Duck Season 2019-2020

[MallardBay]

Are you going with smaller shot size with Hevi-Metal or sticking to the traditional 2's and 3's?
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I have shot several cases of the Hevi-Metal, 6,4,2,BB. All 3 " inch. If it was me paying for them, I would shoot #4. I think #6 would be best "most" days but on days it is a little windy I liked the #4. I will caution the I see Hevi-Metal Long Range loads advertised. These particular shells have bismuth instead of tungsten. I guess they are faster because bismuth is not as dense as tungsten so more speed with same propellant. I have not shot these. The regular heavy-metal uses #4 steel mixed with #6 tungsten shot for example. These are normally around $27 a box. The Heavy-X are around $40 a box. I believe they have a higher percentage of tungsten. I have not shot them as that is past my price point.

[Deltaman]

Congrats on getting your bride in a duck blind!!!!!!

[Darren]

Poor Ella , making her use a pump.

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When the budget will allow, would love a little Beretta 20g auto for her and the (still very young) kids to shoot/hunt with. That or the 20g counterpart to my current every day gun, the Benelli M2 . She missed last season being pregnant, and doubt she makes another hunt this season but really hoping next season gets her on at least a few outings and then maybe the upgrade chatter can get going. Some women might like a gun for Christmas, but now almost ten years in I'm thinking that's not her, as tremendously supportive of my habit as she's been.

[Darren]

Are you going with smaller shot size with Hevi-Metal or sticking to the traditional 2's and 3's?
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I have shot several cases of the Hevi-Metal, 6,4,2,BB. All 3 " inch. If it was me paying for them, I would shoot #4. I think #6 would be best "most" days but on days it is a little windy I liked the #4. I will caution the I see Hevi-Metal Long Range loads advertised. These particular shells have bismuth instead of tungsten. I guess they are faster because bismuth is not as dense as tungsten so more speed with same propellant. I have not shot these. The regular heavy-metal uses #4 steel mixed with #6 tungsten shot for example. These are normally around $27 a box. The Heavy-X are around $40 a box. I believe they have a higher percentage of tungsten. I have not shot them as that is past my price point.

$40/box is just unreal. Are they gold plated pellets? #4's would be about the size I'm thinking, or maybe #5's at smallest; would surely make a helluva dense pattern and that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks for insight, I need to do some digging and maybe we'll have some good post-season chatter about it.

[Darren]

Sat. 1/4/2020
Delacroix lease
Will E. and I with Harry
Winds WNW 10-20, 50's, heavy clouds eventually clearing to sunshine, hunted till 9:30a


Had a little early action on grays but after that was the usual very sporadic flight over us. Largely did well with what we had but this continued WNW wind pattern is putting the wind right in our face and birds approaching over our back. Lost two long off crip grays and maybe could have killed 2-3 others on awkward ops but that was about it. Radio show segment didn't interrupt any of our (lack of) action, and from reports on the show, it was awfully tough for a lot of guys in some usually good areas. Still pleased with our handful of big birds to haul out, the biggest hunt of the season Will's had.

4 grays, 2 mottleds

From our mottled pair

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Blind needs some more brushing so we'll try to pack some in next week. Water is low and falling, won't come back until maybe late next week or the weekend.

[MallardBay]

Nice hunt. I feel your pain on the wind. Most guys really struggle turning around and shooting. Great mottle example!

[Darren]

Nice hunt. I feel your pain on the wind. Most guys really struggle turning around and shooting. Great mottle example!

We are on steady deck so turning around to shoot is no issue.....if you happen to see them on approach from your back side. Couple of times today we would hear them bailing out overhead as they flared out.

[Darren]

Fri. 1/10/2020
Bunkie farm
Todd, Philip, Ray and I with Harry
Wind 0-5+, 60's, heavy clouds and occasional sprinkles, not near the wind we'd anticipated

Specks had been hot in the area and specifically on our field but today they really wanted in just around a treeline corner on the farm, maybe a thousand yards from us. Had hard time breaking them from that, and what came just didn't like what we had, as if they were seeing something obviously wrong but we were more covered up than I can recall on any previous hunt.

