Open season on ducks

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
Messages
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I have seen documentaries on hunters shooting ducks. Normally, they would bag quite a number. And the dogs go fetching them back from the water or from the edge of the water.

I am curious as what the hunters do with so many ducks. Surely, it can't be duck for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Anyway, what are some of the good recipes for duck dishes?

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It is usually about recreation, not about food.

Two bird hunters just got booted from my place because they were essentially shooting at everything that moved: ducks, geese, out of season game birds, protected and non-game birds, you name it. They would start as soon as it was light enough to silhouette a bird against the sky. This continued into the afternoon several days a week. Bang, bang, bang, all the time. Very annoying.

In a way I felt sorry for the guys though. It is obviously a big hobby for them. They each had literally thousands of dollars in camouflage, decoys, calls and other paraphernalia. In no way was this a way to save on the grocery bill.

These guys seemed like otherwise upstanding types, but as you point out, they couldn't possibly be eating that many birds. I hope they didn't expect their wives to clean all these greasy fowl.

Scott
 
The only folks that I personally know that duck hunt do it as economically as possible. These guys freeze the duck meat that they're not going to eat immediately, much like any other game or domesticated meat. I'd like to duck hunt myself but it gets real complex with different species/different seasons/different bag limits, etc. I don't think I'm proficient enough yet to identify what species of duck I'm looking at in dawn light to get off a shot during the window of opportunity in which I'll have a chance to get one. They're not slow, but they are tasty.
 
As a kid growing up in Pennsylvania we shot lots of ducks and geese. Always in season, always within the legal limits, plugged shotguns (3 shot limit), and we ate everything we shot. We also always had permission of the landowner or we didn´t hunt there, it was that simple.

There really is a lot to it once you get the decoys, calls, construct a blind, train the dog, train the little brother etc. It is a very rewarding hunt if you are into hunting.

We put everything in the freezer. We also had a roticery oven. We would roast the ducks in the oven and slice them up for Peking Duck: Flour crepe, hoisen sauce, green onion. Good stuff. Duck skin gets very crispy as it fries in its own grease.

You can catch ducks with a small baited hook in a survival situation. Tie the hook to a drag with light wire or monofiliment line, bait hook with corn or small fish. You have to sit back and watch because they can get off pretty easily. We also would chase ducks under the frozen part of the creek and they would come out the other end ready to pluck. We discovered this by accident when some mallards dove rather than fly away. The second time we were guilty.

The native Americans used a baited trench to catch Canadian Geese. The geese would hop down into the trench to get the grain but the trench was too deep for them to hop back out of and too narrow for them to open their wings. Gees can´t calculate size and are even attracted to decoys that are 10x too large. Once the trench was filled with geese they would simply pluck them out by the neck and give a twist. I´ve always wanted to try it (Skipping the twist part of course). Mac
 
I must live in some sort of hunting "free for all" zone. Big game seasons are a fiasco too. Elk season here means a half dozen guys surrounding the herd with trucks and guns, firing simultaneously. They use a tractor to load the bulls into their trucks, without even bothering to gut them.

I grew up and used to hunt in an area where hunters actually hunted. I am glad that everyone hasn't gone greedy.

By the way, what about skinning a duck? I have heard that they are not so obnoxiously oily if you skin them instead of pluck them.

Scott
 
beezaur wrote:
>"Two bird hunters just got booted from my place because they were essentially shooting at everything that moved: ducks, geese, out of season game birds, protected and non-game birds, you name it."

Then,
>"I must live in some sort of hunting 'free for all' zone. Big game seasons are a fiasco too. Elk season here means a half dozen guys surrounding the herd with trucks and guns, firing simultaneously. They use a tractor to load the bulls into their trucks, without even bothering to gut them."

=================================

I have to ask, man. Where do you live, beezaur? :eek:
 
The worst we would see hunting geese were what we called skybusters. These were slob hunters who would set up on the approaches to our 200 decoy spread and shoot up at the flocks of geese with OO Buck in the hopes of bringing one down. The geese would be about 300 feet up at times and these bozos would be shooting at them. We were often temped to unload some lead in their direction.

Once you get up in the pre-dawn and set 200 decoys nose into the wind in and settle in it is real discouraging to work a few hundred geese off the horizon only to have these idiots bust up the show. I never did see them actually hit anyting other that my last nerve. Mac
 
Without unduly maligning the few of us here who try to be responsible hunters, I will just say that I live in a very small rural community with an atypical scarcity of common sense. A lot of guys here pride themselves on doing things the old fashioned way. Some of them, in their quest to be the "country boy who can survive," completely abandon all common sense and courtesy. I think most are just very inexperienced outdoorsmen who think they know it all.

The things I enjoy about participating in this DG is 1) the depth of knowledge and breadth of experiences available and 2) (more importantly) the attitude that one can always learn more and improve their skills.

I guess there is just a local culture here that doesn't know any better and is content to never learn.

Scott
 
Beezaur, you can't even tell us the State in which you live??

Here in Idaho, bow hunters wound quite a few elk that escape and die ( I have a friend who just last year found five dead, arrowed elk, behind his property bordering a Nat'l Forest.) I haven't heard of guys in pickups surrounding a herd and start shooting them... not that it might not happen here.

