Greenheads or hens?

[Dutch]

Now that the true end of the season is upon us I have had some time to digest the latest from some of my many magazines. I found an interesting article on Delta waterfowl and Budweisers "voluntary restraint" programs or as I remember it don't shoot brown ducks.Do not get me wrong from the first shot I took way back in the early 70's it was shoot the greeny and pretty much that way ever since. I always did feel a pinch of guilt in the early morning when a nice double turned out to be a pair of hens and I don't know how many times I had a a hen right in the decoys circling and passed her up with only a smirk and" a hoped you learned something this morning missy".Seems that all this has had little to no effect on duck populations increaseing or decreasing over the last 2 decades.The U.S. study panel has determined that sex specific harvest regulations whether by law or waterfowlers choice has made no discernable differance in long term population trends.The reasoning they state is that hunting plays a minor role in duck mortality.Good nesting conditions in the spring not a decline in harvest the previous fall equal more birds.Mallard hen mortality due to hunting is about 7-8% while the annual mortality rate from all causes is about 40-45%.So shouldn't shooting less hens still help, not according to their studies from the Pacific flyways during the great decline of the early 80"s. The limit in the early part of the 80"s was 7 all which could be hens ,in the latter part a one hen max. was initiated there was no change in the numbers until nesting conditions improved then numbers started to grow again.The panel determined that nest success and recruitment driven by the abundance of water matters most.There were other interesting side notes quoting one study that said duck harvest and its impact on overall populations and found no correlation between harvest rates and survival rates.Seems that the higher the population the lower the survival rate so the ducks killed by hunters probably would not have survived the year anyways.So that is a shortend version ,will I shoot more hens now? probably not, but I also will not give a fellow any grief if he chooses two, :rolleyes:

[lorneparker1]

I have never shot a hen in my life.

No real man hits women.

Lorne

[FirePower]

They all taste the same when roasted in a nice red wine sauce lad

[BiG Boar]

Are ducks like deer where one buck will service 10 does in a season?

[field marshal]

For all you guys that think bands are important, I've collected more bands from hens than drakes???:mrgreen:----Cheers----Field Marshal.

[Ron.C]

Admittedly, when I really got into waterfowiling late last season, I had no idea about the voluntary restraint but only tried to target drakes. Simply because I thought they would look better in a picture. When I posted a picture of my first days bag of Widgeon and Pintails, I was dumped on by a guy because I had shot a single hen pintail. That led me to allot of reading on the subject and there does seem to be allot of conflicting information out there and to a new waterfowler, its allot to process.
I'm all for being selective on what I harvest if there is concrete evidence to support it, but seems like that is hardly the case here. And if this was in fact the case that shooting hens is detrimental, then how does it apply to othere species of waterfowl like geese where sex cannot be readily identified before you shoot?

This comming season I'll still try and target drakes, becuase I want to get a mount done. I could care less about bands or limiting out. I just want to get out and get more of that awesone table fare and have more of the same fun I discovered last December.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

It's good to see elitism isn't exclusive to all the other forms of hunting.

SSS

[longrifle]

i'm not into discrimination, i shoot whatever flies by...well, i try...:-D:wink:


'rifle

[lorneparker1]

For all you guys that think bands are important, I've collected more bands from hens than drakes???:mrgreen:----Cheers----Field Marshal.

Same. Actually i have 3 duck bands and all of them were shot on hens. My goose ones were all drakes though

[Cedar Cowgirl]

I am a 100% in favor of womens rights hens have a right to be shot and eaten on an equal leval with drakes:mrgreen:

[fowl language]

jesus jim you,ve creared a monster....., i still can,t figure out how some only shoot greenheads but turn around and shoot geese,please explain how that works.....fowl