Video: How to pluck a duck

If there's one thing that makes killing ducks look easy, it's plucking them - especially if you like to eat them skin-on, roasted whole. Getting that down off can be a real pain in the butt.

But a few years back, Hank hunted with a friend at a duck club that had a totally sweet operation for processing ducks, and the key feature was the wax pot.

After plucking off maybe two-thirds of the top feathers, hunters at this club would dip their birds in a cauldron of hot melted wax, then put them in a barrel of cool water to set the wax. After that, all they had to do was peel off the wax and voila! The down was all gone, revealing pretty skin, suitable for roasting whole.

We adapted this operation to work in our garage, and at long last, we've made a video that shows how to do it.

I wouldn't say it makes plucking ducks easy - it still takes time. But it does leave you with some really beautiful ducks to eat, and that's the whole point.

Some additional notes about what you see in the video:

The pot: It's a cheap aluminum tamale pot from a Mexican market. Cheap is important, because this thing will get grimy, and you probably won't want to use it for food in the kitchen anymore after you use it for waxing ducks.

The burner: Ours is a totally lame portable electric burner. We keep talking about switching to a turkey deep fryer with a powerful gas burner and thermostat, but we haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe there will be some on sale, now that the season of eating whole turkeys has passed.

Heating the water: We give the wax pot a head start by filling it out of a faucet right next to the water heater, so the water comes out blazing hot. It really does take a while to heat up, because it's two-thirds full. If I plan to pluck when I get home, I'll call Hank and ask him to get the pot started so it's nice and hot when I arrive 75 minutes later.

The mess: Yeah, it's super messy, which is why we do it in the garage. But it's way easier sweeping up clumps of wax than chasing tufts of down.

Got anymore questions? Comment here or on the video itself and we'll answer the best we can.

© Holly A. Heyser 2012

Video: How to skin a duck

Yes, I know it's a coot, not a duck.

I know - blasphemy, right? I mean, I love duck skin, and my favorite way to eat duck is roasted whole with skin on.

But sometimes you get a bird that you know is going to taste "off." You know your mallards and pintails are going to taste great, but spoonies, gadwalls and wigeon can be a bit funky, depending on where you live and what those birds are eating there. Coots and sea birds? Stinkers, consistently.

The good news that all the foul flavor lives in skin and fat, so you can still make use of much of that stanky bird. All you need to know is how to skin it.

I shot this video on how to skin a duck a couple weekends ago after Hank and I went hunting for diver ducks on San Francisco Bay (San Pablo Bay, to be more exact). Then last weekend I went hunting at my usual Sacramento Valley spot without Hank and he sent me off with a grocery list: He wanted five coots if I got the opportunity to get some. He said something about recipe development.

I got him his coots (you can read that story here), and rather than make him do the dirty work, I decided to give skinning a try myself, based on the instructional video. I'll be damned if it didn't work - and it worked well! Cleaning went really fast. (It helped to have a quality pair of kitchen shears.) I may shoot coots more often.

Two notes on the video: If you choose to save the first section of wing, as shown near the beginning of the video, to get that meat, all you do is keep pulling off the skin, rather than stopping at the breast and clipping it off. You'll see what I mean. And if you don't want the wing, just clip it off at its base.

And if you like liver, go ahead and use the liver from a coot. The diver/sea duck warnings don't apply.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

Guilty as charged: I love whole ducks, and there's a really good reason for that

I was accused the other day of being a snob because I am a proponent of using as much of the animals we kill as possible. This means, most importantly, that I don't breast out ducks.

Not only does this position risk offending established hunters who grew up breasting out their ducks, I was told, but it risks alienating hunting newbies by holding them up to a standard that, basically, only the stupendous and amazing Hank could meet.

Well, Hank is a freak, and he'd be the first to admit that. He makes wild boar liver creme caramel, goose gizzard carpaccio and duck liver ravioli. And it's all good. I know, because I eat everything he cooks.

But, seriously, duck hunters, I don't expect you to cook like he does (though it would be nice if you ordered his upcoming book, Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast, which comes out in late May).

And I'm not going to start telling Yo' Mama jokes if your mama raised you to breast out your ducks.

I will, however, strongly encourage you to use more than just the breasts of the ducks you kill, because 1) there's a ton of tasty meat on the rest of the duck, and 2) you don't have to be a great chef to make it taste good.

Let's address Point 2 first. I do very little cooking in our house, because Hank is just way better at it. But I do roast my own whole ducks, because it's super easy.

The short version is that you salt the duck, brown it all over in a cast iron pan, pop it in a 450-degree oven, cook it until the breast meat hits 135 degrees, let it rest under a tent of foil for five minutes, then serve. (Here are the detailed duck roasting instructions.)

Though teal and ruddy ducks are single-serving critters, I can usually get at least two meals out of a medium-sized duck (wigeon, gadwall) and three out of a large duck (mallard, pintail).

This is where we get to Point 1.

The first meal is slicing off the breasts. I did this for lunch just this Thursday with a fat little wigeon I killed in December, and here's how much meat I got from the breasts:


So, that's what you would've gotten off this bird if you'd breasted him out. That scale reads 4 3/8 ounces. And yes, these were like crack cocaine - after I finished eating the breasts, I wanted to go eat the rest of the bird, bones and all.

