2024-2025 Official Duck Hunting Thread

[CTR0022]

The BPOP was within the margin of error of 5%, so we very well likely didn’t climb in mallards. Still if it’s 6 million, that’s a far cry from 11 million we had in 2017. I don’t trust they’re getting it right or reporting right anyways. On top of that the Drake to hen ratio is astronomically skewed to drakes. The bird that makes eggs is becoming scarce. The. They’re saying we kill over half a million hens a year but that doesn’t matter… it might now with a smaller population.

Sucks how they do AHM too, I remember when they implemented that as a young kid. They set it based on that year. Money ruins everything and that’s exactly what’s happening here. The dollar matters more than the resource. Shorter seasons mean less state dollars, less federal dollars and less dollars for businesses in the industry. Ironically those industries and dollars go away if there’s no resource anyways. Glad to see people waking up. Lot of the duck hunters in that 40-60 year range are quitting. The hunting has declined to the point it isn’t worth going for many of them when there’s a heated box with a feeder in front of it. Less hunters is good for pressure and competition right? Wrong. Those are the hunters with money for conservation and they’re leaving… the junior flat billers ain’t got anything to contribute in volume.

Yep, my comment about numbers being up was meant to be very sarcastic....

There are major problems with the duck population and waterfowl industry in whole. I'm just not overly optimistic much will change.

[Slew]

Spend the last 2 days outside Stuttgart hunting with a buddy. He’s got blinds and fields all over. They hammered em Good Friday and Saturday and the last 2 days were tough. He lost most his birds Saturday night. We watched thousands pile into flooded standing corn after hours Sunday eve but there was only a fraction of that last night there. Killed some mallards both days and got to see some new country. Had a good time!

[LivinADream]

Slow for us, but it was good to have dad in the woods. Also little man's first duck hunt.

[Slew]

Couple pics from the trip!! Fun times for sure!!

[dbaio1]

Couple pics from the trip!! Fun times for sure!!

Looks like a nice string of birds. Hunted Stuttgart a lot back in the 80' and early 90's and had some epic hunts.

[labman]

In case anyone is looking for some duck and goose ammo. Unfortunately, I'm out of the waterfowl game due to neck surgery.

https://www.texasbowhunter.com/discussions/forums/forum/topics/classifieds/26977462-waterfowl-ammo

[glen]

Went with kid this evening. Killed a perfect bufflehead I socked mount and some redheads. Still slow

[150class]

Birds apparently finally showed up yesterday where we hunt!

problem was they were apparently 75% all pintails lol

hope someone is hammering them.

im headed to Arizona for mule deer mañana through Jan 6th so no ducks for the next 10 days for me

[hoytassassin]

Worst duck season I’ve ever seen. This weather has been awful… finally starting to get the water but 75 degree days aren’t going to cut it. Hoping it’s mostly due to the warmth and not something more serious

[Slew]

Killer a few today. Be close to the Kansas border tomorrow!

[Slew]

Kids got a million hoodies. He only wears this one hunting!

[Slew]

Got into some Widgeon yesterday and pintails today!! On our way back to Texas. Didn’t light em up but got to pull the trigger every day and hang with some buddies I don’t see much anymore! Good times!

[Razrbk89]

Lots of water around here all the sudden. Looks like there a pretty good front next week so hopefully we’ll see a good push of ducks.

If we can keep some water open we should have some good shoots. Ice eaters and well pumps ready to go 👍🏼

[Texas Grown]

Slew, that boy is get-n tall quick!

Starting to see a few birds on resting tanks here.

[hopedale]

Do I dare even think about getting excited?

Looks like the cold cold gets here in central TX around the 8th. Will this really push some birds down to make it worth going?

Need to ping a buddy of mine as we talked about going this Saturday, but kind of thinking maybe we wait a bit more.