I don't know about you guys....

It's scarry if they think the average waterfowler aspires to be THAT guy...
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I am not sure that is the case but it is annoying that the media show it that way.

I have one band I kept from a special duck. Other than that I don't worry about keeping them. I have shot a few banded birds but couldn't say how many as I never really worried about it. I report them and forget about them. After all, reporting the location of the bird is the whole point, not decorating a lanyard. The coolest one was the one my buddy shot with the GPS transmitter.
 
The first duck that I shot on my own, When I was a about 10 years old, was a banded Wood Duck from the mid west. he was about 1 year old. I haven't shot another banded duck since. Hopefully I will get another one but I don't hunt for the jewelry. it's just a nice suprise when It happens.
BTW, My Father was a little ticked that my first duck was banded and he hadn't got a banded one in the 20 some years that he had been hunting at that time.
 

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It's scarry if they think the average waterfowler aspires to be THAT guy... ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Just take a look at page 150 and 151 there is three of them! Guess i'll have to start growing a beard! Maybe by next season I'll be able to have one like theres and be a real duckhunter! :) [/QUOTE]
 
you guys just have to hunt where they band them. a friend of mine hunting here in vermont not far from where they band the resident canadas had an early resident season shoot a few years back where three guys fired nine shots dropped eight geese and collected i think eight bands. two of those bands were consecutive numbers. i wouldnt have believed it either if i didnt see the bands shortly after the hunt and didnt shoot clays with these guys and know what they were capable of.

on the other hand ive shot four banded ducks in my life but have yet to see one shot by someone else.

eddie
 
I guess it all depends on the flyway and area you hunt and the concentration of birds.....we shoot at least 3 or 4 banded ducks a year in our area between 5 guys...mainly brant (sometimes with double bands) ,geese(yes neck collared too),black ducks and 1 guy shot a nice drake widgeon last year with a band! I took a buddy out 2 seasons ago and his son for youth day..yepp first brant the kid shoots has a band! his first duck ever..I was out last season with another buddy and a pair of blackducks swoop in out of nowhere..I shoot out of instinct..one bird goes down....yepp banded blackduck!..luck.luck luck.We always check for jewelry while the dog is swimming back to the boat.But its all luck it doesnt make you a "pro" to have a lanyard full of bands .Heres a crazy story...was on a road trip hunt to Nebraska with brotherinlaw and his buddy I never hunted with before..we scout a lake and setup in the morning..we shoot a few ducks but his friend doesnt seem to like my calling and advice..etc...I walk off and setup in a corner away from the blind we built..lots of ducks landing near me...I have a pair of mallards land on me and I kill both with 1 shot..of course they can see and hear me..finally I walk back..his buddy is trying to makeup and says nice shot on that double...I say thanks I guess this is a bad time to tell you that the hen has a BAND....GRRR back on the S@#$%t list!!..Ha!
 
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I shot my first duck when I was 12, it was a banded wood duck, all it had was the number 21 on it. Must have been some ones pet. 2 years ago I shot a double banded brant that was banded two years earlier in Ireland,that bird was lost.
 
I've got one band and it's so special to me that I don't think I could top it.I got it two years ago, it was the 1st of 3 mallards in my 1st ever triple. But more important it was the first duck I got with my daughter with me. She was 4 at that time

A buddy and his kid were with me last year at the same spot. A pair of mallards came in I dropped the drake and missed the hen. The kid shoots the hen and yup it's banded. If that isn't luck I don't no what is.

Goose hunting with the same 2 people, we've shot a lot of geese, especially local geese in September. They have a dozen bands 3 of them are consecutive numbers. I don't have a single goose band, I don't think that makes them better hunters. Just lucky on the birds they pick out of the flock.
 
Certain areas definitely have better odds, especially with particular species or local geese, but a lot of it still boils down to a numbers game. if you pick up 1-2K birds a year, you'll get to put some through your hands.
 
Cabela's has yet to know I'm a duck hunter. I get all their other catalogs but haven't seen that one yet. Oh boy I can't wait.

The few bands I've picked up are in a box on my dresser. I like looking in their from time to time. Its has an effect similar to looking at a photo album.. memories.

A few years ago I restored a mmbgf. It came with two oars, but neither as good as one a friend had had made by an old guide, Buster Prout of Bowdinham. He made one for me at my request. He charged 100 dollars for an unfinished oar(a very resonable price). I couldn't wait to use it and as soon as I could I got out. my first hunt had me approaching the corner of a cove in merry meeting bay which has often held birds. They were closer than I thought and about fifteen blacks and mallards came out of the rice near the shore. I shot three times and the first of the three birds that fell was a reward banded mallard drake. The reward for reporting was 100 dollars. I couldn't believe the luck. I recounted the story to a friend.... his quick response was, "So did you tell your wife, 'see the economics of duck hunting do work out'?

Frank

Frank@middletonboatworks.net
 
Ya, but he looks really cool and don't all ya'll want to look just like him. I betcha if you buy a bunch of Cabela's duck hunting stuff you will get yourself at least half those bands in just a couple of years.

That's why it's important that we take our young out with us into the field, so that we are their examples and not some banded up duck hunter model trying to peddle a quiver butt.
 
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