North Dakota Waterfowling 2023-2024

[PorkChop]

Lame excuse... So I could shoot this Drake pintail...

Hey I like stealing opportunities from the kids ha ha makes them shoot better in the long run. She got me back though had a single Mallard come in and I am very colorblind. She said it was a Drake and then she shot three times. Definitely a shot that she easily makes. I popped off two shots and of course it was a hen. I think she purposely missed to get me to shoot

[5 stand]

Felt kind of bad about the lame excuse comment, and ended up getting a part of the hunt that we hadn't heard before, cool story... Pretty sure we all have a story about a Drake that turned out to be a hen...

[PorkChop]

Felt kind of bad about the lame excuse comment, and ended up getting a part of the hunt that we hadn't heard before, cool story... Pretty sure we all have a story about a Drake that turned out to be a hen...

Don’t feel so bad about your comments as they give me a chuckle

[5 stand]

[PorkChop]

Well found a ycornfield yesterday that was probably the best Honker and duck feed I found this season. Saw some knuckle chuckle coming from it this morning. For some reason he drove around a few miles and came back and drove back to the field. Saw he had a few decoys in the bed and some other gear. I’m assuming he’s going there to set up or he’s trying to figure out if he can hunt it or not. I think I’m gonna start a go fund me so I don’t have to work anymore. Good thing about today is you can only shoot Geese till 2 o’clock and I didn’t see the birds going in there yesterday till after three. It was a balmy 12° this morning so that should keep the birds from flying anytime soon.

[PorkChop]

Well ladies and gentlemen boys and girls originally they had us next weekend warming up to the 30s and maybe even 40° but now they’ve changed it to below freezing and more snow. My waterfowling season definitely is not dead in the water but I’m gonna have to do a little more traveling now. This of course is good news for you guys unless all them flooded cornfields and heated ponds short stop the birds!

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[Duck Engr]

Bring on da snow machine!

[Rick]

And that's why you don't have to lease a five figure blind in order not to have three other parties shooting your swing on public land.

[PorkChop]

And that's why you don't have to lease a five figure blind in order not to have three other parties shooting your swing on public land.

It’s private land but it’s not posted. There is an unwritten rule here that if somebody beat you to the field you move on. Typically the only people that don’t follow this rule are non-residents. Growing up in Connecticut it was not uncommon to have groups every hundred yards. Here you can be in a full section and 99% of people will move on to somewhere else. Sometimes they will come out and ask if they can join or if you mind if they hunt a different part of the field. Just a lot of common courtesy here for the most part.

I went back to the field when I was done checkin Wells and as it turned out it was five boys that are in Vinny’s class. One of them I taught how to waterfowl hunt. They were picking up as there was district volleyball games at 3 o’clock. If it wasn’t my daughters birthday I would’ve shot out there and hunted. Birds hadn’t flown yet. They said they did pretty good in the field the day before in the morning. They said they had gotten there at 4:30 in the morning and I laughed at them as it was so cold I knew the birds wouldn’t fly till late but they said they didn’t want to get beat to the field by me I asked them if they planned on hunting it tomorrow and they said yes and I said well I was going to sleep in the field tonight. I have no intentions on doing that especially when the temperature are going to be in the low teens. I will see if they are still there in the afternoon and if not I will hunt it.

[Rick]

Was just suggesting that early and long winters have kept the human herd thinner than the case in more temperate climes.

[PorkChop]

Nothing like a reverse migration! Been watching a cornfield but unfortunately it’s still rifle deer season so the landowner still won’t let me in there as they have not got all their deer. He said most likely next week right before everything freezes up again ha ha

I originally planned on hunting the field south of his but their deer blind is almost straight west of that. He said he did not care if I hunted the unposted field but North Dakota natives are pretty funny and I’m not saying North Dakota native Americans just people that are born here. North Dakota nice is typically nice to your face. So didn’t wanna risk being blackballed from this property so we set up in a field north west of the cornfield. Had quite the show of birds landing in the cornfield. Did have five mallards come and one landed in but they were all hens. Vinny thought there was a greenhead in there but the rest of them never committed so we will never know.

