doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lowering limit on mallards in Atlantic Flyway

I know as fact each cripple was shot with steel. My buddies use steel exclusively; I TM. I wasn't with them with my dog earlier on those days. They are conscientious, good shooters, never take a limit, no more than a couple for the plate, home no later than 8:30a.

The law here says all reasonable efforts must be made to retrieve what has been shot. The wind was "flat-cam"---as they say on our Eastern Shore---so they went home for a small aluminum skiff to retrieve their ducks. As I said earlier here, if I were king there'd be no waterfowling without a retriever.

"...As I said earlier here, if I were king there'd be no waterfowling without a retriever."

Although I usually agree with your comments...please clarify your statement.

From the regs.."The regulations require hunters to have an adequate means of retrieving birds and immediately make every reasonable effort to retrieve a migratory game bird that has been killed or injured, and if it is still alive that they kill it"

..."so they went home for a small aluminum skiff to retrieve their ducks."

Not sure how this is considered 'immediate'. Just say'n.

Wonton Waste is not to be allowed if you are a honorable hunter. It did keep me out of real trouble 40 years ago. I was duck hunting just below the Delaware state line in Maryland. Shot a Black duck which hit the water and dived. Up it came about 30 yards away and dove again. Once it got into the tide current it was on a high speed highway moving away from me and across the state line. So I get into my boat with my retriever to collect it. Ended up a mile across the line by the time we got close enough for the dog to get him. That Black duck dove several times trying to get away. Black ducks are tricky to retrieve sometimes. But in the end we got him just in time to see the Delaware DNR coming.

Duck season was closed in Delaware but open in MD. They stopped me and asked me what the blank I was doing. Showed them the duck. Explained I shot it in MD but the tide carried it across state lines. They were not happy. Considered charging me with hunting out of season. I had my shotgun in the boat. Sometimes you need to swat cripples to recover them. I did have hunting licenses for both states so I was legal in that reguard but duck season was closed in one. They still did not think it gave me the right to cross state lines. My position was it was a a federal offense to not attempt recovery so under wonton waste I was required to get my bird. They agreed after much debate it was reasonable but I should not make a habit of coming into their state like this. They did escort me back to my blind to see that I had been hunting in MD. By then ducks were done moving for the morning and I had to call it a day.

What we need is to get the Federal government out of farming ducks and open up these safe zones to hunters.

I think both would promote a healthier duck population and hunting.

A collective angst, dal. I'm sick of the waste, the waste. Sky-bustin', shooting from edges of open water from blinds in the lee, any wind offshore, no way of retrieve, no boat, no dog. Waterfowling to me is all about the dog.

I've been at it for 75 years and my general observation is that a majority of hunters are slobs and the poachers I hunted with (in season) in early years went to extremes to get their birds because of their subsistence living. It was just done.

I grew up in a fishing village. Wildfowl were a staple. My relatives and neighbours were poachers, sold ducks for $2 a pair. When I lived there an orange in a stocking was eagerly anticipated for Christmas day.

We stripped to to our skins to fetch a duck when we didn't have a boat while hunting along lakes, and spent the best shooting hours after daybreak on open water, rowing after cripples, if we didn't have a dog.

I've never seen a warden afield in all my hunting or fishing. I've never seen purposeful over-limits. Wardens aren't needed if the old poachers' ethic applied within our seasons. I proselytize with buddies, "For god's sake, get a dog."

For a guy that knows so much about Scott's, I'm surprised to see those remarks a second time.
I believe it safe to say, that the Federal gov't got IN TO the protection of waterfowl precisely because there were people that believed as you do.

The acquisition of land was a good thing but then to feed the ducks and concentrate and keep them there and forbid hunting is a bad thing.

Ducks are concentrated beyond belief along the Mississippi river in the refuges....you think that's a good thing for the ducks and the hunters ?

Maybe you should take a tour of the Government duck housing projects along the Mississippi river and check out the over crowding.

When I was a boy baiting was legal but not within 500 yards of your blind. We had a marsh full of birds. Not concentrating into small hot spots. But people are greedy and dumb. A few abused it so all lost. I figured for each bird killed in a baited area 50 ate for free. But those days are long gone until you hear it�s the government or some anti hunter group feeding birds.

King I agree with your lament against slobs. People are so stupid in trying to hit birds at stupid ranges. Sky busting screws everybody. Birds get so scared they won�t finish. Cripples are lost. Even birds working one blind will be shit at by another. If hunters would just limit themselves to no shot outside 25 yards their success rate would go up four times or more.

If you took a slob hunter to a Sporting Clays range and charged him two buck a shot at birds 45-60 yards away he�d quickly stop but the same idiot will shoot three shells at that same target if it�s a duck. And do it again and again. And clay targets are much less evasive than a duck.

If you can�t recover a bird there is no reason to shoot it.