All you do gooders ID'ing ducks before you shoot I say BS

[get-n-birdy]

[ And the answer is pretty darn close to yes, with a lot of what FF said about simply knowin it's a legal bird especially in low light. It's an incredibly rare day I pick up a bird and say "whoa... I was way off". and when it happens its usually hen divers.

Thanks for being honest as well. I believe this is how most guys hunt. I just think it is funny when guys say I have to be 100% sure before I pull the trigger. Pretty darn close is where I am at as well.

I think there's a lot of guys on both sides of the fence. There's some who fill limits and really have little to no clue, other than the birds they've shot are ducks. Then the rest have a good idea what they've shot before they've pulled the trigger. In low light hen divers, except can hens, aren't the easiest to id. But who is going to mistake a hen ringer for a teal? Small young of the year widgeons, pintails, gadwalls, woodies, spooners would be the biggest mistake ducks in a teal season, when they catch a itchy trigger finger off guard and just buzz into the spread down the cattail line.

[Stute Slap]

I honestly have shot ducks and don't know what they are when they are in hand. They all end up in the ditch anyway.

Remember ten years ago when comments like this would have turned this into a 5 page debate about ethics? Those were the good old days.

word

[chevyobsession]

I might not know if it's a hen or drake mallard at low light early in the year but if I'm pulling up and dropping a pair I'll have room in my bag for a pair of hen mallards if I'm rolling the dice. If I don't have room in my bag....well I won't roll the dice.

This sounds about right. Although divers are harder for me as I haven't targeted them as much. That will change this year. Last season I had 4 ducks swim into the decoys before LST. It was an overcast rainy morning. Couple minutes after LST I jumped them and dropped one thinking it was a hen mallard. Turns out it was a hen gadwall. I had never seen them in that area before so I didn't even think about that. There are a couple every year that I'm wrong about, but I know they are legal when I squeeze the trigger.

[Trigger]

Small young of the year widgeons, pintails, gadwalls, woodies, spooners would be the biggest mistake ducks in a teal season, when they catch a itchy trigger finger off guard and just buzz into the spread down the cattail line.

50 years ago this would have been a much bigger deal, Minnesota doesn't raise many individuals of these species anymore.

[Brose]

Small young of the year widgeons, pintails, gadwalls, woodies, spooners would be the biggest mistake ducks in a teal season, when they catch a itchy trigger finger off guard and just buzz into the spread down the cattail line.

50 years ago this would have been a much bigger deal, Minnesota doesn't raise many individuals of these species anymore.

Plenty of woodies around in september

[Trigger]

Small young of the year widgeons, pintails, gadwalls, woodies, spooners would be the biggest mistake ducks in a teal season, when they catch a itchy trigger finger off guard and just buzz into the spread down the cattail line.

50 years ago this would have been a much bigger deal, Minnesota doesn't raise many individuals of these species anymore.

Plenty of woodies around in september

With one exception... and its a species that typically doesn't utilize the same habitat.

[Fish Felon]

If you can tell the difference between a mallard, wood duck and teal on the wing then you'll be good to go for a teal season since that's 99% of the ducks in the state then.

Had a teal season happened...

Mistake ducks would have been shot. Populations wouldn't be decimated. There would still be the same amount of ducks in MN the following year. Guys at MWA would be bitching. The world would keep turning.

[get-n-birdy]

With one exception... and its a species that typically doesn't utilize the same habitat.

Once the traffic started pushing birds around and the guns started barking, all bets are off. A lot of guys would just go hunting like it was opening day. They wouldn't let ideas like scouting for teal spots pop up into their head. There's plenty of areas where there's good teal spots, where there'd be plenty of odd ball ducks strafing the spread. That is why the DNR has got the yipps on the teal season.

[h2ofwlr]

The 50% of flocks shot at (note that does not mean 50% of ducks killed are non-teal) are of all the other species combined, so the actual take of any one specific illegal species will be fairly small to insignificant when speaking of overall duck populations.

As for a later opener, that's not a bad idea. If that's what it took to get the season, I'd be down for something like that.

I disagree that the non legal take would be any different than the attempt rate. Meaning If I attempt 50% of the birds are legal teal, would not the average be 50% teal in the bag? Thus if 50% of time I am shooting at non legal birds that on average the bag would consist of 50% non legal birds? Same if one was to atttempt 10% on non legal birds, the bag would on average consist of 10% non legal birds.

While I agree the overall harm to the non legal species would be very minimal because on non legal harvest, the USFWS had a set a 25% non legal attempt rate.

And I agree a sunrise legal shooting would help in IDing and a 'til noon hunting perhaps would help in keeping the non legal birds in the area with the no PM hunting.

As for the original topic, I am like most here, I try my best to ID but have made mistakes. For me it kind of reminds me when you could only have 3 BB and I had 3, and waiting for a Ringbill to come along. Personal restraint must be used - meaning I had legal Ringers go by but because of the angle I could not guarantee they were not a BB, so I did not shoot. I think that this is what many guys on here would do too. But some guys are of the mentality of "it's brown, it's down". And if you subsribe to the 80/20 view point (80% of ducks are shot by 20% of the hunters), it is those 80% that have a lot less experience that would much more likley miss ID ducks and run a foul of the law.

But as someone pointed out last week, so do we issue licences based on what some might do? Or issue based on the what the majority do? A case in point is a Driver Lic, and we know a small % drink and drive, or do other moving violations. Yet they issue DLs none the less and punish those that are caught. Along with that goes education as far as helping on compliance. I think the same can be said for a Teal season.

[Trigger]

The 50% of flocks shot at (note that does not mean 50% of ducks killed are non-teal) are of all the other species combined, so the actual take of any one specific illegal species will be fairly small to insignificant when speaking of overall duck populations.

As for a later opener, that's not a bad idea. If that's what it took to get the season, I'd be down for something like that.

I disagree that the non legal take would be any different than the attempt rate. Meaning If I attempt 50% of the birds are legal teal, would not the average be 50% teal in the bag? Thus if 50% of time I am shooting at non legal birds that on average the bag would consist of 50% non legal birds? Same if one was to atttempt 10% on non legal birds, the bag would on average consist of 10% non legal birds.

You might be right... but that's not what the study says, it just says the attempt rate was 50%, not the success rate. I'm basing my take on facts, not assumptions.