Calling Tips: Hunting and calling from a pit blind
Field Hudnall explains how to call from a pit blind.
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Keep It Simple
The author has learned through experience that good duck hunting doesn't have to be complicated
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Ducks Unlimited Online Waterfowl Journal
This season, DU members can log all of their waterfowl hunts with the new online waterfowl journal application.
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Get Ready for Duck Hunting Season
Though it can be difficult to imagine during these hot summer months, another waterfowl season is fast approaching.
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Lease, Guide or Freelance?
When you get down to it, there are really only three ways most of us can hunt waterfowl. You can pay to lease a spot. You can hire a guide for the day. Or you can freelance on either public or private land (with permission). Which is better?
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How to Make a Jerk Cord for Decoys
Jim Ronquest, RNT-V producer, explains how to make and use a jerk cord.
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Five Tactics for Late-Season Ducks
It's late season, when the sport's true diehards are like NFL linemen in the playoffs. Veteran waterfowlers share 5 expert tactics to help successfully end the season.
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Mid-Season Magic
The middle of the season is possibly the most challenging time for waterfowl hunters. During this period, ducks and geese are notorious for skirting decoy spreads, ignoring calls, and in some cases, simply disappearing.
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Hunting Early Season Migrating Ducks
If you've never stared down a squadron of blue-winged teal screaming across the shallows of a harvested rice field or scattered gadwall decoys across a bed of smartweed, you're missing out on some great early season waterfowl hunting opportunities. Check out the following advice on how you can get a jump-start to the hunting season.
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Duck Hunting Journal App for iPhone and Android
The DU Waterfowler's Journal is the only mobile app designed exclusively for waterfowl hunters to keep a detailed log of each trip to the field. Currently available on both the Android and iPhone platforms.
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Mastering the Comeback Duck Call
A flight of ducks shows interest in your decoys, but is still wary. As the birds swing downwind, their body language shows indecision. Some of the ducks seem anxious to decoy. Others want to continue on their way. This is the time for the comeback call.
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Know Your Firearm
Jim Ronquest of RNT shares tips of the trade about knowing your firearm.
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Duck Calling Video: Use Back Pressure
John Stephens, president of RNT calls, explains how a duck call's bore size can change the sound of each call. Using more back pressure, created with a smaller bore, callers can create different sounds needed in different hunting situations.
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Antonio Jones Duck Calling Routine
Antonio Jones, from Little Rock, Ark., and Rich-N-Tone Pro Staff member, goes through his routine following the Kansas City Cabelas Open Duck Calling contest. Jones won the $10,000 first place prize.
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South Dakota Spectacular
Gary Koehler, DU Magazine senior editor, joined Avery Outdoors Pro-Staff members, Martin Hesby and Tyson Keller on an amazing South Dakot mallard hunt. This video captures a few moments of the "South Dakota Spectacular." For more on this hunt, read the July/Aug 2011 issue of Ducks Unlimited Magazine. (Video by David Sams)
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Waterfowler's Notebook: Keeping a Hunting Journal
Wade Bourne shares insights into the benefits of keeping a hunting journal and shares tips on how you can preserve your own memories from the field.
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Winter Duck Hunting Strategies
Deep winter offers duck hunters both challenge and opportunity. The late season cuts hunters little slack, but the last few weeks can also provide some of the best shooting of the year.
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Ducks Unlimited iPhone App
The Ducks Unlimited iPhone app is new and improved with more than a dozen features this season. Free for a limited time, so get yours today!
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Hunting Flight Ducks
This is the time of year that waterfowlers in mid-latitude states live for, when every major cold front can bring new flights and hot shooting.
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Ask the right way
There's no question that receiving permission to hunt on private land is a challenge these days in many parts of the country, but hunters can still gain access to prime hunting ground if they approach landowners in a polite and upfront manner.
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What Else Lurks in Your Duck Blind?
Permanent duck blinds stay out in the wilderness, sometimes for decades. These structures become part of the environment and remain empty for months. Even during duck season, hunters may only visit their blinds a few times.
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Duck Hunting Tips, Goose Hunting Tips, Waterfowl Hunting
A complete listing of duck and goose hunting tips.
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Decoy Strategies for Geese
Tyson Keller, one of the nation's top goose hunters, offers tips to capitalize on proven bird habits and put more geese in the decoys this season.
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12 Tips for Hunting Geese
An all-star lineup of professionals share their secrets to goose-hunting success
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Duck Scouting 101
Year-round scouting leads to success.
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Passing on the Tradition
Research is providing valuable information that will help us better understand what we can do to recruit more waterfowlers and other hunters now and in the future.
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Hunting FAQs
Frequently asked questions about Ducks Unlimited Hunting program.
