Table of contents for October 2020 in Wildfowl

EVERYONE WANTS TO be a baller, the shot caller, and in this issue we address what it takes to be the pit boss, one of the many aspects of waterfowling that make it so much more engaging than other hunting pursuits. It’s the best feel ing in waterfowling when you get it right, and among the worst when you blow it. When grizzled old goose guide Alex Langbell (gundogoutdoors.com ) pitched us to write a feature on shot-calling, we knew he could spill the wisdom (p. 106). It is the flashpoint of our sport, the reward for the dog training, the scouting, the decoy spreading, the long drives, the permission-seeking, the boat-buying, the building and brushing of blinds. It’s that great moment when everything reaches critical mass and someone shouts…

DU AUCTIONS GO ONLINE COVID-19 has crippled large-group gatherings, but DU has found a way around the madness and continues to offer event merchandise online. Forty-three state-specific online auctions sites were launched in April and allow DU supporters the opportunity to bid on exclusive merchandise, collectable firearms and dream-hunt excursions from the comfort of their couch. Please join in and support their ongoing efforts! Tell your spouse “I’m doing it for our children’s future” because you are! A RUN TO THE BORDER? The big question amongst waterfowlers, especially those that make an annual trip north of the U.S. border is: When will it be open? The COVID-19 pandemic shutdown annual duck and goose population surveys in Canada, and according to sources at both Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl, it seems…

IN MANY PLACES, 9 a.m. to noon is mallard time, and true to form as the sun glistened off those orange feet, the Renegauge barked twice and their flight was cut short. Okay, imaginations run wild at times. They were actually clay targets on our club’s skeet range. WILDFOWL’s big shots didn’t return my calls asking for travel to Uruguay to test the Renegauge, so clays were it, though our editor-in-chief did test it extensively in North Dakota last October (full story, WF April 2020). Great feel to this gun. A crisp, light trigger; big bolt handle and release, rotating bolt head, adjustable stock, large trigger guard, lightning-quick cycling, a hard flight-style case…what more could you want? Savage has been known for decades for their rifles, the great Model 99…

IT’S A COMMON belief that the more hunting you do, the better a dog will become. This is true with young dogs who are learning the ropes, because improvement in the blind or boat can be so obvious (and so welcome). With older dogs, however, the opposite often holds true. This is because duck dogs are constantly looking for a way to bend the rules. This doesn’t mean they have bad intentions, it just means that they, for example, really want to go retrieve ducks. If they can sneak out of the blind a few feet to facilitate that task and get away with it, they’re going to do it. This willingness to test boundaries often doesn’t manifest itself in the same way during training drills as it does during…

Throughout the morning we rotated from the blind to taking a turn standing out in the timber. WE SAT IN STUNNED SILENCE, but the noise and commotion overhead was quite loud. Hundreds of ducks winged, whistled and whooshed through the treetops and across the decoy spread in the pre-dawn. As the darkness started to give way, a vision unfolded before our eyes. Our ears had not deceived us. The skies were filled with mallards fighting their way into the decoys. Crashing through treetops, banking, abandoning their descent in the crowded airspace, circling and trying again. Although shooting hours had come upon us, the sights and sounds kept our guns at bay. There was no hurry. Flight after flight winged in front of our faces, with birds splashing into the decoys…

THIS QUESTION KEPT me awake most nights last December, midway through the peak of the migration. The birds had arrived in our valley, hunters across the region were filling up pickup beds with honkers and greenheads, the distant echoes of popping shotguns made it sound like the Fourth of July for over an hour after sunrise each Saturday morning…it was a great time to be a duck hunter. Yet it had gotten to the point where I couldn’t stand one more second in the blind with the guy I’ve hunted with for the last twenty years. How did we get there? Well, it wasn’t overnight, let me tell you. Anyone who’s witnessed the death of a relationship knows it often happens slowly. Painfully. A death by a thousand cuts…or a…

IF YOU READ a list of sporting breeds that could carry the Dynamin-1 EIC mutation in their genes, you get the sense that there isn’t a waterfowl or upland dog that is safe out there. This isn’t true, of course, but it is alarming. Labrador and Chesapeake Bay retrievers make the Exercise Induced Collapse list in a big way, as do a fair amount of less-popular waterfowling breeds. This alone should be enough to interest any prospective puppy buyer, or anyone who owns a duck dog but isn’t sure if it came from an EIC tested (and guaranteed) bloodline. WHAT IS EIC? In a simplified nutshell, EIC is diminished nerve transmission from the head to the hind end during strenuous exercise that results in a loss of control in the…