But I was saving it for this blog post, so I threw the rest of the carcass into the fridge to chill overnight. Then this morning, I picked off all the meat, fat and skin that I could get - this would be a lunch I could take to take to work.

Now, this wigeon was particularly obese, so I got a lot of fat. But apparently Hank really wrecked his wings when he shot him, because this pato gordito came out of the package looking like Venus de Milo - no wing meat for me!

(I know duck wings seem pretty insubstantial and are a total pain in the ass to eat on the bone. But when you're picking the carcass, there's definitely enough meat on the wings to make them worth the effort.)

When it was all picked, I diced up the meat so I could throw it into a quick fried-rice concoction: Duck bits (no added fat needed), chili flakes, garlic, salt, rice.

Here's what I got:


Yep, that's 5 1/4 ounces.

Now, if you're concerned about all that Fatty McFat Wigeon's fat clogging my arteries, don't be - I saved the fat from the frying pan, and it was still liquid at room temperature this morning - a sign it's good-for-you fat. (And if you'd like to read my smug blog post on my latest cholesterol test, click here.)

Now, people like my buddy Charlie would need two of those wigeons to make a satisfying meal (though he'd really prefer if they were two pintails). That's not the point here. The point is that if you think there's not enough meat on a duck to make it worth eating more than the breasts, you might want to reconsider.

What if you hate plucking whole ducks? I sure understand that - plucking is a pain in the butt, and it's the last thing I want to do with my stupid arthritic hands after a day in a wet and windy marsh (I prefer wrapping them around a glass of bourbon).

There is an easier alternative: pluck the breasts and legs and take them out together, each breast attached to a leg. My friend Brent, who hunts up at Lower Klamath, processes his ducks like this, then marinates and grills them. They taste outstanding every time.

The upshot? You worked hard to bring those ducks home. You might as well get all the meat out of them that you can. It sure can't hurt to try, right?

UPDATE: Since writing this blog post, I've produced three videos on how to handle whole ducks:

How to Skin a Duck: For sea ducks or other ducks with off flavors. Removing the skin and fat removes the bad flavors.

How to Pluck a Duck: For all ducks that always taste good (where we live, that's generally pintail, greenwing teal, mallard and wigeon; spoonies and gadwalls can be iffy).

How to Gut a Duck: Part two of the process you begin with plucking.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

Great news for chicks who dig hunting

It must be the Year of the Woman Hunter, because there's a lot of cool stuff going on for us these days in terms of hunt opportunities and clothing options.

Check it out (even if you're a guy - there may be something in here for a woman you know):

The 2009 Cabela's Waterfowl catalog has finally hit our mailboxes and if you look on page 209, you'll see me and my friend Sarah and the story about how we helped Cabela's develop their new Cazadora Women's Waders from the ground up.

If you for some reason can't get the catalog, you can click on the image to the left and it might be printable, or just go here.

The waders retail for $199.99, and even if you don't need waders this year, I hope you'll tell your female hunter friends about this - I was really impressed with Cabela's commitment to serve us, and I'd like to see them rewarded for their efforts. (And no, they have not paid me a dime to say any of this - but I have been allowed to keep all the prototype waders they've sent me.)

If you'd like to see more options, the good news is the guys from Cabela's are working with us on their next project - yay!

If you know a woman who's interested in learning to hunt and you live in California, boy do I have a great opportunity for you: California Waterfowl is doing a two-day event Sept. 26-27 in which participants will do their hunter education courses, get shooting instruction, get their 2009-10 hunting license (with upland stamp) and go on a pheasant hunt, all for $150.

What makes this a great event is not just the price, but the fact that a woman can get done in one weekend what took me a couple months when I decided to start hunting back in 2006. Even better, because Cal Waterfowl will have guns on hand, it's a very low-risk way to check out hunting. If a woman decides she's not into it, she's out $150 and two days of her life - she doesn't need to have a gun because Cal Waterfowl will have some on hand. That's huge, because buying a gun is a commitment to go all the way before you even know what it's like to hunt.

Click here to see the flier.

The Fall 2009 Filson catalog also has some new treats for women: a sweet-looking upland jacket ($250) and a women's upland vest ($145).

I haven't tried out either of these because my closet overfloweth with hunting clothes (like seriously, I have more hunting clothes than work clothes). But I can tell you that Filson clothes are really well-made - I'm still totally in love with the Filson shooting shirt I bought earlier this summer.

Based on photo alone, I'd still say SHE Outdoors (SHE Safari) still has the most feminine upland vest, which is a great trick in a vest that has a built-in game-bag. I've been wearing my vest on my rabbit hunts and it's served me well. But the Filson upland jacket looks to have a nice feminine curve in it. I know, I know - you don't need to look sexy out in the field. But I do like looking like a woman. Since, you know, I am one.

There will be a special women's hunt at the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges Saturday Oct. 24.

Yes, that's opening day for California's Balance of the State zone, where I do most of my hunting, but this is kind of a sweet deal: You don't need reservations, you don't need to pay any extra fee. Just head out to hunt that day, and if you're a woman, you can keep shooting from 1 p.m. to sundown, even though shoot time for everyone else ends at 1 p.m. (Actually, it's also a youth hunt, so the same rules apply for kids.)

