IF I COULD BE REINCARNATED, I’d come back as a used-car salesman,” Ramsey Russell says to me.

It’s 5 a.m., and we’re barreling down a dark highway in Obregon, Mexico. Russell, 53, is explaining how it would be easier to sell used cars than the international waterfowl hunts he deals with in his current gig as a booking agent (though he hates that term). I’m pretty sure he’s only half kidding.

“People go in to buy a car, and they know what they want,” he says. “Me, I’ve got to sell the experience.”

Later that morning, a handful of other writers,  some reps from Benelli, and I enjoy the most epic pintail shoot I’ll ever be a part of. Drakes in their breeding plumage, long sprigs trailing behind, float out of the clear-blue sky and cup into a decoy spread set along a tidal beach. Tucked into a mangrove blind, my hunting partner and I take turns shooting until we have our limits, then we sit back and watch the spectacle of teal, wigeon, pintails, redheads, and shorebirds whip down the shoreline. By the time we get picked up for lunch, we’re sold on the Ramsey Russell experience.

We’re here on the west coast of Mexico hunting wintering ducks thanks to Russell’s connection to Frank Ruiz, an outfitter who turned his family home into a hunting lodge.

Russell sends his clients to outfitters like Ruiz all over the world. Classic wingshooting destinations such as Mexico and Argentina are entry-level trips for Russell’s hunters. Think more exotic: shelducks in Mongolia, garganey in Azerbaijan, barnacle geese in the Netherlands, red-billed teal in South Africa. Russell hunts all of these destinations before he sends clients to them. 

Not all of his trips are  high-volume shoots like the one we experienced in Mexico. On an Alaska king eider hunt, for example, you shoot only a few ducks per day. What all of Russell’s hunts have in common, though, is that they are a blend of adventure travel and species-collecting expedition. 

And the trips are not as expensive as you might think. An average hunt costs about $6,000, which isn’t chump change, but it’s still cheaper than almost any international big-game hunt, Russell reasons on our drive back after the morning shoot. His mission is to create a passion (and a market) for adventure waterfowl hunting. He wants to foster a shift away from the posh international hunt clubs. 

“These are duck hunts for real duck hunters,” Russell says. “You’re not traveling around the world to smoke fat cigars and eat edible art. You’re going to hunt. If you want all that other shit, take your wife to Italy.”

Life Is Short

Like any great outfitter, guide, or booking agent, Russell can cut up with a group of new hunters as if they’re old buddies. He knows that if a hunt isn’t going well and tensions are high, a good joke or witty story can save the day. Over the years, he’s developed an arsenal of quips:

“My favorite duck is the next one over the decoys”—for when pintails aren’t working, but shovelers are dive-bombing into the decoys. 

“I’d agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong”—for defusing an argument with a client.

“It’s like walking through the pages of National Geographic with a shotgun”—for selling the idea of a hunt in a far-flung destination.

Russell was born in Mississippi, where his grandpa taught him to love hunting and fishing. He was tagging along on dove hunts at 8 years old. Soon enough, he was immersed in the world of duck hunting Mississippi River backwaters. Then, when he was 15, Russell was nearly killed in a freak accident. He was cleaning a paintbrush with gasoline when a water-heater pilot light caught the fumes and erupted in a fiery explosion. Russell suffered second– and third-degree burns on three-quarters of his body, but he beat the 8 percent chance of survival the doctors gave him.

Most of us save the concept of “bucket-list trips” for the twilight of our hunting career. We’re only willing to roll the dice once we acknowledge that time is running out. But Russell faced his own mortality when he was a kid. During a long, torturous recovery, the teenager forged a saying that became his personal creed and would later become his business slogan: “Life is short, get ducks.”

Eventually, Russell earned a forestry degree and landed a job with the federal government. When he worked up enough scratch, he started traveling to hunt waterfowl in Canada and Argentina. He made his first international trip to Saskatchewan in 1998. 

Russell has the ideal temperament to captain a crew of duck hunters. He’s intense enough to make sure everyone brings their A-game (“Turn off the damn phone and play for keeps”), but he’s also experienced enough to know that the whole point of the thing is to have a good time—and he’s unabashed about his love for shooting ducks (“Hell yeah, shooting ducks is fun, and hell yeah, it’s conservation”). So, Russell had no problem recruiting buddies to go with him abroad. He started bringing so many other hunters along that an outfitter convinced him to open a part-time booking–agency business. Then, in 2010, Russell went full-time with his site, getducks.com.

Greenheads International

Russell has learned some straightforward lessons during his world travels: Don’t drink the milk in Pakistan, and keep your firearms documentation on your person when you go through customs in China. 

But the biggest takeaway cuts deeper, to the culture of American waterfowl hunting. Generally, we kill fewer ducks per hunt than you can almost anywhere else in the world, and yet we’re the ones obsessed with numbers.

That’s because the strict limits on how many ducks and how many of each species we can kill forces American waterfowlers to be careful counters. Each dead bird is one notch closer to a limit. A full limit means the end of the hunt, and complete success.

As Russell says: “It’s almost like if you only shoot three ducks, you lost. It’s made to feel like if you’re not killing a limit, you’re not having fun.”

Of course, these limits are good and necessary for conservation. In the U.S., we have much higher hunter-density numbers than in other parts of the world. There are about 1 million U.S. waterfowlers. In comparison, only a few hundred Americans travel to the Yaqi Valley in Mexico to hunt ducks each winter, according to Russell. Those few hundred hunters end up harvesting a statistically insignificant number of ducks, even if they’re bringing back a whole pile of birds each day.

In the rest of the world, waterfowl hunting for sport isn’t as common, and neither are limits or hunting pressure. In some corners of the world, you set your own limit. One of Russell’s hunts in Pakistan drives home the point.

He was invited by a feudal lord to hunt a sprawling marsh along the Indus River (one of the longest rivers in Asia, which serves as a major flyway). The lord had heard that the American was a crack shot, so he made his way down to the blind to watch. He gave Russell a few boxes of shells from his personal stash—German-made, 3-inch lead loads—and insisted that Russell take long shots that most American hunters would consider sky blasting. 

“If you want to hunt in Pakistan, you must shoot like a Pakistani,” the lord said. 

So, Russell started burning through shells, and once he got the long lead figured out, birds rained from the sky. Russell wasn’t counting but figures he killed more ducks that day than most American waterfowlers shoot in a season. Each bird was recovered diligently (meat doesn’t go to waste in Pakistan), and Russell was immersed in a totally different hunting culture. To the Pakistanis, the most important aspect of the hunt was shooting ability.

The upshot? You can’t travel halfway across the world and expect locals to have the same hunting values as you do. 

And over time, Russell’s clients have developed new hunting values.

“In the beginning, the number-one question clients would ask is, ‘How many ducks can I shoot?’” Russell says. “Now hardly anyone asks that. Now everyone wants to know which species are present and what the experience is going to be like.”

But no matter how far you travel, in many ways duck hunters are all the same. 

“Mallards are the big prize bird anywhere they exist in the world,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Mongolia or Missouri.” 

Many times, Russell hunts with locals who speak a different language from him. This minimizes the small talk, but they still communicate through hand signals and gestures in the duck hunter’s common language: Fix the hide, the ducks are flaring; tweak the spread, they’re not committing close enough; good shot, here come some more birds.

“You can put four people from anywhere in the world together in a blind, and they’ll have more in common than they’ll have differences, because they’re hunters.”

The Next Migration

On our last day in Mexico, we opt to hunt Pacific brant in a tidal flat of the Sea of Cortez. Shortly after sunrise, the birds beeline for our decoys, low and tight, flying like giant black teal in slow motion. After two volleys, Russell’s 9-year-old Lab, Cooper, has a pile of retrieving work to do. Cooper is a registered service dog, and she’s traveled the world  with Russell. This is the last big tour of her career. 

Next, we head to a backwater to hunt teal, and for the first time, Russell sets aside his shotgun. 

As we pick off teal one at a time, Cooper methodically plucks our birds out of the marsh. She needs no direction from Russell, and is mostly too deaf to hear him anyway. She retrieves because it’s in her blood. It’s what she’s always done.

