# Your first duck



## Lord of the Drakes (Oct 4, 2007)

Hey guys I thought that it might be cool to find out what your first ducks were. 

My first duck was a hen gadwall

it was my first shot of the day on this years youth hunt
i limited out that day i got this hen, i got 3 hen greenwings, 1 drake greenwing, 1 drake gadwall, and last shot a very pretty mallard drake, I was even picking the ducks that I wanted toward the end. I limited out an hour and a half after shooting time.


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## bowhunter301 (Sep 11, 2007)

mine was also this youth duck hunt, green wing teal. i shot four ducks, one green wing, one blue wing, and a nice cinamon teal, and one greenhead


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## Lord of the Drakes (Oct 4, 2007)

come on guys, I know that only 9 people have looked at it, but take 30 seconds and tell me what your first duck was, I want to know.


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## stick_man (Sep 10, 2007)

I don't remember what my first duck was, that was a lonnnnnng time ago. All I can remember is it was alive when I pulled the trigger and dead seconds later. My guess would be it was a mallard. I used to jump shoot ducks a lot on the strawberry tributaries and used to find a lot of mallards up there.


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## Lord of the Drakes (Oct 4, 2007)

bowhunter301 said:


> mine was also this youth duck hunt, green wing teal. i shot four ducks, one green wing, one blue wing, and a nice cinamon teal, and one greenhead


you shot a blue wing !!!    

Lucky, pictures please


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## Dckhunter13 (Sep 20, 2007)

A Drake Mallard at farmington bay. It is sitting five feet from me preening. It's purdy. I also shot a hen pintail  :evil: . Hasnt hapened since


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## bowhunter301 (Sep 11, 2007)

sorry lord of the drakes, i don't have any pictures that i can upload!


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## Ducks-til-I-DIE (Sep 22, 2007)

My first duck wasn't a duck it was a coot. :rotfl: I didn't know any better, until some nice guy informed me, "oh thats just a coot." I think that was the last one i shot.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

my first duck was a hen teal.


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## ChiefAutoParts (Sep 20, 2007)

Drake greenwing teal...


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## duck jerky (Sep 8, 2007)

a mallard 24 years ago.


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## LETTER-RIP (Sep 14, 2007)

Gadwall. Great Salt Lake. Opening morning with my dad. 410 shotgun.


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## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

Mine was a mallard. Back then I didn't know that there were any other kinds.


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## Nibble Nuts (Sep 12, 2007)

Mine was a Scaup. Nice purple heads on those things. Don't do much duck hunting though.


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## Duurty1 (Sep 10, 2007)

drake mallard, opening day last year


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## jerald (Oct 21, 2007)

Black Duck,


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## Kraizee (Sep 17, 2007)

8) mine was a hen cinny.


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## Nasher (Oct 9, 2007)

A Nine pound Mallard Drake.. 17 years ago...Long Story :?


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

My first duck (I'd shot a few coots before then) was a drake Gadwall. Poked the gun through the cattails and smoked him on the water. I wound up having to smack him on my gun barrel to finish him off... what a bloody mess that was.... I didn't know the wring the neck trick then. :?


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## dckhuntr (Oct 11, 2007)

mine was a drake greenwing teal out at ogden bay last year for youth hunt


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## adamb (Sep 23, 2007)

mallard drake last youth hunt


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## dunn_gary (Sep 11, 2007)

Mine was an eclipse drake shoveler. My son and I decided to try Public Saturday morning. The wind was blowing like a banshee from the North, so we didn't go the the spot we had originally intended as we would have been looking directly into the wind. We went a bit further South and found a nice little pond. The only thing to deke in for us well was the shoveler. Most everything else was just cruising by and not looking to land, even with the lousy weather. I heard quite a few shots, but I wonder how many were from hunters sky busting? I guess I'll never know, but the birds were not looking to land anywhere close. That has been my only trip out this year so far. We'll see what this Sat. brings. Too nice of weather?


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## wapiti67 (Oct 2, 2007)

Mine was a Redhead Drake and a Great Mallard...but that was in the good ol days when we could hunt the canals by 6400 west...my son just got his first ducks on the youth opener...


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

Well, my first duck ever was a woodduck drake many years ago back home in Arkansas, I still remember it, it hangs on my living room wall now.

As for this years first duck...greenwing teal


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## LawMan (Sep 25, 2007)

Nasher said:


> A Nine pound Mallard Drake.. 17 years ago...Long Story :?


That sounds like a story worth hearing.....

I don't remember my first duck, it was too long ago, I do know it was at FB with an old single shot .410. While I don't remember the specific duck, some of my favorite memories involve walking the dikes at FB with my dad. There was nothing better.


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## sliverflick (Sep 18, 2007)

My first duck ever was on this year's opening day. It was also my first time duck hunting. It was a green wing teal, shot at Farmington bay in the afternoon. What a cold, wet, and miserable day that was.... the good news was the ol' duck was sporting some jewelry. Got the details back and found out the duck was from Alberta Canada...banded in 2006. 

