Thread: 9 more days

5 more nights of tossn n turning to endure.....snow all around the hills here and lake was plurry freezing on Sunday.

Off to get a slab of ammo and licence tonight.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

5 more nights of tossn n turning to endure.....snow all around the hills here and lake was plurry freezing on Sunday.

You'll have a bit more water to choose your spot this year @Micky Duck.
At least you can call it a lake this year

I am pretty new to the duck hunt and had a couple questions... what time is the best hunting? morning for a couple hours and then come back for the last two hours before dark or do ducks come and go all day, is it worth sitting there. The last season was terrible so not much info collected for me to go on. I shoot on a small paddock pond which is near a river. Also wounded ducks, if I actually manage to hit one and its wounded what is the best way to finish it?

Originally Posted by GMH72

I am pretty new to the duck hunt and had a couple questions... what time is the best hunting? morning for a couple hours and then come back for the last two hours before dark or do ducks come and go all day, is it worth sitting there. The last season was terrible so not much info collected for me to go on. I shoot on a small paddock pond which is near a river. Also wounded ducks, if I actually manage to hit one and its wounded what is the best way to finish it?

Wounded ducks ring its neck,if ya can catch it otherwise another shot on the water is legal.
I go out all opening weekend from dawn to dark as more ducks are moving if there are plenty of shooters in the area.After that I mainly night shoot or jump ponds during work ours.Also sling the gun and try the river with rod and gun,fish till just before dark then lay the rod down and get into it.

Cool, thanks Dundee

Was watching the NZ Hunters show last night and was thinking about the prep of the bird. Once shot do you hang the bird somewhere cool for a bit or pluck and gut that day and put in the fridge or freezer. Cheers

Originally Posted by GMH72

I am pretty new to the duck hunt and had a couple questions... what time is the best hunting? morning for a couple hours and then come back for the last two hours before dark or do ducks come and go all day, is it worth sitting there. The last season was terrible so not much info collected for me to go on. I shoot on a small paddock pond which is near a river. Also wounded ducks, if I actually manage to hit one and its wounded what is the best way to finish it?

I would agree with what Dundee said but add a couple of things.

There is a schedule to when birds fly. Seagulls, ducks, geese, parries and this schedule reverses in the evening. What this means is ducks fly early and late so if you are not out there before dark you might miss out. All of this does depend on hunting pressure and the dynamics of your particular spot so watch your spot before you shoot it and see what happens.

Opening day is different to all the other days because the hunting pressure moves birds around. If you can sit there all day it's worth doing but as always the very best time is first and last light.

If the duck hits the water and it's head is up just shoot it again. If it's still alive and swimming it's going to crawl into a bush to die and you will probably never find it. If it's floating on the pond then if the birds are still coming in then just keep shooting. When you get a break in the action go out and pick them all up.

Regarding food prep you are shooting these creatures with a shotgun so it's likely to have multiple holes right through the whole bird including the guts. If you leave it floating on the water all day then the dirty pond water will leak into the bird creating duck\guts\pond water soup inside it. Yum yum.

In cool weather birds will still be safe to eat for a day or two so you could breast everything out on sunday afternoon. However I have a particular hate for the duck\guts\pond water soup smell from day old ducks and this isn't one of the jobs that gets better with time. So long story short breast them out as quickly as possible. If you do this at home after having a shower it's a horrible job and your back yard looks like it's snowing. If you do this in the paddock before you go home with the guys you hunt with then it's part of the hunt and it's a fun social activity.

So what I would do (if my daughters birthday didn't coincide with opening day) is go out shoot ducks until 11 or 12 when everything has stopped flying. Go back to camp, tell some tales, have a beer and breast out or pluck all your ducks. Have a lunchtime bbq and throw a few duck breasts on the bbq. Then have a nanna nap and go back for the evening hunt.

If you are going to breast out in the paddock then you will need water (to wash hands with), plastic bags and a sharp knife. Keeping everything cool is important and if you can hang them by the head any gut juice will flow downhill into the guts not into the breast. If you have a slow moment in the mai mai and have a not particularly shot up duck then thats a good moment to pluck one. They pluck much better when warm.

If you shoot a lot of ducks you are not going to pluck many so most people breast them out. The legs are good too so don't throw those away.

If you need to wring it's neck then grab it by the neck and spin the body around under it's own weight. You will feel the neck break and there is some twitching after that but as soon as it breaks it's dead. Don't keep spinning as it's head will come off and that's a bit gross. This technique works for all waterfowl including geese and swans but don't try it on a pheasant or pigeon as they are more lightly built and the head will come off which is gross.

Thank you very much for the reply @MassiveAttack. Really good information there and will help me out this weekend I am sure. Hope your daughters birthday goes well. Cheers

Change of light is good, but also around 9-10 and around 3-4 when the cockies do their herd movements.

Originally Posted by GMH72

Was watching the NZ Hunters show last night and was thinking about the prep of the bird. Once shot do you hang the bird somewhere cool for a bit or pluck and gut that day and put in the fridge or freezer. Cheers

Right....I pluck them straight away. Easier to do than when cool especially hen birds with pen feathers.
Then take some scissor cut the feet off at the join just below where the skin starts.
Then hang by the head to cool. Once home I get the heat gun out and singe off the fluff and down, you will see the skin shrivel take the heat off when you see this. You can do it by lighting rolled up newspaper but heat gun is cleaner.
Now gut them. Don't forget to get the lungs there hard to get as there stuck to the rib cage.
Risen the carcass out.
Now put them in a bowl of water with one table spoon of salt and leave them to soak in this over night our twelve hours. This will help take the bruising out and relax the muscles. It also takes away some of the strong gamey flavour.
Then freezes em. Eat before the year is out.
Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

Change of light is good, but also around 9-10 and around 3-4 when the cockies do their herd movements.

Or if you are hunting a popular public spot 11:00am is good because everyone else packs up and disturbs the birds when they walk out.

Just been over to set pond up,7 ducks took off.Haven't seen it this full for years.