# Divers are in!!



## JuniorPre 360 (Feb 22, 2012)

So, it's the beginning of my most favorite time of the season. The divers are in!!! I don't hunt them out of a layout boat or anything fancy, and my decoys are hand painted. I had a pretty quick hunt on Saturday. I ended up shooting 4 buffleheads out of the same flock that landed in the decoys. It was pretty slow so I was gone by 11:30. Buffleheads are by far my favorite duck. How about you guys?


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

JuniorPre 360 said:


> So, it's the beginning of my most favorite time of the season. The divers are in!!! I don't hunt them out of a layout boat or anything fancy, and my decoys are hand painted. I had a pretty quick hunt on Saturday. I ended up shooting 4 buffleheads out of the same flock that landed in the decoys. It was pretty slow so I was gone by 11:30. Buffleheads are by far my favorite duck. How about you guys?


Never hunted specifically for divers before. They are awesome ducks but are they any good to eat? I've heard both ways on them before. Wouldn't want to shoot a duck that I wasn't going to eat.


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

I had 7 cans come right in a couple weeks ago. I didn't fire a shell.


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

LL- Redheads, Ringers, and Cans are some of the best eating ducks in my opinion. Bluebills can go either way depending on what they've been feeding on and I don't shoot very many goldeneyes because they are probably the worst tasting duck out there to me. Buffleheads aren't great either but they are such good-looking little ducks it can be hard to pass on the prime drakes!
In the old market days, Cans and Redheads fetched some of the highest prices, more than mallards even, so you know that they are good....my favorite birds to hunt too JR! Nothing beats a flock of divers tearing through your spread at mach 2 just inches above the water!


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## JuniorPre 360 (Feb 22, 2012)

I will actually cook cans, but the rest of the divers make some good jerky!


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

LostLouisianian said:


> Never hunted specifically for divers before. They are awesome ducks but are they any good to eat? I've heard both ways on them before. Wouldn't want to shoot a duck that I wasn't going to eat.


1. Canvasback - Is right up there with Wood Duck for the best tasting duck.

2. Redhead - Is as good as a mallard

3/4. Ringnecks and Ruddies - Is as good as a Wigeon

5. Scaup - Swings from Redhead to Merganser. It depends of what they have been eating.

6. Buffleheads - Is as good as a Shoveler

7. Mergansers (Not really a diver by classification)- It takes a lot of work, but they can turn out pretty good. Brine for a week to take the fish flavor out and they are decent.

8. Goldeneyes - They can live. Nasty ducks. You can use the merganser method, but they will be no better than a Bufflehead.

A simple sugar & salt water brine refrigerated for a week changing brine daily, will change the way you eat duck. It may also turn you into a coot sniper, because they are very good using the brining method.


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## JuniorPre 360 (Feb 22, 2012)

MuscleWhitefish said:


> 1. Canvasback - Is right up there with Wood Duck for the best tasting duck.
> 
> 2. Redhead - Is as good as a mallard
> 
> ...


I swear mergansers were dulling my knives. So I stopped shooting them.


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## diverfreak (May 11, 2008)

Glad to hear the divers just showed up. I need to get out and see if I can find a few.


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Funny thing about Goldeneyes, though-a buddy of mine from Maine told me that they are really prized as good-eating birds there, which was really surprising to me. Either they have a totally different diet than ours which makes them taste better, or people from Maine have a totally different concept of what tastes good!


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

JuniorPre 360 said:


> I swear mergansers were dulling my knives. So I stopped shooting them.


Funny you mention that.

I've shot at a few that I was pretty sure they were bullet proof.

Their skin must have a lot of similarities to Kevlar.


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## Fowl_faith (Aug 27, 2015)

Buffle heads i think are the toughest of the ducks, which makes them fun, This is my son's was his last duck of the season last year and completed his diver band. Im not a fan goldy's cause I rather not eat them along with mergansers.


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

utahgolf said:


> I had 7 cans come right in a couple weeks ago. I didn't fire a shell.


Troll.


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

Clarq said:


> Troll.


I'm being serious ;-)


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

diverfreak said:


> Glad to hear the divers just showed up. I need to get out and see if I can find a few.


Hey freak! Let us know if you can "find a few"...:mrgreen: being how the just shown up and all!


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## diverfreak (May 11, 2008)

king eider said:


> Hey freak! Let us know if you can "find a few"...:mrgreen: being how the just shown up and all!


 I went out in the wind today and the only divers I shot were in a strong south wind, so not sure if they were northerns or southerns. I'm thinking a few more weeks and the cans should be showing but that's if we get a strong stormy north wind.


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## JuniorPre 360 (Feb 22, 2012)

diverfreak said:


> I went out in the wind today and the only divers I shot were in a strong south wind, so not sure if they were northerns or southerns. I'm thinking a few more weeks and the cans should be showing but that's if we get a strong stormy north wind.


I've seen maybe 20 cans so far. A single high flying flock, and a nice bull swimming through a raft of coots. You don't want to try and shoot them if they're flying with the wind. You'd need a good 5 foot lead of them.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

JuniorPre 360 said:


> I've seen maybe 20 cans so far. A single high flying flock, and a nice bull swimming through a raft of coots. You don't want to try and shoot them if they're flying with the wind. You'd need a good 5 foot lead of them.


Cans are capable of 70MPH, add a 30 MPH tail wind and they're doing 100...shoot at the first bird in a string and hit the 4th bird back...LOL


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

diverfreak said:


> I went out in the wind today and the only divers I shot were in a strong south wind, so not sure if they were northerns or southerns. I'm thinking a few more weeks and the cans should be showing but that's if we get a strong stormy north wind.


Definitely they were southern cans yesterday. it wasnt cold enough nor did we have a north wind to bring in the BIG northern divers.... Tired like mad to have a good puddle duck shoot, but these cans kept getting in the way!


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

That's a lot of divers...nice going!


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## diverfreak (May 11, 2008)

Dang Eider King! Looks like a few cans just showed up!


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

diverfreak said:


> Dang Eider King! Looks like a few cans just showed up!


Just 2 small flocks is all. Need a north wind. These were locals...


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## diverfreak (May 11, 2008)

JuniorPre 360 said:


> I've seen maybe 20 cans so far. A single high flying flock, and a nice bull swimming through a raft of coots. You don't want to try and shoot them if they're flying with the wind. You'd need a good 5 foot lead of them.


20 cans is a good start! I'm just looking for 1!


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Had a flock of 7 or 8 drake cans buzz my decoys 5 minutes before shooting this AM, they looked nice and colored up too. Also had a single hen come by 3 times, let her go each time but it's still nice to see the big divers coming through!


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