really that enjoyable

[BIG1LOST]

duck huntin' that is...., and what part do you like the most...,keep hearin' how great it is...., never been myself.

[marshrunner757]

Can be very enjoyable when nobody is close to you and you can work the ducks. Starts with anticipation before shooting hours when you hear their whistling wings overhead. Then as day breaks, you see a flock, give them a little sweet talk and watch them change directions. As they near, they are checking things out as they circle around. At last, they commit to you spread. Wings locked out, feet down and 3 feet off the water as you raise and take aim. Pure adrenalin rush. Of coarse, my absolute favorite hunts was youth weekends. To set and do nothing but call for the boys and call the shots. Only one weekend a year for that but very few hunters and many ducks. Now watching them set up for the hunt, call the ducks and call the shots is a proud moment.

[meaux fishing]

Sunrise in the blind, working ducks, hanging out with friends, to me actually shooting them is probably the least enjoyable part. Don't get me wrong I love shooting ducks and love eating ducks, but nothing gets me pumped up like having a big group of ducks work to your call. It's not for everybody though. You have to be some kind of crazy to get excited when it's 33° outside and drizzling with a 20 mile an hour north wind.

[swamp snorkler]

I use to enjoy it. Its one type of hunting where you can talk and don't always have to sit still, you can cook, shoot the **** and mess around while looking for birds.

[Shawn Braquet]

I enjoy the dog work personally but I may be biased. Can't wait to see my son drop his first though. LIke Meaux, fun to watch you fool them birds with a call, a good spread, and a well concealed blind. Last but not least would be the company in the blind and the BSing. I hunt 90% of the time with family consisting of brother, uncles, cousins and friends that I consider part of my family.

[Duckaholic]

Originally Posted by BIG1LOST

duck huntin' that is...., and what part do you like the most...,keep hearin' how great it is...., never been myself.

It's a chore, hard work, cold, you have to get dirty, better not try it. Just stay home...

I wish more people would! Lol

[meat killer 86]

I love:::
Setting out the decoys
Wading through the water.
Making blind invisible to birds
Calling birds
Watching birds work
Watch specks work
Actually being able to call birds and not just yelling at them.
Working my dog
Watching my dog retrieve a wounded speck 200yds in the marsh and disappear into the grass only to emerge from the grass 10 minutes later with the cripple goose.
Drinking my hot coffee in the blind as I patiently wait for shooting time.
Bring I ng friends and letting them kill birds.bringing my nieces and nephews and letting them kill birds.
Watching the kids play with the mornings kill
Watching dogs head go in circles as he watches the ducks work around the blind.
Watching my dog sit and wait for me to give the command to go retrieve that dead bird that just fell in the water and he wines and wines because he is ready to go get it and I am waiting to see of these other birds are going to come before I release him.........
"NASH!!!!!!!!"
And off he goes....

Yes I guess I like it.

[C-Bass2mouth]

For a first timer, it will be all about the shooting. After you get a few hunts under your belt, you'll start to slowly appreciate the little things. You probably won't understand or appreciate a good dog until you hunt with a bad one, or walk in the marsh enough. You'll start to understand that shooting a duck decoying is more rewarding than just killing the ones that get too close flying by. At this point it'll still be all about killing what you're shooting at, unless you're already an established wing shooter. Eventually you'll learn the different species of ducks and how they differ in various attributes (how they decoy, how wary they are, how they act in their natural environment, etc.), and you'll begin to feel more accomplished when you have some of the more desirable or "harder to trick" species in your bag. Overtime, you'll hunt with different people in different settings, and learn how other people go about their hunt, and how ducks act in different scenarios. Weather it be their mistakes or successes, you still will continue to learn. A few bad hunts may run some folks off, but if you've felt that feeling you get the few seconds before you click that safety off, all it will do is make you more mad at them. At the end of the day, for most, it's all about tricking the birds, and enjoying good company. If you can set birds down in your decoys, you've won. Once you set your own spread out and your plan comes together, and YOU yourself trick those little a-holes, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I feel like for most people that are already "hunters" who have never hunted waterfowl, the obsession starts in stages. To each his own though. Some enjoy the dogs. Some (most of the younger guys) are only there to limit out and take pics, and don't take time to sit back and enjoy everything. Some like to get hammered the night before and sleep in and cook (my favorite people to have at the camp). Some are decoy / brush / calling Nazis. Some like to shoot (usually the guy that jumps first and claims every bird). I don't remember where I read this quote but it's one of the most true statements ever made. - "One good duck hunt has ruined many a good deer hunters." Accompanied with another gem. - "A wife and a steady job has ruined many a good duck hunters."