Only thing I could think of was Philip moving all the specks from being adjacent to the standing snows all season to date, to now all are put on other side of the levee in the front cut. Plenty came look, pass a time or two, move on. Todd's a very strong caller, couldn't find anything that did the trick reliably. Fired on no ducks, saw just a few handfuls here and there, mostly high.

1 speck



Really hoped to hunt in front of the storms coming through tomorrow but forecast is for some serious south winds well ahead of the storm squall, likely far too much for our lengthy boat ride and the birds wont want to do much in such strong winds (predicted up to 50 mph). We'll head down to camp tomorrow behind the weather and try them Sunday morning instead.

[Ericdc]

You gonna try bunkie tomorrow after the storm?


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[Darren]

You gonna try bunkie tomorrow after the storm?
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No, i'm going to head down after the weather to Shell Beach camp to hunt Sun. in the marsh. Buddy's family was goin last night to Bunkie camp to try today. The way it's gusting here at my house in BR currently, sure glad I'm not out in the marsh ahead of the storms today as initially planned.

[Darren]

Sun. 1/12/2020
Delacroix lease
Johnny and I with Harry
Winds NNE 10-15, pt cloudy to moderate fog to just heavy clouds, 50’s

Finally a wind direction that didn’t put birds approaching over our back, was hoping we could see the grays on approach today finally. Joke was on us, all that wanted in today were green wings, green wings we’ve not seen in any numbers for weeks and weeks. Go figure. Once we finally did see a few grays they were super skeptical and wouldn’t finish like they most always do here, so just a couple of iffy chances we tried to no avail. Also got smoked by a wad of 15 green wings we never saw coming out the fog, not a shot fired on them. Was nice to see some teal and have legit chance to put nearly a two man limit on the strap but would have had to be ace shooting and fair bit more lucky than we were. Try them again end of the week/weekend to close out the Coastal Zone.

5 GW teal

Handy little ten footer to tend the decoys at walk-in blind

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Our big haul today

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Some buddies had a big late morning hunt in nearby public land, 9 grays and 3 green wings and left them flying. Will had a few on his end not far from me. Fair amount of shooting this morning in areas just north of me that have done so most of the season.

[MallardBay]

Joke was on us, all that wanted in today were green wings, green wings we’ve not seen in any numbers for weeks and weeks. Go figure.
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I would love to see a telemetry study on green wings. We have had fog on three separate mornings this season and the GWT have shown up by the thousands. Would love to KNOW where they normally rest and not just guess.

[Ducaholic]

Green Wings flew good in Central La. this morning as well!

[Rick]

I would love to see a telemetry study on green wings. We have had fog on three separate mornings this season and the GWT have shown up by the thousands. Would love to KNOW where they normally rest and not just guess.

Would be interesting just to know where or how they'd catch them, as they've been conspicuously absent during the netting efforts I've been part of. The first of the coastal mallard shots I've been around for nabbed a couple or three, but none of the others included any in their by-catch. Also have to wonder if they'd handle the transmitter's bulk as well as the larger blue-wings have apparently managed.

Do know there have been precious few mornings when our marsh has seen enough of a green-wing flight to spill over to my apparently too isolated pothole in any numbers this season. Used to figure southerly winds were the key, but haven't found that trustworthy this go-around...

[Darren]

Joke was on us, all that wanted in today were green wings, green wings we’ve not seen in any numbers for weeks and weeks. Go figure.
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I would love to see a telemetry study on green wings. We have had fog on three separate mornings this season and the GWT have shown up by the thousands. Would love to KNOW where they normally rest and not just guess.

Would indeed be interesting, and to tie it to fog? Haven't been seeing any teal at all in last hand full of hunts, today should have had a nice pile of them. There's a shallow cove in my pond that I'm seeing them angle toward, and have jumped them from a few times before, so it would appear they're coming in there with some kind of regularity when there are a few around. Some lit right into it (and its just out of range) right after LST yesterday after nearly flying through our blind to get there from our backside.

On the ride in saw some pretty good concentrations in shallow broken marsh, places that were land not long ago....got up in swarms and went back down.

[Ericdc]

I’ve been very thankful for them this year. They’ve amounted to 54% of our season total. They’ve pretty much hung around in good numbers all season, although we’ve seemed to have more of them once we got into December and January.

