Duck Hunting: We have already said, going for ducks is a serious matter: it is a form of hunting that creates a sort of pleasant addiction, either for the pleasant, solitary and silent places in which the ducks they are concentrated, either because of the current difficulty of hunting, caused by an ever smaller number of specimens.
The first piece of advice to give is therefore also the most obvious: go duck hunting where the ducks are really there. If you have informants you trust, you certainly have an advantage, but if we have to look for the location, it will be good to remember that there are four factors that determine the presence of ducks in a given environment: the wind, the presence or not. of food, rain and of course the greater or lesser concentration of hunters.
If the wind in the area is very strong, it is likely that the ducks will be forced to take refuge a few meters from the shore, making the task of the experienced hunter particularly simple.
The mistake that is most commonly made, when hunting ducks or palmipeds in general, is to become attached to a shed, forgetting the environmental and climatic factors that influence the movements, even substantial ones, of the ducks. All this to say that the expert hunter is above all the one who knows the habits of the wild, and knows how to identify with the choices they will instinctively make.
It is also useless to choose comfortable places close to the road, at least if you intend to devote yourself to hunting seriously. Those locations are chosen by many, by many and are therefore inflated. Better to choose isolated lakes, difficult to reach: it will be a struggle to do so, but at the end of the day you will have obtained some results and you will be immersed in a finally solitary nature. The best places can also be reached by boat, perhaps with the help of a rubber boat: this will give you a nice advantage over hunters on foot. On the other hand, carrying the rubber dinghy on your shoulder is not an easy thing ...
Another advice on which to insist is that relating to the shed: they may well be ducks, but in more than one case they prove to be as intelligent as and beyond some hunters. Ducks see and hear us very well and use their senses, shrewd as they are, to find badly constructed huts. The first ones that are normally recognized are the prefabricated plastic ones since this shines when wet and the walls when it is sold, make a hellish chaos.
The ideal solution is the use of military camouflage sheets, well cut for the insertion of leaves and branches: stimulating the imagination and ingenuity is another skill required of experienced hunters. And if you don't want to spend too much money, a camouflage waterproof sheet will be fine: to cover it you could use a few tufts of grass and in order not to arouse suspicion it will be good for the hunter to opt for clothing that blends well with the surroundings, but this it is impossible to ignore it.
Another element that is talked about too little is that relating to weapons and ammunition. Which ones to use when talking about ducks? Well the answer cannot be unambiguous, after all, hunter you go, habits you find. What matters is to know that ducks are leathery birds especially because they are protected by feathers and feathers, with a thick and very resistant skin. Fat and powerful muscles together with hard bones do the rest. The risk is always the same: hurting them and seeing them escape. As a rule, in fact, the duck, once injured even if seriously, escapes by diving underwater and causing even the most capable hound to lose its tracks.
To avoid making hunting in vain and to limit the suffering of these fabulous creatures, it is good to use a suitable caliber: the 12 is well suited to the mission, with magnum cartridges or cartridges equipped with at least 36 grams of pellets. If you normally hunt with an over-and-under or with a side-by-side, a choke of 3 stars for the first barrel and 1 star for the second is recommended, but if you are a lover of the automatic a full choke is desirable as far as it could be shown, for shots. too close together, excessive.
You talk about cartridges and shooting and think of the retriever: for this kind of hunting potentially all dogs that are good swimmers are good, yet among the breeds that are commonly recommended, for their instinct and natural abilities there are the Labrador, the Golden Retriever and the Chesapeake.
They are not simply excellent swimmers, but they can withstand the cold, are lightning fast and have a superfine nose. And if you count that they are also excellent companion dogs, the hunter can combine the useful with the pleasure. Having said that, all that remains is to talk about the importance of molds and recalls, but we will do it elsewhere.