by Dave Workman | Senior editor
Joseph Hautman of Plymouth, MN, won the annual USFWS duck stamp art competition with an acrylic painting of a pair of trumpeter swans. It was his fifth Federal Duck Stamp contest victory. His work graces the 2016-17 stamp, which went on sale June 24. Stamp sales raise about $25 million a year from hunters and collectors to fund waterfowl habitat programs. (Photo credit: USFWS)
While many hunters across the landscape are looking ahead to upland bird and big game seasons, the nation’s waterfowlers have received some good news from the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS).
The framework for the upcoming season from USFWS calls proposes “duck hunting season lengths of 60 days in both the Atlantic and Mississippi flyways and 74 days in the Central Flyway (with an additional 23 days in the High Plains areas), with a daily bag limit of six ducks in each of those flyways. Proposed duck hunting frameworks for the Pacific Flyway would allow a 107-day season and a seven-bird daily bag limit.”
The states can set their season dates within the framework proposed by the USFWS, so check your state hunting regulations.
That said, now is the time to be stocking up on steel or some other non-toxic shotgun ammunition, getting guns cleaned and patterned, and making sure your waterfowl gear is in good shape. Check the decoys, waders and any other essentials. Seasons may be a month away, but time goes fast when hunting seasons loom on the horizon.
According to a news release from Delta Waterfowl, duck hunters in all four flyways should have plenty of opportunity. In addition, “Liberal goose seasons remain largely unchanged, and a 16-day teal season is again proposed for the Atlantic, Mississippi and Central flyways,” the organization said.
TGM also learned that USFWS has proposed continuing a 16-day special season in certain states along the Atlantic, Mississippi and Central flyways for teal in September.
Proposed regulations for geese also are largely unchanged from 2015-16 seasons “and in several cases are very liberal in an attempt to reduce their abundance (e.g., light geese, resident Canada geese),” USFWS said.
So, are there any “best” guns and ammunition? That’s a question almost guaranteed to start an argument, or at least a spirited discussion, in any duck blind or goose pit on the landscape. It’s like arguing over the best shotguns, whether pump, semi-auto or double-barrel models. Just about everybody has an opinion, and it will get an argument from a hunting buddy.
Ditto your choke selection.
When is the last time you had that shotgun out of the gun locker? Even if you cleaned your favorite shotgun before putting it away for the off-season last winter, it may need some maintenance before heading afield.
Now is a very good time to perform maintenance on waterfowl shotguns. Those smoothbores get plenty of exposure to weather and wind, and one should find out now, rather than on the night before the opener, that your shotgun might need a repair, or a bit of work with some steel wool, or just a good cleaning.
This includes cleaning your choke tubes. Some guys individually clean each choke, and make sure that the threads inside the bore are nice and clean, and given a thin application of oil to make sure that if a quick choke change is required for changing conditions, they are not out of the game more than a minute or two.
Some guys check the lines on all of their dekes ahead of the season, and they might need replacement or at least untangling. Look for sales on ammunition or decoys at sporting goods stores and stock up.
Get at least two copies of the hunting regulations and keep one in your hunting rig. And don’t forget to get that federal Duck Stamp.
