A lot of duck and goose hunting questions

[troutpro]

I am going to goose and duck hunt for the first time this year and am extremely unprepared. This month I am going to start buying the gear so I need some serious help.

What is your favorite waterfowl camo brand?

What is your favorite goose and/or duck call?(if it is easy to use it would help)

Any calls that I should stay away from?

Do canadian goose bags work well?

Any decoy brand that I should stay away from?

What is your favorite duck decoy assortment? (drakes/hens)

What are your favorite times to hunt for duck and/or geese?

What is your favorite brand of ammo for duck and/or geese?

What shot size should I use for duck and/or geese?

Any favorite duck recipes?

[FirePirate]

I do have a great duck recipe.... lemme know if you want it. How did you season go? Any questions left?

[troutpro]

Well we only went out 3 times. I spent most my time deer hunting, also the dog needs more training. I would love to have the duck recipe!

[FirePirate]

troutpro: sent you a pm.
as for your questions, I'm no xpert so I can only answer a couple. I use 3 inch #2 steel mostly, and 3 1/2 inch BB for geese. maximum range doesn't seem to be beyond 40 yards with these loads. I am going to reload bismuth with my hunting buddy this year since most of the ducks we saw were 35+ yards. this was my first season hunting waterfowl in the northeast so I had a lot of learning to do as far as locations. My fav camo is Advantage Wetlands but MAX 4HD seems to be more versatile.
I went out 31 days for ducks and geese and didn't fare too well. 4 ducks, 6 geese. lots of days where no ducks/geese seen though. most of the action seemed to be in the 1st hour after sunup. the best day we had it rained all day long and we saw ducks flying all day long but out of range.
take it easy bro,
-FirePirate

[Pemi-Man]

Hey Firepirate, what would you recommend as far as a choke is concerned?

[FirePirate]

I run a Modified choke but know some who use Improved Cylinder. It depends on what the ducks are doing too. Most of my shots last year were passing shots as the ducks were giving my dekes a flyby. I didn't have very many commit to my spread so I have a lot to figure out about location and set up of my decoys. If you get more ducks coming into your setup then you can go with a more open choke. I used to hunt with a guy that only used 2 3/4 #6 but he only took shots when the birds were commited. I am not that good of a hunter (yet) so I use a heavier load and bigger shot.
The best thing to do is pattern your shells with multiple chokes and see what you get. Just remember steel doesn't pattern the same way as lead so you'll have to do some homework.
-hope this helps

[regnar]

Most important thing to do is to pattern you load with several different chokes. One load may shoot great at 35 yards with one choke in a particular gun but lousy in the same choke in a different gun.

With steel it is even more important to do this. I choose to shot tungston or heavy shot loads. I like using tight chokes and with heavy shot #4 I can get very good patterns at 40+ yards with an improved mod choke. If I go to # 6s for ducks I will use a light full. If I use bistmiuth than I have to open up my chokes some in order to get good patterns and I dot get the same yardage either.

good luck,

[Pemi-Man]

I was guessing I was going to end up with a modified choke and shooting heavy-shot and thought of using a modified choke or full with #5 or #6 shot. I use a #6 shot and an extra full for turkey so I figured the shot size would be fine with a more open choke. How many dekes do you typically set up? I'm going to start gearing up in the next couple weeks for the upcoming goose and duck season on the horizon.

-Pemi

[browning204]

pemi, are you gonna hunt NH or MA??

[FirePirate]

I use about a dozen dekes and try to keep more hens out there than drakes in the first weeks of the opener. This is because most drakes are not in full plummage yet and tend to look dull an mostly brown anyways.

[Pemi-Man]

I'm hopefully going to hunt both, but I have to figure out a plan for what I'm going to do about a boat. I got farms to hunt geese at so I don't need to worry about a boat, but I have nothing for ponds/swamps and lakes. I was going to get anywhere from 12-24 dekes...of course I probably need a couple species to right?

[FirePirate]

multi species isn't a bad idea. but I didn't see anything besides mallards and GW Teal last year. I hope your area is more diverse.

[nastygunz]

Hi Pemi, i hunt usually concord and then north along the conn. river and run into all kinds of ducks on the river, i mainly use mallards and theres alot of wood ducks around so i mix in plenty of them also and mix in a few geese also. depends on where im hunting, i hit small spot toss out 2 hens one drake n wait. 1 deadly duck spot is if oyu can find a cut corn field with a dip in it with water, theres a real good chance ducks will hit it early morning n early night especially if its out in the field. last year i had em droppin right in my decoys without even calling.

[Pemi-Man]

I think you should send it to me since you don't hunt waterfowl