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How To/Pro-Tips

Clean Up Your Calls

Just as you should clean your shotgun regularly, you should clean your duck calls. The reed must be free to vibrate as the manufacturer intended for the best and most realistic calls. The inside of a duck call is a great place for dirt, debris and pocket lint to accumulate. This foreign material is responsible for the call "sticking" or failing to produce the right sounds at the right moments.
Use a crisp, new dollar bill. Pull the call apart and hold the end-piece with the reed, wedge or cork in your left hand. Slide the bill under the reed (or reeds) and draw it through. This will dislodge any unwanted material and dry the call out. The dollar bill won't tear like paper towels, napkins and tissue paper.
Some recommend dental floss, but that's no fun. As you get better and more fond of your call, you may want to start using $5 or $10 dollar bills. Me? I use nothing but $100 bills.

Picking Out Waterfowling Waders

There are a number of wader styles and options. The basic styles are boot- or stocking-foot waders. Stocking-foot waders require additional wading shoes and are a bit more flexible. However, due to the muddy, mucky, debris-laden wading associated with waterfowling, most waterfowlers prefer boot-foot types.
Boot-foot waders come chest and hip high. Obviously, how deep you expect to get into your duck hunting determines how high your waders should be. However, there is something to be said for chest waders even if you never go into water above your knees. They provide for dry sitting and they are warm, particularly if insulated. Form-fitting neoprene chest waders are really nice in cold weather.

Field shooters usually don't need high-water waders. However most field shooting involves mud and some standing water. Very often knee-high all-rubber boots do just fine.

Always wear quick-wicking liner socks with rubber footwear. Rubber traps your own perspiration and without liner socks you'll get wet feet anyway.

Get a Clean Start

You cleaned your duck gun at the end of last season didn't you? No? Shame on you. For this waterfowling season, you need to do a maintenance check on your duck gun. Duck hunting is often a dirty business and is tough on guns. If you start out with a cruddy gun, you can almost count on malfunctions, usually at critical moments, while shooting.

With modern ammo, bore corrosion is seldom a problem. It's everywhere else that gets gunked up -- particularly the action. Strip it down and clean it out. Use degreasing agents to soften up gummy deposits. Dig into tight spots with an old toothbrush and pipe cleaners. I sometimes use an air-pressure hose to really blow things out.

Autoloaders are quite reliable when properly maintained but are particularly sensitive to fouling in their mechanism. It's not the autoloader's fault if it quits autoloading because its critical components are filthy.

When the gun is clean, lightly lubricate it and you're ready to go.

Rover's Retrieving Skills

The retrieving breeds are among the most biddable and easiest to train of all dogs. There are hardheads and knotheads, but generally retrievers want to please you, if they can figure out what pleases you.
Two words should guide all dog training: consistency and repetition. Always use the same command, the same signal and the same body posture when training. Repetition means frequent but not overly long training sessions. Consistency also means similar praise for good work and similar results for poor performance.
With headstrong dogs, never let them think that they can get the upper hand. You are the boss all the time. Just as with teenagers, they will test you often. Consistency, repetition and firmness -- not brutality -- are the answers.
In hot weather, a retriever's enthusiasm can cause him to go hard for too long. You're in charge of this too. Train in the early morning, keep cool water available and keep sessions short in hot weather.

Binoculars for the Ducks

As a big-game hunter, I use binoculars a lot. However, I don't leave my binoculars at home when I trade a deer stand for a duck blind.
For the waterfowler, binoculars are invaluable for scouting locations and observing distant duck activity. You can identify the species and often what they are feeding on or why they seem to prefer a certain area from long distance with a good pair of binoculars.
Even in the blind, binoculars are very handy for checking out distant flight lines and seeing what is coming your way from a long way off. They are also good for spotting and marking a long-fall cripple for recovery.
For waterfowling, I prefer the higher magnifications of 8x or 10x with large enough objective lenses to be bright in low light. I also prefer the mid-sized models for a combination of comfortable use and ease of storage. Given the nature of waterfowling, your binoculars must be waterproof and weatherproof.

 
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