Killing pintail

[Rubberhead*]

Was texting a SCDUCK'er this morning and it got me thinking about pintail. Here's a graph of how I killed my South Carolina pintails. I, painfully, keep notes on every duck I kill but I've been doing it long enough and have enough data that some patterns have emerged. I have always tried to be totally and completely honest with myself when logging how I kill a bird. I only mark down a bird as killed with a "pintail whistle" for example, if I really believe that I wouldn't have killed the bird without the call. Data is useless without this complete honesty and, when I started this, the internet wasn't even a thing so I never intended to post any results. I probably wouldn't have posted this 10 years ago either but I'm getting less selfish in my old age.

I don't mind being honest about the two times I jump shot a pintail, either. Once was on the Cooper River and it came in and landed on the other side of a big patch of water hyacinth. I pushed out keeping the grass between me and the bird and managed to paddle across a fair bit of open water before it flushed at about 45 yards. The other jump shot pintail was a bird in a wooded flat (PBiz knows where I'm talking about) that was also by itself. He allowed me to keep a tree between us until I got plenty close. He barely made it off the water...poor guy. And, I obviously have no problem pass shooting a pintail either. I've never water shot a pintail but I would if one would let me...

The point of all this is that pintail do, in my honest and humble opinion, respond well to a pintail whistle and a mallard hen call.

Sorry for talking about ducks in June...

[turbo]

I love your data.

Curious question: What's the size of your pintail data set?

[PharmHunter]

Very interesting RH.

[Jay]

I love your data.

Curious question: What's the size of your pintail data set?

My guess is 38 or 39 just by eyeballing

[DJA]

im going to go with somwhere around 25-30

[Rubberhead*]

That's high, I'm thinking it was 19. Let me check.

[tman]

if jump shooting and wigeon whistle both account for 1 a piece, it looks like 18 or 19. If they account for 2 a piece, then its 36-38.

[Rubberhead*]

It is 19. The wigeon call and jump shot are 1 each. The bird I jump shoot in the timber was actually listed as killed with a mallard hen call. I don't remember but must have called it down into the timber before putting the sneak on it. The one jump shot pintail was the one from the Cooper River.

[nitro5x6's]

My Grandad called em " the Gentlemen in Tuxedoes" Haven't killed any in a long time.

They are sure fine to watch circling and peeping as they decide....

[SilverFox]

We saw the motherload... at least it was to us, of pintail in Arkansas this year. They flew across us in the hundreds if not thousands headed to a flooded rice field on the edge of the bayou. We watched them for days. They would get up by the hundreds sometimes and circle and go right back down after a pass or two in the same field. Nothing we could do but watch. Never got any of them to decoy into where we were on another rice field just North of them as they flew across headed to that field... way to high for us. We killed one pintail in two weeks and it came from a farm we hunted 3 times about 2 miles from Macks. It came in as a single. Bull sprig with 8". Only one I've ever killed.

[jasonw]

I love jump shooting. Sometimes my buddy drives the boat and sometimes I do, but I feel weird about driving and shooting over his head.

[2thDoc]

bart's boat

[nitro5x6's]

Only Pintail I have killed north of I 20 in SC.


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[Rubberhead*]

Only Pintail I have killed north of I 20 in SC.

Biggest disappointment...huge, mature looking pintail with only a 1½" sprig...

[nitro5x6's]

February Pintails in Messico. Never seen so many mount worthy birds killed. I need to go back to Obregon some day.

[SilverFox]

This was the one I killed. Only thing we saw until dark was spoonies and him. At dark the mallards started coming in.

[Rubberhead*]

Well SilverFox, you picked a nice one to kill.

[swampknob]

First one I killed in South Carolina. Rode the squatty shuttle.

2BF8B50D-2FF1-4EB9-8D06-042E889F4A56.jpg

[MolliesMaster]

Talking ducks in June is way better than anything else that has come up so far.


My first SC pintail responded to a hen mallard call. That was a wild day.

[buckpro]

Big groups seem to like a mallard call more here. Once they are within 150 yards, 90% of the time you need to finish them with a whistle.