Meanwhile, Russell contemplates the future of waterfowling. He plans to target millennials with his international duck-hunting trips. This demographic has proven willing to spend more on travel than any other expense. He’s banking on the idea that the groups of hardcore young guns you see patrolling the goose fields of every Midwest town will one day want to chase birds in Canada, Mexico, or Russia. 

Getting this next generation of hunters excited about waterfowling and conservation on a global scale, he hopes, will be his legacy. 

“Someday, I don’t want my headstone to read, ‘Here lies Ramsey Russell: One million dead ducks,’ ” Russell says. “There has to be more to it than that. Don’t you think?” 

This story originally ran in the Fall 2019 issue. Read more OL+ stories.

The post This Old-School Duck Slayer Is Opening New Hunting Opportunities Around the World for Americans appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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Many of the best duck hunters I know cut their teeth on public land, particularly walk-ins. These are some of the toughest places to kill waterfowl consistently because access is easy if you’re willing to to put in the effort. But it can be downright exhausting. It’s typically a long walk down a muddy levee, and if it’s cold enough, and the water is frozen, there’s more hard work in front of you. But that’s what makes this kind of hunting so rewarding—you have to sweat for ducks, and when you get’em there’s no better feeling.

At almost 40 years old, I still love walk-in hunting. I don’t do as many death marches anymore, but it’s fun to get out there on days when I know my brother and I have a shot at killing a few birds. That’s the key to enjoying walk-in hunting: Don’t go unless you think it will be good. It will burn you out quick, logging all those miles with too much gear in-tow, and returning with empty game straps.

This is the stuff I have accumulated over years of chasing ducks—mostly shovelers and ringnecks—in some of the most mediocre duck habitat around. But bottom line is that it works…and I wouldn’t walk-in hunt without it.

Upgrade Your Truck Tires

You might be wondering why in the hell you need a good set of truck tires for walk-in hunting. Fair question. Well, in my experience, walk-ins are the most neglected of public habitats by state agencies. You typically have to drive through some pretty sloppy/sketchy terrain to get to the parking lot, which is often a mud pit. Many times I have arrived on cold mornings when the ground is frozen and returned to a sloppy mess in the afternoon once the sun comes out. Stock tires will not get you unstuck. This year, I’ve been running Toyo’s Open Country A/T III tires. They’ve gotten me out of plenty of hairy situations when I might have otherwise needed a tow. If you drop the tire pressure down to around 20 to 25 pounds, I’m convinced they could get your truck out of quicksand. Dropping tire pressure is key if you’re stuck, and it can easily be done. Just don’t go so low that your tires are flat. And don’t feel like you have to buy Toyo. They have been great for me, but Tire Rack has plenty of options to select from, and the prices honestly aren’t that much higher than the on-road tire that came with your truck. So spend a few extra dollars and save yourself the aggravation. There’s nothing worse than getting skunked and then stuck in the marsh with no cell service.

Another Set of Wheels

No legit walk-in hunter carries all the gear in on his back. You need a cart. It will make your walks in and out infinitely easier. A few years ago, I bought a Rogers Toughman Decoy Dolly (it’s rated for 600 pounds, so my brother can haul me and the decoys out), and it’s definitely the reason I’m still a walk-in hunter. There are a variety of carts on the market, and you can also build one, but with the time and money you have to invest in the construction of one, you’re better off buying in my opinion. If you’re deadest on engineering your own, here is a deer cart build that will work. I typically hunt with one other person—or solo—and can put all our gear on the cart, no problem. The one thing you have to be leery of is mud. Carts don’t like it. The mud will get caught up in the wheels so badly that they won’t be able to turn and then you are stuck hauling all your stuff back to the truck in multiple trips.

Float a Jet Sled

I couple the cart with a Jet Sled, which holds all my gear and fits perfectly into the Toughman. Beavertail and Momarsh also make good sleds, and Cabela’s still sells ice fishing sleds, but they aren’t as durable. I put the Jet Sled in the bed of my truck, load it up, and then once I’m ready to unload it, I get the cart down first, open it up and prop it up against the tailgate of my truck so I can slide the sled in myself without physically picking it up. The versatility of the sled is what you really need it for. Remember I talked about it being too muddy for the cart? Well, if you drill two holes in the front of the sled (don’t drill into the bottom or you will spring a leak) and run a rope through the holes, you now have a handle, and can pretty easily drag the sled through the mud. Another bonus is once you hit the water, just jettison the sled from the cart and take it with you. It makes throwing decoys easier, and if the water levels are high it’s a good place to keep any extra gear, like jackets and blind bags, from getting wet.

Bring the Snow Shovel

Some of the best mornings come after the temperature dips below 32 degrees the night before. I always love to hunt a cold snap, because it moves ducks. The issue on public land is there’s no way to keep water open, so you’re likely going to be dealing with some skim ice. Ducks don’t like that, so I bring my dad’s old carpenter’s hammer and a snow shovel with a 2-foot wide scoop on it. If the ice has gotten thick enough that it needs to be broken up, I go to work with the hammer and make a hole. Then, I’ll come in with the snow shovel and push all the ice out. I get a lot of odd looks from other hunters, and hear guys say “why the hell does that guy have a snow shovel?” But the same hunters have come and found me to ask if they can use it once we are in the marsh. I always oblige. Sure, I would probably kill more ducks having the only open hole, but it’s bad duck juju to ruin someone else’s hunt because they came unprepared. Plus, I run into the same groups of hunters a lot, and you never know when you’re going to need their help.

Go Light on Decoys

I like to have the option to run as many decoys as I can (up to five dozen), and the key to success on public land is showing ducks a spread they haven’t seen before. About half my spread is butt-up feeders. They are light, take up less space than full-bodies, and mimic ducks feeding, which is more natural than a blob of head-up decoys, which is what most of your competition is going to be running. For full-body floaters, I go with the Avian-X Topflight series, because they are fully flocked and have a mix of head-up and low-head feeders. I use mallards, pintails, green-wing teal, wigeon, and black ducks, depending on the time of year. Variety is a key ingredient to killing pressured public waterfowl, and you should always have a few black ducks in your spread on sunny days. They stand out so much more than any other decoy with their dark bodies.

If I have a really long walk in, but need a large decoy footprint, I go with inflatable decoys from Lucky Duck and Dakota Decoy. Or, Lifetime has the FlexFloat mallards that are hollow in the middle, so they cut down on weight. I rig all my decoys with 3- or 4-ounce weights so they are lighter. If you hunt shallow rivers, that might be a poor choice depending on the strength of the current. You’re better off with a heavier mushroom decoy weight that buries itself into the river bottom. Mallard silhouettes are awesome if you are hunting ankle-deep water, or want to add more decoys in the shallows or on river sandbars. You can easily pack in 50 silhouettes and create a much more realistic rig than your neighbors.

Every decoy spread needs motion, and I typically run two spinning-wing decoys. I don’t use mallards because they are bigger and more cumbersome. Go with teal, wood ducks or gadwall. They are just as effective and take up less space. On-water motion is also key to a good spread. My best results have been with Wonderduck. The quality is unmatched. Many of the on-water decoys are junk. They fill up with water or don’t float. I’ve never had that issue with Wonderduck. Plus, they are built like tanks. Mojo’s Flock a Flickers are good too. They are a cheap way for creating motion and they don’t take up much room. Jerk rigs are one of the best ways to create decoy motion on windless days, and they will never run out of batteries or malfunction, like electronic decoys sometimes do. Ducks also get conditioned to avoid spinners as the season goes along, but they will never grow wary of the jerk rig.

RELATED: 5 Keys to Killing Reverse Migration Mallards and Geese

Dress in Layers

I still see a lot of hunters wearing blue jeans and squeezing into Neoprene waders. God bless them, but most don’t last too long on the cold days. No matter the temperature, if you wear Neoprene waders you’re going to sweat on the walk in. You will be warm for a while, but then that sweat becomes the enemy as the morning drags on, and chills you to the bone. I wear a pair of breathable Orvis front-zip waders with a rubber-soled wading boot, and depending on the weather will wear one to three pairs of longjohns. Or I put on a Merino baselayer and wear an old (warm) pair of sweatpants. But before I walk out, I shove the sweatpants in a blind bag. I might be a little cold on the way in, but that beats having to leave early because I sweated my ass off on the walk in and the wind is crystalizing that perspiration to my skin. The wader/boot combo is a bit pricey, but I’ve had them for five years now without a leak, and the grip I get with the boots is far superior than the sole of any wader boot I have come across.