If you've ever hunted these refuges, you know that by the third weekend of the season, all the ducks already know it's "safe" to return to the refuge at 1. You know what that means: There should be some good shooting!

This event was organized by Hunt Program Coordinator Stacy Freitas, whom I spent some time with last week when I was up at Lower Klamath (that'll be another story). This is the first time she's been able to do this, so I'm pretty excited about it. Click here to see the flier.

Speaking of Klamath, when I was up there last week, one of my friends told me about a shop in Klamath Falls, Oregon, called the Tackle Shack, whose owner is committed to carry as much women's hunting gear as he can find. That's pretty sweet for a small shop - the local store I patronize carries no women's clothes because our numbers don't justify it.

When I stopped by the Tackle Shack on Saturday, they didn't have much hunting stuff yet - that'll come in a little closer to waterfowl season. And I don't think they'll have waders because I'm pretty sure Cabela's is the only one making women's waterfowl waders. But I was still impressed by the commitment to serve women. If you live in that area, check out the store when it gets closer to hunting season - let's reward the folks who want to help us out.

One last thing! I was literally just about to hit "publish" on this post when I got an email from Susan Herrgesell, president of Becoming an Outdoors-Woman, California, asking if I could link to the BOW-CA site to let women know about all the opportunities for learning that they offer.

Susan: Done!

Finally, a reminder: Don't forget about that Team Huntress Women's Outdoor Adventure Clinic coming up this weekend in South Dakota!

I blogged about it last month here, and you can check out the Team Huntress website here.

© Holly A. Heyser 2009

The How-To Series: Duck hunting checklist

I may be new to hunting, but I rarely forget anything when I head out into the field. Why not? Because I am an inveterate list-maker, and I make sure everything's crossed off the list before I lock the house and get into the car.

This year I've shared my list with several friends who are just getting into duck hunting, and one recommended that I share it here as well. You'll see it below in list form - something you can cut and paste into a Word document and customize - or as a JPG you can print if my personal list happens to work really well for you.

But first, a few words about the list.

* I'm an organized person - everything's gotta be in its place - so my list is organized into where things go - in the car, in the blind bag, even what parts of the blind bag. Obsessive? Perhaps, but this makes packing up a little easier.

* I am female; therefore I overpack. Silly? Maybe. But it's come in handy when I've had hunting partners who needed something they didn't bring.

* Also in the I-am-female category, you will see something on this list called "chick stuff." Ladies, you know what I'm talking about, and this is a must-pack item because you don't want to caught unprepared when Aunt Flo decides to visit early.

* On the printable image of the list below, you'll see four copies of the list. I was raised by Depression-era parents and I picked up their propensity for avoiding waste. I get four copies of my list for every sheet of paper. I just print a few sheets, cut them into four pieces and keep them stacked on my desk for the season.

Happy hunting!

Click on the image to see a full-size printable version. You may need to save it as a jpg on your computer to make it print out properly. If all else fails, email me here and I'll send you a PDF copy.

The List

Wear/carry
Travel clothes
Hat
Cash
Hunting license
Driver's license
Health insurance card
Credit/debit card

Keep in car
Fresh socks/shirt
Extra ammo (my refuge allows you to take only 25 shells into the field)
Lotion

Big stuff for car/truck
Game cart & sled
Decoys
Chairs
Waders
Jacket
Gun

Blind bag
Ammunition
Balaclava, face mask, face net
Camera/video
Camo makeup & makeup remover
Chapstick
Chick stuff
Coffee/broth
Duck calls
Duck ID books
Fingerless gloves
Game strap
Glasses
Head lamp and spare flashlight
Hearing protection and spare earplugs
Hunting regs
Knife
Phone
Snacks
Spare batteries
Sudafed/Motrin
Tissues
Trash bags (for my trash and picking up after the losers who left theirs)
Water
Wet wipes

The How-To Series: Shotguns for women

Note: Three years after writing this post, I'd learned a little bit more about how different kinds of shotguns suit different kinds of personalities. The information here is still valid - I still strongly recommend getting your shotgun fitted - but you might want to also check out my shotgun personality test. Click here to do that.

It's that time of year when I start getting the question from women: I'm going to start duck hunting. What kind of shotgun should I buy?

The answer, unfortunately, is not so simple as, "Buy this model." But there is a relatively simple formula you can use to decide.

First, though, some basics.

TYPE

There are three common types of shotgun: pump, autoloader and over-under (or side-by-side). Pumps and autoloaders are usually the preferred choice in the duck blind because you get three shots, and sometimes that third shot matters - especially if you're new at shooting.

Autoloaders are more expensive because they contain mechanisms that automatically eject your spent shell and reload the next live one, so you get your three shots off pretty quickly. These moving parts also make them a joy to clean (NOT!). I have an autoloader.

The pump requires you to move a pump to eject and reload - adding slightly to the time taken to get your second and third shots off. That pumping action is what makes the cool click-CLICK sound you hear in the movies when Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to blow away some evil enemy. Pump shotguns can be really affordable.

