Tell about your first duck hunt...wanting to hear about the first day you were introduced to the drug.

(not sure if this has been posted before)

I'll start...

I was a freshman in high school, just received my first 12 gauge the year before (rem 870). Had a friend of mine always bring hunting catalogs to class and I decided to browse through it one day...I was facinated at how many different kind of decoys and species of waterfowl there were. Well that evening I walked behind my house to the tank looking for some dove to shoot. I look up in the sky and see 3 ducks flying in circles, I figured they were trying to land on the tank I was at. Well I went home and begged mom and dad to take me to academy (45 minute drive). There I bought a dozen flambeau decoys and 6 different kind of primos calls (didn't even know how to blow a call). Didn't even think of buying ammo, luckily Dad had an old bag full of Peters #2 shot. I set out that morning and waited, then out of nowhere I heard my first groups of ducks cutting into the wind, dropping right outside my decoys. I slowly rose up and the birds flushed, BOOM BOOM BOOM!!! I got one!!! Like an idiot I didnt have waders so I decided I had to strip down to my boxers and go swimming in this freezing January water...It was so cold I could hardly move when I got out. I put my coveralls back on and went home. Woke up Mom and Dad to show them my gadwall hen Mom didn't wanna see it and Dad just laughed.

Ever since that morning Ive never been the same.

I was 10 I believe and was out in a flooded field at the edge of a creek my uncle and his buddy had shot a few but we were just walking the creek headed back well my uncle had to pee hands me the gun and says if one comes in and you have a clear shot shoot it. Well in comes a screaming bird, boom boom boom, his buddy shoots and no bird I pull up and Wham! Bird sails down 100+ yards away his dog takes off disappears down the creek and is gone for a whole then all the sunden he appears straight out in front of us carrying the bird. It's a banded wood duck drake for my first duck. Cracked out since.

I got spoiled. On my tenth birthday I got a got guided trip to arkansas. A few days before that on christmas I got a mossberg youth 20 guage. We shot limits of mallards, pintails, and teal. I was hooked! The day we got back I got my dad to buy me a duck call. The year after that we took the same trip. The next two years after that we started to hunt public land in michigan last year and now Texas this year. On december 17th we shot limits and we have been killing ducks ever since. I got my first 12 gauge for christmas this year.

I dont know how old I was but I know it was 5th grade. My dad took me with him out to lavon. We didnt get a shot at any but I remember being extremely ticked off because my dad wouldnt let me shoot at the 20 black ducks that were swimming 15 yards from us... He claimed they werent actually ducks. But for some reason ive been hooked ever since.

I was 11(November 1998). My brothers had access through friends to this tank out by Tawakoni. They would go all the time. Finally after begging and pleading to them and my parents I got to go. We shot limits of ringnecks. It was awesome. The birds would come off the lake straight to the pond.

Mid 70's, I was around 10, in Fannin Co around Telephone. Have no clue who land, but my dad, his brother and their uncle went out hunting where bevers had dammed a creek and flooded about 50 acres. I remember getting up way early for me, sloshing through knee and hip deep water and going under with my new 1187 and filling my new waders up! Everyone left me on a high piece of ground to dry off.... I realize now why they left me Ha. I ended up shooting at a Mallard before they came back. The return trip it snowed/sleeted from 121/75 all the way to Dallas.

The days, if I could only relive them!

Yall know my story was reading this forum,found a tank holding birds. I took advice from Guy,Aggieduck,muddy foot,and others and went for it. That was 2 weeks ago. We shot limits that day,my son shot his nice sprig on his second shot. I'm hooked been going every chance I get,but haven't been doing as well with the moon being full. Hopefully this cool weather and less moon will help this weekend. Thanks again guys for the help,now I'm trying to get a goose hunt going.

Grew up in Dallas, but after high school packed up and went full time ski bum in Colorado, Europe and Australia for years, was a bartender slinging whisky for a living. Parents talked me into going back to school at age 26, got a real job, got married and had kids... This life stuck in Dallas was driving me crazy, I was able to get to the mountains and ski once maybe twice a year, hardly enough to the 150 days a year skiing I was use to. I was always looking for way to move back to the mountains. Then had an old buddy take me duck hunting in 2003 and that was it, I found my outdoor fix. I tried other outdoor activities like fishing, and even dove hunting, but duck hunting was it, fighting the outdoor elements, in the cold, the challenge, the exercise, just gave me the same feeling.... Waterfowling is it for me now.

