EP422 How to Hunt Ducks Without a Dog

Number one, this is probably the easiest, hunting ducks in a field, probably out of a blind, often over decoys.

Can you hunt this way without a dog? Well, yes, obviously.

This is probably the easiest of all of them to not have a dog for.

You're on land, you shoot a duck, the duck falls to the land, you use your own two feet to walk over and pick up the duck instead of sending the dog to walk over and pick up the duck.

Now, this sort of begs the question overall, what exactly does the dog do to help the duck hunter? Well, the number one biggest thing that the dog does is it goes and retrieves the ducks.

The dog picks the duck up and brings it back, so you don't have to get up and go and get it.

But that's not the only thing that it does.

The dog is also quite good at finding the downed birds in case there's cover or, as we'll talk about in a little bit, water.

But finding and locating the birds in case it's just not obvious exactly where they are, they can smell those birds.

They're skilled at being able to find them, assuming they're well-trained, and then they can bring the birds back.

The other thing that the dog does, and this is maybe even the biggest thing in my mind, is they are good at retrieving ducks that are wounded and maybe have not fully expired yet.

And so, you know, for you to chase after a duck on foot, especially one that's trying to hide, that can be challenging.

And when you have water involved, the level of challenge, I think, increases significantly more.

And so the dog's role there is to track and then bring back the wounded birds so that they could be quickly and humanely dispatched so that we can minimize suffering.

And the other thing that the dog does is it could just be fun to have your dog out there, to watch the dog work, to have the dog there.

You know, just people enjoy dogs.

Taking those dogs that you enjoy hunting is just you're enjoying each other's company and you're able to see what that dog can do in the field.

So there's just a level of fun factor there.

Maybe no added utility for that, but it does make the hunt potentially a little more enjoyable.

So on land, when the duck falls, you walk over and pick it up.

That's simple enough.

But here's the thing about that.

If you don't have the dog to find the duck and you don't have the dog to go after and more easily obtain wounded ducks, I recommend what you do when hunting on land in a blind is any time that you shoot a duck, your eye stays on that bird all the way to the ground.

You observe exactly where the bird lands and then you get up and go and retrieve that bird.

Don't wait.