northerns!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ducksdoom12]

I shot my first northern mallard today, big ole drake with bright orange feet . and i went scouting around stanwood and saw a group of about 2 doz in the river, and 2 or 3 hundred circling out in the sound
THEIR HERE BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MichaelJ]

Dang man did you hit him with the wad or what?!  haha thats awesome!

Michael

[yelp]

slugs Norhterns are just started over here...the next two weeks will be great....

[ducksdoom12]

  lol ya he was like 10 - 15 yards tops but considering that when i jumped him he was 2 feet directly below me i say i waited a fair amount of time before my itchy trigger finger got the best of me

[Professor Chaos]

ok what would be fatter? 

A) a northern that just migrated down thousands of miles and burned up a lot of energy in the process
OR
B) a local that has been sitting around eating and doing nothing for 2 months


Orange feet have nothing to do with where the bird came from...

[ducksdoom12]

ya the fact that they were sitting in a tall walled skinney ditch that no local duck will go near after the first week of hunting season due to me, my dad, and a couple of other people shooting at them everytime they do has nothing to do with it. it is possible for a norther to be fat, if it is the point of the migration then he might not have been too far up

[Elliott]

yeah me and DD12 hunt that spot regularly and there is usually nothing, and if there is, its never mallards usually widgeon or teal.

[Elliott]

ps nice shooting, your finally ahead... no pun intended... with your shots, now if i could just keep my head down

[General Disarray]

Show me a bird banded in Alberta this summer and I'll believe you when you say it's a northern.

might be, might not be... There's bound to be some new birds moving in soon, but there really is no true way to tell a northern from a local other than my first statement.

Congrats on de-braining that drake. 

[EastWaViking]

And people were complaining about tongues hanging out in big game photos?   

[rasbo]

yeah looks like a 22 head shot..I would rather see a tongue hanging out..

[Currency Trader]

Yep, I always get a good chuckle at the I shot a " big fat northern" for a couple weeks they are skinny as rails....thats how you tell if you are shooting new birds.....coloration is a result of maturity and getting into breeding plumage sooner.....not because it has been up north

[Gobble]

Damn, thats a serious wound! I bet were you feeding it bread and shot it at close range, right ? 

[Buschingc]

DAMN>....... hes missing part of his head..

[snipekillr]

Nice

[snocohunter]

Wow, you really did shoot him in the face. We had a teal that ended up with a nasty headshot last weekend, but not near as bad as that.

As for the northern vs non northern debate, who cares he shot a bird in a place where there haven't been any. I usually like to guage new birds by how they react to calling, shooting, etc. My partner said they had huge groups of mallards circling today, and small groups would break off, they'd shoot, then more would drop in. If they're dumb, they're dead. I'm guessing these aren't the same birds that people have been shooting at for months. Not to mention, it's pretty typical to get new birds a few days before we expect a winter storm like the one headed our way.

Congrats man.

[Elliott]

hahaha you should have seen the buffle head he jump shot mid november, too close with too tight of choce, there was barely anything left except for wings

[snocohunter]

Sounds like someone needs to let em fly a little. I mean, yeah it happens sometimes. But it shouldn't be something to be proud of. Not sayin that you are, but I like to eat what i kill and gutting a bird mid air with steel shot pretty much wastes anything worth eating.

[ducksdoom12]

i was anything but proud of turning that bufflehead into dust
made me sick to the stomach. and it is deffently not what i am trying to do

[Elliott]

yeah i was just noting that there wasnt much left, its not like we took a pic of it and posted it up here