Indice dei contenuti per April/May 2021 in Wildfowl

“SEEMS IT AIN’T HARDLY a duck hunt if something don’t go wrong,” the old man said, as we both stared at our duck boat, drifting across the vast reservoir with nobody on it. I had been last off but didn’t think such a big heavy boat with a massive blind would move after being run ashore. Blinds are kites, though, and the key words there start many stories: “I didn’t think.” Boat owner Mike Miller did a half-mile sprint in heavy waders to catch it on the far shoreline of a bay, right before it would hit the big water. Soon after, we needed old man John’s talents as a lifelong marine mechanic when the gear shift cable broke just as darkness fell and the wind picked up violently. He…

1 HUNTER: Avery Cummings, Sussex, NB BAND #: 1256-45613 SPECIES: Wood Duck (D) BANDED: 08/27/2019 LOCATION: Near Ferrisburg, VT RECOVERED: 10/08/20 LOCATION: 1.3 mi N of Lower Millstream, NB 2 HUNTER: Wyatt James Olson, Aberdeen, SD BAND #: 2047-53735 SPECIES: Mallard (D) BANDED: 08/23/2012 LOCATION: Peachview Farm Wetland, Yorkton, SK RECOVERED: 10/10/2020 LOCATION: Crow Creek Dainage, about 16 miles north of Groton, SD 3 HUNTER: Justin Wray, North Huntingdon, PA BAND #: 1058-08131 SPECIES: Canada Goose (M) BANDED: 07/21/2010 LOCATION: Akimiski Island, James Bay, NU RECOVERED: 09/23/2020 LOCATION: 1 mi NNW of North Rose, NY 4 HUNTER: Chris Kepker, Independence, IA BAND #: 2227-18382 SPECIES: Mallard (D) BANDED: 09/04/2019 LOCATION: Near Middle River, MN RECOVERED: 10/18/2020 LOCATION: 1 miles NW from Independence, IA COMMENTS: My first season duck hunting and…

SWEET DREAMS Fitted with a comfortable Home Base and removable Travel Pad, your dog will love Yeti’s TrailHead Dog Bed. Offered in a stylish charcoal color option, this pad features a cushy pad and pillow booster designed to provide maximum recovery and comfort for your adventuresome pooch. All materials are easy to clean, and the waterproof bottom prevents any dampness from seeping through. yeti.com | $300 READY FOR LIFTOFF An innovative design, SportDOG Brand’s Launcher System lets you control the launch of birds and training dummies from distances up to ½-mile via the easy-to-operate, included remote control. The process is simple load a bird or training dummy into the launcher basket and the transmitter sends a signal to the receiver. The unit is compatible with most brands of bird launchers or…

Makin’ your shotgun shoot where you look is easy. Find a good safe backstop and set up a 24-inch square target at or slightly above eye level and mark a one-inch dot in the center. Carefully measure exactly 16 yards and fire three aimed shots at the target. Then measure from the center of the impact of the three shots to the marked target’s center. For every inch it’s off, you need to correct your stock 1/16th inch. One inch low and two to the left means you need to raise the stock a sixteenth and add 1/8-inch cast off (moves your stock slightly to the right), which can be easily accomplished with Impala’s shim set. In our test, the Impala shot 4 ½ inches high and a scant ½-inch…

IT TOOK ME begging my father to ask Mr. Jeff if he could take me hunting. Mr. Jeff used to be an employee of my father and had known me since I was a baby. At that time, Mr. Jeff was a caretaker for a beautiful property that attracted hundreds of ducks and geese alike. Mr. Jeff was more than happy to have me tag along. For my adventure, I bought a cheap pair of kid's camo bibs, a camo t-shirt, and borrowed my sister's steel-toed horse boots for my first hunting trip. I took out my youth model Remington 1100 20-gauge that had wooden stocks and a blued barrel. I had just turned twelve, four days before this cold, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of 2009. That morning we…

