It’s no secret that the opening morning of duck season can sound closer to a warzone than anything else. Often it seems like everybody and their brother show up for the action on Day 1, and bring enough ammo to ward off a swarm of Sherman tanks. More often than not, it seems like they use up all that ammo, only by skyblasting high-circling ducks that you’re working instead. Let’s be honest. There are few things more frustrating than some hick skyblaster ruining your opportunity on the last pass. Even though it’s common courtesy to allow ducks that someone else is working to pass (especially when they are on the brink of being out of range), it seems like every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a gun surmise that your ducks are fair game, and will blast at them until they disappear from sight.
I mentioned earlier that there are few things more frustrating than this, right? Well, here’s one of them – those skyblasters have a right to shoot at your ducks. After all, they’re not really your ducks. I understand that you are staking a claim on the ducks by working them, and that it’s courteous to allow ducks that others are working to pass – but that’s not always how it happens. In fact, more often than not, that’s not how it happens.
Consider this as well – even in the perfect scenario where everyone is courteous of others, and only shoot at ducks that are clearly in their zone, you may still have problems working ducks into your spread. Ducks are skittish, especially an hour or so into opening day, when steel is flying at them from every which way. So even if you are working ducks into your spread, and everyone else is mindful not to shoot them, there may be hunters 500 yards from you who open up fire on a whole different batch of ducks – and scare yours away. It’s not that they aren’t allowed to be there, or aren’t allowed to shoot when you’re working your ducks – it’s just bad timing that ruins your opportunity to get those birds.
It’s scenarios like these that drive duck hunters insane. They do nothing wrong, yet still can’t get a duck to finish its circling and land in their spread. So if you are finding yourself in a situation similar, don’t be frustrated over the things you can’t control – adjust the things you can control.
Allow me to illustrate my point. I can recall one opening day that was similar in above-described occurrences. Each and every time that we tried to work ducks into our spread, someone shot at them or at ducks somewhere else. And every time, the ducks we were working shifted gears and flew away. I’m being 100% serious when I say that every time we worked ducks, something happened that spooked them away. Here’s the interesting thing, though – we still limited.
How was it possible to limit when we were surrounded by armies of duck hunters who weren’t afraid to shoot at the sight of a duck? How did we get ducks to land when we couldn’t successfully work any? Actually, pretty easily – we picked a standalone setup.
What do I mean by standalone setup? I mean a place to hunt in which you aren’t banking your success upon your ability to work ducks. I mean a place to hunt in which the ducks will land regardless of you calling them or not. I mean a place to hunt in which the ducks feel safe even though every hunter within a mile is burning through shells like me with money in Cabelas.
I’m not going to get into the details of how to find these standalone setups, because each situation will be different, and some may have completely opposite answers. My point is to illustrate the fact that finding the proper setup (one that is successful and active without any external changes) can be overwhelmingly helpful in boosting your success. Think about it – if the ducks are already comfortable with your setup, and you’ve done nothing to it, you are already poised for success. Anything else you do is simply an add-on, and not absolutely necessary.
Finding this standalone setup is probably the hardest thing to do, but if you invest the time and effort in learning your area, you will be rewarded in the long run with smoother sailing in the tempest of weekend duck hunting. There are many tools duck hunters use to aid them in their duck hunting ventures, but, remember, these should never be the primary means of getting ducks into range. Instead, invest your time in finding a standalone setup to hunt. When opening day rolls in, you won’t have to worry about who is hunting around you, or how close they are – just sit back and let the ducks come in.