rsbcon

I would like to just shot one jack miner band!!! 9 thats awsome!!

DTC

The first goos hunt I wnet on we killed 8 gesse and they were all banded. Went back the next day and killed 5 more and 4 of them were banded. Haven't been back since. I would like to find time to go this fall.

gunner7848

Luck, I hunt in Michigan and have shot 5 bands in two years and been hunting for12 years. First one was2006 seasonand it was a goose 1 year old. Then a friend took me to his field to duck hunt, were he has been hunting for 10 years and has never seen a band. First set of birds come in I took 3 mallards and one was banded 7 years old. I shot 3 bands this2007 seasonand 1 goosewas from the east side of Canada and the other was shot 30 mileseast of were it was banded 9 years ago. The last one this year will tell everyone that it is luck to get a band unless you hunt near a golf course. Shot a Blue Bill that was banded in Jan.1988 out of New York. The bird Hatched 1987 or earlier. This bird is now the oldest blue bill on record 20 years and 5 months as stated by the USGS.

TEmbry

Killed a Banded woodie this past year. Hes now mounted in a glass case on my dresser.

JoeA

It depends on where banding has taken place. Last season in Sask, I shot a banded mallard over a pond that produced 5 bands the week before. One of the guides hunted NW Sask for 21 yrs and only shot three banded birds.

Basically it's luck....

SwampCollie

I guess that would work if you just want to kill banded birds. Personally, I don't waterfowl hunt because they are banded, or because its trendy, or because its cool.... when a group of ten mallards bomb out of the clear blue sky to come into my decoys, to tune of my call... and I can make them hover 15 feet off the water and pick out a nice drake and watch the dog I trained from 7 weeks old make a to hand retrieve... thats why I waterfowl hunt. The noise coming off the wings from a group of 20 geese as they rip over your head low to circle around downwind one last time before committing to the decoys.... thats why I waterfowl hunt. I'd miss all that if all I thought about was banded birds.


Bands are great and all, and I guess I feel this way because I have been lucky to kill more than my share already... but I think there is nothing more gaudy or flat out ***** than someone with two lanyards full of bands actually going hunting.... especially if they are wearing camo everything, shooting camo guns...face paint etc etc... then turn around and put the equivelent of sleigh bells around their neck.... why not just have a bon fire? You'd keep warm at least...

In my experience, killing banded birds is 75% location and 25% luck. Every single mallard duck I shot in South Carolina (when I lived there... and there weren't many mallard ducks either) was banded by the SCWA, or some private plantation... basically they were chicken mallards, released for hunters, who escaped the rich to come die at the hand of the poor college kid with funny looking decoys and duck calls with a slight VA mountain accent. I know a few guys who hunt in proximity to large parks where geese are banded in the summer... during the resident goose season in sepetember, they count the number of geese they killed... and list how many WEREN'T banded... in six days of hunting last year they killed over 125 geese... six without bands.... they put them together on a jump rope and said that they've been at it for six years and they are trying to get 50 in perfect sequential order.... then need two more to finally hit 50 IN ORDER! To me... whats the point.. where is the magic in it? Bands are just a nice perk.... shouldn't be the point of the exercise.

DuckHuntin247

SwampCollie, maybe im wrong but it seems like yourknocking people who put their bands on their lanyards? I've read another of your posts that seem to imply the same thing ....

Simp

I don't know either but I had my heart broken today. I was playing golf and as I was walking to the next tee there must've been 20 geese feeding around the tee box...you guessed it! I counted 13 bands in those geese! I lay on my back, in my blind for 6 months and don't get any. I go play golf and count them until I have to pull off my shoes to finish counting!

SwampCollie

Absolutely I am. I think it totally undermines the entire hunting experience. It puts a quantity on hunting. People who do things like that (whether they admit it or not) are doing so just to show off... look at how many banded birds I've killed... look at me look at me.... thats just the cultural/emotional part of why I think its stupid and gay.

Moreover, if you are actually trying to kill ducks... why would you hang something that shines and jingles around your neck... after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on camoflauge and concealment? Think about it?

Lastly... I have lost a lion's share of stuff in the swamp over the years.. lost a cell phone among other things this year. And I have, in the past, had my call lanyard take a swim when leaning over to pull the dog back in the boat. Bands to me are special memories, and I keep them in the house on a lanyard full of old calls I had when I was just starting out in the early 1990s... no more than a kid. I've lost count now, but I'm well over 35 ducks and a dozen geese. It brings back good memories for me... I can replace the duck calls I use now... though I'd rather not.. which is why I have a floating lanyard (bands sink you know). But I cannot replace those bands... why would I risk losing them just to show off?

shamlin

I have been duck hunting for about ten years and have never killed a banded bird, I got friends that seem to kill al least one or two a year.