The over-under or side-by-side is a very simple gun: There are two barrels for the two shots you get to take. You remove the spent shells yourself. Cleaning is a breeze. I know this because Boyfriend has one, and he's done cleaning in a fraction of the time that I am. Very irritating. But he loves his gun for its simplicity (and beauty - it's Italian).

SIZE

While there are many different sizes, or gauges, of shotguns, the two you see most often are 12 gauge and 20 gauge.

A 12 gauge is a bigger gun. The shotshell has a bigger circumference, so the barrel is also bigger, and the gun is heavier. I know plenty of women who use 12 gauge, but also plenty who use 20 gauge because they like the lighter weight. I use a 20 gauge.

But there are two sacrifices with the smaller gun. One is that you have less shot in the standard 3-inch shell for 20 gauge than for 12 gauge because there's just less room. That means there's less shot flying at the bird. That means you have to be a better shot.

The other sacrifice is selection. When I went to buy some Kent Fasteel for duck season in October, my two local stores had NONE in 20 gauge. When I went to order a case online, I found 26 options for 12 gauge and TWO for 20 gauge.

But I'm still happy with my selection.

FINALLY, THE FORMULA

Here it is: Fit, fit and fit.

1. Cost fit. Decide what you can afford. I'm one of those people who believes you get what you pay for, so I'll spend on the higher end of what I can afford, which means using the credit card because it's actually more than I can afford. That's my particular failing.

But here's why I think buying the most you can afford is important with guns: A gun is not a toothbrush that you'll discard in six months; it is a tool that, properly cared for, will serve you for the rest of your life, and possibly go on to serve your children as well.

Italian shotguns are generally considered the best, and they have pricetags to match. My Beretta Urika AL391 cost about $1,000. Fancier ones go for $1,500 or more. But I have a friend who swears by his much-more-affordable Remington (American) shotgun.

The upshot? Decide what you're comfortable with. If you're a spend-within-your means person, don't feel compelled to be a spendthrift like me - you'd be miserable.

2. Gun fit. I've followed discussions about women's guns extensively, and from what I can tell, there is no perfect women's shotgun. Why? Shotguns aren't made for women; they're made for the "average man," which means someone who's taller and heavier than we are.

If you're a smaller woman - that is, on the short side, or lightweight - you may want to consider children's guns. But most women I know have chosen adult guns.

So how do you know what fits? Simple: You try them on, just like shoes. When I went to buy a shotgun, I went to the gun counter and said, "Let me look at that one," and I raised the gun to my shoulder and put my cheek on the stock, as if preparing to shoot (aiming the barrel in a safe direction, of course). I handed back the ones that just didn't feel right and kept the others on the counter, narrowing them down until I was left with one: my Beretta. I was in serious female shopping mode. Thank God the guy behind the counter was patient.

I didn't know squat at the time, but when I told my shooting instructor and my gunsmith about my method, they told me it was a good one. To me, it just makes sense. We all have certain brands or models of shoes that work for us (I love Danskos). Even cars fit us differently (I'm way more comfortable in a Toyota than in any other car). Why wouldn't guns be the same?

The trying-on method also helps you rule out something that's not comfortable. Me? I hated the pump shotguns I tried because they just didn't feel good in my hands. And you really don't want to end up with a gun that bothers you, because that irritant will be like a mosquito that buzzes around your head every single time you hunt.

Now, if you're a boyfriend or husband who's reading this because you want to buy a nice surprise for the woman in your life, I've just gone and spoiled your plans. I recommend you give her a "gift certificate" for a shotgun, and then take her shopping, even though that's much less exciting than putting a gun under the tree. If you really want to give her something besides an envelope, buy a cheap toy gun as a proxy and put that under the tree. It'll make her laugh, and put a tangible object in her hands.

Still not convinced? Just ask yourself this: Would you buy her shoes without her trying them on? Most likely not. Nor should you do that for something that's 10 to 20 times as expensive as shoes.

3. Plan for gun fitting. Even if a shotgun feels comfortable off-the-shelf, I strongly recommend that women have guns fitted, which means leaving something in the budget for a trip to the gunsmith. Why? Again, shotguns are made for men, and if you're not 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds or so, the shotgun isn't made for you.

Shotgun shooting is all about making the shotgun an extension of your body. With the butt of the gun against your shoulder, your cheek should fall easily on the stock, positioning your eye to peer out perfectly over the barrel so when you pull the trigger, the shot goes where you're looking.

A fitting often includes shortening the stock so you can reach the trigger more comfortably, and potentially adding a recoil pad. If you shoot left-handed, it means changing the cast (left-right tilt) of the stock, because most shotguns are cast for righties. If you have a long neck and/or high cheekbones (that's me), it also means changing the drop (up-down tilt) of the stock.

My fitting cost $350 and it was worth every penny. I waited more than a year to do it, and I went from missing most of the time to hitting the ducks a lot more often. When I talk to newbies now, I recommend they get their new gun fitted immediately to spare themselves the grief I went through, because it's just so discouraging.

To find a good gunsmith, just go to your local skeet or sporting clays range and ask the folks there who they recommend. Competition shooters in particular will know who's the most trustworthy.

