The term duck hunter refers to someone who hunts ducks, obviously, and duck hunting can be prove to be quite a challenge. Ducks have excellent vision, and it takes a hunter who knows ducks to be successful at hunting them. Because ducks eyes are on the side of their heads, they can see a wide range at any one time, and this makes it easy to spot the amateur duck hunter.
This has resulted in many hunters making their own, or purchasing duck blinds, some which enable the hunter to lie in muddy area, like the coffin blind, and others that cover a hunter’s boat. These blinds, and many others, mean that a duck hunter can move a little, without being seen by the ducks he or she is hunting, provided there are no noises to give the hunter away to the ducks.
Ducks like areas that provide food, water and shelter, so that they have a safe place to rest, so duck hunters look out for these areas, especially water ways like streams, ponds, and creeks. The ducks do not always use the same areas year after year, so avid duck hunters know to change their area of hunting too. This means that every year is a different challenge, as different locations provide their own unique challenges.
A duck hunter relies on duck calls to attract the ducks to the area he is set up in. Duck calls are man made devices that imitate the sounds that ducks make in the wild. There are many different types of calls, but they have one thing in common, they produce a sound that attracts the ducks. Duck hunters often have a favourite call that they swear by, and by going duck hunting with a group of friends with different duck calls, the ducks here all these duck sounds and feel more comfortable flying towards these sounds, as they assume that the sounds are coming from a group of ducks, and this reassures them.
Decoy ducks are also used by hunters, so that the ducks can not only hear other “ducks” but can actually see them too. In recent years the decoy ducks have become more and more realistic, which again reassures real ducks that they will be safe in this particular area. The decoy ducks will attract the ducks into the duck hunter’s range so he can shoot one or two, so hunters pay attention and purchase realistic looking ducks. The placement of the ducks matters too. The hunter has to put them facing in the right direction, otherwise the ducks will not head towards them. Ducks are not as dumb as many believe, and they can sense danger, or when a scene does not look right, and they will avoid it.
Other duck hunters have a wealth of knowledge, and although some tales may be embellished a little, there is usually some useful advice there that is worth noting. Hunters that have bee successful for years must be doing something right, so they are worth listening too.
Just on an aside, there are duck hunter games out there now, some are video games, another has an actual plastic duck that flies for a short time, giving you chance to “shoot” it. The online games for duck hunts vary, from cartoon to real, and besides this, there are lots of duck hunting videos online too. What does this mean? It means that even when the duck hunting season is over, you can still have some fun hunting ducks online. Some videos are as challenging as the real thing, so you don’t have to pine away, longing for duck hunting to start up again. In other words, the duck hunter can always be hunting ducks, night or day, hot or cold, indoors or outdoors – what a life!
duck hunting
