gonna give it a try

[marcus]

I have only been duck hunting once and it was not a great day. I have decided that I am going to go solo tomorrow morning I have some calls and steel shot. No decoys  I may be able to find a few , but probably not. I have filled my deer tag and do not feel right sleeping in this time of year. I have found some state land which is basically swamp and used for waterfowl hunting. I am not sure if I should try and get there early and hide or if I should just walk the creeks or whatever and hope to jump shoot?   I am obviously new to this and my friends are still chasing horns and I cannot convince them to come with me.   There are a ton of birds in the area.    If I am completely wasting my time let me know.  If anyone has any advice for me to make this half a$$ set-up work let me know   thanks

[Madpuppy]

If you don't have any decoys marcus I would suggest jump shooting. I'd start early before the ducks get on the move. If you do some jump shooting take some binoculars and try to spot them first, then if you can work up on them slowly behind cover or better yet a hill. You may even have to do a little belly crawling. It might be tough if you don't have a dog, if the waters not to deep hip waders will get you to them. Good luck buddy, let us know how you did.

[marcus]

I do have waders and a canoe .  Looks like I will have a handful of dekes if I want. I know where I am going and have some clue where the birds will be   success or not should be fun. I have no problem getting wet or belly crawling if that is what it takes . Still cannot pull anyone off their stand to come along, but the only I have ever learned anything is first hand...I do research and scout a bit   but most learning is from pounding the ground.   I have been deer hunting for 3 years mostly solo and harvested a nice buck on my own so I see no reason I can't get a few ducks/geese on my own. I will slowly gather the equipment I need  for now got boxes of steel shot   my rem 1100   all legal stamps and licenses  a couple of calls   which I have no clue how to use , but once again I will learn on the fly.    thanks I assumed jump shooting would be a better technique in my situation . I will let you know how I did when I get in tomorrow .

[fish_finder]

Jump shooting would prbly be your best bet but that diesnt mean you can;t shoot ducks without decoys, ive limited out twice this year without a single decoy, more of a matter of being where they want to be in the first place, ive seen guys put out 4 doz decoys in a crappy spot and I put out 6 and have a great shoot while they get squat, especially late in the season when birds get used to seeing big spreads of decoys, you may do well to get there before light, set up and hide, if you have ducks coming into or near you stay put, if not watch where they are headed and set up there, if they want in there for whatever reason no need for decoys and you might jump shoot a couple while sneeking to a new spot...best of luck

[marcus]

thought I had replied already.   No lack of waterfowl (snow and candian geese) just offered no shots except over a substantial body of water which i had no way of retrieving the birds from and considering I am not a thrill killer and would have had no way to bring them home so I let them fly, but tomorrow is a differen story I have the canoe set up just need to strap it to the car and I am off. I am not a fan of canoes especially alone but it is still deer season and no one is willing to take the first day of snow off understandably.   I will let you know how it goes.   I did mangae to score 3 dozen silouhette decoys, but it looks like I will have to wait until after I get home to meet up with the guy. If the situation is similar to last week I will have pics up and hopefully I can stay dry...

[marcus]

I got one honker and missed a few   what a trip.   I will be getting into this for sure

[Madpuppy]

Sounds like you had fun marcus! It can be addictive.

[marcus]

I had a blast would be nice if I could get my friends to ditch the slugs for a day to come with but it was fun. I bellycrawled ALONG way and then realized I couldnt get where I needed to be so I had to crawl back around I came face to face with a muskrat on the way. It worked out fine the pond I was headed to was loaded with geese. I hit 2 different ones in the first flock one I got the other folded up and hit the ground full force and managed to fly away while I was recovering the other closer one. Tough birds  duck is closed for a couple weeks now, but not geese so I will be back at it. It is gonna be hard to pick up the muzzleloader now...

[BBK]

Oh yeah, we had a goose come over about 40 yards belly up during goose season. I put a load of 3 1/2 BBB in it and my father put a load of 10g BB's in it and it still caught wing and took off.