Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

Early on it was totally a flex thing for me....something that I viewed as a status symbol that made me look like a superior hunter, bad ass, etc.

Nowadays it has nothing to do with that. I don't really even think about them. There are times that I think about putting my calls on a separate lanyard clean of bands so they're not clanging around, shining, and being counterproductive to hunting.

They're really only slightly counterproductive. I don't wear face paint anymore either, at one point before having any bands me and my bros wore face paint simply to be concealed better....never had anything to do with wanting to flex and look like a bad ass. I'd say wearing a lanyard with bands on it are on the same level of being counterproductive to hunting as not covering/concealing your face somehow. It's not like wearing them is on the same level of hunting out of an non-camo'ed aluminum boat.

At this point I have them on my lanyard just because i always have had them there since shooting my first band.

Waterfowl hunting is different than other types of hunting in the aspect of how social it can be....gentleman's hunts with conversation and all.

I like seeing other people's bands and have had a lot of enjoyable conversations asking them about the stories behind them. What type of duck or goose they came from, age of the bird, how long it had worn the band, where it was banded, and where it was shot....and details of the hunt. There's always a story behind them.

I don't think any less of a hunter with "only" a band or two on their lanyard....or none at all....just like I don't think higher of a hunter with a fully stacked lanyard of bands. It really makes no difference to me whatsoever. If anything is going to impress me having to do with a guy and their lanyard, it's how good of a caller they are. I've seen guys with lanyards full of bands that can't call worth shit, and guys that have never shot a band that are phenomenal callers....the latter I'd view more favorably in terms of hunting ability, but even then I don't put a whole lot of weight into calling either.....lots of guys out there that shoot the shit out of the fowl that can't call worth a shit.

I think bands are just kind of a neat little trinket that are unique to duck hunting and kind of fun to talk about in the blind when hunting with other guys that are either new or someone you only cross paths with every so often over the years. That's about it at this point....nothing more, nothing less really.....

When dudes with have a whole lanyard of nothing it’s basically the redneck version of something Gucci Mane would wear. Wonder how some of those guys even go to the bathroom with all those bands on.


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^^^^if bands are impeding your ability to go to the bathroom, you might be doing it wrong.

It’s taken me 15+ years to get my 10 or so goose bands. For me it’s more about the memories, time, miles, friends and stories that go with them than anything.

Still haven’t seen a duck band shot while I was with. Some buddies have gotten them while I’m not with.

I used to wear the bands on my lanyard years ago, bought a different lanyard and never transferred them over, still have the old lanyard hanging in my gun safe, just not a big deal anymore , did get a banded goose opening weekend that was banded near DesMoines Ia back in 2015, last one before this band was back about 5 years ago, a banded Redhead.........

[quote="Drunk_Dynasty"]Simplest answer I’ll ever have to give on MN Fowl: it’s a flex. Plain and simple.

Yeah, Assuming flex means showing off, then yeah that’s about right in my opinion. I’d say it’s showing off in the same way that a guy would put antlers on his wall or in his garage or wherever. Sure it’s to show off, but (this may not be a popular opinion on this page) it’s not a dbag kinda showing off, in the way that mean mug face painted pics complete with barrel stickers would be. I like my couple bands, I think there neat and I have them on my lanyard. I guess I could put them in a drawer or something, but I think there neat and I like having them where there just kinda there.

Been so disorganized between moves, projects, changes in hobbies and I have so few that if they weren't on my call lanyard, I'd lose them.

That aside, I keep them on for the memories of the hunt. I remember each one vividly and some included people that are no longer with us.


My hunts are also more successful when the lanyard doesn't even come out of the blind bag, so there's that

^ WHO IS THIS GUY???

When I started hunting bands were worn because they were a neat part of waterfowling. Now I’d agree, they are a flex for a lot of guys. I’ve actually considered removing mine for that very reason. Young guys buying them on eBay should be pretty solid evidence of that. Decided to leave mine on because they will never be seen by anyone other than the guys I hunt with. Besides I don’t have enough for it to look cool. If anything they are a reminder of how unlucky I am.

I’ve never really worried about birds seeing them. If they are flaring on your bands you have bigger issues.

I'd rather go on a hunt with every dude wearing a fully stacked out lanyard of the most polished, shiny, loudly clanging bands ever......

......than hunt with guys not having a single band, all wearing face masks on, yet having one of the 99% of dogs out there along that aren't just worthless.....because worthless means they're neutral....when the reality is not only are they not benefiting the hunt but they're a giant factor negatively affecting the hunt vastly decreasing the number of fowl bagged.

Yet I get why a lot of guys like having a dog and bringing it along when they go hunting. For them, and me on occasion, a dog positively affects a hunt in ways that make up for how detrimental they are when it actually comes to successfully killing ducks or geese.

So I guess me wearing my bands is like that. They might be counterproductive to actually bagging ducks or geese but I like them and for me they benefit being out hunting enough to overlook that.

I usually hunt alone anyways.....so it's not like there's anyone to flex to. I'm not on Facebook, I'm not currently even hunting, but if I was and posted pics of it on here it's not like you guys would ever know who I am....so if a picture of me holding some birds with my face blotted out wearing a lanyard with some bands on it ever surfaced.....if you think it was done for anything more to share a pic or two of me being out because I really enjoy seeing the pics of other guys doing the same.......I assure you if/when that scenario happens it will have nothing to do with trying to flex.

Every so often when it's slow during a hunt or nowadays just sitting around....when I happen to look at my lanyard and start turning a band or two around looking at them, remembering that hunt, the hunts from that era of my life....wearing them is well-worth it, nostalgic, sentimental, and it's because there's just something cool and almost magical about bands....and I realize that I sound a little gay in how I just professed my love for them. For me it's much more about getting a little misty-eyed remembering days gone by, better days, than it has even the slightest thing to do about flexing.

What I think is just as fair and a more poignant question is this:

Why do guys bring a dog with them to the blind?

There is nothing more counterproductive and counterintuitive to killing ducks than a well-trained retriever.

I assure you, the best way to kill ducks....a lot of ducks....is by having three or four good buddies your brothers whether blood relation or not.....that know how to kill as a team. The type of guys that wade in somewhere, or use small skiff type duck boats to get to your spot.....none of that big ass giant boat shit with a 30hp or bigger on it....

.....you set up in a shallow slough, marsh, wetland....whatever the **** you want to call it.....you hunt two guys in a spot, at most, and a spot consists of you leaning up into a clump of cattails, or crouched over a muskrat hut with your face painted brown.....

.....and after every volley instead of some guy yelling, blowing a whistle, waiving his arms, trying to direct some mutt (that has papers) all over your spread not knowing what the fukc it's supposed to be doing....

....instead of that, after you and your homeys volley and kill a large percentage of whatever the number or ducks were in the flock to decoy.....with it almost always being a 100% for any grouping of eight or less that make the fatal error of swinging down into your spread ....

....instead of wasting a half hour fukcing around with a dog swimming all over the place, **** your spread up and getting tangled in decoys after repeatedly dropping one duck to grab another, and so on and so forth....

....if you want to truly kill a shitload of ducks you and your buddies shut the fukc up after killing the entire flock of twelve that just came in, quietly reload, and then kill the next flock of five, ten, or twenty that comes in right after, and so on and so forth....and then at the end you all wade out and pile up all the ones that are floating all over the place, take a pic, then pick off the pile for what you walk out with, and call it a day.

You guys are talking about bands like they're some big deal when the average dog is at least a hundred thousand times less conducive to shooting ducks.