Just roaming around the tules the last two days, my Lab picked up six mallard cripples shot earlier in the morning.
So what can we infer from this observation???....
Perhaps the biologists have trouble counting mallards hidden in the bullrushes.
And perhaps the use of ballistically inferior steel and non-tox shot is causing even more crippling losses than previously thought.
I was hoping for more real world observations about mallard populations in the Atlantic flyway, from the guys who actually hunt them. I find it somewhat strange that we often hear from plenty of hunters who lament the low numbers of grouse or quail in recent years, but I don't recall hearing the same concerning mallards in the Atlantic flyway. And wasn't it strange that Grey Man provided us with a vague pdf from the state of Virginia when he has all of those great waterfowl magazines to tell us what's going on with the ducks? Vague pdf is actually an understatement because it didn't even begin to answer why the mallard populations are supposedly at levels below sustainability in a wetter than average year. It would be easy to not care about it, but I just don't think that all biologists and all wildlife managers are doing right by the sportsmen who fund most of their activities.