For me personally, my favorite part is the memories that are made. Duck season is the time of year I get to spend the most time with my little brother, Dad, and closest friends. All year everyone is busy with work, school, kids, etc. But for a few months a year, everyone all of the sudden can "make time" to get together and do the dam thang. Put it like this..You'll never remember what went wrong, how cold or tired you were, or how mad you got at your dog that morning, when you look back at pictures of a pile of ducks in front of you and your buddies. And once you get established and kill birds consistently, you won't believe how many people you'll hear from that you haven't seen in years...lol

Also, bouncing the hen is CRITICAL.

[ahlangle]

It sucks don't try it!

[Shawn Braquet]

Can't make these memories from the house and let's not forget the life lessons learned from both the young and old.

[meat killer 86]

Memories. Those are some nice pics

[B-Stealth]

Shawn you beat me too it, had to bring a heater and break out the ski-clothes for this hunt.

[Bdub]

I love everything about it, the work, the time just sitting back enjoying it, and those last few hunts where you are already thinking about next season...I hope one day when I have a kid or kids that I'll be able to share with them the experiences I've been able to have while duck hunting, spending time with family and friends while hunting has got to be the best part of it all.

[Marque]

I think I was 4 or 5 the first time my dad brought me hunting, its one of my first memories. I was lucky enough to have a rice field in the back yard and a place to hunt in the marsh not far from home. It's exciting, siting in the blind before daylight, waiting for legal shooting hours. The day starts to break and you can make out the horizon. Right before its time to shoot 15 or 20 teal come into view about 20 yards in front of you. You hear the sound of their wings cutting the air long before you can see them and then they pass so close to your head you duck down in the blind. Thats my favorite part, right before the marsh or the country side erupts in gunfire. Used to, you'd only hear 3 or 4 other blinds shooting if that many. Now it sounds like Bagdad 10 minutes after the invasion pretty much anywhere you hunt. I loved it when I was a kid but it doesn't blow my skirt up like it used to. To me duck hunting now is pretty much the same as dove hunting, there are so many guns in close proximity to each other the birds just get pushed from blind to blind. You can't really work birds into your decoys unless its noon and you're the only one still hunting. I still have a blind but its set up for goose hunting. The Specklebelly's still get my blood pumping. Duck hunting is pretty much touch and go. They are either coming into the decoys or they aren't. Every a$$hat from Alberta to Abbeville has blown a duck commander at them, they don't respond to the call. Completely different story with Specklebelly's. If one thing doesn't seem quite right to them, they won't come in range. You have to be on your game to bring them close enough to bring down. But I don't even really hunt them all that much either because the fishing so good during hunting season, especially the first split, there's no way I can pass it up. Add in the fact that there's no one on the water because they all hunting makes it hard for me to even think about sitting in a duck blind. I'll let the birds get good and comfortable in my field while I fish, and slaughter them during the second split.

[Quackhead62]

There is just something about going out into the marsh in 30 something degree weather with a group of guys that are into duck hunting the right way. It's for sure not about the kill it's about the sunrise on a cold crisp morning the smell of the marsh on a cold winter morning and the hope that those birds will act right when shooting time rolls around. Just love to be out there with my dog I think he gets more excited than I do when I see ducks and it is a awesome feeling when you can bring someone that hasn't ever been and teach them a thing are two about how to kill ducks the right way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tboy]

To answer the op's question, yes, it is that enjoyable. First hunt at 10, first pass-shooting kill the next season, and too many memories to count between then and now. I have a lot of non-hunting friends, the faces they make when they hear about the cold 45 minute boat ride.....They sure don't make those same faces once the gumbo is done, or the teal in the black iron pot is ready to serve.

[Spunt Drag]

Duck hunting is arguably the type of hunting where gun safety requires the most attention. So if you do go for the first time; enjoy the birds workin, enjoy the dog workin, take it all in, but don't shoot anybody.

[meaux fishing]

Originally Posted by Spunt Drag

Duck hunting is arguably the type of hunting where gun safety requires the most attention. So if you do go for the first time; enjoy the birds workin, enjoy the dog workin, take it all in, but don't shoot anybody.

Very good advice.

[Goooh]

I like that you can socialize in the blind, and that it is fast paced.

Aside from that, the fact that those birds have traveled so far and seen so much is a thrill when they come into your spread - you've won... I get more feeling of accomplishment than sitting in a deer stand watching animals that live their year around eat over a pile of food that has been put out every couple of days for months before the season opens (public hunting deep in the woods is different though).

[seachaser250]

duck hunting is a miserable sport. Don't do it.