puddlers and divers

whats more fun to shoot?

puddle ducks are fun to shoot when they are cupped up and coming in, but lets be honest, not a challenge for a shooter.

I say divers are more fun to hunt, those fast little rascals are a blast. They are screaming through the decoys and you never know what kind of shot your going to get. Sometimes you get the station #4 shot that requires a heck of a lead, sometimes is a station #8 that just pure instinct.

Divers

Puddlers

Well we ought to hunt together then, would give both of us something to do. I pass on the divers, except for cans, but choose the puddlers hands down. Just like watching them work, cupped, feet down for me.

I like puddlers better. I guess it's more about the bird than the shot to me. I also find more satisfaction in watching them come in cupped just like you wanted or how you planned.

But as wfhunter said below... I will not pass on whackin divers either

They are all fun to shoot! We prefer puddle, but we will shoot the heck out of diver if that is the flavor of the day.

Don't shoot much teal, eh?

I agree that watching puddlers work is way better, but shooting divers is a blast

no, never

I like shooting those funny looking diver geese

Water turkeys are my jones....

Puddle are more fun to call and work.

Divers are [almost] more fun to shoot.

They're all fun to watch fall!

Divers suck to clean....Puddle ducks for the win Alex (or G).

Bof.

I love watching red heads and cans come crashing in with not a care in the world.

I love shooting puddlers because the constant circling and unpredictability makes me want to shoot everyone one of them in the face.

Ringers and blue bills yes.

Redheads and cans are fine.

Tell the story about making blue bill steaks for your date.

Truf

No, I had it right....all divers suck to clean and there ain't a duck out there worth plucking.

like I actually clean em, Judy

Shooting some divers might relieve all this built up anger.

I'd choot a can over anything, meh on redheads, blah on scaupisaurus and tank turds. But, if it's getting late morning and things are slow I have no problem taking whatever wants to play.

I'm a relative duck snob.

Mallards I leave the trash ducks for the kids.


Happy now G?

I pretty much just pass on ringers and spoonies..

your a mallard snob because you learned it from Judd



why pass on spoonies, they are puddle ducks just like mallards, and they work like a champ...if you like wings cupped and feet down they are great for that

I don't like the way their tongue hangs out their mouth when you ring their neck.

I do not pass on spoonies..

Judd tatt me everythang I no about killing ducks.

Ps. I'm glad Judd's around if not I'd be the butt of all the jokes.

I turn my nose to no duck.

Bout right

I remember when you killed those by the bushel basket. Big time now I guess

One season I had a ringer invasion on my lease, my son liked to shoot them, so we had a ringer smack down once or twice. One hunt I cleaned 2 limits of ringers, the smell would not wash off me. That was the last time I shot a mess of ringers. Spoonies I bet I shot 3 or 4 over last 10 years.

Now now I think your nose might be growing just a bit Guy.

Puddlers, Divers, Mergansers, they all go in sausage anyway these days. I don't descriminate. I own about as many diver decoys as I do puddler decoys. Even use a long line sometimes. At this stage in my life it is more about the hunt, the dog, and being out there than it is about what kind of duck I shoot.

You are using a gang rig John?

Not often, but I have a short one with window weights on each end I can use when the situation calls for it. I could only find one picture that shows part of it in use.



And I even have Merganser decoys.



Like I said, I don't descriminate. In Kuby's Jalapeno Cheese Sausage, it don't matter.

Garrett, Jeff,
I'm going Deer hunting for a few days at the end of the week, but dang it, you guys got me thinking I might just hook up the kayak trailer with the layout boat/wooden piroge on it and throw the the gang rig and diver decoys in it. Then take a break one morning to run up to the brine for a traditional diver hunt. It will be the only thing not frozen up there. H'mmm. But then the rut should be going on too. So probably not.

I got to thinking about this on Sunday, we shot about half divers and half puddle ducks. After every diver pass we came up shooting, and would laugh and have a blast as they went skipping across the water.

Do it, John. Im sitting here trying to figure out when I can go to the coast with Wal to shoot redheads

Yeah, it's about 6 spoonies I guess. I may shoot some spoonies this year if get desperate because I'm throwing it all in sausage, but you can have the ringers.

I might be headed to the coast or might be headed back to College Station. If the shooting that went on last Sunday is any indication of how many ducks moved in, I am going to need more ammunition. All I can figure is they had 40 people in the blind, or they had 10 blind people hunting. I am guessing 200 rounds were fired. Holy mother of goodness that was rediculous. Navasot I am not reffering to your group unless they move north by about a mile maybe 3/4.