We’ve got a lot more flooded ag in our immediate area this year than the last several and I know that helps, specifically a large farm 5 miles west of us where every field is holding water. I’ve seen lots of high groups come from that way and they most often end up decoying to us or the guys north of us.


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[Darren]

Fri. 1/17/2020
SE La public marsh
Cousin Kyle & I with Harry
60's, ENE wind 10-20+, cloudy to partly sunny and back

Headed out to Kyle's honey hole which is actually one of my teal season holes........but I didn't know it had regular season grays as he's been killing. Sure enough, lone single in the dekes off the bat and occasional ops sporadically thereafter, mostly grays seen but ended up putting eyes on a fair amount of green wings in the area too, and one nice wad of maybe 75 snows. Grays were skittish as usual for late season, bailing right before edge of dekes, others came on in pretty as could be. Ace shooting we get our 12 but glad with what we got. Nice morning with the closest thing I've got to a brother.

(9) 8 grays, 1 bufflehead (first of season)

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On way out jumped some good wads of birds in nearby vicinity and also much of our route in. Plans are to head to the lease tomorrow, boat ride to this area would be awfully sporty on forecast wind direction. Nice to be at the camp till Sunday

[MallardBay]

That's a solid hunt! And cool pics.

[Darren]

Sat. 1/18/2020
Delacroix
Johnny and I with Harry
60's, good SE winds 10-15+, cloudy to pt cloudy, was hot for the walk out

Was supposed to have Ray along for this hunt but he bailed late last night, and I was wishing we had a third gun in the blind with us early and often. Was out working Harry on an early single and missed out on two great ops that johnny scratched one each from. Ended up seeing fair many more grays than we had been, coming off a hunt here a week ago when we didn't kill a single gray here for the first time I can recall. Did our share of missing and I also ended up with some gun issues of TBD origin late in the hunt. No one to blame but ourselves for not filling out and a third shooter today probably puts us close to 18.

11 grays

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Back to the same location tomorrow with a third gun again planned to join us. Front coming through tonight, should be cooler with good north winds so we'll see.

[Rick]

Where's the fog?

[Darren]

Where's the fog?

Not the slightest hint, but was warm enough for it.


Broke down gun, cleaned it well, fired three quick shots behind the camp and seems to be back in the game. Third gun is in camp so he’s getting in the boat in the morning.

[Darren]

Sun. 1/19/2020 - Coastal Zone closer
Delacroix
Johnny, Miles and I with Harry
Potent front passed over night, first arctic front we've had in many weeks; winds howling 20-25 from North, low 50s, hvy clouds

Camp door was rattling when we woke up and had concerns that it would be too much wind, sure enough it really was. Boat ride wasn't a whole lot of fun, and our few birds around didn't want to work, just sat. Fired only on one wad of grays sweeping with the wind across the pond, to no avail, and that was it. Few single grays would come by, lock up and bail, even one I finally got down low enough to shoot at iffy range on my side but let him go as wanted to get him where we all could shoot. All the while, water was low to start and was dropping fast. Packed it up early at just after 8:00a and was barely able to scoot around in the pond to pick up dekes. Cousin Kyle and his wife hunted my south pond and downed two grays, packed up early with us as well to head in.

Scratch to close out the season!

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Others did pretty well in the area with Will having maybe his best hunt of the season, and some other nice hauls from other areas not too far from me, just didn't happen for us. Had great three-day run down there anyway to close it out, got boat back on the trailer and tucked away with my growing fleet of pirogues, hung decoys up. Food and company was top notch so we had a great weekend regardless of Sunday's skunk.

[Darren]

Phil hunted Bunkie area blind yesterday and had a nice one, two ducks and four specks (3 guns). Said lots of specks on us right now still.

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Planning to try there maybe a day this weekend to see if we can't catch a few specks before picking up remainder of decoys and hauling the bike back home.

[Deltaman]

Glad your Saturday hunt helped end the season on a high note, despite Sunday's slow hunt and fast falling water!!!!