One final recommendation: If you're new to shooting shotguns, do yourself a favor and take a few lessons. If you're missing a lot, you may not be able to figure out what you're doing wrong, but an instructor can spot your problem immediately. My instructor costs $50 an hour, and he's worth every penny. I even go back every once in a while for "tune-ups" to see if I've developed any bad habits.

And a final word: While I'm confident with my recommendations here, I know I don't know everything there is to know about guns. If you have anything you'd like to recommend adding to this post, just email me here. I'm happy to update this with additional information.

Happy shopping!

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

How-to: Waterfowl hunting on CA refuges

"Meet me at 4 a.m. at the unmarked dirt road leading up the levee at the end of Chiles Road," I told my friend Sarah.

You'd think we were hunting at some super-secret spot, but it was actually the state-run Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. The problem was the place was full of unlit, unmarked, intersecting dirt roads, and if you didn't know your way in, you'd never find your way to the hunter check station in time. And if we didn't get to the check station by 4:13 Sunday morning, we'd risk losing our place in line, and possibly not getting a blind.

This was Sarah's first duck hunt on public lands, and only her third duck hunt ever, so I wanted to take good care of her.

Well, I intended to, anyway.

We got to the check station just fine, and when our reservation number was called, Boyfriend, our friend Evan and I pulled out our hunting licenses. I turned around to get Sarah's and she was gone. She'd left it in her car.

When she got back - out of breath from running in waders - the check station employee said, "OK, $16.50."

"Uh oh," I said. Something else I'd forgotten to warn her about.

It reminded me of how incredibly lucky I was to have Boyfriend as a guide when I started hunting public lands, and how confusing it would be if you were a new hunter or merely new to the state and trying to figure out the system all on your own.

I'm far from an expert yet, but I've done most of my hunting on public refuges, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to share some tips about how it works in California. Particularly since we didn't get a damn thing on our hunt Sunday. November doldrums, nothing but sweaty waders to see here!

And for all my fellow refuge rats who already know this drill, please do me a favor and read this anyway. If you see that I've left anything out, shoot me an email here and I'll update this post.

Step one: Decide where to hunt

There is waterfowl hunting on public lands up and down the length of this state, so chances are you can find something within a few hours of where you live. I think I’m particularly lucky, though, because half the birds in the Pacific Flyway winter on waters in the Sacramento Valley, within 90 minutes of my house.

Your best clearinghouse of information is the California Department of Fish and Game website. DFG administers hunting programs on both state hunt areas like Yolo Bypass and national wildlife refuges like Delevan. A good place to start is this page listing DFG regions by county.

There you can find an address and phone number for your regional office, which means if you can't find the information you seek online, you know what number to call. There are also maps of state wildlife areas, like Yolo Bypass.

What you won't find on this page, though, is a list of the national wildlife refuges that DFG administers. For those, you need to go to this U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service page, which does not have a map. See why those phone numbers matter?

Another resource? Hunting forums, such as Jesse’s Hunting & Outdoors, the Duck Hunting Chat and the Refuge Forums. People are usually pretty nice about helping folks who are new to the area. Your best bet is to post either on state forums within those sites, or on waterfowl forums. Just don’t ask about exact spots to hunt – people get VERY touchy about giving up that information.

And if you want to make an even more informed choice about where to hunt, check out DFG's page on waterfowl hunt results, where you will see both state and federal areas listed. You can see how many ducks hunters bring in, and what species are most prevalent.

One thing you'll notice is that California has three types of hunt areas: Type A, Type B and Type C. An article on page 21 of the Summer 2008 California Hunting Digest explains the distinctions, but the short explanationis that A areas are most popular, cost the most and are most heavily staffed and regulated. I hunt primarily on Type A areas (soooo appropriate for my personality), so I can't speak to the experience you'll have in the other areas. But someday I'll break out of my comfort zone and try something new.

Other resources:

* DFG's hunting web page - includes links to resources

* DFG's 72-page PDF about waterfowl and upland hunting - includes detailed lottery procedures for each public hunt area.

* U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's new 268-page guide to hunting federal refuges

* Speaking of the California Hunting Digest, this magazine is always full of useful information. If you haven't gotten on DFG's mailing list for this, email here to subscribe.

Step two: Getting in the door

Once you’ve decided where you want to hunt, you need to find out how to get onto the refuge or wildlife area. Once you’ve decided where you want to hunt, you need to find out how to get onto the refuge or wildlife area. The primary vehicle for this - though not always - is to apply for a reservation, and DFG draws a limited number of hunters and assigns them a position in line for choice of hunting spots.

Each hunter can apply to hunt on any or every hunt day (usually Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays) at any or every refuge in the state once – in other words, you can apply only once per hunt day per refuge. You can make a season-long application for as many refuges as you want, or you can apply for just one hunt day ($1.30) or five ($6.35). You must get applications and fees to DFG at least 17 days before your chosen hunt day to get into the drawing.

Applications are available at DFG offices, and often at hunting gear retailers.

Once DFG draws hunters, it posts results – by license number, not by name - on this page here. In case you’re not a slave to the Internet, you’ll also get a postcard in the mail informing you if you’ve been selected.

