Youngest son got his dead mount back

H20fwler

5 year old buck +
My youngest son shot a hybrid mallard/black duck drake four years ago and wanted to get it mounted. So we wrapped it up threw it in the freezer and kind of forgot about it.
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Then a couple years later during our late season he shot a hen mallard with leucism that looked pretty cool.

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He thought the two of those birds together might make a pretty neat looking dead mount.

Today he got his mount back.
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Cool coloration
 
I’m curious what makes you think that black is a hybrid black/mallard?
We used to shoot what we called mottled ducks (mixed breed) and they don’t count for our black duck limit. Always had some iridescent green in the head. If you had that guy on the east coast and the man stopped you he would write the ticket if you said that was a cross and you weren’t over the limit.

Looks 100% black duck to me. And it’s really cool that he got shot where he did.
Taxidermist did a great job (not knocking the bird) but he got the beak wrong. Probably never did a black duck out there. Should be olive drab. Congrats to your boy for killing a “Black Duck” 800 miles from where it should be!

cool blonde too!
 
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He was probably chasing a doe to get over there. :emoji_stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
 
Looks great!
 
I would say the beak looks pretty similar to the kill pic. Google shows pics with yellow and olive both. Nice mount!
 
I’m curious what makes you think that black is a hybrid black/mallard?
We used to shoot what we called mottled ducks (mixed breed) and they don’t count for our black duck limit. Always had some iridescent green in the head. If you had that guy on the east coast and the man stopped you he would write the ticket if you said that was a cross and you weren’t over the limit.

Looks 100% black duck to me. And it’s really cool that he got shot where he did.
Taxidermist did a great job (not knocking the bird) but he got the beak wrong. Probably never did a black duck out there. Should be olive drab. Congrats to your boy for killing a “Black Duck” 800 miles from where it should be!

cool blonde too!

The white trim along the speculum, the green cap on its head and the triple curl let me know it is a drake black duck mallard cross 100%...and an F1 at that. We kill black ducks all the time here, don't know what you are talking about with it being 800 miles from where it should be.
I've killed hundreds of what I would consider pure blacks and many with some mallard in them usually just the white trim above speculum...I've only ever killed one that looked like his. Have seen a handful of those in my lifetime.
 
The white trim along the speculum, the green cap on its head and the triple curl let me know it is a drake black duck mallard cross 100%...and an F1 at that. We kill black ducks all the time here, don't know what you are talking about with it being 800 miles from where it should be.
I've killed hundreds of what I would consider pure blacks and many with some mallard in them usually just the white trim above speculum...I've only ever killed one that looked like his. Have seen a handful of those in my lifetime.
800 miles was a stretch :emoji_slight_smile: I didn’t know they left the right coast.

I can’t see the green in the head on my phone. Missed the curled tail.

I’ve seen tons of blacks with dull white trim on the speculum.

I’ll give in on the cross breed. But our warden would still write you for that one if you were one over the limit
 
800 miles was a stretch :emoji_slight_smile: I didn’t know they left the right coast.

I can’t see the green in the head on my phone. Missed the curled tail.

I’ve seen tons of blacks with dull white trim on the speculum.

I’ll give in on the cross breed. But our warden would still write you for that one if you were one over the limit

I wouldn't argue with a warden and would claim it as a black in daily limit even with it being a cross.
 
The similar one I shot thirty years ago, not as nice as my sons.
Wish I would of got it mounted, kick myself for not.

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What I would consider a true pure black

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I agree on the true black. We shot lots of white pin strips and threw them in the black duck bucket.
Only one I ever mounted was banded. Unfortunately not a good band story. It was banded the year before about 10 miles away.

now I did kill an Atlantic brant that was banded in the north west territories of Canada. He was far from home.

How far south do the black ducks go in your flyway? Rare for them to reach Virginia on the Atlantic. Could be wrong on that. I just know most southern hunters never see them.
 
A banded black is a trophy for sure!
The blacks we get with a little or a lot of white at top of speculum usually have a little mallard in the gene pool.
Later in the season field hunting locally we will get a black or two mixed in with a big flock of mallards. We are always looking for anything that is not a mallard to help with limits.
There are a couple rivers close to home here that blacks seems to like, now and then we will get small flocks of them using the area.
Furthest south I’ve ever killed one is Arkansas just outside of Weiner when I used to be in a duck camp down there.
We shoot a lot of them at the duck camp I am in now up in Ontario.
Most blacks I’ve ever seen was up on Prince Edward Island, they have them like we have mallards here.

