DIY Cape Cod

john f skipper said:
Need a little help going to the Cape cod in December to visit the in-laws. Would like to eider hunt is there any places I can walk in and hunt off a beach
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First read up on the gun laws, as suggested above. Semi-draconian, always travel with a trigger lock on the gun, and always in a case. Must be a trigger lock, not a cable through a receiver.

The answer to your question is that there are locations where we hunt from the beach, the problem is getting onto the beach. We always go by boat. Most towns tightly control access and parking. What town do the in-laws live in?

I'm curious how you'd hunt eiders without a way to retrieve them if they fall in the water, or tend decoys? I suppose in some spots on the bay side you could stand on a mud bar at low tide and pass shoot.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
First read up on the gun laws, as suggested above. Semi-draconian, always travel with a trigger lock on the gun, and always in a case. Must be a trigger lock, not a cable through a receiver.

The answer to your question is that there are locations where we hunt from the beach, the problem is getting onto the beach. We always go by boat. Most towns tightly control access and parking. What town do the in-laws live in?

I'm curious how you'd hunt eiders without a way to retrieve them if they fall in the water, or tend decoys? I suppose in some spots on the bay side you could stand on a mud bar at low tide and pass shoot.
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Plymouth already looked over gun laws.
 
Plymouth isn't actually on the cape. My aunt lives there, I've hunted Plymouth Harbor many times but never from a shore point. I don't know if you can hunt from the beach on Beach Point, there are some houses until you get about halfway to the northern point. If you can get onto the sandbars along the shore on an outgoing tide near what they call Cordage Park, you might have some luck. But be sure to retreat the minute the tide starts in, there are usually 9-10 ft tides.

https://www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/hunting-fishing.htm

If you want to drive onto the cape, much of the national seashore permits duck hunting. Go on the national seashore website (link above), they have maps describing what areas are open to hunt.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
Plymouth isn't actually on the cape. My aunt lives there, I've hunted Plymouth Harbor many times but never from a shore point. I don't know if you can hunt from the beach on Beach Point, there are some houses until you get about halfway to the northern point. If you can get onto the sandbars along the shore on an outgoing tide near what they call Cordage Park, you might have some luck. But be sure to retreat the minute the tide starts in, there are usually 9-10 ft tides.

https://www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/hunting-fishing.htm

If you want to drive onto the cape, much of the national seashore permits duck hunting. Go on the national seashore website (link above), they have maps describing what areas are open to hunt.
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Thanks i was looking into cape national seashore. I was looking into guides but they all seem to about 500per gun i got 2kids that want to go also. Its only money but other trips planned
 
tod osier said:
I have to agree that no boat would make retrieving them tough, especially cripples.
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And I would advise against a dog, unless you're in a shallow protected area with little current. Over the last 40+ years hunting the cape, I've had to pick up dogs with a boat on several occasions when they get swept away in too much current. The seals (everywhere, but literally thousands on the outer cape around Chatham) can be aggressive toward dogs, and more than once we've seen sharks after Thanksgiving. I hate those damn sharks.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
And I would advise against a dog, unless you're in a shallow protected area with little current. Over the last 40+ years hunting the cape, I've had to pick up dogs with a boat on several occasions when they get swept away in too much current. The seals (everywhere, but literally thousands on the outer cape around Chatham) can be aggressive toward dogs, and more than once we've seen sharks after Thanksgiving. I hate those damn sharks.
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I hear you on the current, when we used to hunt out there the current just absolutely ripped - here is Pete walking back rather than swimming.

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I have not hunted the Cape, but I've done a lot of salt marsh hunting in Maine. Are you dead set on eiders? Because you could hunt puddle ducks and divers in the salt marshes on foot, or better yet with a canoe or kayak to help with access and retrieving. Pay attention to tides--what's a protected small creek at low tide may be pretty exposed to wind and waves at high--but I think you could find some birds if you gave yourself a few days to scout access and birds and then hunt a couple of decent tides. I like to get out around low tide and hunt the incoming as birds move into the parts of marsh as they flood. But outgoing tides can hunt too if you can scout where ducks move to feed as the tide drops. (Incoming makes it much less likely you will end up dragging your canoe and gear a mile or more over sand and mud.) There is some nice marsh on the Bay side of the Cape, that I have striper fished in. It looked like it would be ducky in late fall. Public access was good, but I don't know about hunting rules. You've already been warned about Mass gun laws. Look also for info on town no-discharge zones. When I hunt southern Maine, I've found that local police departments are extremely helpful in figuring out exactly what the rules are and how and where they will be enforced. Here, town no-discharge and no-hunting rules generally do not apply below the high tide line on coastal waters, but there are some exceptions in urban areas. No idea what rules might be on the Cape.
 
I live on the Cape, and though I don't hunt eiders anymore I like DIY. The Cape Cod National Seashore allows hunting, but if you are after eiders I think you are really going to want a boat. You might have an opportunity to shoot at eiders from the bay beaches or a jetty, or possibly even the ocean beach, but you'd need to walk a good distance to get away from houses. Decoys, retrieval and especially cripples are still a problem with no boat because in most sea duck areas here the water is too deep to wade. In my opinion your best bet on foot would be lying on a sandbar at low tide in the bay, flagging, and hoping some fly past your decoys. Another limitation is there tend to be a lot of dog-walkers on the beaches, except in the absolute worst weather. People here are accepting of hunters in my experience, but they or their dogs tend to spook waterfowl which can be frustrating. I don't mean to sound discouraging, but a guide with a boat would be the best way to get some great shooting. If the weather permits (iffy in December), SW end of Billingsgate Shoal in the bay used to be amazing.
 
Jeff Reardon said:
I have not hunted the Cape, but I've done a lot of salt marsh hunting in Maine. Are you dead set on eiders? Because you could hunt puddle ducks and divers in the salt marshes on foot, or better yet with a canoe or kayak to help with access and retrieving. Pay attention to tides--what's a protected small creek at low tide may be pretty exposed to wind and waves at high--but I think you could find some birds if you gave yourself a few days to scout access and birds and then hunt a couple of decent tides. I like to get out around low tide and hunt the incoming as birds move into the parts of marsh as they flood. But outgoing tides can hunt too if you can scout where ducks move to feed as the tide drops. (Incoming makes it much less likely you will end up dragging your canoe and gear a mile or more over sand and mud.) There is some nice marsh on the Bay side of the Cape, that I have striper fished in. It looked like it would be ducky in late fall. Public access was good, but I don't know about hunting rules. You've already been warned about Mass gun laws. Look also for info on town no-discharge zones. When I hunt southern Maine, I've found that local police departments are extremely helpful in figuring out exactly what the rules are and how and where they will be enforced. Here, town no-discharge and no-hunting rules generally do not apply below the high tide line on coastal waters, but there are some exceptions in urban areas. No idea what rules might be on the Cape.
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That is my plan just asking about eiders if that was possible. I understand tides and current i live on the coast of maryland i know the tides up there are big.
 
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