Duck Season 2011/12 v 2012/13 gear, ducks, etc.

[importxpresions]

I don't know about anyone else but I'm already getting anxious about the 2012/13 duck season with all the new catalogs, gear and accessories for the waterfowl season. We hunt a couple of lakes that are on about 600 acres of land my buddy owns outside of Prague.

Last season we killed lots of ducks including gadwall , wood duck, green winged teal, mallard, lesser and greater scaup, merganser and one golden eye.
We had plenty of chances to get geese but due to the fact that Canadians mate for life we have decided to not hunt them, I know what a bunch of softy's.

Anyways I know there's some new gear out like flambeau's uv painted decoys, a ton of $150+ duck calls, and the new Winchester blind side which is what I am switching to from hevi-shot.

So what I would like to know is where you guys hunt, what gear you're using, what kind of ducks did you see last year, and what changes your going to make for the 2012-2013 season.

I know that I need to take out my shotgun and probably hit the skeet range a couple times before October.

I know it's early but good hunters practice early on targets, the unprepared don't and practice on ducks and guess what ,they miss a lot more ducks than we do.

 

[Okie4570]

I know it's early but good hunters practice early on targets, the unprepared don't and practice on ducks and guess what ,they miss a lot more ducks than we do.

Good hunters may, but good shooters don't need to Just kidding, and welcome to OSA. You are correct about practice. The only thing we're going to change, is to maybe try more corn,milo, and bean field hunting. Water was limited last year up here, but our usual good spots still had water but duck numbers were way way down on them. On a whim, we got permission from a friend who had a pond that we'd never hunted just about 12 miles SE of where we usually hunt, mallards and teal by the hundreds. Ponds up by Salt Plains Refuge were loaded with mallards as well. Gear wise, we're on the cheap side, a camo 3.5 in O/U, a mossberg pump, couple of layout blinds, 5yo waders, 3 doz texas rigged mallards and teal, coffee thermos and a good black lab. Geese are a curse on wheat fields around here, they get shot or shot at, same with sandhill cranes.

 

[makeithappen]

I'm sticking with the same Stoeger P350 12 gauge, Winchester X-pert 3in in #2 shot, and Goose Down Game Calls double reed calls. I'm touching up the paint on my decoys, skeet shooting this month, dove hunting in September, then early Teal season. I'll be good to go by first season.

 

[Garand]

I picked up a new boat so I can be more mobile this year and have already scouted new areas that look "ducky". I plan to have new areas scouted in every direction out of Tulsa. Last year we had some trouble finding them, they weren't in the areas we hunted the years previous, going to know of more places to look this year.

I just yesterday picked up a new blind bag that I think will work pretty well.. its an Academy store brand, but it seems to be setup pretty well.

I use Doc Calls pretty much exclusively, I really like the sound and design. They require VERY little air to drive.

 

[importxpresions]

Good hunters may, but good shooters don't need to

You're right some people only need maybe 2 shots to get back on, then again those guys have shot thousands of rounds over probably 20 years lol.

I was shooting some hevi shot then got some remington hypersonic steel shot and that messed me up half way through the season with the fps on the hevi shot around what 1200+/- and the hypersonic being 1700 fps. My leads were all messed up , I guess that's why they say practice what you shoot. Sadly it costs too much to practice with hevi shot lol.

 

[tbirch]

I am still using my Remington 1100 from years ago. Problem is everything is about dried up. Having no boat really puts a strain on productive lake hunting in general although there are some options around Eufaula for us. Love Deep Fork still.

 

[bernardderek]

I got rid of my old Benelli Nova and picked up a Browning Maxus! We have been shooting skeet once a week for the last couple of months. I acquired about 4 doz more dekes from all of the various DU events I attended this year so I will have to get rid of the old paint chipped ones and rig up the new ones. The bad part is I will be down in MS for training for the first half of the season before the split so I wont get to do much hunting in OK. Hopefully I can run into the duck commander and hunt with him! lol

 

[Mikemc]

Can't wait for duck season.... Last year before the start of the season I was depressed over the lack of water in the ponds I hunt. Turned out to be one the best duck seasons I've ever had... Even though most spots were down to half the normal size I killed a bunch of GWT, Gadwall, with a few mallards/ pintail mixed in... I'm not sure if it was the low water or high temps but I didn't see as many mallards as I usually do...
As far as gear goes I use GHG/ H&H decoys, mixture of calls ( duck commander, primos), stoeger m2000 shotgun (always have the old Mossberg 500 in the truck just in case) winchester Drylock shells in #3, and maggie (5 YO yellow lab).

 

[Lurker66]

This will be my first real duck season. Going to use my Yildez 20 SxS with hevi shot or Remmy 1100 12. got a dzn decoys and new waders.

My calling is bad but i hunt with good callers.

 

[importxpresions]

Can't wait for duck season.... Last year before the start of the season I was depressed over the lack of water in the ponds I hunt. Turned out to be one the best duck seasons I've ever had... Even though most spots were down to half the normal size I killed a bunch of GWT, Gadwall, with a few mallards/ pintail mixed in... I'm not sure if it was the low water or high temps but I didn't see as many mallards as I usually do...
As far as gear goes I use GHG/ H&H decoys, mixture of calls ( duck commander, primos), stoeger m2000 shotgun (always have the old Mossberg 500 in the truck just in case) winchester Drylock shells in #3, and maggie (5 YO yellow lab).

We got a good amount of mallards and scaup but we shot a ton of gadwall. I finally got around to checking DU's website and saw that their proposed population growth from last years flock was up something like 11%.