Anybody go to any game preserve yet?

[DJ0808]

Really appreciate the good info here about waiting until it gets cooler to hit game preserves. 

I'm going to be adding upland bird to my hunting this year and plan on hitting some preserves first to get experience before I try any WMAs, especially since I haven't done it before and don't have a dog.

Also saw some preserves (Meadowview, M&M, etc.) offer duck hunting as well and was wondering if  this is also good way to get introduced to waterfowling, or should I try an actual guide that just does waterfowl?

Edited September 22, 2022 by DJ0808
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[JD48]

8 minutes ago, DJ0808 said:

Really appreciate the good info here about waiting until it gets cooler to hit game preserves. 

I'm going to be adding upland bird to my hunting this year and plan on hitting some preserves first to get experience before I try any WMAs, especially since I haven't done it before and don't have a dog.

Also saw some preserves (Meadoview, M&M, etc.) offer duck hunting as well and was wondering if  this is also good way to get introduced to waterfowling, or should I try an actual guide that just does waterfowl?

Go to a preserve for upland where you can also rent a guide and a dog, tried ducks 20-30 years ago, had you sit by a small pond, guy would go in the weeds and throw the duck up and hope it would head toward the pond

[mazzgolf]

50 minutes ago, JD48 said:

Go to a preserve for upland where you can also rent a guide and a dog, tried ducks 20-30 years ago, had you sit by a small pond, guy would go in the weeds and throw the duck up and hope it would head toward the pond

Just a few years ago, I was invited to go to one of those duck preserves. Same experience. You sit by a small pond, and a guy in raised blind about 150 yards away throws ducks out and  they (mostly) fly right to you. They make sure you shoot your limit that you paid for - they just keep throwing out ducks one after another until you hit your limit.

I did not enjoy it much at all. Felt like shooting at live clay targets. Just like tower shoots for pheasant - I'm not crazy about those either.

And it was expensive, too. Something like $400 for the group, or something crazy like that.

Now that I think about it - it was that M&M place. Here's the blind we shot from - the birds came from the northwest - I think you can kinda see the raised blind they throw the ducks out about 150 yards - I think it was here 

Edited September 22, 2022 by mazzgolf

[JD48]

3 minutes ago, mazzgolf said:

Just a few years ago, I was invited to go to one of those duck preserves. Same experience. You sit by a small pond, and a guy in raised blind about 75 or 100 yards away throws ducks out and  they (mostly) fly right to you. They make sure you shoot your limit that you paid for - they just keep throwing out ducks one after another until you hit your limit.

I did not enjoy it much at all. Felt like shooting at live clay targets. Just like tower shoots for pheasant - I'm not crazy about those either.

And it was expensive, too. Something like $400 for the group, or something crazy like that.

Yeah, we tried a few ducks while upland hunting, kind of stupid, no fun no challenge

[mazzgolf]

3 minutes ago, JD48 said:

Yeah, we tried a few ducks while upland hunting, kind of stupid, no fun no challenge

Yeah, I agree. I suppose if you are new at waterfowling never having experienced shooting at ducks, or you are inexperienced and just want practice shooting at birds on the wing, I guess that's one reason to do it. They guarantee you your limit - you just keep shooting until you down the number of birds you paid for. So you do get a lot of shooting in, especially if you miss a lot  

https://mmhunting.com/hunting/#released-mallard-shoot

As I say, it's expensive! $345 per person (10 birds) or $695 for a group of 3 to a blind (2o birds)

[DJ0808]

Thanks for additional info on duck hunting at preserves. I'll have think about it some more.

Seems like yes it would give me experience shooting them, but not so much experience actually hunting for them. May do ducks with a dedicated duck guide.

[mazzgolf]

25 minutes ago, DJ0808 said:

Thanks for additional info on duck hunting at preserves. I'll have think about it some more.

Seems like yes it would give me experience shooting them, but not so much experience actually hunting for them. May do ducks with a dedicated duck guide.

Now, I didn't do this one, so I can't speak to how it is, but M&M also has a "guided" hunt option (they call it a "decoying mallard hunt") where they don't release birds for you, but they set you up somewhere on their property and do something like a wild duck hunt (though I'm sure most of the ducks you hunt there aren't wild but rather are the farmed ducks that M&M previously released but shooters missed  - they even say this only "simulates" a wild duck hunt, probably because these aren't wild ducks). I have no idea how good the hunt is - you won't see as many ducks as that canned shoot, I assume, since they aren't throwing them out at you. But if you are new at waterfowling, this might not be a bad thing to do just to see how a normal hunt would feel like. Like they say, this simulates a wild duck hunt. I could see this being something a new waterfowler would want to try, just to get a feel for what it's like in a controlled and guided environment.

See: https://mmhunting.com/hunting/#decoying-mallard-hunts