A brant band is a sweet trophy too, and to get one banded that far west is crazy!
Most of my brant hunting has been in your neighborhood on Barnegant Bay and right out from Atlantic City.
Have had some good shoots of them further south on Chesapeake Bay around Crisfield and out by Tangier Island years ago when the Pruitt’s were still in business , cool little geese.

I have gotten a lot of banded ducks&geese over the years but never a black or a brant.....yet
 
A banded black is a trophy for sure!
The blacks we get with a little or a lot of white at top of speculum usually have a little mallard in the gene pool.
Later in the season field hunting locally we will get a black or two mixed in with a big flock of mallards. We are always looking for anything that is not a mallard to help with limits.
There are a couple rivers close to home here that blacks seems to like, now and then we will get small flocks of them using the area.
Furthest south I’ve ever killed one is Arkansas just outside of Weiner when I used to be in a duck camp down there.
We shoot a lot of them at the duck camp I am in now up in Ontario.
Most blacks I’ve ever seen was up on Prince Edward Island, they have them like we have mallards here.

A brant band is a sweet trophy too, and to get one banded that far west is crazy!
Most of my brant hunting has been in your neighborhood on Barnegant Bay and right out from Atlantic City.
Have had some good shoots of them further south on Chesapeake Bay around Crisfield and out by Tangier Island years ago when the Pruitt’s were still in business , cool little geese.

I have gotten a lot of banded ducks&geese over the years but never a black or a brant.....yet

if you’re in Barneget bay ever again let me know.
 
if you’re in Barneget bay ever again let me know.

Will do!

The last time we went out we took a couple layout boats with us and that worked pretty good.
It’s amazing how few decoys a lot of the duck hunters use along the coast and do well. We got by stringing them off the foot of the layouts and staying very still. The tides there are really something.
Hunting here and in Ontario we will put out from forty to a hundred and fifty dekes when hunting over the water.

Our last trip to NJ

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Twenty years ago I started making my own decoys usually out of foam, burlap wrapped with carved wood heads.
Got a wild hair and made up a small sea duck rig that worked pretty good there, I just don’t use it much.
I think I have put it on the water here once late season with the boys just for fun, the GE see a little use late season some years.
I started to make a half dozen Red Breasted Mergansers got about half finished with them and got distracted. I do need to finish those.
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Great mount! There are a couple that I wish I would have saved.

The homemade deks are awesome! I usually don't put out more than a dozen. Found if I'm in the exact place they want to be and am well hidden it works pretty well. Means I have to scout a little more, but I don't like carrying decoys around so that isn't a big deal.
 
Great mount! There are a couple that I wish I would have saved.

The homemade deks are awesome! I usually don't put out more than a dozen. Found if I'm in the exact place they want to be and am well hidden it works pretty well. Means I have to scout a little more, but I don't like carrying decoys around so that isn't a big deal.

Thanks

If we hunt the river or pond around here we usually don’t put many out.
On our lake, Erie or St Clair there is a bunch of competition and the birds seem to want to see a lot of decoys. Hunting out of a boat using a bunch of decoys isn’t to bad, we run a lot of long lines and it goes pretty fast.
The bulk of the decoys I’ve made are divers mostly Cans, Blue Bills and Redheads..I’ve got so many any more I can’t even fit them in the boat!
I just rotate the bulk of them to what species is going through at the time.
I’ve only ever made a few puddle duck decoys, six big black ducks the size of goose floaters and a drake pintail. I hunt them on the upwind side of our diver spread.
When going after puddle ducks we usually use some fully flocked plastics.
 
I agree on the true black. We shot lots of white pin strips and threw them in the black duck bucket.
Only one I ever mounted was banded. Unfortunately not a good band story. It was banded the year before about 10 miles away.

now I did kill an Atlantic brant that was banded in the north west territories of Canada. He was far from home.

How far south do the black ducks go in your flyway? Rare for them to reach Virginia on the Atlantic. Could be wrong on that. I just know most southern hunters never see them.

Not rare in VA just off the Potomac river


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It’s amazing how few decoys a lot of the duck hunters use along the coast and do well.

Nice haul on the brant and bufflehead heads. Buffleheads from a layout boat are a blast.

I’ve been known to hunt over 1 decoy for Black ducks in the back bays. They get real decoy shy by December, more is not always better.

I posted this years ago. We called it cast and blast. Fall striped bass fishing and duck hunting.

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