Listed below is some useful information to prepare beginning duck hunters for a lifetime of successful duck hunting outings:

Duck Hunting Equipment:

First, you need to go out and buy a duck call. I suggest a double reed duck call that does not require a lot of forced air to blow. Cutt Down Game Calls makes an inexpensive mallard duck call that is very forgiving, and produces a very raspy sound without the need to blow hard into the call. This makes practice sessions less fatiguing, so you may focus exclusively on your technique and not on your volume. It is a great call for beginners and younger hunters alike.

Make sure to also invest in a quality duck calling video, or DVD. I learned to call ducks by listing to old cassettes by Mick Lacy His instructional material is the best in the industry in my opinion. Following the advice of the expert callers in these lessons will make a huge difference in your learning curve, unless you have an experienced caller on hand to teach you how to make all the different sounds you will need to master in order to bring ducks into your decoys.

Becoming a respectable caller will be just as important to your future duck hunting success as: finding good locations to hunt, using effective decoy spreads, and practicing good camouflage discipline. Therefore, choosing the right duck call might make or break your confidence in the early stages of learning how to call ducks. If, after a lot of practice sessions, you can’t make a good sound on your call, swap it out with a friend, or buy another one.

Whatever you do, don’t give up. You can learn to call ducks; but just like anything else in life, no skill worth having comes easily or effortlessly.

Here are four waterfowl hunting tips that will take some of the guess work out of the hunting trip, and stack the deck in your favor.

Tips for Duck Hunting #1: Decoys

There’s a lot more to decoys than meets the eye—or, at least that’s what you want the ducks to think! You should buy the best decoys that you can afford. Super-magnums cost more, but they add a lot more visibility to your spread which will allow ducks to see your decoys from a much further distance. Mixing up some different brands, and sizes, of decoys helps add realism to your spread. This is because each manufacturer produces a slightly different shape to the body that you won’t notice, but the ducks will. Having different sizes will make it appear that there are both mature and juvenile birds present.

Adding realistic motion to your decoy spread is the best way to make your setup look different from the thousands of other motionless “traps” put out by fellow duck hunters. Jerk cords are probably the most effective (and inexpensive) means of creating motion on the water in your decoys—unless of course you can afford to buy a “Mallard Machine”. Shaker decoys, and quiver magnets also work, but they just don’t move nearly as much water as the jerk cord can.

Tips for Duck Hunting #2: Hunter Journal

This might seem amateurish and elementary, but keeping a written record of your successful duck hunts and not-so-successful days, is one of the most important duck hunting tips you could take away from our website. It’s true that you learn from your mistakes—and duck hunting is no exception—and by following your progress, you will start noticing patterns in duck behavior.

But most importantly, you will learn from your own behavior too. For example, did birds that you could have shot at fly over your decoys while you were still setting up? Did it happen because you arrived at the blind too late?

Tips for Duck Hunting #3: Do a lot of scouting, and don’t always hunt the same spots.

You’d be surprised how often we find hunters forget the simple fact that if they limit their hunting radius, they lessen their chances of bagging ducks, which is why this is third on our list of duck hunting tips. You need not stay on the water for every duck hunt; branch out and you’ll find that crop fields—not always the water—offer many shooting opportunities as well.

Tips for Duck Hunting #4: Equal Effort, Equal Time

While these duck hunting tips may not all appear equal, it’s important that you treat them like they are. Don’t concentrate on decoy spreads but ignore your duck calls—allot equal time for each endeavor, regardless of whether it’s your favorite part of the sport or your least. For successful duck hunting, be consistent in your habits that work well, and manage all tactics equally.

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