Wednesday night is church night and Faith formation for the kids so With about 15 minutes left of shooting time and no hope in sight I told her let’s just pick up. Lots of deer hunters driving around and as each day of the season passes by they get more desperate. As soon as we unloaded our guns and I stood up Vinny says there’s some ducks coming in. I called the shot. I swing to the right and it was a hen so I swing back to the left and the greenhead right in front of me falls before I pull the trigger so I go to the next one and I thought we shot at the same time but the shotkam clearly shows that she shot before me and got it. Reaper came back with another greenhead that Vinny must’ve shot so that would be her third first triple. She said she doesn’t believe that she shot it. She said she thought she missed her first shot. The only other possibility is that Reaper caught it but no clue.

Then another group was coming in and a widgeon landed right in. The other birds just would not commit so I told Vinny to take it. She clipped it with her second shot. She made the mistake of thinking that it was going to go down but it kept on going. It landed in the middle of the cornfield that you can see in the video which is the one where all the ducks were going. Of course as Reaper was going after it a Deer Hunter was coming. Deer Hunter slams on the brakes. I’m freaking out. I see Reaper running all around the cornfield. About five minutes later he’s coming back and I don’t see anything in his mouth but lo and behold he got it. Wish I would’ve had the whole thing on video but just a tail end. Easy 300 plus retrieve. Happy we rolled the dice and gave it a try. Tomorrow we are hunting the other field because the winds will be 20+ and it should be snowing. They won’t be deer hunting in the morning he said so…

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[5 stand]

300 yd retrieve that's pretty cool, I don't think Trigger has made a 300 yard retrieve without help... Kudos to him...
I also need to give credit to the young lady that put steel in all four of those birds...
And dadgummit I hate to do it, but I better give the old man credit for making it all happen...

What a fine evening it turned out to be for Vinny Quack and crew

[PorkChop]

Truth be told if he didn’t break I don’t think he would’ve made that retrieve without help! Usually have him state to the ground just because every once in a while he will do that but in this situation I am happy he did.

[5 stand]

"I'm happy he did". I am too, it made for a lifetime memory...
Was an evening of lifetime memories...

[PorkChop]

"I'm happy he did". I am too, it made for a lifetime memory...
Was an evening of lifetime memories...

I’m old I’ll be lucky if I remember in the morning

[PorkChop]

I can’t believe all the YouTube wackos are not flaming Vinny for biting the duck’s head

[5 stand]

"I’m old I’ll be lucky if I remember in the morning"

, you always give me a good chuckle...

You're good for this site, Buddy!!!

[5 stand]

I can’t believe all the YouTube wackos are not flaming Vinny for biting the duck’s head

Give them time...

[PorkChop]

[Rick]

I can’t believe all the YouTube wackos are not flaming Vinny for biting the duck’s head

Naw, not since Robertson and his DC crew made it cool.

Ever notice that the most reliable birds out there show up when you've unloaded the guns? Ca;; them "Chamber of Commerce birds". Just coming by to say "Y'all come back."

[Deltaman]

A triple on Greenheads You go Vinny Quack!!!!!!

[PorkChop]

Well as luck would have it we got beat to the field this morning. Set up in another field that I knew some honkers were going into. Only had one single that wanted to play and we missed him.

After I brought the girls home I went by the field and the guy was walking to his truck so I drove out there. Turned out it was somebody I knew and we could’ve joined him. He shot his limit of honkers and mallards and a bonus widgeon. We sat there and talked for four hours. It’s just how it goes sometimes!

[PorkChop]

Our season in my zone ends tomorrow. Still have a few birds to play with but very stale and coming in big groups. Vinny and I have been picking a few off here and they’re just nice to be able to hunt still.
This was from two days ago

[Duck Engr]

Green wing teal. In North Dakota. Last week of November. Does not bode well for us southern fellows!

[PorkChop]

I can only imagine how many are in the southern part of the state

[PorkChop]

A guy I know that lives in the Jamestown area was part of a three-man limit of greenheads and a widgeon yesterday. For us yesterday first group of birds flew right over us like we weren’t there. second group dumped in probably the best I’ve ever had a group dump in from the heavens before. It’s almost like they fell out of the sky. I called the shot and got a triple on green heads. Vinny must’ve been overwhelmed or excited as she only winged one that flew and then went down but when Reaper went to go get it, it got back up and flew away. The rest of the birds came about two minutes after shooting time , not sure if we will go today or not. We went coyote hunting last night. I am running on empty. Getting ready to head out to work, 11 o’clock mass and then we will see how I feel.

Reaper wanted to cuddle with me in my layout.

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[Rick]

What kind of man would try to claim his baby girl's triple?

[PorkChop]

What kind of man would try to claim his baby girl's triple?

[5 stand]

Good shooting...

[PorkChop]

The triple