Duck Hunting Featured Articles

Choosing A Duck Hunting Guide-
There are far more duck hunting guides in most states then types of ducks.  With so many duck hunting guides available to choose from how does the average hunter make the right decision?  Here are a few tips and suggestions that will help you choose the right duck hunting outfitter.

Waterfowl Flyways
North America is divided into 4 distinct flyways.  Learn more about each flyway by clicking on the link above.

Types of Ducks
There are many types of different ducks in North America.  Learn more about how to identify the different types of ducks that hunters often hunt.

Building & Maintaining Wood Duck Boxes
This is a video of how we maintain our Wood duck boxes on our property in Connecticut. Each year Wood duck boxes have to be cleaned and repaired to have them ready for the next breeding season.

Duck Hunting Quick Tips-

When hunting goose don't over call. Calls are most useful for calling in single birds or isolated pairs.

Decoy placement can spell success or failure for your hunt. Group species accordingly and leave landing pockets for optimum shooting opportunities.

Duck and goose decoys. Incorporate both ducks and geese into your decoy spread as confidence builders and in case either species pass by.

Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"

Duck caller reeds sometimes freeze or stick in frigid weather. Prevent gum-ups by using a product such as Rain-X or Aquapel that’s made to deter rain, snow and ice buildup on windshields. A few drops rubbed on the reed with a cloth make the reed less likely to stick in the heat of a cold-weather hunt.

When hunting clear water, use your feet to muddy the water around your decoys. Duck activity creates muddy water, and a muddy zone in an area of clear water is easy for ducks to spot.

Placing a few crow decoys to one side of a field spread for geese can increase your hunting success. These “confidence” decoys help lessen the wariness of geese by making the spread appear more life like.

Use a wine-bottle cork to camouflage your face when duck hunting. Singe the end of the cork with a lighter, then rub the black residue on your face.

When ducks are flying toward you, it’s best not to call. Old-timers have a saying: “Call only to tips and tails.” That is, do your calling when you can see one wingtip and the tail, or both wings and the tail. The duck won’t be looking your way then, so it’s safe to blow the call.

Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period

Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly.

Chokes and loads. Improved cylinder chokes often shoot larger steel shot with a tighter and more uniform pattern than a full choke. Pattern your gun to test various chokes and loads.