I don’t put a jacket on when walking into the marsh either. And typically I don’t even wear a parka unless it gets real cold. Most public water is going to be frozen up solid anyways if it gets to the point where I need a winter coat. I like to wear two or three baselayers (one of which will be Merino), and add a vest to keep my core warm. Sometimes I’ll just go with a Merino layer, Carhartt hooded sweatshirt and the vest (but always bring a jacket along in case it turns cold, or you fall in and need a dry/warm outer layer). The key is you want to be able to shed layers during those walks in and out without having to carry around a bunch of bulky clothes.

Take a Pump Shotgun

My favorite gun is an old semiauto Beretta, but I typically don’t take it with me to the walk-in. It’s reliable, but autoloaders have more moving parts than a pump-action, so there is a higher likelihood they will fail. And I don’t need a breakdown after walking in over a mile. A Remington 870 20-gauge is my ideal walk-in gun because it’s lighter than a 12-gauge and will function flawlessly. You can likely find a used one for less than $300 at a local gun shop. Pump guns are also damn durable, and public land is often harder on guns than private duck clubs. So you want something that can take a dip in the marsh and still run properly. You might not get that from an autoloader. There is no worse feeling than getting up at 3 a.m., doing all the work it takes to set up, and having your shotgun malfunction when the first flock comes in.

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Most duck hunters head to the patterning board after buying a new shotgun to see how their gun shoots and identify where the shotshell pellets are striking paper. You might think the results are indicative of where that payload will hit greenheads and honkers come fall. But pattering your autoloader at the range is only the beginning. It tells you what a gun will do if you point it at a target and pull the trigger, sure. But that’s not how we shoot waterfowl. Unless turkey season is around the corner, I don’t actually pattern my guns on paper targets anymore. I head to the skeet range with an assortment of choke tubes and duck loads. Then I start shooting, and I don’t stop until I find the best combination of choke and ammo for that gun. That gives me a better sense of how the gun is going to perform on birds.

Since you might not have the money (or time) to get your hands on several choke tubes and types of ammo, I talked to some of the most hardcore waterfowlers I know—none of whom have sponsor or brand affiliations—to find out their go-to gun, choke, and load combo. You might be surprised to learn that those high-end bismuth and tungsten shotshells didn’t make everyone’s list. In my experience, you don’t need a custom shotshell if your gun is properly choked for the ammo you’re shooting. But as legendary king eider guide Russ Owen always says, what works for me may not work for you.

So here are some different options to consider before your next waterfowl hunt.

1. Shelby Kirby

Destin, Florida

In the summer, Kirby and her husband Chris run a fishing charter, but once fall hits they are off to Canada (when there’s no pandemic, that is.) From there, they make their way south, following the migration through the Dakotas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. They’ll chase snow geese, too, once the conservation order hits in February.

Four years ago, Kirby switched to a Franchi Affinity Compact and hasn’t looked back. She screws in a Carlson’s Cremator full choke, and shoots the trusted blue box, better known as Federal Speed Shok, which you can often buy for less than $15 a box. Speed Shok, along with Kent’s Faststeel (both all steel loads that have been upgraded in the last few years) are some of the most widely trusted among hardcore duck hunters. I shoot both often and always see empty hulls from each brand in every duck blind I hunt.

Kirby shoots 3-inch BBs for honkers and sandhill cranes. Snows, specklebellies, and ducks all get a dose of 3-inch 2s. She has tried pricier loads, but hasn’t seen any marked difference in performance.

“To be honest I can’t understand the hype in buying bismuth or tungsten shells,” Kirby says. “If the birds are where they’re supposed to be when you call the shot, Federal does just fine.”

2. Joe Weimer

Salisbury, Missouri

If there’s one guy I know who gets the most out of cheap hunting gear, it’s Joe Weimer. Weimer is so frugal that he carries his Winchester SX3 and SX4 in an old hard case one of his buddies was about to throw out. He hunts most every day of duck, goose, and snow goose season, typically until he shoots a limit or the sun sets.

For ducks and honkers, Weimer shoots his old SX3, which looks like it spends the offseason at the bottom of a lake. It still functions flawlessly, not counting one day in Saskatchewan when he forgot to screw the fore-end cap on tight. The gun’s guts spilled out onto the Canadian prairie when the first flock hit the decoys. He pairs it with Winchester Xpert 3-inch 3s for ducks and Browning’s BXD 3-inch 2s for honkers. The SX4 feeds a touch better than the SX3, so he shoots that on spring snows when the extended magazines come out and the gun is forced to cycle more than three shells in one volley. He uses Winchester Xpert Snow Goose shells for white geese—they are incredibly economical (and effective). A Rob Roberts T3 choke is always affixed to the end of both guns.

“I’ve never thought, Man I’d have killed my birds if I had some more effective shells. These just didn’t do the trick on that decoying mallard at 21 yards,” Weimer says. “I’m not saying other shotshell brands don’t work. But I’m at a threshold where I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything, so I’m not going to spend more. I hunt every day and I need something that works but that is economical. I’m not a guide or market hunter so numbers aren’t what matter to me. I try to shoot everything in the decoys, and these loads do the trick.”

3. Jeremy Thornton

Bartonville, Illinois

Most fall mornings I curse Jeremy Thornton for steering me through the gauntlet that is Illinois public-land walk-in duck hunting. It’s some of the toughest waterfowling you can do: lots of long walks for few birds. Plus, the shots you have to make on ducks are often downright difficult. Birds here get pressured badly, and like many states in the Mississippi Flyway, Illinois is seeing fewer migration days, which means more educated ducks and geese.

Read Next: 5 Tips for Shooting a Shotgun Better and Faster

Thornton learned long ago that you need to be able to shoot birds at distance here, and found that a factory modified choke in his Benelli Super Black Eagle 2 or M2 20 gauge works best. He shoots Hevi-Steel 3-inch 2s for ducks, and BBs for the big, greasy, local honkers. During snow goose season, Thornton just finds the cheapest 12-gauge steel load he can, because snows are notorious wimps who almost faint at the mere sight of a shotshell.

“I used to shoot Hevi-Metal [which is about $10 more a box], but Hevi-Steel performs just about the same…maybe we get a few more cripples,” Thornton says. “I never really got into the aftermarket chokes. I have a few Hevi-Shot chokes, but I like the pattern I get from the factory model. It covers up my bad swings.”

4. Drew Palmer

Arkansas City, Kansas

Palmer guides with some absolute killers in the Flint Hills of Kansas. They specialize in putting huge bunches of lesser Canada geese in your lap. The birds get so close that he sometimes pulls out an old Beretta with a mounted red-dot to snipe banded geese, hybrids, and Quill Lakes honkers (geese with white patches on their bodies) in tight. Most hardcore goose hunters will shoot a 12-gauge, but lessers are a smaller bird and a 20 is plenty for killing them inside the decoy spread.

His favorite setup at the moment is a Beretta A400 20 gauge, Apex Ammunition Steel/TSS blended 3-inch 4s, and an improved-modified Carlson’s choke. That rig will kill greenheads just the same, some of which are about the size of a lesser (and probably more hardy) in the late season.

“I swear by that load,” Palmer says. “It will kill anything I point my gun at. I shoot some other shells too, but Apex is hands down the best.”

5. Russ Owen

Denmark, South Carolina

For a long time Russ Owen guided for king eiders on the Bering Sea. It’s the toughest place on earth to kill a duck, and if your gun is going to fail ,it will most certainly happen here. For years, Owen relied on a Beretta Xtrema 2 and paired it with the first choke tube Patternmaster came to market. That tube, which only leaves the muzzle of his gun to be cleaned, debuted in 1993 and was revolutionary. It shortened shot strings to 2 to 3 feet so more payload connected at impact. He’s shot a variety of shells through the gun, including Speed Shok, Faststeel, and the little-known Wolf brand.

