Gotta love when a plan comes together client sent this after he got the bird up on the wall in its spot.

Handsome mounts. That standing wood duck is the most rotund bird I have ever seen!

Beautiful animal! I just told my wife the other day that this would be my next animal on the wall.

I inadvertently wound up in a pretty good wood duck hole once last season. We got two gorgeous drakes but they were smashed by our #2 shot at somewhat close range. Is there a shot/load you recommend for keeping the birds relatively intact? I picked up some Kent Fast Teal #5 to try out the other day and started thinking it might work well on woodies for a mount later this year.

#4's for pretty much everything we hunt. Just keep shooting them and eventually you'll get one that you hit just right that doesn't have a lot of damage, or you can let them get a little further out and shoot them then. A good taxidermist can fix a lot more on a bird than you think though.

We couldn't get away from the wood ducks last year. We had some public holes that were swarming with wood ducks.

Thanks y'all as far as shot size goes you got me. There is no perfect bird that has come thru the shop they all
have been shot up, neck wrung, full of pin feathers, busted up, chewed up by the dog or stomped on lol it's a gamble either way you look at it you never know till you get under the skin and see what's going on. I've had some bird that didn't have a usable bone in it but the skin and feathers was ok. It just all depends on what the skin and feathers look like. Alot can be fixed and covered up depending on pose of bird!!