If you want to choose carefully, DFG puts out a four-page publication that includes information about your odds of getting onto various hunt areas, as well as phone numbers for each hunt area. Click here for the 2008 publication.

Question: What if you aren’t selected or didn’t enter the drawing?

You can still enter a lottery at the hunt area, sometimes the night before the hunt, sometimes the morning of, to fill any spaces not claimed by lottery winners. At some refuges, you can also wait in line to take blinds vacated by morning hunters and hunt until sunset. Details are available in DFG's waterfowl and upland hunting regulations booklet - click here for the 2008-09 booklet and go to page 19 - or call the hunt area to ask a real person about the rules.

One thing I can tell you for sure: You have to go to the hunt area to get in the drawing or on the waiting list – you can’t phone it in.

Me, I never get up at 2 a.m. if it’s not a sure thing that I'll get to hunt the morning, so I don’t do that last-minute lottery for morning hunts. But I have been known to hunt afternoons at places that allow blind refills.

Step three: So I got drawn. What next?

I love the story my boyfriend tells of the first time he got drawn in a lottery. He was one of those newcomers who didn’t have a guide or mentor– he just went out and tried to figure out waterfowl hunting here on his own.

The postcard with his drawing number said, “Check station opens two hours before shoot time.” When he went there, shortly before shoot time, he found his position had been given away. What the postcard didn’t – and still doesn’t say – is that they start handing out blinds and free roam positions two hours before shoot time, so you’d better be there two hours before shoot time.

The way it works is you get there ridiculously early, and the check station staff starts calling numbers. The lower your number, the better choice of hunting locations you're going to have.

In most cases, these hunt areas offer assigned blinds – your own little pond area and either pit blinds or islands with enough cover to hide yourself – and free roam, where a limited number of hunters gets to prowl one big area, and ideally not to step on each others’ toes in the process.

To find out which blinds or ponds do best, look around the check station for posted results of previous hunts. You can see which blinds have been producing, and you can usually see what kind of ducks come out of them too. Just remember, the hunt results are a function of not only the birds, but the hunter. Newbies like me drag down the numbers. But if you're really nice to the staff at the check station, they might just give you valuable information about what blinds usually hunt well under various conditions.

When your number is drawn, you'll need to show your reservation card and your hunting license, and you'll need to ether pay the entry fee ($16.50 this year for "Type A" hunt areas), or your season pass ($130.75 this year for "Type A" areas). They'll then give you a card that shows your assigned area.

Hold onto that card - you'll use it to report what you've bagged at the end of your hunt. That's how they collect all those statistics.

Step four: The hunt

Once you’ve chosen your spot, there are a few more things you need to know, and you can ask check station staff or look for the answers on posted signs. For example:

Shell limits: Most refuges allow you to take no more than 25 shells at a time. You can go back to your car for more … but the hitch is you have to go back to your car, which can be an unpleasant hike, as much as three miles round-trip, in your waders. One exception to going back for shells is Merced. This refuge allows 25 shells per day….and closes at noon.

The point of this rule is to force a little restraint on hunters, because wanton shooting is not only a waste of your ammo, but a real imposition on neighboring hunters, whose birds will flare every time you shoot.

And here’s a helpful hint: When everyone’s out of ammo, don’t send one friend back to the car to pick up four new boxes of shells – that’d be a major violation for him if he gets caught. It’s 25 shells per person, the minute you start walking toward your blind.

Start and stop time: You may think you know legal shoot times for the area you’re in, but it never hurts to verify your assumptions at the check station – because it’s people at the check station who will be hunting you down if they hear you shooting before or after legal shoot time.

Game limits: Some areas of the state have special restrictions at various times of year. For example, there’s a "Special Management Area" in the Sacramento Valley where you can hunt specklebelly geese only during a short window (Oct. 25 to Dec. 14 in 2008). The reason? That area is home to the much more rare tule goose, which is almost indistinguishable from the speck until you have it in your hands.

Any other rules: It never hurts to ask questions – at the very least, it shows you’re concerned with following the rules and local conventions.

It’s also a good way to get to know the staff at your hunt area. I’ve hung around Diane at the Delevan National Wildlife Refuge enough to know that you do NOT want to approach the check station in excess of the 20 mph speed limit, because she will rip you a new one.

Three pieces of advice that aren't rules, but are common courtesies:

* Don't "skybust," which is shooting at birds that are way out of range. In addition to educating the birds about blind locations, it also means you might flare birds approaching other blinds with a shot that isn't going to bring down your bird. That creates ill will.

* Don't call like a moron. Practice your calling at home, not out in the field. Don't be "that guy" in the refuge whose call sounds like a sick duck being tortured. Call judiciously.

* Don't tromp down all the grass and cover in your hunt area. The more grass you leave standing, the more cover you'll have next time you hunt there. There's nothing worse than a bare, muddy pit blind island at the end of the season. Ya might as well put a neon sign on it that says, "Hunters here!"

One final thought: Refuges are often crowded places, and it's much harder to get ducks coming in cupped and committed. Why? When they swing wide before taking another look at your spread, they might swing over a neighboring blind and get shot at.

That means you need to practice your pass shooting out at the skeet or sporting clays range, because a pass shot is what you're most likely to get. Just a thought.