I was 13 and me and 3 buddies went to a private pond close to our houses I remember ducks piling into the pond before lst we had at least 100 birds on the pond when it came time 2 red head drake flew right to me boom boom double on 2 red head drakes we ended the day with 20 ducks(limit was 5 then) ringers read head woodies and gads little side note haven't shot a red head since then that was 8 years ago

Mine, was last year. All I had was an 870 wingmaster that shot 2 3/4 shells. So, I picked up some waders, duck stamp, and steel shot and was off to join a friend of mine that wouldn't shut up about this duck hunting. I love hunting and figured I would give it a try. I remember waking up very very early(we were hunting public land) and it being freezing outside. He set out decoys and there we were. Some birds came in and I shot, and dropped two birds, a green wing teal hen, and not sure if I saw wrong, had a bird swim off or do a death dive, but when I went out there there was only 1. I thought to myself this duck hunting thing is easy. Your telling me that they are going to fly to me and try to land while I blow them out of the sky. GREAT! I shot 3 or 4 and the next day we went and nothing. Wasnt so sure about this whole deal. After that I went a few more times and this year I am definitely addicted. Just bought my first decoys tonight and ready to use them!

30 years ago my old man took my brother and me on what I guess was an early teal hunt in a rice patch around Bay City. I remember it being hot, skeeters the size of wasps, and only shooting these little bitty freakishly fast ducks.

It wasn't until high school though that I got bit by the bug. Took some time off in college - I was hunting another thing at the time. Been back at it since. Now that I have a hunting buddy in my boy I don't plan on quitting any time soon.

I was around 5 or 6 years old probably. 2 of my uncles took me duck hunting with them on lake st. clair in michigan. Pretty much all i can remember about that hunt was my uncles letting me shoot at ducks and geese waaaaay out in the middle with my bb gun.

both uncles have since passed but their memory lives on. Their old wooden blue bill decoys are on my mantle over the fireplace.

Was in the 7th grade. My cousin had a lease on the Eagle Lake prairie, I would go along with him and my uncle every weekend. I learned to call then got a dozen GHG mallard dekes for christmas one year. I was hooked after being spoiled hunting on the prairie. I eventually started guiding for Clifton Tyler during teal season then went out on my own as soon as I entered my junior year of college. Been hooked since I killed my first duck, it was a BWT drake. I still remember those cold mornings sitting on a shallow pool in a pasture wondering why I wasn't in the deer blind, as soon as the ducks started pouring in from the rice fields I was reminded why. Now I would rather be in a rice field or in a duck blind over a duck pond than be sitting in a tower stand watching deer.
Hooked for life.

I was 25 and a guy i would drink coffee with asked me if i like to duck hunt. Three days later we were putting out decoys in a pond just west of Katy. Sitting in the dark drinking coffee listening to the ducks buzz over us and land in the decoys. Those sounds were unbelievable. He took me again two weeks later. Blue norther was blowing in as we put out some rags and decoys in flooded cut rice. Layed out on the side of a ditch and killed limits of ducks and geese. I was HOOKED!!!!!!

GO REBS

I used to go bird hunting with my bb gun as a kid. Then I'd go rabbit and squirrel hunting when I got a bit older. Later on I got into dove hunting. Then I went into the military and got away from it for awhile. When I got out of the service one of my friends used to go dove and duck hunting quite a bit. I had a lab and decided to go out with him for some dove to see what my dog could do on an actual hunt instead of just backyard stuff. She did great and then I started to shoot as well. One day we were out and he said to me "If you like dove hunting so much, you will love duck hunting?" He, his dad, his sister and I went out that early teal season and that's all there is to it. Been hooked ever since. They didn't go all that often, so I'd borrow some deeks, a call and waders and have at it.


First big duck was a ringer.

1971 Saline Lake Louisiana. Roosted the @#!* out of Mallards and then ran Yo Yo's all night for White Perch. It was not about sport but putting food on the table so dont be hatin on me I was only 10. Nothing like sitting in the cold dark night hearing those Yo Yo's go off and pointing your flashlight over to see a fish hanging from a tree. Now I understand all the Jax beer bottles and Jack Daniels trash at the camp. My uncles stopped duck hunting shortly after that then I picked it back up on my own as a yearly habit in 1979. Not proud of the roosting part but it was a different time and day back then.

