The embezzler should resemble both the look and size of a wild Mallard.
Some breeds of infiltrators are small, graceful ducks, with good, informative voices. But even among the big ones, there are tireless quackers with voices of a pleasant velvet timbre. In general, good decoyrs are among both large and small ducks. It is easier to carry the little ones in the basket, especially if you have to walk for a long time to the hut. Large less freeze on the water in cold weather and are not afraid of the waves.
The working qualities of a decoy are individual and are inherited. The offspring of wild mallards – most often silent. If a good hunter mates mated with a wild drake, her daughters are likely to be mediocre workers. That is why try not to let the decoy ducks mate with wild drakes.
When choosing a decoy, it must be borne in mind that wild ducks most of all value ducks with clear, informative voices of a pleasant thick timbre. Also good are ducks with medium-tone voices with a slight hoarse. Hoarse, very hoarse or, on the contrary, too high, shrill voices cannot belong to a miner.
There are ducks with good but quiet voices. They are very poorly heard in the grounds, especially in windy weather. The nature of the call signal – “precipitation” is very important. Good ducks have a short 3-6 grunts, with a clear emphasis on the first or second syllable. In general, the way ducks work is quite individual.
The best work of the decoy is the regularly published quacking – “quacks”, and with the appearance of the drake – gambling “sediments”. However, there are ducks that work only “on business” – they rarely give a voice for no apparent reason, but “upset” in response to the duckling of a drake, the whistle of duck wings or noticing flying ducks. With such decoy successfully hunt can only be in the wild game lands.
There are infiltrators working as drafters on all birds flying over the hut – gulls, herons, and even ravens. They work well in drakes, but hunting with them is a continuous strain of nerves. Very seldom, the infiltrators do not publish a “sediment” at all and work only in quits. At the sight of flying drakes, they only grunts more passionately, not learning the sounds before the “fallout”. And I must say, hunting with them was also quite successful, since they worked like clockwork, regardless of the time of day, terrain and the presence of wild drakes. Finally, there are decoy that work only at the sight of a person. You sit in a hut – they are silent, you look out, they start to work.
Such stooges should not be allowed into the tribe. If you get exactly this – change the tactics of hunting. Instead of a dense hut, make a half-cover under the tree, in the bush, so that the decoy was nearby and saw you. Such ducks work well when in contact with a person. However, in this case, you will have to limit yourself to the pre-dawn and evening twilight, as when the light drake will notice you. However, when hunting in a flooded forest, such a hunt can be successful.
If there is an opportunity, it is necessary to plant two ducks, preferably on opposite sides of the hut.
First, it is more reliable: of the two, at least one should work. It happens that one duck works better at the beginning of the hunt, the other at the end, or one in the evening, the other in the morning. Often, one duck from a pair works, and the second keeps quiet, but then, under the influence of a girlfriend, begins to respond to her and also begins to work actively.
Secondly, it happens that ducks were poorly prepared for hunting and are afraid of drakes. With such ducks you can’t hunt at all. However, they willingly respond to the voices of the females and converse with each other. In this case, the hunt is still not lost.
Third, and most importantly, hunting with a pair of good decoyrs is very effective and beautiful. This is a real concert when both ducks, trying to shout down each other, are upsetting the drake flying over the hut!
Shalash-zasidka
It is advisable to install a hut for this hunt in advance, at least 2-3 days before the start of the hunting season. But during the period of mass flight, which is usually at the height of the flood, every day you can meet with new, flying ducks, and therefore the need for an advanced installation of the hut disappears.
If the hunt is opened early enough and a span is in progress, and the drakes have not yet been shelled, a hut can be constructed on the eve of the hunt. Spring drakes are in a strong marriage excitement and, if there is a well-working apprentice, they will swim up to a new unfamiliar structure, unless the hut does not shine through and the drake does not notice the hunter in it.
Do not forget that in the spring in the floodplain the water walks, and therefore every day the tents have to be transferred either to dry (when the water rises), or closer to the water (when the spill subsides). It is desirable that the skradok always stood almost at the very edge of the water.
The hut should be in color in harmony with the surroundings.
Some hunters, and not unsuccessfully, build on the spill a hut of green fir spruce branches. For example, well-known hunters with infiltrators Fokin, in their hunting publications always recommend the use of such huts, saying that wild drakes are not afraid of them. I disagree with that. Such a hut in the absence of flooded forest, for example, on a meadow in a flood plain, stands out sharply. Of course, stupid teals, sviyazi and schoots will sit down to such a hut. But the mallards and pintails, as more cautious, will be afraid. Perhaps the unstripped drakes, first of all flying and young ones, will fly up to such a tent at the call of a well-working interim.
But if the span is over, the local drakes will quickly understand the source of the danger. They will spin, but if they sit down, then at a decent distance. Of course, in open floodplain lands with rare willow bushes and separate clumps of dried grass, there is no material for building a dense hut. In this case, the military camouflage net helps a lot. She leaps on a pre-fortified frame (skeleton), built of trees and branches.
It is advisable to arrange such a hut at the bush or, if possible, at the tree. On the side that is directed to the water or to the place of the most probable draining of the drake, the grid should not be stretched, but slightly sag. Bundles of last year’s grass, withered sedge are woven into its cells, and if you find the hay left after the winter, that’s good luck.
In recent years, portable camouflage masks with loopholes have appeared on the market. They are very convenient, easy to fold and carry. Many of them are in good harmony with the surrounding land and from a distance resemble a bush or haystack. Drakes are not afraid of them. There are no problems with their transfer when the water level changes.
