem. Which leads to the worst thing that can happen in waterfowling, SKY BUSTING! If you can't judge distance, let them land. Then, jump them. The second worst thing is setting up too close to somebody else. Third is not hideing very well. fourth is over calling.