But now he predominantly is shooting the copper-plated bismuth 3-inch 5s from Boss. Shooting hardy kings at distance on the open sea takes serious knockdown power, and he needs a shell that can perform when there are so many different variables at play.

“Getting to the point where you are reliant on one gun, shell, and choke is really more about how well you know your gun,” Owen said. “I have an intimate knowledge of how my gun performs out to 60 yards, much in the way a bow or rifle hunter knows their weapon.”

6. Joe Genzel

Peoria, Illinois

As an outdoor writer, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot a wide variety of shotgun, choke, and shotshell combinations. But like many hunters, I’m a pretty average shot with flashes of good shooting sprinkled in there. I have the advantage of handling lots of shotguns, which gives me the unique opportunity to discover the best fit for me. And while I’ve shot different guns from time to time, I always go back to what I consider the best 3-inch autoloader ever built: Beretta’s A390 Silver Mallard. They stopped producing these guns in the late 1990s, which is unfortunate, because they’re truly workhorse autoloaders. If one breaks down, it’s only after tens of thousands of rounds have been put through it.

I shot a lefty Benelli Super Black Eagle 2 (I’m a natural righty but left-eye dominant) for a while because I was sick of reaching across the trigger guard to click off the safety on the A390. But once I had the Beretta converted to a left-hand safety, I shot it better on ducks than any other gun I’ve shouldered. Coupled with a Rob Roberts T2 (the gun doesn’t like the T1 or T3 for some reason), I’ve made some damn fine shots on ducks (and missed plenty, too). Hevi-Metal patterns best out of it. Any time I’ve made a long distance shot on a greenhead, it’s been with 3-inch 2s, 3s, or 4s. I know for a fact that choke, load, and gun combination makes me a much better shot that I really am, because all my best shooting days in the marsh unfolded with that setup in my hands.

The post The Favorite Shotgun, Choke, and Ammo Combinations of 5 Diehard Duck Hunters (and One Outdoor Writer) appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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With different shot materials, pellet shapes, and configurations available, wildfowling has become as much a science as it is a sport. Many hunters may be puzzled as to which load is best for their duck and goose hunting. Shot like Kent’s Tungsten Matrix and Environ-Metal’s Classic Doubles are for older shotguns, but then there’s Black Cloud, Blind Side, and Hevi Shot, which makes selection more difficult.

How to Choose the Best Duck Loads

These guidelines, broken down by species and size, should make shell buying easier.

1. Small Ducks

Teal

Kent TealSteel 12 ga., 3-in., 1,350 fps, 1¼ oz., No. 5 & 6 steel

• Effective Range: 30 yards
• Recoil: 35 ft.-lb.
• MSRP: $13/25 rounds

Because of this speedster’s size and erratic flight, small pellets are desirable to fill a wide pattern from a Skeet- or Improved Cylinder–­choked gun.

2. Medium Ducks

Gadwalls, Wood Ducks, Wigeon, Scaup

Federal Black Cloud 12 ga., 3-in., 1,450 fps, 1¼ oz., No. 3

Also consider Winchester DryLok: 12 ga., 3-in., 1,265 fps, 1 3/8 oz., No. 4; or Kent Fasteel: 12 ga., 3-in., 1,300 fps, 1 3/8 oz., No. 3

• Effective Range: 50 yards
• Recoil: 39 ft.-lb.
• MSRP: $23/25 rounds

For medium-size ducks over decoys or close passing shots, the traditional 3-inch load of 1¼ ounces of No. 3s provides good pattern density and power over normal ranges; also an excellent all-around swatter load.

3. Large Ducks

duck load 3 cropped

Mallards, Canvasbacks, Small Sea Ducks, Small Geese (Cacklers and Ross’ Geese)

Remington HyperSonic Steel 12 ga., 3-in., 1,700 fps, 1¼ oz., No. 2

• Effective Range: 50 yards
• Recoil: 52 ft.-lb.
• MSRP: $26/25 rounds

The high velocity delivered by this load increases the effective killing range on large ducks. However, don’t be tempted to stretch your gun barrel beyond ranges at which you shoot well.

4. Large Geese

Canadas and Large Sea Ducks

Hevi-Shot Speed Ball 12 ga., 3-in., 1,635 fps, 1¼ oz., No. 1

• Effective Range: 50 yards
• Recoil: 48 ft.-lb.
• MSRP: $25/10 rounds

These tungsten-steel pellets pack the heavy punch often needed to bag Canadas and tough sea ducks like eiders and scoters. They’re expensive but worth it to ensure clean kills.

Note: To put the recoil data in perspective, a light 1 1/8 oz. 12-gauge target load at 1,145 fps generates 21.38 ft.-lb. of recoil.

Advantages of Using a 20-Gauge for Waterfowl

Nontoxic shot became the law of the land just as I came of age as a waterfowler. How I recall my father’s panic. Alarmed by steel shot’s vast ballistic inefficiency, he and plenty of others formulated a seemingly commonsense plan: If we have to shoot steel, we may as well launch as much downrange as possible. Thus the 12-gauge, 3 ½-inch magnum came into favor.

Meanwhile, ammo manufacturers continued to load steel in the same powder-to-shot ratios as lead duck loads, which simply didn’t work. At traditional muzzle velocities, 1 ½ ounces of steel quickly decelerates to mere feather-ruffling speed.

Read Next: Best Duck Hunting Shotguns

A Viable Option

My, how two decades of innovation have changed matters. Manufacturers reduced the steel payload for 12-gauge loads to 1 ¼- or even 1 ¹⁄₈ ounces, and sped it way up. Pellet count was compromised, but terminal energy went through the roof.

Nowadays, I sense little disadvantage in shooting steel. In fact, I’ll argue that the 20-gauge is once again a perfectly reasonable choice for the duck blind. Your wallet certainly won’t argue. A quick scan of prices at my local sporting goods store revealed boxes of 3-inch, 20-gauge shells retailing for $3 to $5 less than 3-inch, 12-gauge boxes, and about $10 less than the 3 ½-inch, 12-gauge. Shoot a 20-gauge for a season or two, and suddenly your budget might allow for new decoys.

Is the 20-gauge an ideal choice for pass-shooting giant Canadas? Heck no! But on decoying ducks—25- to 30-yard shots and under—it’s deadly. Additionally, with proper pattern testing, this range allows the use of No. 4 shot, boosting the pellet count to numbers that compare or exceed many 12-gauge No. 2 loads.

The Numbers Game

One 3-inch, 20-gauge load that impresses me is Federal’s Black Cloud. Pellet count on 1 ounce of No. 4s is 192, surpassing the 156 pellets found in Black Cloud’s 12-gauge, 3-inch, 1 ¼-ounce load of No. 2s. Then there’s Winchester’s Blind Side line. With its stacked Hex steel shot, the pellet count for the 3-inch, 20-gauge, 1 ¹⁄₁₆-ounce load of No. 2 shot is 138. That’s quite comparable to the 172 No. 2 pellets found in a Winchester Drylok Super Steel 12-gauge, 3-inch, 1 ³⁄₈-ounce load.

The 20-gauge’s pellet-density gap is further narrowed by the unique wad designs found in the Blind Side and Black Cloud loads, which stay with the payload far longer than traditional wads. The result is a shorter shot string and a tighter, more consistent pattern—in other words, a much more ballistically efficient shotshell.

This is not to suggest I prefer a 20-gauge for all conditions. However, if you intend to hunt a creek, pond, or slough—and you know your shotgun’s limits—there are plenty of good reasons to break out the 20-gauge.

The post Best Duck Loads: How to Pick the Right Shell for the Right Bird appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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Archaeologists have found a collection of prehistoric flutes in northern Israel that could provide some insight into how early humans hunted birds. In a paper that was published in Scientific Reports this month, researchers conclude that the 12,000-year-old flutes were made from duck bones and were used to imitate the calls of certain birds.

“…these objects were intentionally manufactured more than 12,000 years ago to produce a range of sounds similar to raptor calls,” the study’s authors write.

The authors suggest that the flutes could have been used to communicate or played as musical instruments. But there’s a third explanation, which is that humans used these tools as rudimentary calls for bringing birds into hunting range.