Stuffed ducks
Many believe that spring is a good decoy, especially a pair of semolina ducks do not require the use of stuffed animals. Most practical manuals recommend that in the spring you do not plant a lot of stuffed animals – 1-2 is enough. Stuffed animals in large quantities are recommended to be used only in the fall. My practice has shown that this is not entirely true. The attacker can suddenly zapisti and temporarily stop working. Far away flying drakes, especially in windy weather, may not notice it.
Finally, the most important thing is that other types of ducks (except for the mallard) are not at all obliged to respond to the invocatory cry of a decoy, because for them the mallard is a strange species and they can only sit down for the company. Scarecrows also signal to them that this place is food, safe, and meeting with relatives is possible here. That is why on spills, in places with a good overview, it is desirable to plant stuffed animals of various kinds. The bigger, the better. Of course, roughly made rubber stuffed animals are unlikely to attract the attention of flying birds.
For a long time, our stuffed animals, more likely resembling rubber galoshes, than swimming ducks did not leave a choice to the hunter. Maybe that’s why we have a negative attitude towards the stuffed animals in the spring hunt? Omsk rubber effigies were considered excellent, they were chased, ordered by mail. Now, next to the plastic stuffed Italian-made, they look just like scarecrows. In recent years, in Russia, they began to make plastic stuffed ducks of different types in the manner of Italian. When buying stuffed animals, you need to pay attention to the fact that the paint on the stuffed animals does not shine – otherwise such “bait” will scare the ducks.
After each hunt, the dummy must be cleaned and dried, this applies primarily to rubber dummies. Wet stuffed animals should not be allowed to stand – they will shine in the sun.
To place the effigies on the water, preferably by species. For example, in one place put a pair of mallards (drake and duck), in the other – a pair of pintails, a little to the side – a group of broad-nosed and sviyazy. Most of all you need to plant crackling teals (5-6 birds of different sexes). Nyrkovyh (gogol, black-headed and red-headed diving) are also planted as a group away, at depth.
Of course, you need to plant the most widespread species of ducks that are currently living in your area.
For example, there is no point for a hunter near Moscow to buy stuffed red-nosed and white-eyed diving plots, lutk, sea-crab, sea duck, gray duck – species that are found very rarely in the middle lane or completely uncharacteristic. The ducks should not swim very closely: a dense flock is a signal of danger to the flying birds. They should be in the form of an absent-feeding group. All stuffed animals should be far enough from the inferiors, so that they could not swim up and get confused.
If skradok is surrounded on all sides by water, the decoy and stuffed animals can be placed on opposite sides of the hut so that the semolina birds have never seen the stuffed animals and are not torn to them. When installing a stuffed animal on the water, “windows” are set aside for shooting so as not to damage the stuffed animal with a shot.
Monkey duck
The decoy duck, being a mallard in nature, attracts only its own species with its cries of drakes. Others sit down for the company. Ducks do not mate with other species of drakes, although this sometimes happens in zoo conditions. In nature, duck hybrids are extremely rare.
That is why, no matter how well the decoder works, in order to reliably attract the flying drakes of other species, it is necessary to use both stuffed animals and decoys. Then the hunt for you will be more exciting and interesting.
A true hunter will not use electronic decoys. He should be able to correctly use manky for different types of ducks. Previously, in our hunting stores you could only buy decoys for mallard and teal. Now their range is very large, mainly due to imported decoys – American, German and Italian. Just remember that there are decoys on sale for those birds that we don’t have, and the Russian label may mislead you.
For example, under the “duck decoy” you can easily get a decoy for a woody carolina duck, and a “decoy for a teal” will be attractive only for the American blue-winged teal, which has nothing in common with our teal-crackler. If you are hunting with a good decoy, you should have a set of decoys on pintail, pull, tufted duck and teal (whistle and crackle). These decoys can be found in hunting stores.
Most often, they imitate the mating voices of the males of these species (after all, they mainly hunt wintering places abroad and there is no spring hunting). However, there are decoys imitating the voices of females. Remember that the drakes’ voices in the spring also very well attract the flocks of migratory ducks.
Manki should be stored in special cases or boxes and protect them from clogging. The box is kept open in the hut so that at any moment you can quickly get the desired decoy. To do this, you need to be well aware of all types of ducks and be able to determine their appearance by the voice and noise of the wings.
Shooting ducks
Shooting spring drakes from the hut is not difficult.
Above all, the hunter needs to remember the following rules:
- When shooting drakes with a stool from a hut, it is best to use fraction No. 7 from the right (lower) barrel and No. 6 or 5 – from the left (upper).
- The shooting distance should not exceed 35 meters.
- When replanting drake you need to stand still and for some time not to try to put the gun in the shoulder and aim. This will inevitably entail the take-off of a freshly dragged wary drake. Usually the barrel of a rifle, even in a relatively large hut, has to be pushed into a loophole and set out for a certain length from the hut. This is the most crucial moment. Having noticed movement or reflection, a bird can instantly fall off and fly away. Therefore, these manipulations should be carried out slowly and smoothly.
- You can not shoot a drake, located near the decoy. Even when there is the slightest doubt that you can hurt the attacker, it is better not to shoot. Also come when the drake sits in a pair with a wild duck. If they are near – you can not shoot.
- At dusk, when there is no certainty that the sewn duck is a male, and not a female, it is necessary to refrain from a shot. Also come if the flock has sat down and the birds are close to each other.
- You can not shoot at the drake through the decoy duck.
- Do not attempt to shoot in the spring from the hut inlet.
