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Need a new duck hunting spot? Open a map. See those blue lines? They're rivers.
Gallery
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Late-Season Freeze
Find a pocket of open water and you’re in business. Sean Hammock of Big Sean's Outfitting, who hunts and guides the St. Joseph River in northern Indiana, widens the hole until the ice will support 50 to 100 rester and sleeper goose decoys. Ducks will also work the spread.
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Small Rivers and Big Creeks
You can still achieve good visibility with a small spread if you add a little motion. Tim Herald, host of "The Zone TV" on the Sportsman Channel, places his spread at the edge of a riffle and adds two spinning-wing decoys.
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Early- and Mid-Season
Before the freeze, visibility is key. Even if Field Hudnall, Avery pro staffer and founder of Field Proven Calls, is duck hunting, his favorite spread (see sidebar, above) consists of 90 to 120 floating and full-body geese plus a dozen ducks.
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Deep-Water Divers
Captain Bob Wetherald, pro staffer for Benelli and Final Approach, uses two gang-rigged lines of bluebill decoys to form his V-shaped spread. The “V” points toward the current. A sandbar is an ideal location.
On November 3, Colorado voters rejected Amendment 83, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have designated hunting and fishing as the preferred means of managing the state’s fish and wildlife populations. To pass, the amendment needed 55 percent of the vote or more. It fell about 10 percentage points short of that minimum.
The 8x57mm, also known as the 8x57 JS, the 7.92x57mm Mauser or the 8mm Mauser, has been with us since 1888, and has directly—or indirectly—brought us a wide array of cartridges which we hold dear. Let's take a closer look at that array.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in late September that Robert Hautman of Delano, Minn., won the 2026 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest with an acrylic painting of a long-tailed duck pair (seen above at the official ceremony).
Free entry runs through Nov. 13, 2026, and one winner and a guest will be heading to the Texas Panhandle for a fully guided hunt at MERUS Adventure—a private hunting and off-road park near Claude, Texas, outside Amarillo. The trip includes a fully guided hunt, range time with top-tier optics and gear, on-site lodging for the length of the stay and off-road driving across the property.
Every generation has a story starting with, “I remember the good old days.” Elk hunters have a similar dialogue and although elk numbers are at some of their highest in modern history, public-land hunting still represents a sea of challenges. With decades of elk hunting in my rearview and an ongoing education, a few lessons I’ve learned from elk hunting may aid you in your public-land elk pursuits.