Nostalgia Duck Hunt

[Pete Lester]

A New Years Eve nostalgia duck hunt today. It was a very slow Bluebird day today but it was nice to be outdoors, sunny blue sky, flat ass calm and 50 degrees. I decided to literally dust off and use some 50 year old decoys my father bought for me in 1974, inexpensive Victor D73 Black Ducks, and shoot the first Parker shotgun I bought 40 years ago in 1984, a 1913 12ga Trojan, 28" M & F. I was rewarded with one nice decoying Black Duck (with a sprinkle of Mallard in it) and the rest of the day was a picnic with a friend watching the world go by, a nice way to say goodbye to 2024. Happy New Year everyone.

[Gary Kephart]

Nice set upend beautiful black duck!

[Garry L Gordon]

On days like that, ducks are not all we hunt, and I’m sure know it. :bowdown:
Please send your weather our way. We’d like to “bag” some memories, too.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The last gasp for decoys from the old Victor company! From what I understand, the last decoy manufacturing line they had was damaged in a weather event and they started having them run by Sportplast in Italy for a couple years. Are they all black ducks?

[Pete Lester]

You are a wealth of information. The D73's were gifts from my father when I was just starting to duck hunt in the 1974/75 time frame. Some say Black Duck on the bottom and others say Hen Mallard but they are painted identical.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The ones marked black duck are fairly scarce.

[Pete Lester]

The ones marked black duck are fairly scarce.

I can't imagine they are worth much. I suspect I will take them out for a hunt every now in the future for old times sake and the memory of my Dad.

Funny story, one time while hunting as a teen with a good friend who passed away this past year, we got bored and became impatient with their lack of effectiveness. We decided to walk some nearby coves with hopes of jumping some ducks, we had no luck. When we got back to where we had been hunting I was looking at the decoys and asked Rick, how many decoys did we put out? Before he could answer I turned to see one of them take to the air and fly out of range :rotf:

[Kevin McCormack]

One crystal clear bluebird day not quite cold enough my older brother and I were sitting in a nice blind on a feeder creek just off Crab Alley Creek just off Eastern Bay on Kent Island on MD's Eastern Shore. We set a nice decoy rig out but there was almost no wind and the temperature climbed steadily just after sunrise. About 9:30, after our usual 30 or so cups of coffee we decided to call it and pull the rig. Each of us exited our end of the blind and walked about 10 paces from it. Our guns sat upright in each corner of the blind as we relieved ourselves, backs to the creek and facing the woods. Deep in bodily function reverie, I heard two distinct splashes, like water balloons hitting the lawn in summer. I whispered, "Think we can get to them in time?" He hoarse-whispered back; "NOW!" We both did our best renditions of quarterbacks diving into the endzone to get our guns. Both ducks, huge Blackducks, blasted off like fired out of a cannon and hit the afterburners around 15 feet off the water. Each of us gave them a Hail Mary, more of a desultory salute to our oft-repeated waterfowl hunter's mantra: NEVER leave the blind without a gun!

[Rick Roemer]

Exactly my sentiments-Whether it be taking a walk to warm up, adjusting decoys, making breakfast, answering nature’s call- that is when they show up. Best duck call is doing anything but watching and especially if you leave the blind unarmed

[Kevin McCormack]

Right Rick - another mantra I developed after I got and trained my first Lab (who trained a lot more of me!) was. WATCH THE DOG! When they are looking out of the blind or pit, their radar pics up the birds hundreds of yards out before you do - lunging heads, flaring eyes, shivering postures all alert you to incoming birds. Nature tells them something we can't know. The best we can do is pay attention and pick up on it.

[Larry Stauch]

Right Rick - another mantra I developed after I got and trained my first Lab (who trained a lot more of me!) was. WATCH THE DOG! When they are looking out of the blind or pit, their radar pics up the birds hundreds of yards out before you do - lunging heads, flaring eyes, shivering postures all alert you to incoming birds. Nature tells them something we can't know. The best we can do is pay attention and pick up on it.

Right Kevin; I think it's their superior hearing that alerts them to the incoming wing beat sounds of the ducks. And you're right they are alerted long before we are. Heck, most of us are as deaf as a stone.

[Joe Dreisch]

A black lab taught me how to waterfowl hunt. She, also, had infallible radar for seeing incoming doves long before I could!!