My new bird dog is still too little to hunt
I wish I could have timed it better this year, but my new bird dog wasn’t born in time to get out and actually hunt this season. He’s coming along nicely in his training, [...]
waterfowl
Is your retriever as big a fan of the cold as you are?
Ducks Unlimited has a great library of excellent tips for hunting on its website. You don’t have to be a member to access most of the advice, but if you do join, your [...]
There are plenty of public places for waterfowl
Waterfowl hunting has become more of a private land activity in the last decade or so. A lot of waterfowlers have resorted to leasing blinds on ponds and in farm fields. [...]
Use subtending to take better shots at birds
If you’ve done any goose hunting, you’ve probably heard the term “skybusting.” You may know it means shooting at birds that are out of your shotgun’s effective [...]
It turns out I don’t have to go far for geese
I looked out in the pasture a couple of weeks ago, in the middle of a pretty nasty snowstorm, and I watched about 250 Canada geese hover a foot over the ground right out in [...]
It turns out fat may be a positive survival trait
The Ducks Unlimited newsletter arrived in my email inbox the other day, and there was a story about waterfowl in it that made me wish, at least for a moment, that I were I [...]
I need to get back out in the duck marsh soon
There are a number of reasons I haven’t hunted waterfowl as aggressively as I did when I was younger. The main reason is my lack of a good retriever. I had a two good [...]
The geese are on their way
You can be a hunter and also be a birdwatcher. In fact, being a birdwatcher can actually help you when you hunt. The more practice you get watching ducks, for instance, the [...]
Waterfowl hunting is a money pit
A friend of mine recently asked me what he’d need to get started hunting ducks. He’s pretty well-off, and he asked if money were no object, what would I get? The first [...]
Snipe hunting is no joke — it’s a blast
I’m constantly surprised by the number of people who think I’m trying to put one over on them when I tell them I’m going snipe hunting. It’s amazing how strong those [...]