My oldest son has been bitten by the duck hunting bug and it looks like there’s a whole new list of gear to be bought in my future, including a boat to get us around to the spots I guess. I guess there’s worse things to spend money on. I haven’t duck hunted in 35 years. This’ll be fun.

How old is your son? I’d say any cost is worth the memories you will make spending time together. Mine went a few times when he was young, but jist couldn’t take the cold and early morning.

He’s 18. We’ve always deer hunted together and now he’s hooked on duck hunting after going with some his buddies.

Similar to deer hunting, it can be as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it. However, in order to consistently produce results it is much more expensive than deer hunting.

Congrats! Not a better connection than father/son duck hunting. the conversations with my son in the blind or standing timber are priceless to me.

I dove in full bore a while back. Got everything but a boat. For 10 years it was all I did. Hell, I even did a little competition calling in AL ans MS. Then, it changed. Leases got super expensive. Public got too much of a hassle. Last time I tried my local public hole where I had never seen another person, it had 10 trucks with 15 dogs and 25 folks under 20 years of age. I said to hell with it.

I did have some great times with my boys and made some lifelong friends I’d never met otherwise. Juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze anymore. I hope you guys have a great time and you will absolutely create some wonderful memories!

Doc when you were fooling with the call contests did you ever come across Cory Niccum?

If you are in Central AL, just get a lease in MS or AR. It will be money much better spent than a boat. There's not enough ducks around here to waste a bunch of time and money on. It's 95% wood ducks and it's hard to even kill them legally. Go to the lease 5 or 6 times a year and you'll have some unforgettable hunts and some duds but that's part of it. The time spent alone with the kid is what matters

I agree, the only other alternative would be to get a boat and hunt public in those states mentioned.

Might have to go further than Arkansas

I still haven’t bought a federal stamp in 40 years. Lol

I’m impressed they found ducks.

It is very addictive/expensive

Seems like I did actually.

Please don’t throw your money away buying a boat and trying hunt in Alabama or Arkansas or anywhere else I know of. I applaud you for want to be with your son and wish I’d had a daddy like you. Take your boy on some hunts with an outfitter in Missouri or Kansas and take him to Alberta or some where y’all can have fun and kill birds. Duck hunting is very tough here. You can pm me if you like.

It's just like anything. Some people say the same exact thing about deer hunting in Alabama "it sucks, go to Alberta". But I've never been out of the southeast for deer or duck. Seems pretty good to me.

Some great advice above. You hunted 35 years ago you’ve seen the good days. North Alabama had duck 35 years ago on the rivers and lakes. There scattered now it’s about food and being able to flood a place to hold ducks. Don’t go the Missouri or Oklahoma….if you do you’ll be spoiled birds are up there and hunting in Alabama public land will be very disappointing. Enjoy every hunt with your son! He’ll be taking you hunting one day. It’s happening to me now. Got a call last night from my son want go in the morning shoot a few woodies. Be safe the water can be cold……….

I used to hunt with Cory in AR. Best I ever heard at the meet calling contest. He won a lot of contests. Him and his brother. Heck of a speck caller too. I got a lot of funny stories that involve Cory and a duck blind. Great guy.

My experience from 35 years ago was when I lived in Nebraska for a stint. Ducks, geese, and pheasants. It’s all we did. It was an amazing time.

Sounds awesome. Wish I had some pheasants closer to me. Ive seen a few wild ones in Northern Missouri and a few in KS where I used to roam, but never have hunted them.

I was never quite in their league but I do recall his name. At my prime and with daily practice, I was better than average and could hold my own with some good callers but definitely no elite champion caller. I was all in with Echo and blew their BOSS competition call. I could get birds to turn and finish and at the end of day, that was my thing.

There's nothing like hunting pheasants in a cut corn field, with a layer of snow on the ground and a GOOD pheasant dog. I could watch the dog work and never take a shot and be happy doing that. Pheasant’s are tough. They’ll sit still until the last second and fly straight up. You better hit them then because when they spread their wings, and the wind catches them, they are GONE. Good thing is though they’ll only fly about 200 yards or so and set back down. So if you miss, you just walk down and kick them up again.

One of goals in life is to do this before I die

Fun time for sure!

Sadly even in S.Dakota 1/2 or better of the Pheasants you kill were pen raised and released before season in order to get acclimated to the Wild. They fly just as hard/fast as the Wild One's. The state requires that the Commercial Operations release a given number. Farming Practices and Pressure have had negative effects. You can tell a pen raised one from a Wild one by looking at the nostril. A wild one has a "Divider" in between the 2 nostrils. They take a tool that punches a hole through the tissue on the pen raised and you'll see daylight when you look through from one side.

Yeah I think that is how they put the blinders on them right? I’ve been on a few tower hunts where they left the blinders on a few birds by mistake

The he blinders are to keep them from killing each other. When I raised them they fought all the time. I found that by putting multiple colored plastic balls they started busy with them for some reason. Chukar were the best i raised. Ate very little and were very strong flyers. Quail pecked other to death too. Hunting in that snow was pretty but dang it got miserable. Especially chasing grouse in the spruce trees. That’s now would dump down your back. We hunted a preserve in WI and it was fun. Most the birds were wild that we hunted since we always chose the backside that butted up to a large corn field and the birds liked hanging close to the swamp. Dave always knew the difference and I never thought about the nostril deal.

My good friend knows some folks up in as Dakota and wet talking about book there next fall and get after whatever we can. Might as well, ducks just aren’t like they once were.