I wont forget that outing. I was with my brother and buddy....they both swamped their hip waters within minutes of being in the water. Had to row the old "velveeta queen" for what felt like hours since we don't have a motor yet. Cold and raining...snowing in the mountains. Had a blast and certainly won't forget that trip anytime soon.


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## Rabbit_slayer16 (Oct 18, 2007)

green wing teal


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## Nasher (Oct 9, 2007)

Keep in mind this was a long time ago..

A friend and I decided to ditch school and try out our hand at becoming mighty duck hunters. We came up with a game plan and decided to go out to a little secluded place that was behind his girlfriends’ house. There was a medium sized pond surrounded by cattails and a little marshy area off to the side. She had told us before that Ducks were there and we could hunt it any time.

Armed with my dads A5 Sweet Sixteen, totally unaware that it was missing from his gun cabinet, because I knew he would say no, I thought I would just make sure it was back in the cabinet before he got home.. Anyway, we gathered a few things, decoys, ammo and whatever camo clothing was hangin around the house and headed out to this pond.

We arrived and headed out behind her dads farm and had seen a few ducks come off the pond as we were walking towards it thinking this was going to be good. We tossed a few decoys out, sat in the cattails and waited.. A few birds had come over but nothing in range, at least what we thought at the time was in range, 150 yards or so and we were probably sticking out like sore thumbs, goofin off and not really paying attention. Just happy we weren’t in school.

A couple hours had passed and I had noticed a few Ducks bombing into this little area surrounded by large trees off in the distance, determined to get a duck, I left my friend their and headed off towards this little area. I devised a way to get their without scaring all the ducks off the pond. Belly crawlin through a ditch bank on all fours and slinkin through the weeds; I came to a gate that surrounded this area all the ducks were landing in. It had an old rusty sign on it. Couldn’t read what it said from all the shotgun holes through it. But I was getting close and had to get over it. Of course as I was climbing over the gate, all the ducks I had watched land in their had took off.. I got back into the ditch as quick as I could, thinking there had to be a few stragglers still on the pond.
Sure enough, I could see 3-4 ducks on the far end 100 yards or so, on the other side. Doin the belly crawl I made it through the trees and brush, making a loop to the other side. I came over the berm peeking through the weeds and I saw….
2 Albino Mallards and a very large Green Head. The Albino Mallards swam off just out of gun range and as I stood up out of the weeds, the big Drake flapped his wings (I was thinking he was flying off) and I shot him before he had a chance to get away.

Didn’t realize it was tame until I asked my dad to help me clean him, He asked me it was flying when I shot it (I said yes, even if it was only 2 inches off the water) He just proceeded to show me with a strange look on his face..
Then he asked if I returned the sixteen to its proper place, patted me on the back and laughed as he walked off..
I never understood what he was laughing at until later. Perhaps its the fact that duck weighed 9 pounds..


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## wingmanck (Sep 7, 2007)

jerald said:


> Black Duck,


Are you sure it wasn't a hen pinner? :lol: If you were on the DWR forum you'll know what that means. IF not, ask huntinbuddy. He knows! lol

...and for the record, mine was a drake GWT doing mach 1 and crazy acrobatics at the same time - such a b.s. lucky shot but I'll take it any way I can get it. :lol:


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## Stuffinducks (Sep 19, 2007)

Drake Mallard back in 1980. :shock: Shot him while hunting pheasants in Genola.

SD


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## Donttreadonme (Sep 11, 2007)

My first duck was a drake mallard. *()* Unfortunately the creek I shot it off of is now right in front of a commercial strip mall. _/O It was a late season jumpshoot with my dad on a creek fed by warm water springs. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I shot it with my trusty single shot 20 ga.


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## bigcanadajon (Oct 17, 2007)

Drake Mallard. My dad and I were jump shooting ducks and we saw a group of 6-8 mallards on the weber river near Kamas. There were some thick willows all around the birds so dad planted me upriver behind a big willow and said he would push them up right in front of me and to pick out a fat greenhead drake. He went below them and to get the birds to fly right in front of me. I watched him walk downstream about 100 yards and then he began to sneak that bend to see where the birds were. When I lost him in the water, I could tell that he was going to push them up any second. Our family had a rule that you could only shoot a 20-gauge your first year out and you could only have one shell in. I recommend that for the first year of a hunter so they don't get a bad habit of wasting shots and learn to flock shoot or not focus on the first shot being a kill shot. So with only having one shot, I knew it had to be right on to have a chance of dropping the drake. All of a sudden, I heard some loud quacks and then dad shot twice at birds i'd later learned were two dead drake mallards. Then, I looked to see the ducks rise above the willows in front of me to see that dad had pushed them up right in front of me about 15 yards high. I had my choice of 3 large drakes and a couple of hens, but focused in on one big drake with a dark green head. I put the BB right on him looking down my barrel and shot. He dropped, but wasn't dead. Dad later came up and said he saw the drake fall. He had our female black lab with him at the time and we proceeded to find the bird that landed around the willows on the other side of the bank. The dog was on the scent and was wagging her tail rather fast, and then the drake came waddling around a small bush and jumped into the water for a dive. The lab proceeded to swim and search for the diving drake. I could see the bird underwater and when the dog wasnt around I shot the bird and put and end to the diving chase. From that sneak, 3 drakes and a new duck hunter's first mallard.