Ordinarily, the lay of the land is such that that would not be an easy thing to set up.

We do have our fair share of poachers, however. Oughta lock 'em up for a long stay in the slam, I say.

L.W.
 
Duck is pretty good to eat. Boiling water loosens up the feathers for plucking. The only problem with duck is it is a rather oily, fat-fleshed bird. The whole front of a duck's torso is shaped like a boat and covered with a layer of fat.

Cleaning and plucking is best done by handing the duck to your wife or child and telling them to do it. That was my main function on boyhood hunts though I shot plenty myself too.
 
Duck hunters may bag healthy numbers of ducks again these days, that's fine...they've done their part to ensure the survival of ducks in the past 30 years or so. Duck numbers were on the decline, duck limits were strict. The reason? Not hunting, farming. Marshes across Canada and the northern US were being drained, no water = no ducks. The response? Migratory waterfowl act/stamps and D.U.

Ducks Unlimited may be the most successful wildlife organization ever formed. The money that duck hunters (not PETA PITA's) have raised for wildlife habitat far from their own homes has made all the difference in the world. Ducks have nothern marshlands nursery space again and once again the autumn sky is dark with birds. Since they've done their part to provide for this bounty, waterfowl hunters can go home again with birds. Fact is, there are some species of geese here that are overwhelming their habitat, we need more goose hunters.

To prepare Peking duck, pluck the feathers and leave the skin. It gets quite crispy and is tasty prepared in a hot oven. Follow a good recipe, plenty of 'em online

If I have enough ducks, I'll package them with breasts in one ziplock with a little water, the legs/backs in another. I like the breasts grilled, served rare, with a tangy sauce or fruit salsa. Or I roast the whole bird & save all the fat that runs off (there's another thread on here re: lard. Duck fat is good stuff.) The legs can be used to prepare confit an essential ingredient in many great French recipes such as cassoulet. Use the link above to find plenty of those recipes. And if you like seeing ducks & geese fly by, consider joining Ducks Unlimited.
 
Originally posted by Leanwolf
Beezaur, you can't even tell us the State in which you live?? . . .
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't mean to be so secretive. Soutwestern Washington.

The people here are very nice, and perfectly sane for most of the year. They just seem to get wierd when they go hunting.

Anyway. . . Nobody skins game birds? I would think that would take care of the grease.

Scott
 
What do you do with all the ducks? Well first of all, the photos show a really good day as well as geese in hand. Second of all, there is a new invention called a freezer. I hear that you can store lots of ducks, fish, and even a whole deer(cut up of course) in one. Then throughout the year, you eat whats in the freezer.
Some guys will even give fish, ducks and deer meat to their non hunting friends. One thing nobody does is toss them away. You can clean ducks in no time. In Wisconsin, your lucky to get 10 ducks the whole season in many spots. After guns, decoys, shells, federal stamp and state stamp its far more economical to buy chicken at the store if food is all that your worried about.

As for Geese, I wish they allowed hunting in cities. They have destroyed all the parks around here. You cant walk in the park or let kids play unless they like to roll in wall to wall goose crap. Sticks to your shoes and stinks up your car when you get back in. Hundreds of hundreds of them live in metro area parks. Pretty....nah just protected rats in that enviroment.
 
In PA there is quite a goose overcrowding problem. One of the preferred ways to hunt them is with a putter or nine-iron. Sand wedges work nicely as well. It is a common practice to send the caddie to herd the geese out of the way for a clean putt.

Ducks Unlimited worked a miracle. Mac
 
Ducks are funny animals... if you talk about a duck, chances are, you will laugh...

Case in point...

Two ducks are sitting in a bar...

One duck turns to the other and says "I banged your mother last night"
The second duck sits there and ignores the other...
so the first duck says "Didn't you hear me, I banged your mother last night and she cried for more"
The second duck picks up his drink and walkes over to the other side of the bar.
The first duck downs his drink, gets another and walks over to the other and says "I banged your mother and it was the best lovin I ever had. I even banged her in the butt"!
The second duck, having taken all he could, stood up and said "Go home dad, you're drunk"...

See, being ducks had nothing to do with the joke, but because they were ducks, it was much funnier...LOL

:D

On a serious note, Peking Duck is good eating...:)
 
Originally posted by pict
The native Americans used a baited trench to catch Canadian Geese. The geese would hop down into the trench to get the grain but the trench was too deep for them to hop back out of and too narrow for them to open their wings.
Click to expand...

You can trap wild turkey the same way, but you make the trench about a foot wide and starting even with the ground, you gradually make it deeper until it is about 2 foot deep. Put feed in the end, and the turkey will walk down the trench to the deep part and eat the seed. They can't fly out because they can't open their wings. They can't walk backward or turn around, so they will just sit there until you come get them. This of course would be used only in a survival situation.

As far as the a$$hole hunters that shoot at everything that moves, they should have been reported to the Game Warden. It is unethical hunters (poachers actually) like that who give ethical hunters a bad name. They deserved to go to jail along with being banned.

Mike
 
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