New to duck hunting questions?

OK so I'm new to duck hunting for this year. So take it easy guys. I've mainly just shot dove most of my life.

Questions....
1. I've heard about only being able to shoot ducks till noon..I can't find anywhere on the texas parks and wildlife website that says that.

2. Can u shoot teal during duck season? I shot a few teal during early teal season but can you still shoot teal during duck season?

3. Since the limit is 6 birds and a combo of species what is a hen?

4. Thanks for bearing w me. Hopefully you guys can shed some insight to my questions. I'm Sure il have more. Thanks again

1. Only on certain public areas
2. Yes
3. A female duck
4. Your welcome

Does TPWD offer a waterfowl identification course???

Pervis this web site will give you some good info. Look for the duck identification link on the right side.

http://www.flyways.us/

Thanks guys for the answers. Yeah I've been watching ducks fly during dove season in order to help myself begin to identify them. This forum has been really helpful.

The best way to learn about duck ID is to go out and shoot a bunch of ducks, then take them to the game warden for him to help you out. They are great at identifying them and will really teach you a lesson! LOL

Just having some fun with you. You are doing right by asking questions.

Download the DU app.. they have a waterfowl ID tool you can look at anywhere without internet.

I've also spent a lot of time googling pictures and videos of different ducks to get a better idea of what they look like in flight and on the water.

The best way to learn is experience. Take a good pair of binoculars to the duck blind and make sure you know what you're shooting at! You'll learn soon enough.

Hayraker's answers are all correct.

This. Not putting you down or anything but my 5 year old used this app for a kindergarten project and blew the whole school away. Kid can identify 20 species of ducks...drake or hen. He get's mixed up occasionally on the tough ones but he used this app for 90% of his education. Pics, sounds and details of the species. Great tool. It also has a legal shooting time (LST) that's based on GPS, so you're good on that as well.

That hard part is being able to identify them at a distance when they're coming in by sight and sound. Identifying them after the shot just lets ya know if you need to mud stomp it. Not good, only experience will help ya there. Try to find somebody to hunt with that can help ya tell the differences before the shot and point them out. God knows if I weren't around my brother would unintentionally shoot 6 blue bills.

If only everyone had this embedded into their heads.


I started off by ground checking them. I'd shoot a bird and look it up in my little booklet and continue. Never had a problem.

Reminds me of Uncle Buck when the kid was giving him the 3rd degree and asking all those questions.

OK so here's a pic from tonight.
Keep in mind the camera on my phone makes em look farther away than what they really are.

They came over honking. Thanks guys for the suggestions and input!

those geese are tricky! be sure to only pick out the drakes to shoot!

Tell us your trick to identify Mr Goose so quickly.

Yeah I could tell they were geese they were honking. Yeah give me/us watching this thread a tip to identify the drakes.

Is the du app recommended above the water fowler journal? (Free) or the pay .99 one? I'm taking all the suggestions I can

You're being had Male and female geese look alike.

Just make sure you tag all of your geese and teal properly...

Hey thanks for the heads up yeah I'm sure it's funny to most of you guys and I'm game for a jokes on me. But thanks for cluing me in. I was wondering how the crap your supposed to tell the males and females apart w geese in the air.

So here's another question looks like I'm full of em. What's the best tasting duck in you guys opinion? I like to eat what I shoot/kill. Like I've mentioned I'm totally new to the duck aspect of things.

Wigeon or teal... but If you can find and chop down a few corn or rice fed Mallards, that would get my vote. Most of the Central Texas Ducks are pond weed or fish eaters and they can get pretty gamey tasting- but nothing that a long soak in salt water or buttermilk won't cure!

Just stick with most puddlers and no divers except for maybe a can.

Duck hunting 101 <------ click link

They all taste the same if you treat it right and soak it in milk or brine. I love it.. some don't. Biggest word of caution: be careful when chewing! Steel shot can be tough on the molars!

I'm confused on limits for duck season. Is it 6 ducks all together per person? Or is it 6 teal 6 ducks a combo of species, and 15 coot? I don't wanta kill something I'm not supposed to. Can someone help clarify for me. I've read the states website and it just lists those #s

6 aggregate ducks total including teal.

However there are extra limits on certain ducks such as:

Mallards 5
Mallard hens 2
Wood ducks 3
Red Heads 2
Scaulp 2
Pintail 2
Mottle ducks 1

Waterfowl Digest page 11.

6 per person. Invite me out to come shoot and I'll show you all you need to know.

Gdogg covered the duck thing. You can have six ducks total, you just can't have 6 pintails. Make sense?

Coots are actually not ducks and neither are mergansers. So you could technically shoot 6 ducks, 15 coots, and 5 mergansers a day. However with mergansers you can only kill 2 hooded mergansers, which is just about all we normally see in Texas, the other two species probably get shot here from time to time but more on a rarely basis. So if you had a REALLY bangup day with some species variety you might kill 23 birds over your spread, but that never happens Also you may or may not want to shoot and eat coots

Lots of good info here but you can't be too careful when learning on your own.

Sandhill Crane "honk" as well with different seasons. There are some other bigger birds that can be confused with waterfowl that have some hefty fines associated with them.