[Darren]

Sun. 1/26/2020 - East Zone closer
Bunkie area farm
Johnny and I w/ Harry
Light rain, low 50's steady, wind 0 to 5+ and eventually more when we picked up decoys, heavy clouds

Had to get the decoys up anyway so figured we'd at least give it a short go. Saw mostly high ducks, and at times a fair amount traffic of blues but did not call at a speck. Fired on but a pair of skirting bluewings and got the drake. Later saw that the specks were on the cut cane field up on other side of the camp today, which appears typical for rainy days as we've seen this a few times. Had a few mallards on a couple of occasions light wide on us in north cut, they wanted no part of our setup. Packed it up early around 8:15a to get our work done.

1 bluewing teal



While picking up decoys, had one big wad of specks come looking but obviously too late for us using the window of no-rain to get our work done. We got it all gathered and put away in the camp and headed out, had had our share for this season. Did hear a decent amount of shooting in the area, just nothing on us.

[Darren]

Season Totals:

Got in 28 total hunts that included the early speck opener in Bunkie, so 27 duck hunts. Logged 186 ducks on those 27 hunts for a per-hunt average of 6.9 ducks.

Species breakdown is as follows:

56 GW teal
9 BW teal
82 grays*
11 mottleds*
12 shovelers
6 scaup/dosgris
1 bufflehead
1 woodduck
6 mallards
2 blackbelly whistling ducks
7 specklebelly geese

*82 grays is more than the prior two seasons combined, only 27 in 2017 and 35 in 2018, and is more in line with some of the bigger seasons we've had. These came exclusively from the Delacroix lease where there weren't huge numbers of ducks around but what was there were gadwall for the most part. Of note, again this season did not see high flights of grays, something we had a few years back in lease area. What we did have were low groups that were looking to put down and didn't need much convincing to do so on most occasions. Nearby public land had a monster year with the grays with routine big hauls of them; will likely dabble with some trips over that way next season after what I saw on my Jan 17th hunt.

*11 mottleds is an all-time record, besting the previous record of 8. Even so, I can recall a number of hunts when ops on mottleds were missed, this could have easily been 15 or more.

Also of note, greenwings were back up from a recent low of 26 last year. They were not as prevalent on the lease as in 2016, 2017 but better than last year.

Delacroix lease was pretty reliable for at least a few birds, and interestingly the weather variations vs success were hard to pattern. Had hunts with quick limits on warm, still morning swatting gnats and also had a couple of good ones behind a front in big north winds.......also had some slow ones under those two conditions. We were fortunate to have numbers of grays logged as many in Delacroix area were relegated to shooting a lot of dosgris when times got tough, we killed very few as a whole, which is not to say that we would let them pass had we saw more traffic of them.

Bunkie blind saw a lot of specks but after opening day we were never in the game for ducks. That said, some blinds on far east end of the farm had some big hunts, though they had far more open water than we did.

To compare this season's tally/per-hunt averages from recent years:

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Including teal season's birds, Harry added 173 ducks to his tally, now at about 788 through his 5 seasons. He was absolutely huge for us on opener in the east zone rice stubble and then all season long in Delacroix rounding up crips (and long off flyers that fell dead as a hammer) in the marsh surrounding the ponds, and showed noticeable improvements with making his own marks and working to them. As good as he was for us on hunts, he's even better in his offseason role with the kids climbing on him.

Got my fill this season, had some great times at camps with great people and great meals and usually a few birds on the strap to go with it. Very fortunate to go as much as I did, many thanks to my wonderful wife.

[Darren]

Updated comparison sheet with yesterday's hunt

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[Darren]

Bunkie blind totals:

2018 season: 17 ducks, 0 geese on 14 hunts (fallow field with grown up bush/weeds)

2019 season: 29 ducks, 18 specks on 12 hunts (rice stubble)

2020 season, we hear, will be slick water

[Ericdc]

Bunkie blind totals:

2018 season: 17 ducks, 0 geese on 14 hunts (fallow field with grown up bush/weeds)

2019 season: 29 ducks, 18 specks on 12 hunts (rice stubble)

2020 season, we hear, will be slick water

I’ve become a fan of slick and shallow


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[Darren]

Bunkie blind totals:

2018 season: 17 ducks, 0 geese on 14 hunts (fallow field with grown up bush/weeds)

2019 season: 29 ducks, 18 specks on 12 hunts (rice stubble)

2020 season, we hear, will be slick water

I’ve become a fan of slick and shallow


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Do you make a point to muddy the water around your standing spread? Does it matter? Our water can be pretty clear