calling the shot

[ducksdoom12]

went out to wylie slough today, with my sister (her first time coming duck hunting), got there 2 hours before opening and still got beat by 4 people... o well still found a decent field. at about 15 min. till ducks starting flying like crazy, my sis was in aww about how many ducks there were, took 2 shots and missed. after that had some ducks circle me a couple times and my inexperiance at calling the shot cost me some birds cuz they flew over and looking back i now know i should have taken it. did not get another shot after that.   i did have a mallard drake with his wings set 60 yards away from me gliding straight to me but what do you know a phesant hunter jumped out of the bushes and shot at it and hit it just enough so it could fly away and die somewhere else, overall frusterating hunt but i guss thats how you learn right?

[ICEMAN]

ducksdoom12, getting out is great even if you bring nothing home. I am still learning this duck hunt stuff. My buddy and I pass on shots which are marginal, and I have even yelled at a few numskulls who "skybust" and just dust the birds...  Great job gettin your sis out...

[Professor Chaos]

we had a few like that today...  not at 60 yards, but maybe 35-40.  Its always easy to second guess and when you dont get a lot of ops it makes it even easier to rethink each chance... dont let it get to you, and work on putting them feet down, in the decoys.

[snocohunter]

If you are questioning a shot at all, it's always best to hold off. Birds that get sky busted all the time get super skittish, and you're only ruining it for yourself or the next guy.

Competition was fierce this last weekend where we hunted, and there were a couple shots we took that were what we would consider marginal (40 yards or more) We ended up crippling a total of three birds. We did our best to find them all, but only ended up with one of the three.

At the end of the hunt we all agreed to work on being more patient, even when guys are busting at our birds when they're swinging into our spread. It's not a good reason to jump in the same boat as them and sacrifice having a clean kill.

[TheHunt]

Oh heck it is part of hunting these days...  My son and I have been hunting on Thanksgiving morning since he was five.  We are there to have fun so it really does not matter if we get anything or not.    We had sky busters near us so we joined them...  Shot at everything that went by.  Shot at ducks that were at least 200 yards away.  Had a blast...   We were laughing at our stupidity!!!

It got to a point where the sky busters were yelling at us to stop.  I told them I had a new scientific enhanced choke tube called the Howletzer that supposes to give us that range.  I thought they had the same choke tube I did!!!

Then we stopped for the last hour of the hunt as we needed to head back home for dinner.

[ducksdoom12]

that is a good point about not resourting to skybusting even if everyone else is and ruining your hunt, the one i am kicking myself for was when the birds passed 30 yards over my head and i passed on it cuz i thought i could get them to land and on the same swing they passed over some other guys who did take the shot. its a fine line between being too aggressive and skybusting and being too passive and not taking shots you probably should, but it was still a nice day, almost too nice, a little wind would have helped for sure

[snocohunter]

Oh heck it is part of hunting these days...  My son and I have been hunting on Thanksgiving morning since he was five.  We are there to have fun so it really does not matter if we get anything or not.    We had sky busters near us so we joined them...  Shot at everything that went by.  Shot at ducks that were at least 200 yards away.  Had a blast...   We were laughing at our stupidity!!!

It got to a point where the sky busters were yelling at us to stop.  I told them I had a new scientific enhanced choke tube called the Howletzer that supposes to give us that range.  I thought they had the same choke tube I did!!!

Then we stopped for the last hour of the hunt as we needed to head back home for dinner.

So that was you hunting right by us! Lol, i keed i keed. We were yelling at them asking them what was wrong with their Howitzer!

We did talk to another hunter who had some guys move half of their setup 80 yards from him skybustin birds. I guess he moved his chair halfway between him and them and returned the favor, and started mocking the horrible caller that everyone had to hear all morning.

[tank]

D-12

 I think you learn more on your misses then you do your hits.
I can remember some bad misses that I know I should have had but I don't remember any nice or lucky shots.
I'm talking deer,elk,ducks,geese and everything else I missed but Ice Man is right on the button. Glad you and your sis enjoyed yourselves and hope the two of you get out many more times.
 Where I hunt I have to watch where they'll land because of cattails.
 Wouldn't it have been the pitts if you ended up with the duck then find out while being checked the guy was using lead 
tank 

[Yummy and Tasty Animal]

i've been dead set on shooting ducks after i get them to decoy and give me that perfect 15-20 yard shot because all last year they were decoying like crazy the few times i hunted, but this year the ducks seem really decoy shy.  i'm going to start taking more 30-40 yard shots next time i go hunting unless things change.