Turning Duck Bones into Flutes

The flutes were discovered at a cultural site in Israel’s Hula Valley known as Eynan-Mallaha, which was home to the Natufian culture. The Natufians lived in modern-day Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Syria approximately 11,000 to 15,000 years ago, and they were “the first hunter-gatherers in the [region] to adopt a sedentary lifestyle,” according to the study’s authors.

A previous excavation at Eynan-Mallaha in the early 2000s yielded more than a thousand individual bird bones, many of which were found in dwellings and gravesites. This indicated that the Natufians hunted birds—particularly waterfowl—for food and other uses.

The ancient people subsisted off wintering waterfowl and also hunted “birds of prey for their talons,” the authors write, adding that the talons “might have been used as tools or for ornamentation.”

It wasn’t until archaeologists re-evaluated these bird bones last year that they made a new discovery: some of the bird bones had holes bored into them. They identified one intact wing bone and six other fragments of worked wing bones that featured mouthpieces and multiple finger holes. All of them had signs of wear indicating they had been used, which led the authors to identify the tools as “aerophones,” or wind instruments.

The instruments were all less than three inches long, and further analysis revealed that the bones came from Eurasian teal and coots. The Natufians evidently hunted for these ducks along with “other, larger species, such as birds of prey, larger waterfowl (geese, swans), and especially the mallard,” the authors explain.

Read Next: Archaeologists Discover Ancient Arrows and Hunting Blinds as Glaciers Melt in Norway

“They are probably some of the smallest prehistoric sound instruments known today,” lead author Laurent Davin told LiveScience. “Because of residues of ocher, we know that they were probably painted [red]. Because of the use-wear we think they might have been attached to a string and worn.”

Calling in Birds

So, how did the Natufians use these small wind instruments that they wore on lanyards around their necks? To find out, researchers made replicas of the flutes using mallard bones. They reproduced “high-quality and high-pitched notes” with the replicas, which led to their ultimate hypothesis: “that the purposes of the sound produced were to imitate bird calls.”

When they analyzed the notes, however, the authors concluded that they weren’t meant to imitate ducks, after all. Instead, they found that among the 58 bird species found at the site, the frequencies produced by the flutes were most similar to the calls of two raptor species.

“We, therefore, believe that the aerophones were made to reproduce the calls of the valued Common kestrel and Sparrowhawk,” the authors write.

The authors believe the prehistoric birds calls were likely used as instruments, which reinforces the idea that our understanding of music evolved as hunter-gatherer cultures adopted more sedentary lifestyles and established villages. But these bird-bone flutes might have also played a valuable role in hunting.

“The Natufian’s manipulations of sounds might have functioned in various aspects of their socio-cultural lifeways, either for hunting, communication, or ritualised behavior,” the authors conclude. “They could have been meant as a decoy used to lure the Common kestrel and Sparrowhawk to facilitate their hunting (i.e., luring birds within shooting distance by imitating their sounds).”

The post Hunters Were Making Duck-Bone Bird Calls 12,000 Years Ago appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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One of the most popular waterfowl hunts in the West, swan season on Utah’s Great Salt Lake, could be tweaked to allow both more and less swan hunting this fall.

According to a plan that will be considered by the state’s Wildlife Board next month, hunters who kill protected trumpeter swans could be ticketed and have their birds confiscated. The measure is intended to extend Utah’s season for tundra swans, which don’t have the same protections as trumpeters. Problem is: The two species of swans often travel together, and they can be hard to differentiate.

The change being recommended by the state’s wildlife agency is intended to reduce escalating trumpeter harvest while ensuring that federal waterfowl managers don’t impose more sweeping reforms that could end or curtail swan hunting in the Pacific Flyway.

But the proposal is getting a mixed reception from waterfowlers, who worry that well-intentioned hunters could be labeled as poachers if they accidentally kill a trumpeter. And they say that, by imposing a kill quota on trumpeters, the state is promoting an activity that it’s simultaneously trying to stop.

The Problem with Incidental Harvest

The roots of the issue go back decades to the recovery of swans, which are the largest migratory birds on the continent and considered by many to be the ultimate winged trophy. Utah is one of only nine states that allow hunting of tundra swans, which breed in the shallow lakes and wetlands of the subarctic and migrate south to their wintering grounds on the Gulf of Mexico.

Trumpeter swans—about twice the size of tundras and named for their distinctive booming call—were classified as endangered in the early 20th century due to intensive market hunting for their plumage and because of widespread habitat loss. The large swans, which have eight-foot wingspans and snow-white feathers, require cold, clear, pristine lakes and ponds to breed and brood their downy gray cygnets.

Endangered species protections for trumpet swans were removed in the 1960s as bird numbers rebounded. Meanwhile, populations of the smaller and more numerous tundra swans—which share colorations and flight behavior with trumpeters—have been increasing even more quickly, especially in the Pacific Flyway. Tundra swan seasons were established, first in Utah and then in neighboring states, in 1962, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Waterfowl managers noted that even in those early seasons “a small number of trumpeter swans were accidentally harvested by swan hunters who mistook them for tundra swans” in Montana, Utah, and Nevada. “A limited take of trumpeter swans was authorized by the Service in the three states beginning in 1995 to legalize this take and reconcile potentially conflicting management strategies” that intended to maximize hunting opportunities for the more numerous tundra swans.

This authorization allowed Utah hunters to unintentionally kill 10 trumpeter swans per season. Nevada hunters were allowed five incidental trumpeters. Montana never established a trumpeter kill quota, but discouraged waterfowlers from killing the larger, scarcer species. Meanwhile, Utah required hunters who successfully drew a tundra swan permit to take a bird-identification course to minimize incidental harvest of trumpeters.

Up until 2019, Utah’s complicated swan season worked pretty well. The hunt became so popular that waterfowlers could only draw one of the 1,550 swan tags about every third year. But in 2019, the state expanded the boundaries of the swan hunt, and increased the quota by 750 permits. Because waterfowl managers were worried that more tundra swan hunters were likely to encounter more trumpeter swans, they successfully lobbied the feds to increase the trumpeter kill quota from 10 to 20, says Heather Talley, upland game coordinator for Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources.

“Prior to 2019, Utah never hit its trumpeter swan quota, and Utah averaged only one trumpeter for every 800 tundra swans harvested,” she says. “In fact, there were only 40 recorded trumpeter swans harvested” in Utah’s modern waterfowling history.

That 2019 season expansion put more tundra swan hunters in proximity to more trumpeters, especially on the popular Public Shooting Grounds Wildlife Management Area north of the Great Salt Lake and the swan-rich Bear River National Wildlife Refuge. But another dynamic was starting to express itself.

Read Next: What Happens to Duck Hunting When the Great Salt Lake Dries Up?

“I’d say people started trophy hunting for trumpeters,” says Brooks Hansen, a longtime Great Salt Lake waterfowler. “There was a perception that if people were allowed to hunt trumpeters, and there was no penalty, then why not hunt what’s arguably the rarest waterfowl species in North America?”

Talley notes that since 2019, 85 trumpeter swans have been reported as harvested in Utah. Over a third of these were taken on or near the Public Shooting Grounds WMA. Because the state is required to close the tundra swan season when the 20-bird trumpeter allotment is reached, Utah’s tundra swan season has closed earlier and earlier over the past three years. Last year the season closed nearly four weeks short of its scheduled duration. Talley says that the long-term hunter success for tundra swans is around 40 percent; over the last couple years, that success has dropped to around 30 percent, mainly because the season ends weeks earlier due to the by-harvest of trumpeters.

“Those early closures are impeding the opportunity of our [tundra] swan hunters,” she notes, adding that the state has documented “more issues with [waterfowlers] targeting trumpeter swans the last couple of years.”

Criminalizing Swan Hunters

One remedy for this dynamic is making it illegal to harvest trumpeter swans. Accordingly, the state is recommending a full prohibition of the harvest of trumpeter swans in Utah, says Jason Jones, the DWR’s migratory bird program coordinator.

“Only tundra swan hunting permits would be issued to hunters, and it would be illegal to harvest a trumpeter swan,” says Jones. “Hunters would still be required to check in any harvested swans at a DWR office. Trumpeter swans would be seized.”