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## jeorv (Sep 23, 2007)

Eclipse Drake Mallard in the swamps north east of Payson in 1986, I could probably walk right to the exact spot today.


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## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

Drake greenwing and a huge canadian goose 10 minutes later!


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

mine was a hen green wing. a tight flock of 75-100 birds came over me at about twenty yards. i unloaded all three shots and nothing happened. About forty yards away, one lone duck decided to die, which was my first..hadnt figured out the whole flock shooting thing yet


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## SingleShot man (Dec 24, 2007)

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: 
My first was rather perplexing, and brings up mixed emotions-

We rolled into Howard's Slough about 5:30. No dogs, just a 40- something neighbor whom offered to take the neighbor kid out, and his nephews. We walked along the (dike? levy?) for a good while, each kid fading off into the rushes at random points. I saw a likely spot in the pre-dawn gloaming and broke off to it, a good 40 minutes in. 
The troupe continued onward after the Uncle (I forget his name) hissed "Noon... 1/4 mile up!". I sat in my stealthy, if not damp, digs.
The marsh slowly faded into life with the coming dawn. Without provocation, a fusillade of shots tickled my eardrums from afar. A black cloud of fowl obliterated the coming sun- plunging the dawn into momentary dusk. I gazed skyward, searching for the clouds that were producing a very sudden onslought of rain. Cloudless. Completely. No water glistened; there was no dew or accumulation. It was a dry rain. I held a palm out. Within seconds, a pearlescent orb lit in my grasp. Upon inspection, I surmised it to be a steel TTT shot. It was raining steel. Opening morning of waterfowl was as close to Khe Sahn as I may ever experience.
The fowl stayed to the South and West, running the broad tail of the slough that petered out into No-Man's-Land, out of range.
The day crept on. I heard shooting to the north of me on a few random occasions, but saw not birds. In my pocket I had two biscuits stuffed with cheese and smoked sausage. Oh, and a bag of peanuts. I have yet to this day eat a lunch as satisfying as that ONE. it was cold; having set into actual rain later (more of a light drizzle propeled by a 30 mph wind that fed on your soul) and I was underdressed. I wiped my mouth clean, rubbed my thighs (jeans will always be the ultimate napkin) and stood up. My legs went to jello, and I immediately flopped back down. My legs were asleep, right below the hips. Woops.
Having produced such a racket in the reeds, a drake Malard decided ' enough is enough' and took to wing. I had a borrowed NEF 20 ga stuffed with 2 3/4" max-dram steel, size four. The malard flushed not 20 feet from me, out of the cattails. He flew straight up, then circled- taking a good look at me. I drew a bead with about a 4" lead (If I'm picturing it correctly) and dropped the hammer. The ol' NEF not only bucked but it popped open, expelling the spent shell in my face. I reloaded. The malard was hit solid, just below the neck. I remember seeing the feathers fly in that spot. He stayed airborn and circled right back toward me. I sighted again and fired. He flew into the shot cloud. He dropped to earth, then immediately took to flight again. I reloaded- the previous shell having expelled itself of its own volition again. 
He circled back around, crossing me. I drew aim, followed through with a pleasant thump to the shoulder. He dropped to the black water, then started swimming! I ran along the (dike? levy?), reloading the single as I went. He flopped up onto the shore, still thirty feet way. I let go with that last shot. I didn't run to the creature. I sat down, cross legged, and thought real hard about how I killed that creature. I came to the conclusion that I'll live an otherwise fulfilling life if I never have to do/see that again.
Hence-
SingleShot Man.
It's where we all start!


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## BugBuilder (Oct 17, 2007)

I was 12 years old and was using my moms Peters 20 gauge pump. My dad and I snuck up on a farm pond on my Grandparents ranch in Idaho. We could hear ducks and see ripples as we snuck up behind a large bank on one side of the pond. We came up over the rise and I blasted a nice greenhead mallard as it sat on the water. The second duck jumped up and dad shot it. He then proceeded to explain how you need to let them fly first and not shoot them off the water. We had to get a board and hay string to get my duck out of the pond. I have a picture of me holding the duck. That will always be a great memory with my dad, we have had some great hunts since. I have not shot a bird off the water or ground since that one. That was 22 years ago, wow time goes fast, enjoy it while you can!

BugBuilder


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