doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Anybody pass shooting ducks.....

I have a flight line about 50 yards east of my back yard. If I hurry home from work I can get about 15 minutes of pretty fast action before shooting time ends. I will say it is challenging to say the least. Flight elevations vary from day to day but I have just enough come thru at a shootable level to make it fun. You've got to be ready to rev up and dump the clutch when they come through as the trees pose a sight obstacle and the shooting window cab be narrow.

Ken, I'm not presently doing any pass shooting for ducks but I'll say for sure it is my favorite of all duck shooting methods. You have to have just the right situation though, like you described you have for it to work.

I don't have that situation at present but I have in several places in the past. All it takes down here is to pay attention when you are on a deer stand and watch where the evening wood duck flight is, but I haven't done it this year.

One of my favorite snow goose shoots is to find a fence line the birds are crossing when trading between fields or leaving a field in the evening. Sometimes I've had a fat snow break open on frozen ground after a long fall. Just makes them easier to pick and filet...Geo

George,



True indeed! My son noted the flight line while sitting in his deer stand. Consequently I spooked a big buck within 10 yards of his stand the night before last much to his chagrin.

It's tough to pass shoot woodies legally here. There is a better chance in the morning, but sunset is the last legal shooting time, and I never see woodies going to roost until after that.

Once or twice I have shot them, going towards a roost, legally, in the last few remaining minutes before sunset, but it has to be a day when it is extremely overcast. They go by the amount of light left, not by the clock as we must.

SRH

Stan is dead right about about the legal shooting time problem with wood ducks. I do not shoot the roosts themselves (anymore), but if you can get between the feeding sinkholes or river backwaters and the roost, you can get shooting all afternoon if you are lucky and something has them moving...Geo

I pass shoot woodies crossing over a wooded ridge between a very large swamp and several small roost ponds. If the ducks are roosting on certain ponds the shooting is fast and challenging in the trees. It only lasts about ten minutes but it's an exciting ten minutes. If you can get a rainy evening you can get an extra five minutes in.

Dennis

To be honest I grew up shooting ducks "kin to k'aint" which in GA parlance means soon as you can see'em to late as you can. I don't think I knew till I was grown there there even were such things as shooting hours...Geo

Me, too, Geo'. We used to stand in a line in the middle of a public dirt road that parallels the Savannah River, as boys, and try to knock them down as they streaked across the road above us going toward the dead river lakes in the swamp behind us just before dark. There were big water oaks lining the road, with huge limbs hanging over it, and it was tough work to see one in time to get a shot before he was past you and gone.

As Grandaddy used to say, "They ain't ringing no backing bells", meaning that they had a full head of steam. Woodies don't know but two speeds anyway ..... dead stopped and wide open.

SRH

I pass shoot ducks occasionally, but prefer to pass shoot geese.
As has been mentioned, find the flight lines, and wait for them to come. We have flooded ex-farm fields, so they typically follow old tile routes. The water is a little deeper, and the cattails die back and it makes silvery ribbons. The ducks follow the lines of open water through the marsh.
As season progresses they learn that the edge of the water is danger. So it's low and fast, sky high, or back in over the dense stuff.

Does this look "Ducky"? Just out my back door. An oxbow off the main river channel. This is looking due North. Flight path parallels the river and then they swing over the bluff. A fat mallard met his fate last night. The Woodies were too illusive.