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Public Duck Hunting Etiquette
Everything you learned in kindergarten about getting along with others applies in the duck blind, too.
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10 Safety Tips for All Hunters
Safety must remain a number one concern for all hunting. Keep these tips in mind while waterfowl hunting this season.
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Safety First: Live to Hunt Another Day
Waterfowl hunters must keep safety in mind as they pursue their pleasures
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Staying Focused in the Off-season
Q&A with waterfowl hunters can help you prepare for next season
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Decoying Ducks in Arkansas Timber
Decoying ducks in the Arkansas timber sometimes requires a soft touch.
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Duck Blind Snacks
A variety of imaginative foods find their way into hunters' blind bags.
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Great Rivers for Waterfowling
America's rivers are rich with waterfowling opportunities and traditions.
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Outfitting a Duck Boat
Safety needs to remain a number one concern when duck hunting from a boat. This checklist can help keep you safe and offers some handy hunting suggestions.
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Shooting Dogs...With a Camera
Getting a few good photos of your best friend can add to the great memories of your hunt.
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10 Commandments of Public Duck Hunting
Rules to live by when you're hunting public land
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Game Plan for Late-Season Ducks
Adapt to changes in birds' behavior to enjoy top-notch duck hunting in the final weeks of the season
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Shades of Gray: Getting Gadwalls to Decoy
Some days gadwalls decoy readily; other days they can be downright difficult
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Documenting the Hunt with Photos
Photo opportunities are all around you
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Seeing Differently
Ways to give an ordinary photo a new look
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Deep Freeze Ducks
Do Something Different in Late Season
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The Fowl Men
Famous waterfowl hunters share their secrets to success
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Duck Hunting on a Budget
Here's how cost-conscious waterfowlers can enjoy high-quality hunting without breaking the bank.
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Photography: Working Low Light
Hunting photography tips for low-light conditions
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Photography: Foul Weather Concerns
By far, the biggest concern for a waterfowl hunter with a camera in the blind is the weather and the surrounding elements.
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Video Tips for the Duck Blind
Boost the quality of your video footage from amateur to professional
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Clean Up Your Call
From cleaning your call to practicing in the field and at home, you can improve your duck calling technique all year long.
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Buyers Tips for Duck Boats
A duck boat can open up a whole new world of hunting opportunities for waterfowlers. But buying a fully equipped boat can be a significant financial investment, so it’s important to make a good decision on every aspect of your purchase.
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Insider Guide to Public-Land Duck Hunting
Veteran public-land waterfowlers share their secrets for finding great hunting
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15 Great Places to Hunt Waterfowl
When it comes to planning a waterfowl hunting trip, location is everything.
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How Duck Hunters Can Change History
By supporting conservation today, all of us can help ensure a bright future for waterfowl and our sport.
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Waterfowling's Perfect Storm
Knowing how to read a weather map may be as crucial to your hunting success as decoys and calls.
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Pre-Season Prep
Get a jump on the hunting season with these tips!
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High Desert Waterfowling
A Nevada duck and goose hunt opens a door to waterfowling’s distant past
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Point-Blank Waterfowling
These tips will help you get more birds feet down over the decoys.
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15 Veteran Tips for Waterfowlers
Veteran duck and goose hunters share their secrets for better hunting.
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Mega Decoy Rigs
In the right situation, a massive decoy spread can be especially effective.
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A Valentine's Day Special: Love is in the Blind
This is the story of two waterfowl hunters who found love, and the unique proposal that joined them forever – both in and out of the blind.
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Late-Season Decoy Spreads
Overcoming the challenges of winter waterfowling requires both realism and creativity.
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Gadwall Hunting Tips
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Cold-weather hunting tips
Let waterfowl behavior guide you this winter
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Duck Scouting Success With Online Tools
New technology for duck hunters
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Warm-Weather Duck Hunting Tips
Ducks and geese change their habits during warm spells, and so should hunters.
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Notes from Duck Country
Expert advice for hunting ducks in a variety of classic habitats
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Hunting a Bad Wind
By making the right adjustments, you can overcome the challenges posed by an unfavorable wind direction.
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Tips for Early Teal
We were among several hunters at the boat ramp arranging gun cases, decoys and blind bags before joining the squadron of aluminum crafts on the lake. The September air was hot, muggy and filled with so many mosquitoes that killing only two of them in a swat was a product of poor timing.
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Blind Faith
With today's array of portable blinds, waterfowlers can be more mobile than ever.
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Catahoula Canvasbacks
This vast Louisiana lake has long been a haven for these prized diving ducks.
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The Duck Hunters List
10 things all waterfowlers should do in their lifetime.
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Biggest Mistakes in Duck Hunting
Here’s how to avoid the most common errors committed by waterfowl hunters.
