# Odds on collars and bands????



## glatz (Mar 27, 2004)

Aside from hunting near a sancturary or a banding location what are the rough odds of shooting a neck collar? Bands? Sorry i'm being vague but i'm trying to give my girlfriend an idea of how rare it is. Although this year she saw 6 of my buddies take 7 birds and all but one goose was banded.


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## bandman (Feb 13, 2006)

http://www.ducks.org/Conservation/Water ... ether.html

This gives some good insight, but as far as the odds go; you'll have to do some number crunching to get a very broad estimate.


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

I have been hunting since I was 4. Shooting since I was 12. Now 30 and have seen thousands of dead birds. I have 2 bands on my collar and I cannot say for certain that I shot them. (We drew straws for them and I won). To me, a band is like a diamond in the ruff!!!


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

I'm with Mav. I've been going along for 16 seasons, been shooting for about 10, I've seen one banded bird shot. In my book, chances are slim to none. That doesn't seem to be the case for some. It's mostly just luck. Unless like you said, you know where they band them and you hunt next door to it.


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## nebgoosehunter (Aug 18, 2005)

I feel very lucky I guess. Been hunting for about 6 years and last spring shot two banded snows within 3 weeks! Also got a drake redhead, and one local canada before those. Never seen another banded bird taken before besides the ones I've shot.


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## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

Back in Ohio, on Lake St Marys, they use to band in the summer. Just about every goose you shot wore a band. Then they started with the neck collars. Then they stopped banding or maybe they quit banding so many. It was damn hard to get a band then.

Ducks on the other hand, they were harder to come by I think. I've bagged a hen redhead, a bluebill, and 4 or 5 mallards that have been banded. Pretty lucky.

Sometimes I wonder if I've ever discarded any bands on the ducks after I dressed them. Never really checked ducks much. Makes you wonder?

Good gunning, 
Dan


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## jaemersonke (Jul 19, 2006)

I live right next to a hunt club and the owner says that a banded bird turns up every 135 ducks. However, i have shot way more than that less than a mile away and haven't had a band yet.


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## Triple B (Mar 9, 2004)

from my experience, if you don't live near a banding santuary, and hunt 3-4 days a week throughout the entire waterfowl season, you are likely to get a band, every one to two years. i've been hunting for about 15 years and have taken 2 duck, 3 canada, 3 snow bands and a collared snow. I've witnessed 2 ross's(one of which was collared), a couple canada's and a few ducks. but like everyone else has stated its pure luck. I know guys that can't seem to get a band, and I also know guys that seem to stumble on them everytime they go out.


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

For a group of guys these are the odds that I have come up with for North Dakota and afterwords I put the odds for you hunting within that group of guys, if that makes any sense:

For Canada geese you can usually look at one out of 100 being banded and at about 150 I would start getting confused by the lack of bands and at 200 if you haven't got a band you probably are the unluckiest group of guys I know.

For me personally it has been about 1 in 50 that I actually shot when we are hunting together.

For Snows for a group it is pretty much the same. We usually get one out of a hundred and after about 250 we would be scratching our heads.

For me it seems to be about 1 in 50 again.

For ducks in all honesty for our group it has to be about 1 in 1000. We got our first this year, and we probably have around 1000 down since we were 10 years old.

For one guy personally (I have never received one) I think it would be around 1 in 500.


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## Jungda99 (Nov 17, 2006)

I have been quite fortunate over my career. I have shot 4 banded canadas, 1 wood duck, and I think its 13 mallards.

I have twice witnessed 4 banded candas fall out of one flock. I got one of the 4 each time. One flock was banded 10 miles away and the other flock was banded several hundred miles away.


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## Pitboss (Sep 8, 2007)

I have been hunting for 40 years and have a total of 16 bands, 4 from geese and 12 from ducks. I hunt around 60 days a years and kill my fair share of birds, so you see the odds of getting a band bird in my state is rare


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## jgat (Oct 27, 2006)

goosebusters said:


> and at 200 if you haven't got a band you probably are the unluckiest group of guys I know.


That would be me! :beer:


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## dblkluk (Oct 3, 2002)

> I would start getting confused by the lack of bands and at 200 if you haven't got a band you probably are the unluckiest group of guys I know.


Actually, after hunting nodak for 20+ years, I'd say at those odds you are the luckiest group of guys I know..

I have it averaged at about 350 birds we shoot for every one band, over the last 10 years.

Personally, I have 2 collars and one band. I'd hate to figure my odds... 
My band mojo sucks...


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

Well the odds are hard to explain, but it does also seem like you have to be in the right place at the right time. There are plenty of things you can do to increase your odds, like hunting migrators, or during early season hunting closer to where they are banded. For us in Grand Forks you have a better shot in Early season the closer you hunt to Minnesota. Stay along the river and there are a suprising number of Manohmen bands.

