Marc
12-28-2005, 05:32 PM
When I was younger, I used to do a lot of duck hunting with my father and it was frustrating on how many birds fell and how many we actually recovered. If we recovered 50% of the birds we knocked down we were doing good. They'd fall in the grass and you'd go looking for them and if you were really lucky you found it.
Then when I moved away from home and hunted with a buddy a couple of times with a dog I couldn't believe the difference in the recovery rate. Pretty darn near 100%.
The following winter I got myself a Labrador retriever and spent all winter training him. His first fall at 11 months he recovered 26 duck and a goose. We only lost 2 ducks that fall and we looked hard and long. I say we because it's not the dogs fault I made a bad shot and the duck managed to get away. So I take half the blame on the two we lost that fall. Not bad considering a dog's first year.
I spent most of that winter refining his skills and after his first year he's been 100% since. Trust me it's not because I became that much better of a shot and killed all the ducks. We searched for quite a few birds with the introduction of steel shot.
The following winter I started reloading my own steel shells, which cut the cost down, and I was able to create a better shell for my money, it hit harder and killed more ducks and geese.
In my opinion, every serious duck hunter needs a Labrador or Chesapeake Bay (thicker coat but not as friendly around others) retriever. It's amazing how many of those lost birds people would have recovered with a retriever. It's surprising how well a duck can hide in the grass and how much land they can cover in a short period of time. If you were serious about duck hunting I'd seriously consider your next investment to be a retriever.
I'm not trying to single anyone out or anything, this goes for anyone out there that hunts Ducks and Geese. I believe, and I'm sure Dano and other duck hunters who own retrievers as well, that if you're going to be shooting ducks or geese over a marsh, or field for that matter, you should be using a retriever of some kind. You owe it to the birds to ensure they get found, put down and added to your daily bag limit. The only way to increase your recovery rate is:
1. Spend more time at the trap and skeet range in the off-season
2. Let the birds get closer before you shoot
3. Get yourself a retriever.
If you did all 3 of these things I could almost guarantee you that your recovery rate would be darn close to 100% The last couple of percentage would be determined by how well you trained your retriever and how much natural instinct he had.
Marc.
Then when I moved away from home and hunted with a buddy a couple of times with a dog I couldn't believe the difference in the recovery rate. Pretty darn near 100%.
The following winter I got myself a Labrador retriever and spent all winter training him. His first fall at 11 months he recovered 26 duck and a goose. We only lost 2 ducks that fall and we looked hard and long. I say we because it's not the dogs fault I made a bad shot and the duck managed to get away. So I take half the blame on the two we lost that fall. Not bad considering a dog's first year.
I spent most of that winter refining his skills and after his first year he's been 100% since. Trust me it's not because I became that much better of a shot and killed all the ducks. We searched for quite a few birds with the introduction of steel shot.
The following winter I started reloading my own steel shells, which cut the cost down, and I was able to create a better shell for my money, it hit harder and killed more ducks and geese.
In my opinion, every serious duck hunter needs a Labrador or Chesapeake Bay (thicker coat but not as friendly around others) retriever. It's amazing how many of those lost birds people would have recovered with a retriever. It's surprising how well a duck can hide in the grass and how much land they can cover in a short period of time. If you were serious about duck hunting I'd seriously consider your next investment to be a retriever.
I'm not trying to single anyone out or anything, this goes for anyone out there that hunts Ducks and Geese. I believe, and I'm sure Dano and other duck hunters who own retrievers as well, that if you're going to be shooting ducks or geese over a marsh, or field for that matter, you should be using a retriever of some kind. You owe it to the birds to ensure they get found, put down and added to your daily bag limit. The only way to increase your recovery rate is:
1. Spend more time at the trap and skeet range in the off-season
2. Let the birds get closer before you shoot
3. Get yourself a retriever.
If you did all 3 of these things I could almost guarantee you that your recovery rate would be darn close to 100% The last couple of percentage would be determined by how well you trained your retriever and how much natural instinct he had.
Marc.