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Think Like a Duck
Adapt your hunting strategies to match shifts in the duck's behavior
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20 Portable Duck Blinds
With today's array of portable blinds, waterfowlers can be more mobile than ever
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The X Factor
It's a dilemma nearly every public-land waterfowler experiences. Ducks or geese are piling into a particular spot, and it's not where you are. Flock after flock circles and pitches in as you watch and wish.
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Build a Better Duck Blind
Tips for building a better blind this season
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15 Tips for Duck Hunters
DU members share their secrets about hunting tactics and gear
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Think Small For Ducks
Some of the best duck hunting can be found in some of the smallest, least obvious spots
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Teal, We Meet Again
If you haven't tried teal hunting yet, you should
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Scouting - Waterfowler Early Installment Plan
The overgrown boat trail led to who-knows-where, but I was determined to find out where. I nosed my boat into the small opening in the reeds. It was barely wide enough to slide through. The ditch ran straight into the cover some 30 yards, then it took a curving bend to the right. I jockeyed the throttle on my Go-Devil motor, powering over the shallow muck and decaying vegetation.
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Fooling Today's Highly Educated Waterfowl
Intense hunting pressure is making ducks tougher to hunt every year. Here's how to fool them.
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Little Things, Big Differences
In duck hunting, sometimes little things make big differences in the number of birds you bag.
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Reservoirs of Waterfowl
We were in Kansas, on a reservoir built for power generation and to store spring floodwaters, but the ducks didn't know that. They thought this lake was strictly for them, and they fogged it.
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How to Hunt Moving Waters
Moving waters comprise the last great frontier in North American waterfowl hunting. These are the large rivers, small streams, and tidal marshes that bisect and border this continent.
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Hunting Light
Boat and trailer. Outboard motor. Portable blind. Life jacket, heater, spotlight, paddle, push pole, anchor, rope, fire extinguisher, spare battery, bilge pump. Decoys. Decoy bags. Waders, shells, calls. Wing-spinners. Water shakers, spare string, spare anchors, spare AA batteries, jerk string rig.
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Hiding in Plain Sight
As hunting pressure in the United States has reached an all-time high in recent years, ducks and geese are becoming conditioned to avoid any cover that can possibly conceal waterfowlers. Heavily hunted mallards, for example, often leave traditional resting areas in marshes, sloughs, and flooded timber at dawn to spend their day loafing on big water, mud flats, gravel bars, and puddles in harvested grain fields, where they are less likely to encounter hunters.
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Green-Timber Greenheads
Timber hunting is the purest form of duck hunting and in many ways the hardest
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Forecast Your Duck Hunting Success: Weather Matters
Weather conditions have an enormous influence on duck hunting success. To make the most of their days afield, waterfowlers must understand weather patterns and how they affect bird behavior.
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Fight the Ice on Your Next Duck Hunt
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The Lowdown on Layout Hunting
Given a choice, most waterfowlers would hunt in natural wetlands with plenty of cover in which to conceal themselves, such as flooded timber, salt marshes, or cattail sloughs. But the fact is, better duck and goose hunting is often available in open-water habitats largely bereft of vegetation like flooded croplands, moist-soil impoundments, and reservoirs.
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Ducks the Color of Autumn
Shooting a wood duck in flooded timber is like trying to gun down a stone released from a slingshot, only harder
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Safety First: Live to Hunt Another Day
Waterfowl hunters must keep safety in mind as they pursue their pleasures
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Timber Tactics of the Duck Commander
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Hunting Ducks on Dry Land
Innovative hunters are discovering that dry-field hunting can be very productive
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Big-River Ducks
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30 Helpful Hints for Waterfowlers
Would you like to improve your waterfowling success and make each trip a bit safer and more enjoyable? These 30 tips could help!
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20 Tips For Better Waterfowling
These helpful hints from some of today's most innovative duck and goose hunters might pay off big this season
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Words That Define Us
In waterfowling literature, one can find many wonderful passages by great writers that describe what it truly means to be a duck hunter.
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The Wild, Wacky World of Waterfowling
These amazing facts and other bits of information may very well surprise, bewilder, intrigue and entertain you!
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The Timber Experience
Tips for hunting flooded timber and a hunt this author will never forget.
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Take a New Hunter
Help build a strong future for waterfowling and conservation by recruiting a new hunter into the fold.
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Setting the Hunting Season
An in-depth look at the complex, science-based process that safeguards waterfowl populations while maximizing hunting opportunity.
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A Duck Hunter of the Finest Caliber
Hunting is a sport of possession, but I like hunting most with men who treasure those things about hunting that can't be possessed. Vernon Baker, who has been my duck hunting companion for close to 25 years now, is one of those men.
