Push it to the Mallard Limit
If I were to ask any avid waterfowl hunter what his or her dream limit of ducks is, the response will more than likely be seven mature green heads. In many parts of the country, seven mallards is a regular occurrence for any hunter with a dozen decoys. However, most of us in the Panhandle region have to work hard if we wish to kill our seven greenies. It wasn't until today that I asked myself, "How far am I willing to go to bag my limit of green heads?"
morning started off with a steep hike down a rocky cliff fully loaded with decoys, shell bag, gun and layout blind- all while loose rocks rolled beside me. Once the easy part was over and I reached level ground, I began the trek through knee deep mud and small puddles trying to find the spot I mapped out in my head the day before.
I knew from past experience to keep my feet moving boots get stuck and cost at least five minutes to get them back out. When I finally arrived at my destination, 45 minutes had pasted, and it was almost shooting time. I thought to myself, "I can't leave this spot until I have seven green heads, otherwise the effort wasn't worth it."
It wasn't long after setting out my decoys that I had wigeon, teal, gadwall, and mallards circling my 19 decoy spread.
The first minute of shooting time goes by and I have a pair of mallards cupped up to my decoys. As they make a wide turn, I could sense they were going to pass over around 30 yards. Side by side, I picked out the larger of the two and brought him down with a single shot.
A few birds later, I had a single show interest in my jerk string decoy setup. It passed me between 30 and 35 yards, but I was already four green heads deep so I had to be positive it was a drake. A couple calls later, he made a slow winding turn which lit up his colors with the little sun that was available. There was no doubt now that he was a drake and on his final turn I dropped him with two shots.
For an hour and a half, the mud didn't matter. I was simply a hunter lost in the moment of watching thousands of ducks work neighboring shorelines and my decoys. Birds continued to work my spread well, and I was accomplishing my seven-mallard goal one duck at a time. It wasn't until my seventh bird fell from the sky directly into the soupy mud where it made a remarkable "plop," that I knew the "packing up process" was about to begin.
By now, my blind and shell bag were both covered with a thick layer of wet, fudgey mud. I fought this sludge during the process of picking up my decoys which took 15 minutes longer than it should have. After a few retied loose boot laces, I finally gathered all of my belongings into a filthy pile. Once all the equipment was on my back, I had to continue back out through the mud and up the steep cliff to the truck- home free!
The reason I wanted to share this hunting experiences is because I always hear people say how they wish to harvest seven green heads when they go out to hunt.
The truth of the matter is, seven mallards is achievable, but you need to ask yourself how far you will really go to achieve it.
If you are the type of hunter willing to go out and get it, then we need to have a talk about our next hunting trip. Come in and ask around the shop. We'll figure it out.