The rationale for the change is twofold. First, it would create a disincentive for harvesting trumpeter swans. Second, it would extend the tundra swan season into December, when birds are concentrated on the Great Salt Lake and available for public hunters. Hansen noted that last year the swan season closed around Nov. 12, a full month earlier than scheduled.

“I remember years when if you got a swan tag, you could count on hunting until the end of the season,” he says. “Now, if you don’t get out early, the trumpeters are going to be killed and the season is going to end early, with virtually no notice.

“We have seen a higher number of trumpeter swans harvested the last four years because there are more migrating through Utah than in previous years,” Jones continues. “We are hopeful that this change will prevent hunting opportunities from being taken away due to the early [tundra swan season] closures.”

But Chad Yamane sees things differently. A longtime Great Salt Lake waterfowl guide, now retired, Yamane worries that well-intentioned swan hunters may mistake a trumpeter for a tundra.

“I see a lot of birds, right, but even to this day, unless they’re flying with tundras or making noises, trumpeters can be really difficult for even me to distinguish,” says Yamane. “The first trumpeter I shot came in with a four-pack of swans, and we let them swing by at 20 yards for three or four times before I shot. Until I pulled the trigger and the rest of the birds made a sound, I had no idea they were trumpeters.”

Yamane worries that the state will come down hard on waterfowlers who unintentionally take trumpeters.

“I hate to see them make this illegal,” says Yamane, who thinks the state has actually incentivized the harvest of trumpeters by having an incidental-take quota. “The state has created some of the mess that they’re now trying to fix. I’ve asked them: Are you going to issue citations if someone brings in a trumpeter swan? Are you going to consider it a poaching case now that will result in their hunting license being taken away for three to five years? I think of the everyday person who draws a swan tag. How hesitant will they be to apply for a permit, or to go out hunting? And how hesitant will they be to harvest a swan? People make honest mistakes, but this would brand them as criminals.”

As an outfitter, Yamane specialized in guiding non-resident waterfowlers to their first tundra swan. But he says he’d be reluctant to guide a hunter under the new swan-hunting regulations.

Read Next: Manitoba Is About to Get Way Less Accessible for American Waterfowlers

“A flock of trumpeters comes in silent, or one comes in alone and you have nothing to judge it by, and your client shoots,” says Yamane. “There’s a mistake factor that could result in a fine or a citation and a confiscated bird. Now imagine a 12-year-old kid whose dad says shoot, and they shoot a trumpeter. What happens then? Did we just sour a kid on what should be an inspiring and memorable experience?”

Yamane agrees that the by-harvest of trumpeters is excessive, but he thinks it’s less than what’s seen and heard in social media posts and anecdotes. He also thinks it could be further reduced if the state reverted to its pre-2019 swan-hunting boundaries, which omitted the Public Shooting Grounds WMA, where much of the incidental harvest takes place.

“I just hate making a crime out of a common mistake,” he says.

Utah’s DWR is seeking public comments on the proposed swan rules through May 18. The proposals will also be vetted by regional advisory committees before the full Wildlife Board considers them at its June 8 meeting held, fittingly, at the Eccles Wildlife Education Center on Waterfowl Way in Farmington.

The post Some Hunters Target Trumpeter Swans. Utah Wants to Stop It Before All Swan Hunting Gets Shut Down appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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While many state agencies reported a welcome bump in hunting-license sales in recent years, the so-called Covid-19 bump in hunting participation has flattened out. Hunting license sales have returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports. Overall, sales were down 3.1 percent in 2022 compared to 2021.

CAHSS began tracking hunting license sales during Covid lockdowns, when anecdotal reports indicated there were more hunters in the woods. State agency data backed that up: hunting license sales jumped by nearly 5 percent in 2020, a deviation from the decades-long decline. Here’s a glance at the last three years of overall hunting license sales in the U.S.

• From 2019 to 2020, hunting license sales increased 5 percent
• From 2020 to 2021, hunting license sales decreased 1.9 percent
• From 2021 to 2022, hunting license sales decreased 3.1 percent

This year’s survey indicates that the modest gains made during the pandemic era have mostly subsided. Just six of 46 states saw an overall increase in hunting licenses sold in 2022 when compared to 2021. CAHSS did not make public which six states saw increased license sales due to privacy agreements with state agencies; Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, and Montana did not provide data for this year’s report.

Still, we do know that hunting license sales were down overall in all four geographical regions: the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West.

Why Are Hunting License Sales Down?

The report from CAHSS only analyzed license data provided by state agencies and did not examine potential causes of the decline or survey hunters. Still, there’s one major difference between 2020 and 2022 that could explain the return to pre-pandemic hunting license sales.

“Probably the biggest factor that we were dealing with through the pandemic was time. A lot of people started working from home,” says Swanny Evans, director of research and partnerships at CAHSS. “And we’ve seen people get back to work, we’ve seen travel pick up. We’re back in the real world, kind of, and I think time has become a constraint once again.”

While the pandemic was indisputably a tough period for many Americans, hunters were often able to embrace lockdowns. The conferences and work travel that normally filled Evans’ own schedule vanished. Suddenly he had more time to turkey hunt.

“But everybody else had a lot of time to turkey hunt, too,” says Evans. “And I could attest to that from not only the sign-ins on public land in Georgia that year but also the harvest on public land, and the anecdotal evidence of seeing people everywhere.”

There are plenty of tactics that R3 professionals (folks whose jobs revolve around recruiting, reactivating, and retaining hunters) can do to encourage hunting participation, but troubleshooting what could be the main culprit of these declining license sales isn’t one of them.

“When you start asking people about why they don’t hunt or they don’t hunt as much as they want to, time is the number one factor,” says Evans. “And it’s something that we can’t control. We can try to improve access and we can try to reduce hunting regulation complexity. We can try to make sure that more opportunity is there, that [would-be hunters] have the knowledge to hunt—whatever it is. But we can’t give people more of their own time.”

Another factor could be a more stable supply chain. Surveys and anecdotal evidence revealed that nearly half of “Covid-bump hunters” were motivated to secure their own meat at a time when it was difficult to find in grocery stores.

“For the overwhelming majority of hunters, one of the primary reasons that they hunt is for the food,” says Evans. “During the pandemic, people kind of saw that as an opportunity. ‘If we’re gonna have supply chain issues, I want to be self sufficient. Maybe I should give this a try, or maybe I should get back into it.’”

Yes, Nonresident Hunting License Sales Are Declining, Too

While nonresident hunting license sales were up nearly 13 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, they’ve mostly declined in 2022 with an overall drop of 3.1 percent. (Coincidentally, overall resident sales also dropped by 3.1 percent.)

Three out of four U.S. regions saw declines in nonresident licenses last year, with the West leading the pack at a 7.2 percent decrease from 2021, followed by a 2 percent decrease in the Southeast and a 1.5 percent decrease in the Midwest. Only the Northeast experienced a modest increase of 1.4 percent.

The surge in 2021 nonresident licenses tracks with national trends at the time, when many states had relaxed Covid-related travel restrictions, but plenty of would-be hunters hadn’t yet returned to their places of work.

CAHSS is working to collect additional data about hunting license sales to better understand hunter participation, including digging into common complaints about overcrowding on public lands and excess hunting pressure. Investigating these trends is tough work considering it requires wrangling 50 state government agencies, all of which sell hunting licenses slightly differently.

“It’s important to keep in mind that unfortunately we don’t have any perfect data sources when it comes to counting hunters,” says Evans. “A license sale doesn’t necessarily equal a participant for a variety of reasons. And then when we start looking at resident versus nonresidents, well, how many people are hunting numerous states each year? So looking at these overall license sales, we’re going to see fluctuations. We try to track them as best we can and we use that as an indicator of participation. But it’s not exactly a hard metric for what’s going on with hunting participation.”

The post Hunting License Sales Have Fallen Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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The landowner in the now-infamous “I own the f*cking land” video reached a plea agreement with the state of North Dakota on March 27. As part of that agreement, landowner Jeffrey Erman pleaded guilty to the charges of disorderly conduct-obscenity and interference with the rights of hunters and trappers—both class B misdemeanors.

