THE BAGGING OF A QUACK

Early Americans saw the sport of duck hunting quite differently from how we view it today. In the days of the Pilgrims, an estimated 1/2-billion ducks inhabited America. Duck hunting involved no sport. The meat provided vittles,and you bagged them any way you could. Here's some tactics for taking ducks.

TAKING EARLY 20TH CENTURY DUCKS

In the 20th century, men bagged quacks with more sophisticated methods by forming clubs. Many times the clubs employed a decoy man year-round who had charge of breeding and training live decoy ducks. He would catch up a dozen ducks of each sex at a time.

Over a series of months, the trainer would teach the drakes to fly in formation over the water while leaving the females tethered in the water. Eventually the trainer would hitch the females to a running line which lead from the blind through a pulley to a buoy 150 yards offshore. Then the female ducks rode this line in the roughest weather without flapping or squawking when someone pulled the line to decoy in the wild ducks. Most frontiersmen didn't employ these methods but rather used tactics still effective today for the black-powder hunter.

Come Back Throughout the Week for More Free Tips...

Day One - Tolling Ducks
Day Two - Market Gunning Ducks
Day Three - Take Early 20th Century Ducks
Day Four - Stalking Ducks
Day Five - Jump Shooting Essentials