No Hybrid here

Craig F

Craig F

Well-known member
With all the talk of the hybrid black/mallards lately it's nice to bag an exquisite example of a 'real' black duck.

This fella dropped into the rig this morning and stayed. Also broke out my dad's 70s era Hilliard feeder and sleeper corks.

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You can't get a prettier drake than that. That beauty would definitely
be on my wall. I grew up hunting that elusive species living in Point Pleasant Beach and hunting in Barnegat. Hope to get back there again and hunt. Congrats on a beautiful bird !!
 
Really nice bird.
What may i ask is that "camo" on your boat,looks like some kind of rollup porch blind material.
Bill.
 
Thanks everyone!

Bill - you are exactly right. That's a roll up wooden slat blind that I use as a cockpit cover. It spans the width of my cockpit and I just pull some grass over it. It maintains it's shape as opposed to a canvas and thus I can lay my gun, binoculars, etc. across it.

Here you can see what it looks like with some grass on top, disappears.

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It does not get any better than that! A East Coast Classic, and my favorite Big Puddle Duck. Congratulations. Now that's a very good day in the life of a Waterfowler, as far as I'm concerned.
 
Awesome pic Craig. Those old PK's are nice too. My uncle that got me into ducking had a whole rig of them.......
 
Craig~

I love seeing your photos from the saltmarsh - I'll be getting down to Long Island in a week.

Here's another "real" one - from dairy country - my one-shot walk-in hunt on Thanksgiving morning. I gave thanks later to - among other things - snow-clad rivers, one particular 88-year-old Winchester, and this grand species.

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Thanks to the internet, I received other such "proof" from my erstwhile partners on Long Island before dinner on Thursday - which was their opener.

Also, I like your idea for your cockpit cover. I use canvas but it has a length of broom handle sewn in. It sits in open chocks inside each coaming. So, I can rest my gun and binocs on the canvas, but it pops out of the way when I sit up to shoot.

All the best,

SJS
 
Nice bird. Will a pure black duck have any green on it's head at all? I shot a really nice big drake on thurday that didn't have any white on the speculum but had just a couple tiny green flecks on one side of it's head.
 
The photos of true black ducks and the cork decoys made me homesick for the east coast a little; my first handmade corkers were black ducks for the Susquehanna that morphed into mallards for Florida and then the Pacific Northwest; the grassed up boat also stirred memories--as did the Model 12. Sorry, the camo-clad modern guns just don't do it for me. Folks out here tout the sprig for its cautious appraisal of decoys, but those hunters have never seen blacks a month into the season in the rust-belt areas; one of the best callers I ever saw could only bring them within 70 or 80 yards overhead, circling, talking, looking--not convinced by his giant handmade corks or his conversation. A black duck is a trophy. Congratulations to both of you.
 
Steve that's a beauty in the snow. I get a kick out of trying to fool them and I'm perfectly content to take my one and watch them work the rest of the day.

I picked up that M2 before the start of the season and I really like it, but I still pull my O/U out from time to time.
 
Vince~

That's a 12 gauge. One of my long-time partners - Uncle Al from Canandaigua - shoots a 16. His family has about 2 dozen of them and he got me started on my first Model 12 (a 1918 12 gauge) in about 1981. I also have a 20 from ~ 1935. All have fit me perfectly.

All the best,

SJS
 
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