Step five: After the hunt

Try to remember that the blind or island you use will see a new hunting party at least three to six times each week. Nobody wants to see your water bottles, candy bar wrappers or empty shells. I always take a plastic grocery bag for cleanup, and while I can't retrieve every shell because some of them just sink in the water, I can get quite a few. And I usually end up picking up quite a bit of trash left by thoughtless morons who occupied my blind before me. Don't be that guy!

When you return to the check station, they'll ask for your card, and they'll often ask to see your birds. At Delevan, there are often biologists on hand who will ask for wing clippings to measure and track the size of this year's birds, and they'll sometimes swab duck butts to check for the presence of avian influenza.

Anything else?

This is all I can think of for now, but if you're a refuge hunter and you have tips or advice to add, email me here and I'll update this post.

For now, though, I wish you good hunting!

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

For women: Gearing up for duck season

Of all the challenges facing a woman who wants to learn to hunt, which one is the toughest? Not learning to shoot. Not buying a gun. Not taking hunter safety. Not even facing the incredulous stares of men.

Nope, the toughest part is finding hunting clothing that fits, and no where is that problem more striking than in the arena of waterfowl hunting.

There's actually a fair bit of women's hunting clothes for big game, safari and upland game hunting - just check out the Women's Hunting Clothing list on the right side of this web page. But you won't see much from those companies for waterfowling.

There is, of course, a reason for that: There are just 131,000 adult women waterfowlers in America, compared with 2.2 million men waterfowlers. More than twice as many women hunt small game (presumably needing upland clothes), and nearly eight times as many hunt big game. (Click on the chart to the left to see it in detail.)

Through this blog and my volunteer work for California Waterfowl, I find myself constantly talking to women who want to go duck hunting and need advice on how to gear up. My answers are never satisfying, because they often involve advice on how to get by with men's gear.

But once a woman has decided she wants to join the world of duck hunting, nothing can stop her. If you're one of those women, this is my advice for you.

Gear: The total package

For the sake of this post, I'm going to assume that you have a gun, a license and a friend or mentor who can take you out into the field and handle the duck calling. That means all you need to worry about is clothing, which means waders, jacket, undergarment and a few accessories that make a woman's life in the blind much more comfortable.

Waterfowl waders

There are precious few waterfowl waders made for women. Cabela's makes some (click here), as does Ducks Unlimited (click here to see a model my friend Susan was checking out the other day). Based on conversations I've had with folks at Cabela's since I wrote about my recent shopping trip there, I can tell you they're very interested in improving their product offerings for women, which is good news for us.

But unless you're very lucky, you're not gonna find this stuff in your local hook-n-bullet store. You will have to order your waders online, which means you need to know what the return policy is because you can't try them on until your credit card has been charged and the package has arrived. For a hilarious account of my friend Hellen's experience with that, click here.

If you are pretty small, children's waders may work for you. And if you are tall, pregnant and have big feet, men's waders will fit you pretty well. (I'm two out of three of those, and NO, I am not pregnant - I'm 43 years old, people!) But you have to watch out for some problems with men's gear.

If you have a womanly figure - I'm talkin' about that generous hip and thigh that gives us those lovely curves - I can tell you that Hodgmans aren't a good choice. When I was first shopping for waders, I tried on Boyfriend's Hodgmans and hated them because they were so tight on my butt and thighs. They're made for guys who are all gut and no butt.

I ended up with Columbia Backwaters, which have way too much room in the gut for me, but plenty of room for the curves I do have.

One very important note about waders: When you try them on, pay attention to where the buckle sits - you'll often find it's right where you need to mount your shotgun, and I can tell you that has wrecked some shots for me out in the marsh. Why is the buckle there? Because men's waders are made for taller people, which means they come up pretty high on us, and that's the only place left for the buckle.

Cabela's makes women's waders with a Velcro strap (see the photo at the top of this post). But if you don't have those, you might find that you need to leave one buckle undone, hip-hop style, during your hunts. That or break out your sewing machine and replace the buckle with Velcro.

Terry Scoville at the Women's Hunting Journal has another tip: Avoid waders with a steel shank in the boot, because that steel makes your feet awfully cold.

And if you're waterfowl hunting without waders (something I have never done, but I know it happens), she has a boot recommendation for you here.

Waterfowl jacket

There are two basic kinds of waterfowl jacket: One that goes outside/over the waders, and one that tucks in.

When I started duck hunting two years ago, I bought a Gamehide outside-the-waders jacket. It is a fantastic jacket - quiet, water resistant, removable fleece liner and loaded with useful pockets. But I had two problems with it.

The first was that where I hunt most often, I usually end up standing, sitting or crouching in the marsh, and I found the bottom of my jacket - including the pockets filled with shells - was dipping in the water all the time. If you think you'll be hunting in a place like that, get an inside-the-wader jacket. But if you know you'll be hunting out of a dry stand-up or pit blind, or out of a boat, the over-the-wader jacket is fine.

The second problem I had with my jacket was size. It was a men's medium, which turns out to be the smallest men's jacket most companies make. That meant I had way too much loose fabric, and I found it was really messing up my gun mount by snagging the butt of my gun.

