One for the hunters

Look, I know not everybody is into hunting, if you're not just pass on by this one. I don't do many hunting posts or talk about hunting very often. This is the first of a two part series so if you're anti-hunt you should probably skip tomorrow too.


I've hunted, off and on, for 30+ years now. I got my first hunting license when I was 13 which would have been 1989. My very first hunt I shot a rabbit which was the biggest accomplishment I'd have hunting for the next 10 years.

In 1999 I shot a moose but other than that I'd shot mostly squirrels and a few partridge. I'd started shooting squirrels a few years back because of spending a lot of hunting seasons shooting nothing and because the little pine squirrels (called red squirrels in Maine these are not the same big red squirrels you see outside of the northeast.) can be very destructive if they get into the camp.

2019 was the year I started to get serious about hunting, its the year that I realized a lot of what I thought I knew about hunting was wrong and the year I started to pay attention better. My success started at camp in October when I got my first duck. I won't show the picture, its too gross, I didn't get a clean kill and didn't know how to wring the duck's neck. My follow up shot made a mess of him but I still got the duck and we did eat it.

Mergansers are often called "fish ducks" because they eat fish and are reputed to taste like fish. I marinaded this one in Italian dressing for 3 days before grilling it. I probably should have pounded the meat to tenderize it a little but other than being a little tough it tasted fine.

Ben and I started hunting ducks together a few years ago before I had my gun license and I had no luck but 2019 was way better.

These are wood ducks, I shot the drake at the top, Ben got the other two. The two drakes and another hen he shot a different day are getting mounted. Wood ducks, often called "The gentleman of the marsh" are really beautiful and pretty delicious.
Interestingly wood ducks are named for what they eat.

Those acorns taken from the gullet of a wood duck.

My final score for waterfowl season was 2 ducks, the woodie and a mallard hen.

Other than the ducks we're having mounted the meat got slow cooked in the dutch oven.
I also scored 2 Canada geese. Geese are much tougher birds than ducks and require heavier shot. Both of the ones I shot needed to be shot twice because I'd had the gun loaded for ducks when I fired. I'll be more careful about that next season. The geese I shot are both at Ben's house waiting to be made into jerky.

I mentioned I learned a lot this year, one of my big lessons that I need to improve my sneak. I started learning this with the merganser. I found that if I could stay behind some weeds I could sneak up on them pretty easily. I also learned that I'm not a very good shot with the shotgun. This is a practice thing and I just need to spend a bunch more time shooting.

Up next: Deer season and more lessons learned.