Eddy County state’s attorney Ashley Lies tells Outdoor Life that the prosecution decided to drop the third charge of trading in special influence during Monday’s plea hearing. A class A misdemeanor, trading in special influence is considered a type of bribery under North Dakota law, and it is punishable by up to 360 days in prison and up to $3,000 in fines.

“After discussing it with his attorney and doing some research into the legislative history of the charge, I did feel it was inappropriate,” Lies says. “I think it would be [applicable] if he were bribing an official directly, instead of just offering to influence the game warden.”

As for sentencing related to the other two misdemeanors, Lies says the judge ordered Erman to pay a total of $675 in fines. He also revoked Erman’s hunting privileges for a year. Because Erman had no prior criminal history, the judge offered him a “deferred imposition of sentence” that hinges on an unsupervised probationary period of 360 days. If he stays out of trouble during that time, the two convictions will be taken off his criminal record.

One of the hunters was also charged with a misdemeanor criminal trespassing. Dustin Brown pleaded guilty to that charge on Dec. 30 and paid the court-ordered fines of $250. The case against Brown was closed on Jan. 12, according to the New Rockford Transcript.

How a Viral Duck-Hunting Video Led to Multiple Criminal Charges

The original dispute took place in Eddy County, North Dakota, on Oct. 21. It was recorded on video by Jacob Sweere, one of the hunters in the group who also has a hunting YouTube channel. The video quickly went viral, and it has since been viewed nearly 3 million times. It shows Erman approaching the hunters around sunrise and proceeding to berate them for trespassing and ruining his own hunt. The hunters had already shot a couple ducks by this point. In the video, Erman claims the group’s A-frame blind is encroaching on his property line.

“You gotta stay a foot off [the section line],” Erman says after driving up to the blind in a side-by-side. “I was gonna hunt here this morning, but I heard you guys were coming. I own the fucking land.”

The situation deteriorates after the hunters claim they had permission to set up on the neighboring bean field. Erman goes berserk, launching into an obscenity-laced tirade and blowing up their hunt. At one point during the roughly 30-minute video clip, Erman tells the group he’ll leave them alone if they give him some money.

“Three hundred dollars and you can shoot all you want,” Erman says. “Cash money right now on the barrel head and I’ll walk away and call the [game warden] and tell him not to come,” Erman says. The hunters declined to pay Erman, and a game warden arrived at the field later that morning to defuse the situation.

Read Next: The Landowner and One Hunter From the Viral “I Own the F*cking Land” Video Are Charged with Misdemeanors

When considering charges last fall, state prosecutors determined that Erman’s request for money amounted to a bribe request. And since the request involved a public servant (in this case, a game warden), they decided to charge Erman with a class A misdemeanor trading in special influence.

On Nov. 8, the state filed two additional misdemeanor charges against Erman: interfering with the rights of hunters and trappers, and disorderly conduct-obscenity. Erman pleaded not guilty to all three charges initially, but then changed his plea as part of an agreement on March 20, court documents show.

As mentioned, the state also charged Dustin Brown, one of the hunters involved, with criminal trespassing on Nov. 9. Brown, a North Dakota resident from West Fargo, initially pleaded not guilty, then amended his plea to guilty on Dec. 30. As part of that plea agreement, Brown explained that he had permission to hunt the property neighboring Erman’s cornfield, but that he made a mistake by setting up near the property line without Erman’s explicit permission. Brown’s plea agreement stipulates that his guilty plea will be withdrawn (and the case will be dismissed) after a period of 180 days.

“I had been provided notice to avoid hunting on a specific patch of land within that larger piece of land,” Brown admitted in the plea agreement. “Before placing my blind, I had not determined with certainty that I was not on that patch of land; It turned out that I was on that patch of land.”

North Dakota is one of the only states that allows individuals to walk on or hunt private property that is not posted against trespassing. These postings became more nuanced in 2021, when the state legislature passed a law allowing landowners to post their lands electronically via an online database.

Regardless of the posting status of Erman’s land, however, Brown acknowledged that he failed to heed the advice of the landowner who gave them permission to hunt that day.

Erman’s son, also named Dustin, told reporters in October that he believed the hunters had provoked Jeffrey and then edited the video footage to make it look like they were innocent.

“They were told to stay away from that area,” Dustin told the Grand Forks Herald. “Also, that video, these guys hunt, and they do videos all the time, they edit [stuff] all the time. They edited out every single thing they said to provoke [him] to get to that point.”

Sweere has denied this allegation, claiming that he turned over all the uncut footage to the state during its investigation.

This article was updated on March 28 to include comments from Eddy County state’s attorney Ashley Lies.

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Proposed bird hunting restrictions in Manitoba have rendered American waterfowlers quite unhappy and very confused. A proposal to cap foreign migratory game bird hunting licenses and transition to a draw-only licensing system for unguided hunters is currently working through the provincial government. This could hamstring hunters here in the United States, who would either have to hire a guide or draw to hunt waterfowl in the province.

Freelance waterfowl hunters living in the Midwest have long looked to the Canadian prairie as the “Last Frontier” of migratory bird hunting. But in June of last year, Manitoba’s Department of Natural Resources and Northern Development drafted a regulatory change that would cap “foreign resident” migratory game bird licenses at 2,900 and limit license-holders to a seven-day hunt. The new system would allocate 1,200 of those licenses to Manitoba’s roughly 60 outfitters, put 1,300 of those licenses in a draw for DIY hunters, and give the final 400 to waterfowl conservation non-profits and foreigners who own hunting properties in Manitoba to ease the transition.

The proposal is slated to go into effect on April 1. But critics of the changes still don’t understand why they’re necessary, who they’re supposed to benefit, and what really motivated them in the first place.

Concerns About Pressure

The 2,900 available licenses would represent a 20 percent decrease from the five-year-average number of licenses purchased by foreign (namely American) waterfowl hunters, which is around 3,600, according to the DNR’s Regulatory Accountability Impact Analysis on the project. The provincial government cites concerns about “mounting pressure from increasing competition for access to provincial Crown lands and privately owned agricultural lands” as a motivator for the change.

“Visitors from outside Manitoba are passionate waterfowlers who bring a positive economic influence on the Province, but are one of the main contributors of increased pressure on local hunting access,” the RAIA reads. “Conflict and pressure on accessing limited suitable hunting sites has been steadily increasing over the past two decades. Stakeholder groups like the Manitoba Wildlife Federation (MWF) and the Manitoba Lodge and Outfitter’s Association (MLOA) have indicated that increased competition for hunting areas is eroding the quality of the hunting experience for residents, and negatively affecting outfitting businesses and the hunting experience of their clients.”

If the demand for access is increasing, it’s not because more Manitoba hunters are chomping at the bit to get in the field. In fact, the number of resident game bird licenses sold annually in Manitoba has shrunk from over 50,000 in 1978 to less than 10,000 in 2018.

The provincial government cites the shriveling resident license sales as a problem that a cap on foreign licenses would solve. It claims that limiting the number of non-resident hunters would reverse the plunge and free up more accessible land for residents. But according to American waterfowl hunting experts and organizations like Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl, there’s a huge gap in that logic—especially since the number of foreign game bird licenses sold over the same 40-year period of time has stayed well below 10,000 and has even steadily decreased since 2008 to its latest five-year-average of 3,600. In other words, migratory game bird hunters of all residential statuses are declining in Manitoba.

“You’re putting 14,000 people across a third of the province and they’re saying that’s too much pressure? And they want to reduce [foreign] pressure to increase opportunity for resident waterfowlers? Well, keep doing the math,” waterfowler and Sportsman Channel host Shawn Stahl tells Outdoor Life. “Us 3,500 Americans aren’t allowed to go there until the American opener, which is Sept. 24 every year. Canadians get to start hunting come Sept. 1. They get a 23-day head start.”

So if the number of licensed hunters is shrinking, and Canadian hunters don’t rub elbows with Americans for the first 23 days of the season, then what’s the problem? According to Stahl and Lee Kjos, a renowned duck hunter and outdoor photographer who lives in Minnesota, a different type of waterfowler is gumming up the works: the rogue outfitter.

