# Dry field hunting - what do you do when....



## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

Thinking back on our trip to North Dakota in late October, we found lots of feeding birds, but most of the birds were leaving before legal hours, and returning after close. We had a few good field hunts, but not many. I know I saw some posts back in November saying the same thing. Kinda hard to avoid full moons, or new moons when we're only there for a week.

So my question to the field hunting experts...what do you guys do when all the birds seem to be leaving/coming to the fields outside of legal hours? You residents can just sit back and try again, but when we're only there for a week, we can't do that. Do you just hunt potholes instead?


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## Triple B (Mar 9, 2004)

plan your trip away from a full moon? I do believe they can predict that nowadays.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

Triple B said:


> plan your trip away from a full moon? I do believe they can predict that nowadays.


Yeah I realize...I have the calendar. But you can't always arrange the schedules to accomodate when there are numerous people involved. But that leads to a whole other discussion about moon phases, and whether they really offer reliable predictions. Some say yes, some say no. Just wondering if the majority of people find that when one or two feeding fields are active before legal and after legal, that they all are basically that way? Is there any reason to burn more gas scouting for others?


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

Hate to give out this info, but they do still feed, just a morning and night field. Call bull crap on it all day long, until this year I did, but once we started hunting this way we killed 10 times as many birds. Some will go back to the night field, but not all of them.

You can start sending me checks :lol: I also take cash!!


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

hunt4P&Y said:


> Hate to give out this info, but they do still feed, just a morning and night field. Call bull crap on it all day long, until this year I did, but once we started hunting this way we killed 10 times as many birds. Some will go back to the night field, but not all of them.
> 
> You can start sending me checks :lol: I also take cash!!


Not following ya...you mean you find that even if they are coming in after closing hours in one field, they still are feeding somewhere else in the day? What we've found is when there's a full moon they'll often feed all night and stuff themselves silly, then head to the roost, sit there most of the day, and they aren't looking for anything to eat until the following evening.


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## averyghg (Oct 16, 2006)

here's an easy solution, let them feed a "little" into the darkeness, slowly walk out at them not to scare them to a great extent. They'll fly back to water, and if they liked the field, they'll be back first thing in the morning.

Ive seen it done, it works


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

HUMMM I guess we have never had that problem. We get snows that will do that, but even still they are huntable, they will move around. When we had a full moon like the second week of season the birds came out at night like 30 min before close for the day and stayed out for like an hour after, that is the worst I have seen. Alot of pressure in your area???


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

hunt4P&Y said:


> Alot of pressure in your area???


No more pressure than everywhere else. In fact these particular fields had not seen a hunter in a while. It just coincided with full moons, and had them feeding all night.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

averyghg said:


> here's an easy solution, let them feed a "little" into the darkeness, slowly walk out at them not to scare them to a great extent. They'll fly back to water, and if they liked the field, they'll be back first thing in the morning.
> 
> Ive seen it done, it works


Interesting thought. Never thought of actually moving them out in the dark because I always thought that would disrupt their patterns too much. But it's an idea.


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## Old Hunter (Mar 8, 2002)

averyghg That is one of the best tips I have heard in a long time. Thanks


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2007)

averyghg said:


> here's an easy solution, let them feed a "little" into the darkeness, slowly walk out at them not to scare them to a great extent. They'll fly back to water, and if they liked the field, they'll be back first thing in the morning.
> 
> Ive seen it done, it works


Can't say for sure so don't jump on me too hard but..........are you sure this tactic is legal?


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## Gooseguy10 (Oct 10, 2006)

Why would it be illegal? Harassing waterfowl?


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## averyghg (Oct 16, 2006)

why would it be illegal to walk out and look for your gun that you thought u might of left in the field the day before? :wink:

Thats what i would say


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Great tip, but my experience with full moons...If the birds are feeding in a field they really want to feed in...They might fly back back to the roost, but they will just fly back to the field soon there after. They feed the majority of the night during a full moon depending on the circumstances. Don't let it stop you, because it's still a crap shoot, but full moons are a good time to hunt PHEASANTS or Wood Ducks on the river. Good Luck!


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

Rick Acker said:


> Great tip, but my experience with full moons...If the birds are feeding in a field they really want to feed in...They might fly back back to the roost, but they will just fly back to the field soon there after. They feed the majority of the night during a full moon depending on the circumstances. Don't let it stop you, because it's still a crap shoot, but full moons are a good time to hunt PHEASANTS or Wood Ducks on the river. Good Luck!


I tend to agree that this is what would happen, but who knows. Like averyghg said, if I left my gun out there earlier in the day, I guess I've just got to go look for it :wink: We did hunt ducks anyway with some success, and did a lot of pheasant hunting during mid-day.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

Wingmaster22 said:


> averyghg said:
> 
> 
> > here's an easy solution, let them feed a "little" into the darkeness, slowly walk out at them not to scare them to a great extent. They'll fly back to water, and if they liked the field, they'll be back first thing in the morning.
> ...


Yeah Dave, I thought of that too. But c'mon...admit that a little part of you is kicking yourself for not having tried it while we were out there :lol:


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

What we noticed, with the mid-season mallards, they would only feed in the evenings regardless of moon phase.


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## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

When I was shooting them here, across from my house, they were in there morning and evening. Most mornings for about 15 minutes or so after the landed and began their feed and in the eveing they would come well after shooting time when the moon was up and full and go back to their water in the dark. Otherwise, on grey days, they came out at about 4 PM or so.
Good luck,
Dan


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

dfisher said:


> When I was shooting them here, across from my house, they were in there morning and evening. Most mornings for about 15 minutes or so after the landed and began their feed and in the eveing they would come well after shooting time when the moon was up and full and go back to their water in the dark. Otherwise, on grey days, they came out at about 4 PM or so.
> Good luck,
> Dan


This year was one of the strangest years we've had as far as patterning the birds, and the only thing we can point to is a good share of the trip was full moon. One day in particular we found a ton of birds coming to the dry fields at 8:30 -10:30 am, which kind of baffled us. Bright sunny day, with very little weather to speak of. In hindsight looking at the moon phase chart, that day was heading into "new moon" status, so our only assumption was the moon was doing it. We hit that field the very next morning, and they weren't there, however they were that evening, mostly after close again. So we really scratched our heads this year.


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

Many mornings in early season we didn't go set up till like 8 AM they would come off the water at 12. Sitting in the blind for 6 hours got old real fast on the days we set up before sunrise.


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## ghostbuster (Nov 30, 2007)

well i had the same thing too
we hunted a corn field after school and the ducks didn't come until sunset but we still got ducks but why do they come so late?


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## Guest (Dec 14, 2007)

just ducky said:


> Wingmaster22 said:
> 
> 
> > averyghg said:
> ...


yeah i gotta admit it crossed my mind..... :idiot: maybe next year


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## 1 shot (Oct 24, 2007)

Heres a simple solution

Take a pay cut and move to ND. :beer:


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

1 shot said:


> Heres a simple solution
> 
> Take a pay cut and move to ND. :beer:


Don't think it hasn't come up :lol: Ahhh to be 20 years younger and single... :beer:


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