# Whats up with all the bands?



## proagr465 (Nov 18, 2006)

My hunting party and I have a deep tradition of waterfowling in our families and travel the country every year to our various hunting grounds. My hunting party and I harvest on a regular basis 200-400 birds per year including ducks and geese. Here is my point........... I hear the stories about the Foiles guys herding park geese and killing the banded ones, and see videos of people with a neckfull of shiny, brand new looking bands. I have even hunted with a few guys as our guests with lanyards that are full of polished bands and from seeing those guys hunt I know they did not kill those bands.

I have been hunting my whole life and have 12 bands to my name. All of these came from birds that decoyed into my spread. How in the world does someone get all those bands on a lanyard, when it has taken my whole life time of sucessful waterfowling to get 12? WTF :-?

Oh and by the way..........F*** Jeff Foiles if he is guilty, and if he is not then he needs to be smarter about how he runs his business!


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## Buck25 (Mar 27, 2008)

people buy bands on ebay and stuff or they hunt in spots where they shoot more bands. It just goes along with all the hero shots, everyone trying to get on prostaffs, and other stupid things that people are so concerned with these days. You shouldn't let it bother you. 
Waterfowling is so much about your image these days- what your trailer looks like what your lanyard looks like. Just go hunting and have fun and if you shoot bands then great!


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## brentbullets (Nov 1, 2010)

Buck25 said:


> people buy bands on ebay and stuff or they hunt in spots where they shoot more bands. It just goes along with all the hero shots, everyone trying to get on prostaffs, and other stupid things that people are so concerned with these days. You shouldn't let it bother you.
> Waterfowling is so much about your image these days- what your trailer looks like what your lanyard looks like. Just go hunting and have fun and if you shoot bands then great!


Couldn't have said it better.


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## Lqpvhonker (Jul 13, 2009)

For some people its alot about luck i have got 10 goose bands and two duck bands to my name and im 20 years old its just luck of the draw and being in the right spot right time....but its not about the bands its about seeing them feet down that gets me out there day after day!!


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## striped1 (Aug 17, 2005)

I am taking a page from Jeff Foiles. finding them in city parks and shooting them with a bb gun as I bait them with bread.


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## duckhunter23 (Apr 13, 2008)

Ok. there are the people that go out and bye them on ebay. But I will say this. Luck has a lot to do with it. Also if people know were banding sites are for the year. If you watch those brids leave that area and go to a particular field then your going to get bands. Now I live in the middle of three huge banding projects. You can hunt 2 places they band. My hunting party chooses not to. We have gotten over 5 years hunting together and roughly 60 goose bands and about 30 duck bands. Now some of them have been banded way up in canada. some were banded local. But the majority of them were banded in canada.


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

It is all about luck and being in the right place. I hunted NoDak for two weeks a year x 10 years before i killed my first band there a few years ago. I have been very fortunate to kill a good number of bands in South Carolina and Arkansas over the years... it has nothing to do with skill, it is all luck and the law of averages.


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## liljoe (Jan 25, 2008)

I agree with most of the comments above. I've hunted So. Dak.(20 yrs) and Montana (25 years) and have a total of 2 bands to my name. I'm not saying that there are not birds in these areas with bands but they are few and far between.


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## King Eider (Mar 9, 2005)

Lots of bands get harvested from local opening day slaughters. In 35 years I have 6 Mallards bands form all over the place. 4 snow goose ands from all over th arctic.11 Wood Duck bands that were all locally banded. 30 Canada Goose bands, 3 0f which were from other states the rest were all locally banded.


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## PJ (Oct 1, 2002)

proagr465 said:


> I have even hunted with a few guys as our guests with lanyards that are full of polished bands and from seeing those guys hunt I know they did not kill those bands.


Maybe they do, maybe they don't but I doubt that they shine their bands. Wearing bands on my lanyard 'shines' them up over time as the rub on fleece etc. They don't look brand new by any means, but they look nicer then when I shot them.


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## Prairie Dweller (Jul 4, 2009)

proagr465 said:


> My hunting party and I have a deep tradition of waterfowling in our families and travel the country every year to our various hunting grounds. My hunting party and I harvest on a regular basis 200-400 birds per year including ducks and geese. Here is my point........... I hear the stories about the Foiles guys herding park geese and killing the banded ones, and see videos of people with a neckfull of shiny, brand new looking bands. I have even hunted with a few guys as our guests with lanyards that are full of polished bands and from seeing those guys hunt I know they did not kill those bands.
> 
> I have been hunting my whole life and have 12 bands to my name. All of these came from birds that decoyed into my spread. How in the world does someone get all those bands on a lanyard, when it has taken my whole life time of sucessful waterfowling to get 12? WTF :-?
> 
> Oh and by the way..........F*** Jeff Foiles if he is guilty, and if he is not then he needs to be smarter about how he runs his business!


It's called "parking". Just ask your local prostaffers, or maybe ask Jeff Foiles for some tips.


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## Buck25 (Mar 27, 2008)

Prairie Dweller said:


> proagr465 said:
> 
> 
> > My hunting party and I have a deep tradition of waterfowling in our families and travel the country every year to our various hunting grounds. My hunting party and I harvest on a regular basis 200-400 birds per year including ducks and geese. Here is my point........... I hear the stories about the Foiles guys herding park geese and killing the banded ones, and see videos of people with a neckfull of shiny, brand new looking bands. I have even hunted with a few guys as our guests with lanyards that are full of polished bands and from seeing those guys hunt I know they did not kill those bands.
> ...


I always took all my hunting techniques from foiles..I'm just disappointed he didn't show how to properly "park" on one of his falling sky's vids. :wink:


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## Lil Sand Bay (Feb 2, 2005)

It's all about time and place. Forty years ago I was hunting on the Roseau River in far northwest Minn. My partner and I shot six banded widgeons in one mornings hunt. When I finally got the info back in the mail (pre 'puter) from AVISE, they'd all been banded eight days before, less then thirty miles away.


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## Gleebryan (Mar 10, 2009)

Speaking of luck, one of my friends shot 3 mallards all last season and two of them had bands.


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## duckp (Mar 13, 2008)

Its all testosterone,I've never seen a nuetered hunter wearing them.


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## teamflightstoppersND (Feb 20, 2009)

I may be all about luck to shoot bands, but most people who shoot tons of bands hunt near where the birds are banded. Most of the local ducks and geese do not move far away from where they were raised and eventually banded. If you really want bands do some research but think about why you want to shoot those banded birds instead of unbanded birds.

There is nothing wrong with seeking bands, but it is wrong if you use the band to prop yourself up in comparison to others to show that you are better.


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

Also with going to a certain destination to shoot bands is doing nothing for the reason behind banding.

Banding was done to see migration routes and changes, migration time tables (are birds leaving in oct or not at all?), etc. By shooting and reporting shot just miles from the band sites at beginning of the season does nothing. Now if you were hunting the last week of the season and hammering bands....that will tell that these birds are not leaving, etc.


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