2,300 miles long the Mississippi River runs. With a watershed of 1.5-million square miles, it's the most heavily used migration corridor in the U.S. 1.6 million is the number of acres DU and its partners have conserved in the Mississippi Flyway. 25% of Maine’s total area are wetlands. 73 years is how long the Central Flyway has been officially designated. 18 times was the magic number the Michigan Department of Conservation caught the same black duck drake. 27 years, 7 months—the oldest banded mallard on record.…

EVERYONE MISSES, most often shooting behind a bird. The most common excuse is that the duck must have had some artificial power source, like a jetpack, to propel it safely through our pattern of pellets. Sometimes truth proves stranger than fiction. Steve Nienhaus described the events associated with his band tale as rather unremarkable. He and his hunting partner, Phil Chalupa, were standing in the shooting holes on opposite ends of their 24-foot blind on a bluebird day with light west winds and clear skies when Steve glimpsed a solo greenhead gliding overhead. “We both got down, I called briefly, and the bird turned directly into our decoys.” As it was on his side, Nienhaus stood and fired. His first shot was “slightly behind,” but he quickly recovered and dropped…

WANT A GOOD shotgun for couch change? Check out Zanders’ Impala Plus Nero. Made by Istanbul Silah in Turkey’s capital of Istanbul, it packs a lot of features into its 7-pound frame, like a big bolt release and safety. In case you are wondering, Zander’s Sporting Goods, located in Sparta, Illinois right by the magnificent World Shooting Recreational Complex, has been a major distributor of sporting gear since 1962. At the last Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT 2020), I found that about 60 percent of the shotguns came from Turkey, a salute to its rapid expansion. Turkish labor costs are far below many other parts of the world and Turkey is well situated for raw materials. All of this makes for Impala’s low price tag. The Impala is…

CHURNING THE WATER of a Louisiana Bayou, Dale Bordelon was in hot pursuit. Dropping his paddle mid-stroke, he fired a shot with explosive effect. When he saw the crippled duck pop up, he was relieved. "That gray duck was barely alive, so I wrung its neck," Bordelon said. "The alligator turned it loose and kept on going." While chasing cripples is part of any duck hunt, recovering a wounded gadwall from the clenched jaws of an eight-foot alligator is extraordinary. Having the guts to chase it down in a dugout pirogue is downright incredible. Bordelon was hunting from a blind with his son, Hunter, and friend, David Roy. His other son, Cody, was in a nearby blind. When they shot into a flock of gadwalls, one fell 50 yards away.…

MANUFACTURER: Istanbul Silah, Istanbul, Turkey IMPORTER: Zander’s Sporting Goods, Sparta, IL 62286 call 800-851-4373 www.shop2.gzanders.com ACTION TYPE: Inertia-operated semi auto GAUGE: 12, 3-inch chamber TRIGGER: Single 5 lb. 14.5 oz. average of 5 pulls BARREL: 28-inch blued with vent rib also 24-, 26-and 30-inch depending on model SIGHTS: Removable bar-style fluorescent front STOCK/FORE END: Black synthetic, also available in camo LENGTH OF PULL: 14 ¼ inches DROP AT COMB: 1 5/16 inches DROP AT HEEL: 1 5/8 inches CAST OFF: ¼ inch OVERALL LENGTH: 49 ¼ inches WEIGHT: 7.0 lbs. METAL FINISH: Matte black, camo, carbon fiber depending on model ACCESSORIES: Owner’s manual, five choke tubes, choke-tube wrench, sling swivels, safety lock SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $449.99 Nero (test gun) to $799.99 depending on model…

I’VE WRITTEN MANY times about how important it is to have a training plan in place as soon as you bring your new retriever puppy home, but what I’ve never touched on is a couple of easy-to-overlook behaviors that start out as little tendencies, only to bloom into something much bigger. While it’s totally understandable to dream big when you pick up a new pup, to the point where daydreaming about triple blind retrieves is common, it’s the seemingly insignificant stuff at this stage that makes all of the difference later. With any sporting dog youngster, you’ll see glimpses into behavioral issues when they are eight weeks old that portend future action on a larger scale. Some of these things you’ll want to train out of the pup, others you’ll…