I really want to get coastal but I am not so inclined to go on a weekend. There are way too many dip@#$%s for me to keep my sanity. the older I get the less tolerant I get. After recent happenings I just don't even want to be around a lot of the public fracus any longer.

I would think in an air boat, especially on the coast, you could get away from everyone.

I like shooting them all. My buddy in Idaho that I went on a goldeneye hunt last year, they laugh at the guys that hunt mallards up there. That crew is kind of diver snobs. Not that they won't shoot the mallards if they happen by, they specifically hunt the divers because they prefer those shoots.

Nice merganeezer decoys John!



This hunt was kind of funny (to me, I don't know if John thought it was that funny.) So two mallard drakes come in and pitch right into the hole. Picture perfect, one on each side, no question "whose was whose" and John called the shot. I was visually locked into "my" bird, I lost track of John's. I'm talking counting the feathers on the crown of the head focus. When he called it I sat up and splashed the mallard, and refocused/looked up to see the whole scene... check on John's bird etc. His bird was flying off... or so I thought. So I took a pop shot at it. Unfortunately we lost that bird.

So I look at John and say "how on earth did you miss that bird??" He says "WHAT?!?!" I said, what happened? And for those of you that don't know, I'm the rookie between the two of us so for me to rib him...

OK so here's what REALLY happened.

Two birds come in. John's bird is slightly in the lead, so to call the best shot for both of us, he doesn't call it until his bird is on the water. He kills his bird on the water, I splash mine and look around, and at the instant I take focus off my bird and look for his, mine comes back up to fly off. We are both shooting cleanup on the same bird (mine). But because there is a bird on the water and one got away, I was sure it was the one I put down. It took me like 5 minutes to figure out what happened. Of course John knew all along.

Na that's the hunting club North of us.. my brother was deer hunting and herd the war going on also. If you were listening reeeeeaaally close you may have herd mine too... I was s few more miles NNE of there

John
I started running a gang rig last year. Love it in deep water. Set my rig with knots every 7 foot and 30 yards long.Made ten foot ends to anchor on either side so you know it's 30 yards long. Got the quick snaps on 4 ft drops of mono

yall boys never been on a good wooduck hole early in the morning... best of both worlds.. you may even get lucky and have the mallards droppin through the trees

looks like I will be off the last couple of weeks of november

If I shot like you I would probably have the same feelings but for me it's boom, boom....let's go red fishing cuz my hunts over.

I still have a hard time telling the difference when they are flying if it's pretty early. I'm still not nearly as experienced as most of the people on here. As long as I can tell it's a legal duck, I shoot and let the chips fall where they may.

I took my layout to the skeet range this summer and practiced

The first thing I would look for is the difference in wing beats. Divers wing beats are much faster. That will help you quickly determine if its a puddle or diver duck.

Of course I have. I do more Wood Duck hunting on my Deer lease than Deer hunting. Some days they migrate the creek high, but some mornings when they leave their roost in the trees to start feeding they will stay low screaming down the creek like podracers following every bend and curve jockeying for the lead. It is a lot of fun to set up where they are almost flying into my face when they come down the creek. With decoys a few will crash in front of me, but most will not stop and can be very challenging shots. Wherever Wood Ducks are feeding there are often Squirrels as well. Like I said, I don't discriminate.

How in the world could anyone miss one of those birds.

I could think of a couple of people

I think mine is 90 ft, but the anchor ends are longer for deeper lake hunting from the layout pirogue. It's nice if it does not get tangled up. Normally I can just feed it out of the bag off the side of the boat no problem. The mistake I have made is when traveling several hours, the bag that carries it gets bounced and shuffled around. I pretty much have learned to set it up After I get to my destination, not before I leave home, unless it is a short drive.

it flys it dies

Agreed...

Mergansers maybe

There used to be a Spoon Platoon type organization that included THF'rs

Not an organization, more like a Cen Tex gang, they made spoon bill necklaces, crazy...They are not right in the head down there.

Where might I acquire one of these necklaces? I don't shoot spoonies, but they sound really cool. Got any pics?

That would be gross sawing the bill off.

I was avoiding geographical references but Cen Tex is always implied when it comes to shooting spoonies

Well spoonies may not be divers but they dabble in some pretty low places

Keepin' it weird....just saying.

There are no ducks in central Texas, that is all...