be duck hunting in oct,

[iso18 0]

me_n_ethe_after_successful_hunt.bmpwhat other feathers do u all recommend i harvest,I usually bag woodies,mallards geese ,and the occasional teal,very seldom bluebills,a few gadwall,3 pintails in 10 years of hunting and hooded mergansers.owe also a few greenwing teal.and 2 ruddy ducks,what feathers off these ducks an geese r of use to fly tiers,also usually bag a few wood cock

shane wv

me_n_ethe_after_successful_hunt.bmp

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

skin them and borax them for a week or two all the feathers are useful

[Guest]

You could cut off and match up wing feathers for wet fly wings, your already keeping the flank feathers and cdc. But all feathers are good, if you're not good at skinning them out pluck them making sure no fat or blood are on them and bag em up after a borax treatment.

 

Lot's of good feathers for tying.

 

Fatman

[Ribs1 0]

Every last feather on a duck is useful.

Skin and scrape the bird, rub with borax and repeat every couple of days. (duck skins are greasy.)

 

[iso18 0]

thanks guy,but what is borax?

shane wv

[Joe Hard 0]

http://www.20muleteamlaundry.com/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax

 

Coarse salt will also work

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

20 mule team borax its a cleaning product go to wally world cheap

[Isonychia 0]

Shane,

 

Where in WV are you? If you're getting teal and pintails in addition to the usual woodies and mallards, I'd suspect somewhere along the Ohio, Kanawha, New or Greenbrier rivers.

 

John

[iso18 0]

got two of my pintails on the kanawa last year and one in and undisclosed lake in fayette county,that same day i got my first overall limit in 10 years ,5 teal and 1 pintail,i shot the drake pintail at first light and figure it was a woodie,it fell to my left out of sight other birds were flying,so i said i'll get it later,cause birds were flying.2 hours later,to my surprise what i found was a drake pintail 19 feet of the bank laying dead in the lilly pads,my golden,my new golden and youngest was11 months at the time,it was her first retrieve and my first pinny ever what a day.and u can bet,if i would have known it was a pintail,i would have been after it before it hit the water,the lord was fortunate to me on that beautiful morning

shane wv

[Isonychia 0]

Shane,

 

If you want your Fayette County lake to truly be "undisclosed," don't include quite as many details in your description. I know where you were hunting. Don't worry -- your secret's safe with me.

 

John

[iso18 0]

o.k isonychia what r the abreviations to this private lake

shane wv

[iso18 0]

isonycha did u get my invite i sent u to go hunting in october or fishing at my camp at elk springs sometime?would be great if you can fit it in

shane wv

[mark2olson 0]

me_n_ethe_after_successful_hunt.bmpwhat other feathers do u all recommend i harvest,I usually bag woodies,mallards geese ,and the occasional teal,very seldom bluebills,a few gadwall,3 pintails in 10 years of hunting and hooded mergansers.owe also a few greenwing teal.and 2 ruddy ducks,what feathers off these ducks an geese r of use to fly tiers,also usually bag a few wood cock

shane wv

 

Great picture, by the way!

 

I usually skin my ducks by making an incision down the breastbone being careful not to cut into the meat. I reverse my field and make an incision from the breastbone up to the beak. Then I'll work the skin off the breasts and down to the legs. I snip the legs off with a set of shears and work the skin free from the legs. I usually leave the tail attached. Once the legs and tail are free, I work back up towards the head and take the skin all the way to the beak. I usually leave the wings attached by cutting the bone near the skin.

 

After the skin is free, I scrape the fat from the skin. I also remove the meat from the wing by making an incision along the wing bones and scraping away as much meat as I can.

 

Some people recommend degreasing waterfowl pelts with mineral spirits or Coleman fuel. I've tried both, I've also used Everclear. To degrease using spirits, soak the bird for about five minutes in the solution of your choice and then wash thoroughly afterwards. You can also just paint the skin with spirits and then wash off after five minutes. I degrease some and not others. If the bird has a lot of fat, I'll degrease. I haven't really noticed a difference between those feathers that I've degreased and those that I haven't. See what works for you.

 

Once your bird is skinned, wash it thoroughly in water with a little bit of dish detergent then rinse it with clean water. Then treat the skin with Borax and let it sit. I usually change the borax after a day or so and revisit the skin to make sure I've removed all the fat and meat. Then I apply borax again and let it sit until it is completely dried out. After it's completely dry, remove all the borax and you are ready to go.