3 years ago I had a couple if guys that would come in on Monday and talk about the birds they killed and tell the stories that go along with it. The rest of the week they were scouting and arguing over what spot they wanted to go to the next weekend. After numerous invites, I finally tagged along. We went on 6 hunts in November in NE Arkansas and one guy shot a ringer. Finally after hell literally freezing over we found a ditch between two rice fields that the birds were keeping open. It went from not seeing anything to killing a six man limit and less than 20 minutes. To this day, the most amazing hunt I've ever been on. I'll go on another one like that one day...In the meantime I still love the prep, the hunt and the hunters. There's really no other hunting like it.

It was my third Jr. year in college, I was living the "outdoorsman" dream. Taking off all my Thursday/Friday classes and driving out to the lease or our ranch to hunt deer/turkey/dove. One time in the offseason, I was kayak fishing creek x and I saw what I believed to be thousands of ducks flying all over where I was fishing. So I logged on here, had already been a member, and read up on identifying birds, techniques and strategies.

When the next season started I realized how naive I was. Those thousands of birds were comorants. I still scratched out a pair of woodies on my first hunt all by myself. Took me 2 more years to graduate, but I sure as hell didnt have a class before during hunting season.

It was 1989 and I was 7 years old. I remember sitting in a duck blind my dad had made at our grandmother's lake and my feet were freezing cold the first time I went with him. He got me used to freezing my a** off and taught me about the sport, decoying, calling, etc before he let me start actually shooting. It wasn't until I was 10 in 1992 that I started shooting. I remember vividly the first duck I killed. It was a bluebill who flew strait at me and I blasted him with my new Rem 870 20 gauge (which I still use today from time to time). I really miss that lake. She sold it before she died in 2005. Having a 50 acre private lake to duck hunt was awesome. I would be there all the time if we still had it.

Mine was 15 years ago and my best friend told me about the ducks on his Granny pond. So we decided to go try our hand at it. Now I have never hunted ducks before so I haven't a clue what the rules are at this point. We go the day before and take a chainsaw to clear us out a place to sit in. We load up 6an old beat up cork decoys and our leftover shells from dove season and commence to put a whoopin on these suckers. Now neither one of us had a dog or waders so we sat and drank whiskey to stay warm and waited for the birds to float to shore. I WAS HOOKED!! So after this I start educating myself on the rules and regs of the sport and started spending money like crazy on all the gear. All these years later it is still my favorite season of the year.

1984, Freshman in High School. A new friend I met in high school invited me to their duck camp in the Labelle marsh near Beaumont. You went in by boat, floating cabin run by generators. Had an old black guy that cooked and ran the camp. Playboys and liquor all over the place. A real man's camp

Fantastic duck hunts. Ran around the marsh in old Cushman marsh buggies. I was spoiled and hooked from that point.

I was 12 with my uncle and dad. We were hunting a backwater slough on the mighty miss up around niota Illinois. It was cold as heck and we gad to keep out feet moving to keep the ice from forming around our feet. I had wanted to go since I was 6-7 but my dad always said I was too little and it was too cold and dangerous. He finally let me go so I didn't want to let him down by telling him my feet were so cold and they hurt so bad I wanted to cry and the long ride in the boat was torture. I stuck it out and I was just amazed by my uncle and father calling and working mallards into the spread. I only shot 1 greenheads that day and had to skillet shoot it with my 410. My favorite memory was pulling into the driveway and mom, grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins that were visiting on vacation came out to look at all the ducks. My dad and uncle made me out to be the hero of the day and I got lots of pats on the back.

December 28th 1975 on our land in Montague. My brother, my Dad and I watched Staubach throw the Hail Mary on a small black n white tv hooked up to our teepee travel trailer. After the game we walked down to our Big tank and spy two ducks sitting smack dab out in the middle. Dad says watch this to my brother and I and we watch in amazement as Dad shoots two ducks with a thirty ought six with one shot at about 100 yds. We thought that was the coolest thing we had ever seen...The ducks were some kind of mud hen as he called them but we thought they were trophies. Loved the sport and understand that most people use shotguns to hunt these days.

I grew up deer hunting but I was in Highschool and a buddy took me to arkansas to see his family, Well they took us out to the flooded timber a couple times that trip and I was hooked. Shot nothing but green heads. Shortly after I joined the marines, as soon as I got out i began developing my own style. The past four seasons I have been slapped with the bug and hunting 2 to 3 times a week bouncing between public and lease. Now one by one I take a buddy and convert them. I have no intention of returning to deer hunting high fence or low fence I prefer no fence.