We came up with this band Kharma thing awhile back. It seems like when you do something good for the sport of waterfowling it comes back to you in band form (at least for us). My first band came after my first Delta banquet I attended. Last spring I put in a huge lonely effort to clean all of our groups birds alone, the next hunt I personally shot 30 snows and one band. This year it seems whoever eats the most duck or goose is going to get the bands. When guys complain that they haven't got a band you can just ask them when the last time they ate duck or goose. It works for us I guess. It even works on draws too, the last guy to eat duck usually gets it.


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## bandman (Feb 13, 2006)

You have to have a bling bling rap prayer ritual!!! :eyeroll: Going out and buying the new "Gunner Detector" doesn't hurt your chances either. The guy at Gander Mountain is pretty fair priced and does a helluva job. It's looks like a mini ranger finder, but doesn't mess with your shot ability.


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## dblkluk (Oct 3, 2002)

> We came up with this band Kharma thing awhile back. It seems like when you do something good for the sport of waterfowling it comes back to you in band form


I like that idea..although every guy in our Delta Chapter should have a lanyard full... :wink:


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## maple lake duck slayer (Sep 25, 2003)

I have seen 4 bands taken and I've been shooting for 11 years. Hunting for 15 years. All of these bands have been taken in the last three years, including one so far this year.


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## Bandcollector02 (Oct 4, 2005)

I think several factors come into play. Though the most important being location. I am curious though if some of the southern boys shoot a lot of banded birds due to concentration?


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## Muleys&amp;Honkers4life (Nov 23, 2004)

dblkluk said:


> > I like that idea..although every guy in our Delta Chapter should have a lanyard full... :wink:


 :beer:


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## WaterfowlJunky (Mar 16, 2007)

i always thought it was 1 in 500 birds you shoot.....obviously different if you live by a banding site...that wouldnt even be fun if you knew that the birds you were hunting were mostly all banded.....

after ahwile you would pick it up and say oh look another band....instead of the pleasant surprize (shock) followed by rubbing it in to your friends


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## honkerslayr (Dec 14, 2006)

Hey i think you guys are forgetting about the DU chapter also :beer:


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## collarcatcher (Jan 26, 2006)

Glatz, while i know we are in different flyways, i will share this from
a researcher contact of mine...on Bylot island, Nunavut, and the st laurence estuary combined- his crew applied 8,860 leg bands to snow geese, and
of those, 1650 were neck collared (this was 2006-'07 combined) By my
best math, in this sample 19% of banded birds
were collared...how representative these figures are, i have no idea-my guess is this is a HIGHER than normal ratio collars to bands.
but i think it is safe to tell your g/f that bands are RARE, and collars are
SUPER-RARE! hope this helps, good hunting to you. :beer:


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## PJ (Oct 1, 2002)

Some people have the force and others don't. Personally I think it is like playing the lottery. The more you play, the better odds of winning you have. But you could play your whole life and never win.


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## dvegas (Apr 24, 2005)

I would say thats a very high percentage of collars versus leg banded birds...especially since they are no longer collaring snows. For those of you who are interested there are places up there where the percentage of banded snows you kill are much much higher then here in the states...around 10-20% of the birds you can kill will be banded. Of the birds that are banded only around 5% have collars.


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## Slider_01 (Sep 12, 2002)

I too have been hunting for over 20 years, in that time I have killed 15 banded ducks and right about 10 geese. Between my dad an I we probably have 25-30 duck bands and 20 or so goose bands, five neck colared plastic bands, one of which came this year in ND. A six year old banded female blue goose, which was banded in Nunavut...

Slider_01


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## Sd snow goose killer (Jan 20, 2007)

dvegas said:


> I would say thats a very high percentage of collars versus leg banded birds...especially since they are no longer collaring snows. quote]
> just wondering are you sure they are not collering snows anymore. i heard that they just collered some but on the snow geese they are white.
> ?????????????


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## collarcatcher (Jan 26, 2006)

not trying to "pile on" here, but the "no longer collaring snows" comment threw me as well. as :beer: my biologist contact in Quebec collared 1400 snows this summer...what happens in other flyways i have no idea...


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## glatz (Mar 27, 2004)

Migrators in N. IL- We had 5 collars in my cousins backyard, and the day we hunted we had 2 orange collars land in the pond. We let about 200 hundred land in our field and pond and managed a band. The collars were too far away and spooked. Trophy hunting is fun, but so is having hundreds land on ya.


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## Trapperjack (Feb 25, 2007)

The main snow goose colloring program ended a couple of years ago in Canada for Lesser Snows. A few snows may be getting colors if the banders still have some laying around but for the most part it's over. Same goes for the Interior Canadas as well.


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## 4CurlRedleg (Aug 31, 2003)

Odds on shooting some bling is 1 in a 100 plus.

My son shot his first a few days ago at the ripe old age of 10.


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## averyghg (Oct 16, 2006)

well thats a hell of a start for getting a band at 10!


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## blazedillon (Feb 7, 2007)

I hunt in minnasota and i hve shot five canda bands just this year.I have 12 band and i am 14 i have hunted two years i am doing really good.


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## glatz (Mar 27, 2004)

yeah you are doing really good, since posting this I got my first band for the first time in 13 years killing geese- maybe my band luck is changing :beer:


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