Jump shooting ducks 2020

[Jeff Kuss]

Season opened last Saturday in Northern Indiana. I took the 32" 20 ga out for it's first outing with me. Thanks Jay.

[Dean Romig]

Nice pics Jeff!

You should name that gun “Stretch.”





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[George Lang]

very nice Jeff and a great gun to boot. My favorite kind of hunting is jump shooting ducks on the salt marshes of Long Islands South Shore. There is nothing I miss more since moving to the mountains.

[Brett Hoop]

I am beginning to think more longtom Parkers live in the state of Indiana than anywhere!

[Randy G Roberts]

Looks like a real nice gun. My guess is that's going to involve some red wine at some point.

[Jay Gardner]

Had a hard time clicking on this link, Jeff. Glad to see the old girl getting some exercise.

Jay

[charlie cleveland]

good for you jeff...very nice gun and picture I have never had the pleasure to hold one of the long barrel 20 ga as of yet....some day maybe....charlie

[Jeff Kuss]

The duck season started with a bang, but dried up. I didn't see a duck on the ditches the last 4 weeks of the first season. Saturday the second season opened with temperatures of 11 degrees. There was finally some ducks back on the ditches. It is supposed to warm up the rest of the week, so I'm not sure how long they will stay.

[Dean Romig]

That’s a beautiful gun Jeff!





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[Jeff Kuss]

It's just a vh 1 1/2 frame 12 ga. with 30" barrels. It's my go to duck gun. I would hate to guess how many ducks I have shot with it. I'm showing the good side of the action, the other side has no case colors.It has a coat of Timberlux on it to water proof the old finish.

[Andrew Sacco]

Jump shooting?? Never done it. I usually get up at 3am. Put waders on. Set out decoys. Get the whining dog or dogs out Get in the blind. Scold them to be quiet! Freeze. Go home.

[Dean Romig]

It’s great fun Andy. More like spot and stalk hunting or like walk ‘em up pheasant or grouse hunting.





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[Jeff Kuss]

Jump shooting is sneaking up on ducks along drainage ditches. Its basically walking one to two miles in chest waders, because if you shoot a duck, you get to retrieve it. While very productive, a beaver dam makes things very interesting on the retrieve!

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Andy, your description of duck hunting is precisely why I have never done it!

[Matt Buckley]

Those are dandy late season curly tail mallards. Good job.

[Andrew Sacco]

It's not hunting unless you suffer, right? I don't know that we have many places to do it, but perhaps a small trout stream would work near me. Season is open until next week, and I have my stamp. All I'm missing is a Parker to do it with!

[Dean Romig]

A Parker is advised but not necessary to enjoy the thrills of jump-shooting puddle ducks. I did it all the time when I was a kid with a 20 gauge Stevens single shot, then a Parker Trojan 12 ga. then a Stevens 20 gauge pump. It didn't matter to me what I used, it was just a whole lot of fun!





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[Andrew Sacco]

A Parker is advised but not necessary to enjoy the thrills of jump-shooting puddle ducks. I did it all the time when I was a kid with a 20 gauge Stevens single shot, then a Parker Trojan 12 ga. then a Stevens 20 gauge pump. It didn't matter to me what I used, it was just a whole lot of fun!.

I have no shortage of guns to use, but am merely making an excuse to get a 12 bore ; ) I don't know how folks decide which gun to use. Sometimes I look at the safe and have paralysis by analysis over what gun to use. Since getting my 28DHE Repro I just don't carry anything else for grouse. My O/U's are getting lonely, not to mention my Ithaca 37 and LC Smith and A5s.

[Stan Hillis]

There are other fun ways to jump shoot ducks, such as from a boat. Nash Buckingham and friends would have a paddler, or many times a poler as the water was very shallow and weedy. Man with the gun sat up front in the boat.

I do it alone in my camo fiberglass kayak, or with a friend in a Gheenoe. We are on streams with a good current, and the paddler in the rear of the boat just keeps the boat straight as it drifts with the current.

This is my hunting kayak:

https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/62057_800x600.jpg (https://www.jpgbox.com/page/62057_800x600/)

https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/62058_800x600.jpg (https://www.jpgbox.com/page/62058_800x600/)

[Phillip Carr]

During quail season we will jump shoot ducks on ranch ponds. If I don’t have my lab or the one English pointer with me that water retrieves we carry a stiff bass rod.
17 lb test and a top water plug. Saves wading in the pond or throwing rocks trying to get them to float to the down wind side of the pond.

[charlie cleveland]

new one on me bass fishing for ducks....bet it works....charlie

[Victor Wasylyna]

During quail season we will jump shoot ducks on ranch ponds. If I don’t have my lab or the one English pointer with me that water retrieves we carry a stiff bass rod.
17 lb test and a top water plug. Saves wading in the pond or throwing rocks trying to get them to float to the down wind side of the pond.

My lab, while still a young pup familiar only with Dokken ducks, officially learned to retrieve with a dead Canada goose, a bass rod, and a Hula Popper. He was swimming circles around the dead goose looking for something else. Once I snagged it and began pulling it to shore, he quickly came to understand his role in this world. That was a memorable hunt.

-Victor

[Jim Beilke]

Used to jump shoot with my friend who shot skeet on the Air Force skeet team back in the 50s he was the only enlisted man on the team.Him in the front me paddling or poling my double ender. We hunted a local large slough with lots of cover. What fun to watch him shoot. Lost track of the number of doubles and triples he made. Had him out for the opener this year, he is 88 and time has taken its toll. He has never missed a duck opener even in the service.