MANUFACTURER: Savage Arms Co., 100 Springdale Rd., Westfield, MA 01085; 800-370-0708: savagearms.com ACTION TYPE: Gas-operated semi-automatic GAUGE: 12 w/ 3-inch chamber TRIGGER: 4.26 pounds SAFETY: Push-style trigger block in the back of the trigger guard MAGAZINE: 4 + 1 x 2 ¾-inch shells, plug included NOT installed BARREL: 26- or 28-inch SIGHTS: Vent rib, luminescent orange front STOCK: Pistol grip; adjustable for drop and cast OVERALL LENGTH: 47 ¼ WEIGHT: 8 lb METAL FINISH: Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Blades; barrel Melonite camo ACCESSORIES: Choke tubes, choke wrench, three combs, two pads with spacers, safety lock, hard case SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $1,449 all-black; $1,549 camo…

CARD MAGICIANS, like the incredible Shin Lin on America’s Got Talent, never cease to amaze me. Their slight of hand tricks are aston ishing and mesmerizing. The ruse is a now-you-see it-now you-don’t mind trick that makes you think you saw something that really isn’t there. The perceived illusion is kind of the way silhouette decoys work, too. This time the geese followed with their feet extended. All five ended up with a dirt bath. Being two-dimensional, silhou ette decoys disappear and reappear depending on your perspective the way Shin Lin’s cards do. The same way we are duped by the magic tricks, geese don’t realize they’ve been hoodwinked until it’s too late. Silhouette decoys are nothing new and may be as old as waterfowling itself. I made the local…

[Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz is an elite NFL player, but when not chasing glory on the gridiron he’d rather be chasing birds and working his three golden retrievers—Henley, Jersey and Riggs—or hunting with his brother Zach, co-host of Wentz Brothers Outdoors on the Outdoor Channel. The duo work with Eukanuba’s experts to prime their pups for the season and focus their tv episodes around a learning adventure anywhere from their native state of North Dakota to current areas in New Jersey. The boys share their experiences learning about training dogs, canine nutrition…and setting realistic expectations.] WF: Did you guys get a chance to get out and hunt this past season? I’m learning that if I’m trending that way—the dog’s confused and I’m frustrated—we need to shut it down and…

WATERFOWLERS ARE generally much alike. Every year, their mind wanders into a duck vortex. We simply love them. Sure, mallards are most popular, but most of us have a passion for wigeon, gadwall, redheads, goldeneye, scaup…take your pick. Of course, geese hold a special place in my waterfowling heart, but I don’t tend to think about them nearly as much. I’m not sure why, but recently, while chewing the duck fat with Ducks Unlimited Chief Scientist Tom Moorman, the subject of “duck obsession” came up. “It’s weird,” Moorman said. “Geese just don’t seem to get as much love as ducks, but geese, nationwide, have been a huge success story.” Moorman noted that every year he answers the “How are the ducks doing?” question more times than he can count. The…

RIDING THE CHOP on a bay, Austin Buckel and his friend Trevor Gresse were on only their third diving duck hunt in Rhode Island. It was December, 2019 and Buckel’s boat blind was in its third transition on the way excellence. “It was a perfect wind,” Buckel said. “We were still figuring out how the divers work the decoys and feeling out the tide. Buffleheads and blue-bills were decoying and we even shot two brant. There were 500 to 1,000 brant in the area and a flock of about 50 came in. They were our first brant and diving ducks. It was so memorable, I am having a drake bufflehead from that trip mounted.” What helped make it so exciting was that the day before, waterfowl were flaring from the…

I’LL JUST MAKE A CONFESSION right out of the box, if y’all don’t mind. It’s a love story, so prepare yourself. I got my first Aquapod in ’95, and I’ve been in love with them ever since. Ridiculously head over-heels in love with them for the past quarter century. Not ashamed to say it, either. But let’s back up just a minute. Until ’95, I walked into my duck hunting spots. Or boated in, thanks to Deep Vs and sleds and the like. Nothing small, though. No canoes. No kayaks. No specialty duck craft, we’ll call them. And then came ’95 and my introduction to the Volz Brothers Joe, and Phil—and their Aquapods. Today, as they did then, the Brothers Volz own and operate Attbar, Inc., a fiberglass manufacturing facility…

TAKE ‘EM! Cut ‘em! Get ‘em! These short phrases are just a few of the heart pumping words used by thousands of waterfowlers notifying their camo-wearing, shotgun-wielding brethren it’s time to unload on the fowl that have been tolled into range or as we say in the marsh or field, time to call the shot. With birds talking, calls sounding, wind blowing, it can be difficult for the guys on the opposite end to hear the shot called. After 40 years of chasing ducks and geese across North America, I have heard almost every variation of calling the shot. From simple easy-to-understand terminology like “Do it!” or “Kill ‘em” to colorful phrases like “Make it rain!” or “Unleash hell” (yes, I’ve actually heard that one.) One of my favorite shot…