# Redhead or Gadwall?



## OPENCOUNTRY (Jan 25, 2009)

So I got this bird the other day and my first thought was gadwall. After thinking about it more and more I thought that it could be a redhead. However I have never shot a redhead (unless this duck is one) so what do you think? What is it? I'm usually pretty good with ducks and I wish I had taken a picture of the wings so I could figure it out myself but this picture is all I have to go off of now.


----------



## benelli man (Oct 4, 2007)

That's definitely a gadwall drake.


----------



## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Looking at photos of redheads it looks like they have a lighter colored beak. I'm saying gadwall.


----------



## cootlover (Sep 26, 2015)

For sure not a red head no doubt it's a gaddy . Wrong feet color wrong everything. I think a male gaddy full plum is hard to beat :mrgreen:


----------



## OPENCOUNTRY (Jan 25, 2009)

Alright. Cool cool! Thanks guys. I was right the first time!  just for fun... Here is the only other duck I got that day.


----------



## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Gadwall drakes are beautiful birds, too bad they taste nasty.-O,-


----------



## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

Fowlmouth said:


> Gadwall drakes are beautiful birds, too bad they taste nasty.-O,-


Yep, really sad they're so bad. I'd target then if they didn't suck. I only shoot them by mistake or if I'm desperate.


----------



## cootlover (Sep 26, 2015)

That's a nice coot you shot.


----------



## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

Fowlmouth said:


> Gadwall drakes are beautiful birds, too bad they taste nasty.-O,-


We eat them all the time, I don't find they taste nasty and I'm very particular. I normally brine mine for about 3 days before cooking them though.


----------



## JuniorPre 360 (Feb 22, 2012)

LostLouisianian said:


> We eat them all the time, I don't find they taste nasty and I'm very particular. I normally brine mine for about 3 days before cooking them though.


They're jerky ducks. Soak them in your teriyaki for 24 hours, and the bad taste is gone.


----------



## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

That's funny, I've never noticed gaddies tasting different than any other duck. Not as good as a big drake mallard, but I don't think I could tell the difference between a gadwall, wigeon, or pintail on the plate.


----------



## flankfeather (Feb 21, 2015)

Gaddies have given me the trots on more than one occasion. As much as I'd like to ingest them out of the pan, I'm afraid they'll always be a jerky duck for me. Unless I run out of Metamucil...then I may reconsider.

Either way, glad to see someone shootin' em up!


----------



## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Pumpgunner said:


> That's funny, I've never noticed gaddies tasting different than any other duck. Not as good as a big drake mallard, but I don't think I could tell the difference between a gadwall, wigeon, or pintail on the plate.


This will sound crazy, but I can taste the difference on a plate or jerkey. I would even say the texture is different, kind of mushy like spam.-O,- I would rather eat a merganser.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I eat a lot of Gaddies. They're OK by me. Kinda taste like a winter Wigeon.

.


----------



## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> We eat them all the time, I don't find they taste nasty and I'm very particular. I normally brine mine for about 3 days before cooking them though.





JuniorPre 360 said:


> They're jerky ducks. Soak them in your teriyaki for 24 hours, and the bad taste is gone.


I have a hard time choking them down. Too bad, but I've tried to eat them several times without success. I kill plenty of geese to use for jerky. I'll just stich to shooting what tastes good. I've had mallard the last four nights, pan seared breast either skin on or skin off. Almost as good as pintail, but I haven't done a blind test yet.

A friend of mine shot a couple of fat canvasbacks drakes a few days ago that he's just going to give to me. I'll use Hank Shaw's recipe for roasted Canvasback and hominy tonight. He says in his book that in the heyday of market hunting the menu for the Waldorf Hotel in NYC listed that dish for $4.50, which translates to $104 today.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

uh...wigeons over here in Hooterville tend to hang with the goldeneyes. Wigeons follow the goldeneyes around eating snails and other "junk" that those divers stir up off the bottom of the river.


----------



## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

mmmmm hominy! Had a meal the other night, can of hominy and a can of black beans, mixed together with a ton of butter. Love the stuff.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Call me crazy, but I have a dozen Gadwall dekes I use from time to to time.

.


----------



## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

wyogoob said:


> Call me crazy, but I have a dozen Gadwall dekes I use from time to to time.
> .


Those probably taste better than the real ones.


----------



## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

Fowlmouth said:


> Those probably taste better than the real ones.


Totally agree!! I had some gadwall dekes, nice G&H ones, before I learned better. Sold them but shipping was expensive.


----------



## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

I age all my ducks for at least 8 days before I eat them, so maybe that makes the difference-it really mellows the flavor out. 

Paddler, if I remember right, cans, redheads, black ducks, and mallards brought the highest prices at market, with mergansers being dead last-people actually bought them for animal food! Funny thing is that if you look at a lot of market gunner's decoy rigs they are usually all canvasback decoys or simple black and white painted divers-they kept it pretty simple. My dad was telling me that he remembers seeing my great-grandpa's diver hunting rig of black and white wood and cork decoys when he was a boy-I would love to have just one of those decoys now! They also used to gun for shorebirds quite a bit-I've visited a few decoy museums in North Carolina that have some cool old shorebird rigs. Rails and curlew were quite popular on the table in those days apparently. Even though I'm glad it all came to an end, it would be a lot of fun to step back into the days of live decoys, sinkboxes, punt guns, night shoots, and spring shooting for a week or so!


----------



## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

It got to be too late to roast the cans, so they'll have to wait. They're plucked and cleaned, though, waiting in the garage. Couldn't find red currant jelly, either. I'll post up some photos if it comes out well.


----------



## cootlover (Sep 26, 2015)

I saw a chart cans were $ 7.50 /8.00 mallards were .75 /1.00


----------

