No Season Here - You?

[Jack Cronkhite]

Ugly ducklings all growed up. Pic from last spring migration. I think some jurisdictions allow hunting swans but don't know where or even if true.

[Mark Landskov]

No swan hunting here in northeast Minnesota. I hear them 'trumpeting' now and then, but they are allowed to pass through, unmolested.

[calvin humburg]

nice picture as always Jack. best ch

[charlie cleveland]

no swan hunting in mississippi either... but i do have today to hunt deer today last day of a long season....and a good one too... charlie

[Tom Roller]

As far as I know NC is the only state that allows swan hunting? It's a tag system - they issue approximately 5,000. Not that hard to get, actually. The hunting is easy as we have big numbers of birds - and as they don't get hunted that hard, they decoy and call in very easily. It's all about access and most use a guide - there are dozens of guides who book swan hunts usually at less than $100/person. Hunts are usually done by 8am unless you're waiting to pick out a bird with a band. I've never had the desire to shoot a swan, but most of my friends fill their tag each year.

As far as seasons - quail is in till the end of the month....

[charlie cleveland]

maybe destrey will pipe in here..he pretty up on those swan hunts...seems like he mentioned one time about going out to hunt swans or maybe it was cranes.... charlie

[Bruce Day]

So here I am talking to an old friend in British Columbia and I mention a mutual friend in Regina who has a few Parkers that he has fixed up and is now really into Parkers. I had sent him to my old friend with the idea that he could pick up a few Parkers. Well now I hear that he bought a whole bunch of them , he must be one of the larger Parker collectors in Canada. The guns from Ron needed a little TLC but Ron didn't acquire junk , so CONGRATULATIONS JACK. I am absolutely pleased for you and know that you have some fine shooter Parkers.

By the way, I am buying the very nice , very collectible Lefever from our friend. Lots of case colors, everything right about the gun, a light 12, all the adjustments, even trigger pressure adjustments, highly figured wood. I know its not a Parker, but......

[David Dwyer]

I went on a Swan shoot in NC several years ago.I was pretty dissapointed,sort of like shooting a Great Blue Heron. We set up out in the bay with some decoys, there were guite a few flights of birds, and they all responded to the call , flew right over us. Not much of a challenge .
David

[Bruce Day]

David, some of the big six foot tall swans with the red throats come through a little west of here. Could be a challenge with them. Called Trumpeter Swans.

[Steve Selvig]

Swan hunting is legal in S.D., N.D., Montana and Utah. I hunted them in S.D. a couple years ago, my experience is they are suckers for decoys/calls. We shot the first two we saw, decoyed half way across a BIG lake straight into two Swan decoys. I'd not recommend going twice.

Steve

[Jack Cronkhite]

Although we have never had a season, I would agree with the comments. Large slow target, minimal challenge, no heart pounding adrenalin rush (except maybe the first one). Bang, thud, repeat. Think I'll stick with roosters.

Bruce: congrats on your acquisition. Could you work me through the paperwork you have to do to get a gun to the south and what, if any, additional dollars that adds to a purchase. I have not investigated that process. I have only heard it isn't all that easy and it is costly - but that's just like hearing and accepting "don't touch a Damascus gun".

Cheers,
Jack

[Bruce Day]

Jack, to ship a gun from Canada into the US requires that a US purchaser obtain an ATF Form 6 Application and permit for importation of Firearms, Ammunition and Implements of War. Send it in to ATF, takes about a month, no charge. Get it back, Fill out the attached Form 6A, send it to Canadian seller, he sends gun to US address through Canada post. Clears customs in US, they check documents.

I have a Fed Curios and Relics FFL but I don't think that is even needed if one is merely importing a gun into the US for personal use, as the Form 6 says "FFL number, if any".

The cost is the postal charge, what $50-$75 insured?

There is a US Bureau of Alcohol, Tax and Firearms web site that explains the process and has forms. I found it to be very simple.

[Jack Cronkhite]

So, you can shoot damascus and send a gun south with no real issues. I think some folks just don't want to get involved with bureaucracy. Thanks for the info. Could come in handy one day.
Cheers,
Jack

[Eric Eis]

David, some of the big six foot tall swans with the red throats come through a little west of here. Could be a challenge with them. Called Trumpeter Swans.

Bruce if I am not mistaken Trumpeter swans are protected by Federal law, I think the only legal swan to hunt is the Mute swan. Eric

[Bruce Day]

Good Lord. I hope no one took me seriously about the trumpeter swan. Yes we have them come through around here and they are doing well, but big trouble if you shoot one. The mute swan is legal in a lot of places to shoot.

I've hunted cranes but never swans.

[Tom Roller]

C-grade - that's exactly the way it is just about all the time. Not my cup of tea.

On slow days, when all the other fowl aren't flying, out of boredom we'll put out a couple white trash bags on sticks and call them in just mimicking their calls. Really fun to watch them decoy in like B-52s.

[Bruce Day]

Really fun to watch them decoy in like B-52s.


At 350mph and 300ft AGL? I flew B-52's for many years. I recall duck hunters ducking for cover.

[Dean Romig]

The Fed Gummint had considered opening a season on the eastern Flyway a few years ago strictly for the purpose of reducing their numbers. It was said that because they can reach so much deeper than any other waterfowl that they were destroying valuable feeding habitat for ducks and geese. As usual, the usual "antis" made a lot of noise in opposition of such unfounded statements....
I don't know what ever became of the plan.

[Richard Flanders]

Alaska allows hunting tundra swans but not trumpeters. I didn't think anyone allowed shooting trumpeters; somehow that just seems wrong and would offer nothing resembling 'sport'. It's an odd system here, or was the last I read of it. You get only one permit at a time. You then go out and harvest one and have to go back and get another permit. I guess they allow it but make it difficult. I think it may be limited to western and southwestern Ak also. Not even sure. Personally, I like nothing more than to come in on top of a flock of many hundreds with my plane, take a few pictures of the white against the green canvas of the landscape then drop down and off to the side, slow up and form up with them at a distance and watch for a bit. Quite the sight that. They are the very last birds to leave. When the lakes are frozen over except for a hole in the middle and there will be hundreds on the ice and some on the water. I think it takes the young a long time to be ready for the flight south so they leave late and in huge flocks. Absolutely gorgeous sight to see them winging along with the snowy peaks of the Alaska Range as a backdrop.

[Dean Romig]

I should have clarified that the Mute Swan was the targeted species in my post.

Flying over the flat land North of Anchorage with Denali on the horizon we saw one mated pair on every pothole pond with a small shelter and a canoe on a few of them. One bird was always on the nest mound with the mate foraging a distance away. Pretty sight those big white birds on aquamarine ponds set in an emerald green landscape.