Is DU ruining duck hunting?

[Hootey Hoo]

Are groups like Ducks Un-Limited and Delta Waterfowl ruining our sport? Report after report from state after state proclaim that, again, duck season has sucked donkey nuts. Minnesota hunters never saw the ducks. Ohio hunters never saw the ducks. Arkansas hunters never saw the ducks. Louisiana hunters never saw the ducks.

The Atlantic flyway has been dead for more than a decade. It looks like the Mississippi Flyway is gasping it's last breath. Even hunters in Canada report tough hunting and duck numbers down.

Why are we hunters not screaming at Ducks Un-Limited and Delta for an explanation? They send us suckers all a nice magazine every now and then chock full of ads and images of Pacific Flyway mallards and everyone is a happy camper. The articles are all about selling yuppie shiete to yuppie shietes.

The DU TV show features gay ex-actors with gay over and under shotguns banging gay teal over gay hand carved decoys being guided by some shmuck because they can't call a duck.

What about us? Real duck hunters who want just a few mallards to call and shoot over our plastic Flambeau decoys. I for one am tired of being un-limited. I want to shoot limits again.

After 70 years of taking our money to the tune of a billion dollars, Ducks Un-Limited owes us an explanation as to why they have failed and duck hunting in 2 of the 4 Flyways has gone to maggot shiete.

No. Let me rethink that. Obviously they do not know WHY. But they daymned sure owe us the courtesy of ADMITTING that it has gone to shiete. Instead we just see glossier pictures in the magazine and talk of the old days.

We as sportsmen must demand that our organizations step up to the plate and at least admit that duck hunting is teetering on the edge of oblivion. We should deny them funding until they do so. When the mallard is lost as a huntable species in this country there will be hell to pay.

Another billion dollars would only be wasted by the current Ducks Un-Limited mission. They have failed. It is time to either fund a new organization dedicated to refilling our skies with birds or gutting the current DU structure and making that the prime directive.

So, as you get drunk at your next local DU event, look around you. Look at all the rubberheads. Look at the geeks running the chapter. Look at all the yuppies there just for the liquor and the sticker. Look at the big tittied women fleecing you. And ask yourself- is any of this garbage going to put more mallards in the air next fall?

[crow]

You know, I don't really believe you are as simple minded as that question implies! You write better than that!

No one organization can do what you are suggesting...well, maybe the Corps of Engineers, but that's another post. If it were not for DU and other like Delta, we would be even further into the hurt locker than we are now. At least they have served to point our a problem...the destruction of nesting habitat and tried to do something about it. I agree with you that it is probably not going to be enough! To blame these people for trying to do something to stop the erosion of breeding duck populations is around the bend a bit, though.

It is a huge issue with many players over a large territory. Breeding habitat v. our need for farm land or development. Wintering habitat and food v. the need for more efficient farming practices so farm families might be able to make enough to keep their land. Unstressed ducks to mate and raise ducklings v. our need to pursue them and eat them. The hope for a tradition of duck hunting to survive v. the need for corporations to merchandise the sport for the economy's sake. The dream of preserving a sport for posterity and to pass along to our kids v. ... oh well, you get my drift, I hope.

Now, why are you focusing only on DU when they are but a bit player in the big game? Probably, like some others I know, because it is the easy thing and it has the most appeal those who don't have the "gay over and unders" and who aren't shooting many "gay teal" with our "schmuck" friends!

I have to admit thouh, you write a great flame of a post, even if you are a little simple in your approach. Are you sure you're not a "gay journalist?"

[weimhunter]

Hootey-Hoo, you must be a idiot. What the heck do you think it would be like if we did not have DU and DW. What the heck you think they are doing, just buying land for the heck of it? Its people like you that are hurting duck huntin. You probally did not give 1 cent to either organzation. But you feel like bashing them.

[Shoot]

First post and you gotta go there.

[Hambone]

What's wrong with over-and-unders and hand-carved decoys?

[Bullet]

You said that Minnesota never saw the numbers of ducks but I read an article that Webfoot posted that said this year and the past couple of years that Minnesota has killed over 500,000 ducks a year.

As for DU and Delta hindering the sport of duck hunting, imagine what it would be like without them. I agree that DU could do a better job than they're doing but without them I think it would be just much worse.

This isnt Benny trying to get a pot going is it.

[MallardDuck]

Actually, guys only 20 % of the money raised for DU goes to the ducks and 80 % goes for the overhead to run DU.

[injun_23]

@Jim

[slewfootedhoopajew]

Think about this too.....

DU has commercialized duck hunting...waterfowl videos and such have commercialized ducks hunting....

Maybe the reason duck hunting is getting worse and worse is because there are way more people doing it now than there were in the past.

Everybody and their mama is a duck hunter....this is good as it leads to more money in the hunting industry more development...more jobs...but the hunting suffers greatly.

I would like to see the % increase in waterfowl stamp sales from when they were first required until now...i bet that has a major role into what we are experiencing now

[Don Miller]

Blame Billie Ray. It's all his fault.

[weimhunter]

MallardDuck, that info you got is WRONG. That is absurd. As a member of DU you can see there fincial report. Maybe you shoud do this before spreading lies.

[mottlet]

Actually, guys only 20 % of the money raised for DU goes to the ducks and 80 % goes for the overhead to run DU.

If Chad were here he'd be telling you how ridiculously wrong that statement is. He'd have the exact numbers for you too, which I don't. However, I believe that something like eighty cents of every dollar donated to DU "goes to the ducks."

This is just another example of how stupid duck hunters have gotten in their efforts to blame somebody or something for the fact they aren't killing any birds. Those numbers are so far off-base and are the result of someone trying to pop their mouth to sound cool.

You don't like DU?? Fine, that's you're perogative. But come up with a legitimate reason to do so, you know, something that's real....not DU dumping corn, not DU being in bed with PETA, and not DU only gives twenty cents on the dollar to the ducks.

mottlet

[nomsduckhunter]

Why do people have 2 ears and 1 mouth?

[mudsucker]

Hootey Hooey said, "Look at the geeks that run the chapters." Screw you buddy and join a committee instead of bi tching about them. We could use your help and even hot air as an emcee!

[weimhunter]

AMEN MOTTLET. You are exactley right.