Jim_IV

This is something that drives me crazy. I hunt my butt off all season every year and out of 7 guys I hunt with, maybe one person shoots a band. We hunt hard too, we are not the typical weekenders. But other guys (mainly up north) go out and shoot 5 bands in one morning (see other post). I congratulate them on there success it is simply amazing to do that in one morning. But why is it we don't see as many bands? Or better yet, very few?Do you guys kill them all before they get here? What's the deal fellas, leave a few for the guys at the end of the migration route!

TeamFowlAssassins

It's location, location, location, and luck! I have a buddy who hunts in Battle Creek MI and has a lanyard full of bands. But yet I shoot as many or more birds every year as him. It's just that in Battle Creek their are a couple golf courses where they band geese, and Kellogg bird sanctuary where they band ducks & geese. Plus more ducks move the middle of the state then the west side in MI....At least usually it's that way. He has numerous hunting areas close to those locations. He's got 3 Miner bands, a teal band, 3 collars, and about 50 duck & goose bands. Then I sit with 6 duck bands,8 goose bands, and no collar bands! But at the same time when you get bands at random when not hunting in areas where you shoot a lot on bands. You never know where the bird is banded...I've had Sasketuwan, Minnesota, South Dakota, etc...Makes it a little more rewarding.

Colorado Luckydog

Bands have nothing to do with kills or skills, only location!!!

Carpmaster

Bands are just one of those dumb luck things...

My buddy Josh(GooseSpanker) picked up a goose with a band tuesday am at a local GMU....loner goose(only one we got) come coasting in....Boom -goose down...he makes a joke I am gonna get my banded goose - walks out there and sure enough BLING! Last year he got one at the same GMUthat was banded on the Lake that he lives on of all places.

Earlier this season I was hunting Indiana for early goose opener...my buddy Adam shoots the 1st and 3rd bird from a flock that came up his side -both banded!

My only bandedgoose had a collar and band - how'd i get him? Farthest bird on a flock my buddy Adam picked close birds and dropped them, I dumped 3 rounds at that bird seeing the collar @ 50+ yards and managed to get it...

I have one duck band it was from a Hooded merg, that was a piss-in-the-wind shot at 45-50 yards dropped the bird, didnt see the band til 3-4 hours later when i went to toss the carcass.

It is all circumstance and dumb luck! I'd love to have more but oh well when the cards fall my way they will, until then.....I will keep hunting!

Fowlforeman86

I am sure its alot of location but mostly im sure it is just dumb luck. Back in high school i was the only one of my group of friends who was really heavy into duck hunting, after enough prodding i got em all hooked. I now have four friends who wouldnt be duck hunting if not for me who have all shot two or more banded birds. i personally have never even been on a hunt where a banded bird was taken!!! let alone by me, and i hunt alot im in the blind from september til january every year. so that is what has me convinced its just a matter of luck. bein in the right place at the right time.

DuckHuntin247

Definatly luck and the right place at the right time. I was on a hunt with my dad last year early season and a flock of about 7 or 8 came in. He downed 2 and due to some poor shooting a missed 3 times. [:'(]I saw one goose was lagging a bit behind the others so I threw in one shell and spun up onto my knees in the layout blind and turned around the back and shot at about 45 yards and downed one. He went to get his and they were both banded. After that I honesly sprinted out to mine to check, and sure enough banded. All three were within 5 numbers of each other. Ended up getting lucky again and shot 1 other band out of that field later in the year.

HUNTADDICT1L77

I've been waterfowlin here in California for approx. 9 years and haven't got a band yet. My brother in law has three or four. I think ones from Canada somewhere. It's surley being in the right place at the right time.

mike2355

i shouldnt have posted my thread with our 5 bands then sorry lol.. well there are lots of bands floating around my area right now, since we banded about 1000+ ducks alone this year. and a bunch of geese so they are still mingling in this area. But its pretty much based on their migration habits. Im not sure exactly but i was talking to kirk and he was telling me where the bands they band usually get reported from and its from a few different areas since they dont migrate too too far. I cant remember but he said either the ducks or the geese migrated to more states and provinces than the other ( again, i cant remember which, but either the ducks more than geese or geese more than ducks).

Allseasonhunter7

idc about bands,my buddys always get them
a lanyard full of bands just means your lucky imo,it doesnt make you a good caller,shot or even hunter?

unless you have 10x zoom and can see the bands on the birds

SwampCollie

Its luck and location like TFA said. Mostly though it is luck.

Quite often, biologists will band birds in the same spots year after year. Birds of course, are prone to following the same migration paths year after year. Hence the consistancy. There are some Septembers, where is the banders come by the park, every single goose we shoot will be banded... often between the lot of us, we can string five or six consecutive numbers together. That sort of makes it not as special, trust me.

And lots of folks too get bands made, and by them on ebay.... so don't think every full lanyard you see is the real deal. Often, unless its a call maker or some sort of pro hunter who gets paid to show off... its a bunch of phoneys. Why hunters bring bands to the field, bands that shine, clank, and are personally valuable, is beyond me. Mine stay at home on a lanyard with a few old, sentamental calls. My certs are laminated and bound in a photo album... I can replace $400 worth of duck calls... but never my little trophies of good hunts gone by.