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Top Duck Destinations
Where America's most popular species congregate
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Decoy Spreads for Canada Geese
Canada goose decoy strategies from expert hunters across the country
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10 Quick Blind-Building Tips
Take your blind building and placement seriously.
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10 ATV Tips for Waterfowlers
From battery storage to oil changes, here are some recommendations to keep your ATV in tip top shape year round.
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The Sooner the Better
When the weather turns cold, thousands of waterfowl pour into Oklahoma’s northern tier.
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Big-water Action on Small Ponds
Getting the most out of your small-water hunting experience
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Ground Game - Layout Blinds
Lightweight, portable layout blinds provide effective concealment in a variety of waterfowl habitats.
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Prairie Sampler
A week of mixed-bag wingshooting in Saskatchewan reunites old friends and begins a new tradition.
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Build the Perfect Duck Boat
Justin Tackett gives an overview of his perfect duck boat.
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Tips for Storing Your Hunting Gear
Adding a method to the madness
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The Minimalists
By sticking to the basics, these waterfowlers have found success without spending a fortune on gear and gadgets.
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Snow Days
Veteran waterfowlers describe their most unforgettable hunts in winter weather.
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Duck Hunters Rainbow
Major rain events can lead to some of the season’s best hunting.
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Diver Quest
A layout-gunning adventure for diving ducks on the broad waters of southern Ontario.
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Hunting on the Edge
Some waterfowlers go to extremes in pursuit of ducks and geese.
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Hunting Midday Ducks
If you routinely head in by midmorning, you might be missing out on some great hunting.
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Scouting for Ducks
Improve your hunting by locating new hunting spots and by keeping tabs on migration
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Ducks 2050
What might the coming decades hold for waterfowl and duck hunters?
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10 Classic Combos
Make the most of your vacation time with these combination trips for waterfowl, upland birds, and much more.
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Tips for Hunting-shy Ducks
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Finding Hidden Duck Holes
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River Hunting Strategies for Ducks
A hard freeze is good time to hunt river ducks
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Strategies for Duck Hunting on Public Land
Public hunting areas can provide top quality shooting
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4 Steps to a Simple, Temporary Duck Blind
Duck blinds run the gamut of sizes, designs and features, based on the whims and resources of their owners. Some are very basic, while others are elaborate.
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Hunting Across Canada: Peace River Mixed Bag
The vastness of northern Alberta is home to a variety of up-close waterfowling.
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September Teal: Mayhem in the Marsh
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5-Tips For Duck Hunting in Extreme Weather
Here are 5 excellent tips for hunting ducks in extreme weather.
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Duck Hunting in Flooded Grainfields
Flooded grainfields are consistently among the most productive waterfowling hotspots
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Words of Wisdom from DU Members
Words of wisdom from DU members across North America
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Duck Clubs 101
How to pool your resources with others to secure your own piece of waterfowling heaven.
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Mallard Heaven
A journey to one of North America's most famous waterfowling regions reveals why eastern Arkansas is still so important for greenheads and those who would pursue them.
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Ducks Unlimited and Hunting
Participation in waterfowl hunting fuels the passion of many DU members to give something back to the resources that make their outdoor experiences so enjoyable. DU was founded by a group of waterfowl hunters in 1937, and today 90 percent of DU members are hunters. Through the support of these sportsmen, DU has been able to conserve more than 12.5 million acres of habitat across North America in the areas that are most important to ducks and geese.
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The Great Cover-Up
Staying hidden from the keen eyes of ducks and geese is an age-old concern.
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Road Trip - Moblie Duck Camp
The concept of a mobile duck camp may seem offbeat to some wildfowlers, but this can be a fun and economical way to get to where the birds are.
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Greenheads - How To Hunt Mallard Country
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Modern Day Duck Boats
Whether you buy the complete package off the showroom floor or build it yourself one piece at a time, your duck boat can be something truly special
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Great Moments in Waterfowling
A look back at the people, events, and inventions that have shaped modern waterfowling.
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Passage to Alaska
The package includes waterfowl and upland bird hunting, world-class fishing, first-class accommodations, and idyllic scenery that you will never forget.
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Be Mobile for Ducks
When the ducks won't come to you, it may be time to go and find them
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10 Tips to Get Ready for Duck Season
These 10 helpful hints might pave the way for your most successful season ever
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Winds of Fortune
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The Year-Round Waterfowler Hunter
Bummed out now that duck season is over? These activities may help fill the long stretch before opening day.
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Hunting Position Statement
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Hunters Do More For Wildlife
Ducks Unlimited study finds hunters are more active in conservation efforts than non-hunters
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Duck Banding Stories
Harvesting a banded duck or goose is exciting in itself, but sometimes the ensuing tales are simply amazing.
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