The Rogues of Manitoba

Not all outfitters are created equal in the Canadian waterfowling world, Kjos and Stahl say. Some are licensed, pay their taxes and fees, keep track of their land leases, and generally follow the rules. Others are unlicensed, deal in cash, do business off the books, and skirt their fiscal duties to the government.

You can probably guess which type of outfitter is pissing everyone off. It’s those who either pay landowners under the table to hunt their property (thereby taking away free permission opportunities from DIY hunters and/or licensed outfitters) or buy up real estate to run exclusive, slipshod operations.

“Manitobans are not highly competitive in their hunting culture; they tend to be willing to share hunting areas, and find leasing and controlled access of prime hunting land that is common in other regions of the continent, highly discouraging,” the RAIA reads. “Manitoba’s resident waterfowl hunters cannot compete with the commercialization and aggressive tactics for land access to prime hunting areas that has become normal in other continental jurisdictions.”

But if rogue outfitters are the problem, then why is the solution punishing everyone else?

“People blame this on Americans who go up there, buy houses, stay for a month at a time, and do rogue outfitting on their property,” Stahl explains. “Well, if that’s happening, let’s address the one percent that are the problem, not the 99 percent that are doing everything fine and not getting in the way.”

For a hunting outfitter to operate legally in Manitoba, they must carry a Resource Tourism Operators License and additional permits for any facilities they use, such as lodges or campgrounds. They must follow a certain process to acquire their license and pay all associated fees. According to the Resource Tourism Operators Act, the consequences for operating an unlicensed outfitting service can include a $10,000 (Canadian) fine and six months in jail per count, with an additional $20,000 (Canadian) fine per count if the illegal outfitter was registered as a corporation.

“I still have never understood why it’s not enforced. It’s easy to see. I’ve turned them in before,” Kjos tells Outdoor Life. “You used to just knock on doors and go get permission, and it was no problem. Then a bunch of rogue guys came in and started paying [for access]. Well, once you start paying, that changes the landscape for DIY guys.”

Following the Money

Ultimately, American waterfowl conservation organizations are frustrated because Manitoba’s proposal neglects the overwhelming financial support that Canadian conservation efforts receive from south of the border. According to Ducks Unlimited CEO Adam Putnam’s formal comment on the proposal, state wildlife agencies have committed $85.5 million (Canadian) to Canadian waterfowl habitat since 1991.

“It is this passion for waterfowling that drives individuals, states, and the U.S. federal government to invest in continental conservation projects in Canada and the U.S,” Putnam writes. “We fear changes to Manitoba’s resident waterfowl hunting regulations that make Manitoba much less accessible to U.S. hunters will severely undercut this passion and jeopardize this longstanding and highly successful model for funding conservation in Manitoba and across Canada.”

The Fall Flights program, established by the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, combines funds from 45 state wildlife agencies, Ducks Unlimited, and the Canadian government to support migratory waterfowl habitat. On the American side of the border, part of the support for this program comes from the unguided hunter.

“The U.S. and Canada have endured a great conservation partnership for years through the Fall Flights program,” DU communications coordinator Joe Genzel tells Outdoor Life. “It would be unfortunate if Manitoba restricted access to freelance non-resident hunters that are only looking to cross the border for a few days and hunt the Canadian prairie with family and friends.”

Read Next: If You’re a DIY Duck Hunter Heading to Canada, Don’t Waste Your Time Field Hunting

In other words, restricting access to freelance hunting opportunities isn’t likely to inspire American waterfowlers to keep funding wetland conservation in Manitoba, which could be to the detriment of bird habitat. So, if the proposed changes don’t help birds, and won’t seriously increase resident hunting opportunities, there’s only one possible beneficiary left: the licensed outfitters. (The Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.) Even though Kjos has lots of close friends in the outfitting industry, he’s somewhat suspicious about the real motivations behind the changes.

“All these problems could be solved with greater habitat. All of them. You wouldn’t have to worry about space to hunt, you wouldn’t have to worry about people coming into the sport, and you sure as hell wouldn’t have to worry about more birds. Habitat solves all these problems,” Kjos says. “Except for the larger issue between outfitters and freelancers in between international borders. What if there’s a larger plan here? What about the idea of ‘death-by-a-thousand-cuts?’ This whole thing just doesn’t smell right to me.”

The post Manitoba Is About to Get Way Less Accessible for American Waterfowlers appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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A snow goose hunt that was interrupted in northeast Arkansas on Feb. 17 has since spilled over into the public eye. This is mainly because the interruption—to put it mildly—was caught on video and shared widely on social media. The video shows a farmer intentionally driving though a field full of goose decoys on his tractor with a stubble roller attached to the back. The hunters, who are still out in the field at the time, look on and film. At least one law enforcement officer is also present as the farmer discs through the spread at high speed.

The above video, shared on Facebook yesterday by Lone Star Outdoors Show, is actually a combination of two separate clips. The first 38 seconds were filmed by one of the hunters, a friend of local waterfowl guide Mark Spiller, who says he has a lease agreement to hunt ducks and geese on the land.

“The sheriff is watching. He says there’s nothing they can do,” the hunter says during the clip as he pans between the tractor and the Cross County Sheriff’s Department vehicle parked nearby. “It’s a civil matter they say, because they both have a lease. But yet, he’s literally discing through the decoys—here he comes, going to do it again right through the center of them. Look at that shit.”

The next 29 seconds show the view from inside the tractor’s cab. This clip was filmed by the farmer, Dustin Lloyd, who says he has a lease agreement to farm the land. Lloyd says he was trying to make a point because Spiller owed the landowner money but refused to leave when he was served an eviction notice.

“God dang, those geese won’t get up and move!” Lloyd jokes at one point in the video while an old country song blasts over the tractor’s stereo. “Gotta fix all these ruts!”  

The video has already been viewed nearly 300,000 times, and most commenters seem to be taking Lloyd’s side. Their opinions likely have a lot to do with the video’s description, which reads: “Farmer discs entire snow goose spread after hunters refuse to pay lease fee and get off his property.” After all, with this cut-and-dry summary, who can blame the farmer for running off a bunch of deadbeat and dishonest goose hunters? The only problem is that it doesn’t tell the full story.

A Longstanding Disagreement Over a Snow Goose Lease

The dispute that led to last Friday’s incident is between Dustin Lloyd, the farmer who rolled hundreds of snow geese decoys into the ground, and Mark Spiller, a waterfowl guide who operates First Creek Outfitters. Neither man owns the land where the video was filmed. Both men claim to have leases on the property, but each one says that the other’s lease is illegitimate. Neither party was willing to share copies of their respective leases with Outdoor Life.

As for the landowner, she’s an 80-plus-year-old woman who has a difficult time conducting business transactions on her own, according to Lloyd (her nephew) and Spiller. Meanwhile, members of local law enforcement—both the local sheriff’s office and the state fish and game agency—refuse to take a side. They’ve told both parties that it’s a civil matter and is out of their jurisdiction. Neither the Cross County Sheriff’s Office nor the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission immediately responded to requests for comment.

Read Next: Lessons We Can Learn from the Viral “I Own the F*cking Land” Video

Which means that until more information comes to light, it’s a case of one man’s word against another’s. Lloyd says that Spiller owes his aunt money and wasn’t holding up his end of the agreement. He also says that Spiller’s lease is fake because his aunt never actually signed it.

“He’s taking advantage of the laws put in place,” Lloyd says. “I’d do it again to the same person if the situation was the same. I wouldn’t just blatantly plow up some decoys because it was on some ground I was farming.”

Spiller claims that his lease is legitimate and was signed by the landowner in 2020. He’s also been living in a house on the property for the past several years with the permission of the landowner and her daughter. He says that he’s always operated within the bounds of their agreement, and that even if he did owe the landowner money, that would be between him and the landowner—not him and Lloyd.

“His contract is not even valid. He took advantage of an elderly lady,” Spiller says. “I’m not gonna throw jackrocks under his tractor, because two wrongs don’t make a right. And if he thinks I did wrong, then why is he doing me wrong to try to make it right?”

The post Watch an Arkansas Farmer Deliberately Disc a Spread of Snow Goose Decoys appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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