So what's a woman to do?

Again, if you're small, try children's jackets. If not? Improvise.

There are also precious few women's duck hunting jackets. Cabela's makes an over-the-waders model (click here), but I haven't found any women's inside-the-wader jackets.

Fortunately, I recently met a student at my university, Matt, whose girlfriend is a duck hunter, and he told me that Drake makes men's smalls. Drake, it turns out, has a very broad offering of waterfowl jackets, so I was able to find exactly what I needed there. The men's small is still a bit large for me, but it's the best fit I can find.

And side note, Drake customer service rocks. I recently ordered this jacket and chose shipping that would get it to my house before I left for a Klamath Basin hunt. The next business day - a Monday - I got notice that it wasn't in stock. Yikes! Now it would be really hard to get something in time.

But I called customer service, and the guy told me they had the same jacket, same size, in a different camo pattern (Mossy Oak Duckblind), so I took it, and he rushed the shipping to get it to me before I had to leave for my hunt. Good people! Nice jacket too - I love it.

Staying warm

One of the things that makes waterfowling especially tough on women is the cold and damp. Our extremities seem to get colder than men's, and because the cold doesn't seem to bother men as much, they often don't have advice for us on how to deal with it.

But it bothers me, and I can tell you there are a couple things you can do.

Undergarments - shirts and leggings. Your options here are numerous because you can wear cold-weather hiking or running gear - it doesn't have to be for hunting. The important thing is that it's warm, and that it wicks sweat (which running and hiking gear does well). I have plenty of good stuff because I once trained for a marathon during the winter in Minnesota. Gotta love those 10-mile runs when it's -1 outside.

But I recently succumbed to gear lust and bought something my friend Dana recommended: the Cabela's women's union bib. This will keep your legs and torso warm, and it has one added feature that you may really appreciate in an icy wind: the Quick Relief System, which is Cabela's language for a girl fly, a second fly that opens up the crotch of the pants.

What that means is you can pull down your waders to take a leak, but you don't have to bare your butt - you just unzip. Now, I'm not averse to doing what I have to do out in the marsh. But I can tell you I've done one hunt that was so icy cold and windy that I called it quits for the day so I could pee in a portapotty rather than bare my butt in that wind. I could handle 30 seconds of discomfort if it were just that, but I knew once I did that, I would never warm up again for the rest of the hunt. Never again, baby - I'll wear these next time I'm hunting in those conditions.

Another tip for taking a leak that a reader on the Duck Hunting Chat has reminded me about: If you think you might not have access to toilet paper, just wear a pantiliner. It'll get you through the hunt without that I-just-peed-my-pants feeling.

Terry Scoville has reviewed some other undergarments in her Women's Hunting Journal - here's the Icebreaker 260 Tech Top review.

Socks. This is easy - buy warm and breathable Smartwool. It doesn't have to be camo - any hiking socks will do, and you can buy for whatever temps you're hunting in.

Gloves. I prefer "glomitts", a fingerless glove that has a mitten flap that you can wear over your fingers most of the time, then push away when it's time to shoot. A friend of mine swears by her neoprene gloves, which allow her to push just her trigger finger out of a small opening when it's time to shoot.

But be warned: Many women need a men's small, and it's not always easy to find men's small gloves.

And truth be told, any gloves are an imperfect solution for cold fingers. Why? I'm constantly taking them off to retrieve or handle wet ducks, and once my fingers get cold, they stay cold. That's why I've started using...

Air-activated warming packs. I recently bought some in preparation for that Klamath Basin hunt, which I knew would be colder than my usual October hunt. These are easy to find at your local hook-and-bullet store.

Footwarmers line your wader boots just like any insole insert, and while they don't make your feet blazing warm, they really do stop the cold coming up from the ground, boat bottom or water. This is a problem I've had even in moderate weather. I hate cold feet. One note for women with small feet: The ones I've gotten are one-size-fits all, meaning they're women's size 9. I'm not sure how they'll work in a smaller boot - and I do know you're not supposed to trim them.

Handwarming packs are great too, but it took a little longer to figure them out. Last year a friend shared some with me, and when I put them inside my gloves, I felt great. Then when I took my gloves off to retrieve a duck, my warming packs went flying out into the marsh. Brilliant.

Last weekend, though, I got the hang of it: I just put the hand warmers in my wader bib pockets, and when I wasn't shooting, I shoved my hands in my pockets and my fingers warmed right up. This allowed me to remove my gloves earlier in the day and never get what I dread: fingers so icy and stiff that they can't work the gun.

Don't forget a cap. I did when I first wrote this post, but a reader alerted me to her favorite - an Elmer Fudd-style number - with ear flaps and all! - from Cabela's. It's not a women's cap. But I think we can all agree that caps are pretty gender-neutral.

***

So, that's my duck hunting gear line-up. I would love to hear from other duck huntresses about anything I haven't mentioned here: women's duck gear you've found, mens' or children's gear that works pretty well for you or tricks you've learned for staying comfortable in the marsh. Just hit the comment link below, or click here to send me an email.

And if you know a woman who wants to go duck hunting, please pass this along. The more of us there are, the more market demand we create, the more manufacturers will make just for us.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008