Indholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2025 i Wildfowl

YOU’D THINK YOU WOULD LEARN, especially when a brilliant wife with a master’s in psychology is bitterly opposed to you getting a new dog. But the timing was right. Luna, my old death dog demon of ducks, is past her prime and my buddy Tim had a litter going away quickly at a very high price and he desperately wanted to give me one because he loves my kids so much. And that was the thing; those kids. Their puppy dog eyes when they held those fat little roly-poly puppies. What I thought I realized, and was completely wrong about, was that this time would be different. I would have a lot of help. They were no longer super-small children, and they could help me train her, feed her, and…

❶ BAND: 2297-41379 HUNTER: Noble Mayo, Richfield, UT SPECIES: Lesser Snow Goose (F) BANDED: 7/19/23, Northwest Territories, Canada RECOVERED: 3/6/2024, Yankton, SD COMMENTS: I traveled from Central Utah to South Dakota with four lifelong friends for this hunt. The crazy thing was five years ago we killed a banded snow in the same exact field. ❷ BAND: 2258-78911 HUNTER: Cal Mangum, Dallas, TX SPECIES: Canada Goose (F) BANDED: 8/16/2023, Orting, WA RECOVERED: 12/2/2024, Carmen, OK COMMENTS: Some friends and I needed one more bird to complete our limit. A flock of about ten came into the pond and it was my turn to shoot. I had to make sure to pick out and kill only one bird. I missed my first shot, then on the second I dropped one. When…

OCT. 25, 2024, was opening day of the North Carolina Coastal Region’s two-day season split. Bubba Williamson Jr., 25, and his little brother P-nut, 18, along with their father, Tate, 46, were hunting on Pamlico Sound. “We were working some big groups of teal that had moved into the area,” Williamson said. “When a flock of 60 to 70 went by, I hit them with a comeback call. They swung behind us, then up and over the back of the blind. They typically flare when they do that because they can see hunters, but this time they kept playing the game. When they flew overhead, we could have hit them with our gun barrels. They flew over the decoys, banked and came in low to the water. We killed eight…

There are a million articles, books, videos, courses and resources out there to help you learn to train your own gundog. I’ll be the first person to tell you that the feeling of pride is unmatched when watching your self-trained dog do what you trained it to do. However, if you stay with me through this article, I’m going to challenge that notion and have you second-guessing ever thinking about training your own gundog. You’ll learn why investing in a proven retriever comes with immeasurable benefits when choosing your next hunting partner. My first dog, Bailey, was a Craigslist special. I paid $500 for a 14-week-old black Lab puppy from what I didn’t know at the time was a puppy mill. She had a calm demeanor, was extremely cuddly and…

FOR MORE THAN THREE DECADES, the Labrador Retriever reigned as the top dog in the annual American Kennel Club’s most popular breed rankings. That run is indicative of the Lab’s popularity through the years, not to mention its importance to waterfowlers. The breed is known for its good looks, it has a great demeaner that makes it a highly desirable family pet, and it excels in the field for retrieving ducks in icy water and chasing down a big Canada goose in a corn field. But conservation-minded gun dog owners are seeing increasing attacks on their way of life as obvious and not so obvious threats occur for gun dog ownership, breeding potential, gun dog training, and even moving those canines from one location to another. Someone who keeps tabs…

I’M SURE WE CAN ALL AGREE that anything that gets us out in the field in the off-season is worthwhile. Nowhere is this more evident than in the continuing popularity of pursuing ribbons with your dog. The American Kennel Club and the Hunting Retriever Club are the two major organizations with hunt test programs. These tests are not competitions; they're a pass/fail test against well-defined standards. It’s an ideal activity for waterfowl hunters and trainers who aren’t interested in high-stakes field trial competition but still want to work on improving their dogs’ hunting skills. If you’re considering upping your training skills, here is why I recommend hunt tests as a way of doing so. OBSERVE AND LEARN The idea of having you and your dog’s skills evaluated in front of…

AVIAN BIRD FLU KILLING MAMMALS? According to the Associated Press in a story from December, an Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu, prompting a recall of raw frozen pet food that was sold nationwide. “We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating...frozen pet food,” Oregon Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said in a Tuesday news release. GEORGE LYNCH INDUCTED INTO LEGENDS HOF While full details weren’t available at press time, longtime WILDFOWL Magazine contributor M.D. Johnson has learned that goose calling legend George Lynch will be inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors National Hall of Fame. That will take place on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, at the annual induction ceremony and HOF banquet held at the…

THE DENSE, GRAY CLOUDS parted enough to let fleeting rays of light dance across the landscape. I heard them before I saw them; a long, deep, guttural honk cut the air. Seconds later, a dark line of black materialized out of the mist. Resting in the chamber and magazine of my Browning Maxus II was a cocktail of shells. My first shot was Fiocchi’s 1-1/4-ounce 3-inch Golden Waterfowl. The geese were lessers with a few greaters mixed in, and I wanted to send a smattering of #1 shot on my first trigger pull, which I anticipated would be less than 20 yards. Shots two and three were Fiocchi’s Golden Waterfowl Bismuth 1-3/8-ounce #2s. There were three of us in the blind that day. A good friend from Casper, Wyoming, a…

LAST SEASON I HUNTED in a number of places with a lot of people and a range of dogs. Some dogs were rock stars, others were downright bad. The good dogs were the result of quality bloodlines and dedicated training. The bad dogs—just the opposite. If you’re looking to get a waterfowl hunting dog breed that’s right for you, there are many factors to consider: First, what kind of hunting do you want to do? If it’s just ducks in water, a Lab is hard to beat. Most of my hunting buddies have Labs. They hunt rivers, fields and lakes with them. Another buddy has always had Chessies for his diver and sea duck hunting addiction. If you want to also hunt upland birds, fall turkey, squirrels and antler sheds,…

THERE IS NO MORE PITIABLE MOMENT in the life of the sportsman than when he must apologize on behalf of his dog. We’ve all been there. In fact, I have hunted exclusively with problematic dogs for the better part of three decades, making me something of an authority in the field of canine proxy apologies. So for our mutual edification, consider the following scenarios. Scenario 1: You and a friend crawl toward a bend in the creek that’s just loaded with wood ducks. You’ve watched them cannonball in by the dozen for the last quarter hour, flight after flight from the barley fields. Now, with the perfect approach in place—sun at your back, wind in your face, a gap in the cottonwoods to provide wide-open shooting—you’re just a few yards…