[Garry L Gordon]

I had my plans for a couple of woodies jump shooting a couple of local WMAs. What is it they say about the best laid plans? At least I carried the gun. So much to do at that time of year, and so little time. I enjoyed this post very much.

[Jeff Kuss]

The last three times I have been out, I have had a nice walk carrying my parker.
I have seen a few ducks, but they are very spooky. It must have something about
being shot at from Canada to Indiana.

[Jeff Kuss]

After viewing the ice storm damage in my yard this morning, I decided to go duck hunting.
This is the last weekend.They are definitely northern birds.

[Dean Romig]

Good choice Jeff!





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[Andrew Sacco]

That looks like a great day : )

[Garry L Gordon]

Sure beats cutting up downed limbs. Beautiful ducks with an equally beautiful gun.

[Randy G Roberts]

Glad I didn't have that ice here, you can imagine what that would have done, life in the woods. Usually good but trying at times.
There was just some fella on the tube yesterday saying that all those birds coming from up North were practically tame. His theory was lack of pressure in Canada due to the Rona. His theory, not mine. I'm just repeating what he said. :)

[Brett Hoop]

Jeff

Is that the 34” ?

[Jeff Kuss]

Brett,
No its a 30" 1 1/2 frame 12. It's a easier carry than the 34".

[Jeff Kuss]

I thought the season was over, but the geese have started coming into my ditches and fields. Season ends the 14th. The 34" vhe came in real handy on both hunts.

[charlie cleveland]

them long barrels will getem way up yonder....charlie

[Randy G Roberts]

Nice. My Nephew shoots a fair amount of geese and makes some fabulous jerky, at least IMO. I'm going to get one of the 34's out tomorrow for some skeet if the club is open, we're supposed to get a little snow.

[Jeff Kuss]

I breast them out and give the breasts to a couple of friends that are die hard goose hunters. They have them ground up and made into fabulous goose sticks.

[Randy G Roberts]

What sort of ammo did you use in that long barreled Parker ?

[Jeff Kuss]

I was shooting some of the old Winchester 3" #2 Bismuth.

[Brett Hoop]

That’s what I am talking about! Very cool goose hammer.

[Tom Flanigan]

I never liked the taste of any goose other than the white front geese. I ate them all but gave them away whenever I could. I stopped shooting snow geese, Canada's and Ross geese in Saskatchewan. I took only the white front geese. They taste like a big mallard. I always picked them and took sixteen home each year, all the law allowed. The rest of my ducks and geese I gave to the Aboriginal people. They love to eat waterfowl but don’t shoot them because of the cost of the shells. My closest Aboriginal friend told me that one shell has to equal a lot of meat. They stick mostly to deer and moose. But they sure loved to eat the waterfowl I gave them. They returned the favor and gave me permission to hunt all tribal lands. They would show me where the moose were hanging out and helped me pack them out of the woods. I gave them all but 75 pounds which I took home.

[charlie cleveland]

your a lucky fellow to know those folks....charlie

[Tom Flanigan]

your a lucky fellow to know those folks....charlie

Charlie,

The Aboriginal people of North Central Saskatchewan are wonderful people. They cross paths with French Canadians whom they greatly dislike. The feeling among the French Canadians is mutual. When I first made friends with an Aboriginal and he began taking me to tribal lands, my French Canadian friends were appalled. They told me that I would lose a lot of my French Canadian friends if I insisted on going to tribal lands. I continued to go but never lost any of my French Canadian friends, one of whom I stayed with every year. They soon accepted my friendship with the Aboriginal people but told me that I was never to sleep with a “squaw”. I never did, but not because of the threat.

Both the French Canadians and the Aboriginal people are among the finest people I have ever met. Both looked forward to my two week annual trips and treated me like one of their own. Once I bemoaned the fact that I was going to miss Thanksgiving Day back in the states. The French Canadians got together and threw a big Thanksgiving feast for me. My friends and their relatives were all there. We had a wonderful time and I got another great memory to treasure.

[charlie cleveland]

tom it sounds like you have made some friends for life....bet those were some good hunting grounds....charlie

[Tom Flanigan]

Charlie,

The hunting was incredible in my area of Saskatchewan. The ducks and geese cause problems for the farmers up there. They welcome hunters. I was introduced to all the farmers in my area, some of whom became close friends of mine. Many would invite me to dinner. I didn’t need Aboriginal lands to hunt on but I’d go there for moose.

A friend’s job was to dump a load of grain every morning on a reservoir where hunting was not allowed. The government fed the ducks and geese to try to draw as many as possible from the farmer’s fields. I’d go with him in the morning and we would fill a dump truck, loaded from a silo on the banks of the reservoir. We would then drive around in circles on the “duck pad” to distribute the feed. As soon as we got up the hill the ducks and geese would crowd into the duck pad to feed. It was a wonderful sight, thousands of ducks and geese came in to get their share of the grain.

Feeding the ducks might have helped the farmers a bit, but I didn’t notice it while hunting. I saw fields literally covered with thousands of mallards and the sloughs were always full of ducks. It was grand shooting, but more important was the sight of so many waterfowl. I took a non hunting friend up there once just to experience it. He loved to watch ducks and so I never shot any on his property in Pawling, NY. The memory of what he saw will remain with him for life.

[charlie cleveland]

what a sight that must have been....charlie