? about pintails

[slabchaser]

I have always wanted to harvest a mature drake pintail and last year I talked to a buddy of mine. He hunts a private lake a long a river. I hunt a lake about 3/4-to 1 mile away from the lake. He told me that they really have to be careful due to all of the pins on the lake. I have never seen or harvested one at my lake and its not more than a mile away from his lake. Anyone ever heard of this before? the two lakes are basically the same except for one has a river flowing into it. Anyone have any ideas?

[southwest]

Part of it could the identity of the birds, he may not know what a pintail looks like. THe only place i have seen them is in far western Mn and that was only a few and after opener were

gone. We hunt SAS Can and there is afew pintails up there but

when a large flock of all birds get up pretty hard to tell

what they are. I would say alot of hunters that just hunt Minn

have not seen a pintail, i have only seen a few in the state

and that was by Monte, shot one in ND last year but the are kinda disappear whent he shooting starts

[Roosterslayer05]

Pintails are wary birds. For the last couple years I have shot about 1 a year but I see pintails a few times here and there every year. I have shot most of my Pintails in SW MN but I have also got some in the metro area. There are more out there than people believe, it all comes down to bird ID. When i was a kid I never saw any but now i do, i think I see some now because im better at identifying birds at a distance. After they have been shot at pintails are even more wary than mallards, so there's a good chance pintails come through your lake, but you cant decoy the birds.

[Ryan Becklund]

I normally shoot a couple a year. But normally on opening weekend.

[slabchaser]

I can vouch for his pintails. Ive seen the harvested birds. but maybe they just stick to the river? Is that possible. Thanks for the input though guys, maybe I will get lucky this year and get one.

[Gordie]

I have shot a couple of pintails around the Oglvie area but have not ssen a whole lot of them. I was told and what you guys say is that the numbers are better to the west and this past spring we went out to Lake Sharp in South Dakota and man the birds where thick and when you see a flock of pintails you cant mistake it for other ducks. we saw flocks of them from 20 birds to 500 birds what a site to see. I could only dream about hunting those birds well maybe someday I'll be able to hunt in the dakotas for know I'm going to settle on our Minnesota ducks and in December or January I'm going to Nebraska to get green heads.

[dan z]

ditto on ther pintails, shoot em every year. Your hunting spot has to be PERFECT or you will be trumped everytime by them, I usually get rewarded with pintails if I'm alone or and its an evening shoot. not to many times do I go in the evening but when I do go I hope for a longtail. I have one posted in the collection thread.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

we had em walking around our honker spread early goose opener in north dakota. pretty fun to watch! i have yet to harvest one in the 14-15 years ive been waterfowling; closest i came was whiffing 3 times on a drake in north dakota last fall.

[BoxMN]

I saw my first flock (6) of metro area pins last year. We didn't shoot, as they more passing shots and we didn't want to mes sup some other guys who's spread they were looking at more than ours. Ends up noone shot at them, but it was cool to see real close to home.

I have shot them in NoDak, and had a huge flock come over as I was out in the slough (without gun,,, doh!) picking up a dead bird. That was cool though! Only real big flock of them I ever saw, were a couple hundred I bet.

[dan z]

I remember one day last year I let a group of mallards in and a single drake pintail was soon to follow I passed on the mallards to end up with that single wall hanger.

[jeff127]

6-8 years ago(not sure exactly) at the end of october/ early november, following a snowstorm that hit eastern SD, 6 of us were hunting in a blind on a small pond in belle plain. Just after shooting time a flock of 7 birds came into the spread and 6 dropped dead in the dekes. Birds were flying like crazy so we waited to pick them up during a lull in the action. The lull came and I went out and to my suprise we had dropped 6 pintail drakes and each one was a perfect mounter. Each one of us put one on the wall----right place, right time. Definately a memorable moment!

I usually get 1 or 2 a year in MN but shoot them consistantly in ND every year.

jeff

[Scouter]

Dan, I like the duck room!

I especially think the neighbor duck (mergie) is the funniest though...

[dan z]

Thanks scouter, just thought it would something different than a full mount and it turned out great