Don't just learn the ducks, learn other species as well. It's best if you can learn some basic facts about all the species not just identify them. That way you are not just memorizing them like flashcards at school you actually know something about them and are less likely to forget next season.

You may want to download and print a copy to read. Limits change every year.

Waterfowl Digest

download the tpwd app and always have it handy.

2014-2015
Duck
Daily bag limit: 6 in the aggregate, which may include no more than:

5 mallards (only two may be hens) 
3 wood ducks 
3 scaup 
2 redheads 
2 pintail 
1 canvasback 
1 "dusky" duck (Mottled duck, Mexican like duck, black duck and their hybrids)

For all other species not listed, the bag limit shall be 6.

The season for "dusky" ducks is closed the first five days of the season in each zone.

Don't cook past medium rare. If you get to medium they might as well be burnt.

Yeah I know what Sandhills look like and they are where I'm at but on the states season guide for Sandhills I can't find my county so I don't know if I can shoot em. Yeah there's a good curve to learning duck that's for sure. I wanta say thanks to everyone that has offered advice and explained answers to my questions. Il Def post some pictures up when the season opens.

There are drop down lists of the counties in each zone. Only zone A is open Nov 1st.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/regulations/outdoor-annual/2014-2015/animals/sandhill-crane

Lots of good advise! A few things I'll add. Cover your face. I prefer facepaint cuz I hate wearing a mask & you can paint your eye sockets too. More guys get busted by birds seeing their shiny face than anything. On that note, don't wear sunglasses. They put off a glare like crazy.oh and one other thing. Don't get caught up in the fads. There's no need to buy top of the line dekes or that fancy new $1700 shotgun. More birds are killed over $30 Hot Buy dekes with an 870 Express than anything else. Once you start getting into it you may wanna spend more $, but if you take the $400 you'd spend on fancy dekes & $1700 you'd spend on a new auto & spend it on a boat or a few guided trips to teach ya the basics, IMHO that'd be a better use of your dollar

I'm set. I think...thankfully I'm an adult w a good job. Yeah I've got my citori w kicks chokes 12 mallard decoys and 12 teal decoys all w weights and line. I got a face mask Bakakla style spandex material. I've got a set of waders 2 boxes of shells my small yeti is packed. I got two calls one teal and one mallard. Got some cammo burlap to cover up. I've been taking and reading the recommendations on here like a loon. I really really wanta thank everyone that has chimed in on this thread..

And yeah I'm already in the process of getting a boat too. Picking up one tmrw! It's official I have way to much crap now.

Oh just you wait young grasshopper. First, you'll get into honkers. That's at least 4-5 doz big full bodies. Next, you obviously need at least 4 doz diver dekes. Then comes snow goose hunting. As any good snow goose hunter will tell you, you can't have too many snow dekes. Around 2,000 is a good stopping point, plus ecalls, kites & spinners. Now you need an enclosed trailer to haul em. Obviously, you need a big boat for big water & small boat/canoe for skinny water. Now you're shooting birds but you're tired of retrieving em. Better get a dog. Lastly, you'll start taking trips all over the country, searching for fields of green(heads) or blue(bill) rivers. And I didn't even get into calls...

Hey I'm on it. Got a German short haired pointer coming and going now to pick up a boat. Come on no half doing things on my end.
1st duck hunt 3 green wing teal and one big duck. The big duck was wounded he fell down then swam to a stump. The ducks were coming in so we left him to get later. Went to go get him and he was gone. Found blood and feathers all over the stump. Felt around in the water but no duck. Thanks for all the help! I had a really good time this am.

Nice job!! Was it everything you hoped it would be? Just wait til your first flock of a few hundred mallards tries to land on your face. That's when the addiction really gets bad

We had some groups hit us b4 shooting time. Crazy how close they get to you before you shoot em. Yeah it was a good time. Seems like I can't quit buying stuff now! Just left ba$$ pro under armor shooting gloves my son's hoodie and a under armor hoodie. Smoked ducks but still smoking that money!

This happens sometimes, but do try to recover your ducks right away on a big body of water if that's what you're hunting. Glad you got some birds! those greenwings wrapped in bacon are DEEEEE-licious

Yeah we went to get him and he kept swimming out. We didn't know how deep it was. A buddy of mine said when they're wounded or dying they go under and bite a branch or something on the bottom and don't come back up? The teal I knocked dead so they were easy finds.

Went this am and the wind was crazy. Had a few shots no luck though. Hard shooting em in the wind. Any suggestions on when not to go w weather conditions? We didn't even hear any other people shooting.

Go every day you can go, regardless of the weather

Use the terrain to your advantage, set up so that they curl into the wind and put the bead on the beak...

Yup. The nastier the weather, the better the duck hunting will be. With that said, I'm out every chance I get regardless of weather

OK sounds good. Yeah my buddy said it was snowing one yr and they limited out. We did have a few groups come over us b4 shooting time again we did get a few shots in but not like yesterday.

One exception.. when the wind is out of control the ducks tend to stay hunkered down. Rain/snow, ect.. they're flying but in my experience it'll be slow when the wind kicks up