Unless you find a good "mentor" that is familiar with your area & bird habits and local regulations, you have a lot of homework to do to get there on your own. Putting a duck or goose on your table can be as simple as fence line with a little long grass or brush under a flyway of birds going out to or coming back from feeding or it can be done with a "cadillac" field setup like Spank has...both or anywhere in the middle can be extremely productive or a complete bust.
To learn yourself for a do-it yourself hunt I would suggest getting out and watching the birds in your area every chance you get...and then talk to the farmers in the area...YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO THEM...they own the land and without that comradery your beat right from the start.
Second is too know every local municipal shooting reg. All of my bird hunting has been in AB. and not a lot of conflicting regs from region to region here but from reading this forum for 18 yrs , I gather that BC municipalities vary in firearms usage on a local basis...others can clarify this I hope.
All in all even the most experienced bird hunter will have unsuccessful hunts with thousands of birds in the area...some times a flock leader will blunder their whole flock into a blind like a frieght train coming to station...the next flock will have one bird that squaks a warning for no known reason and 500 birds will follow that fool 300 yards away and land....sometimes every flock you see will decoy like on a string....the next morning birds will ignore your set-up like the plague.
Another point I will make is that if you are a fair weather hunter only, it will limit your successful hunts for birds...the best days I have had bird hunting were the worst weather you could stand to be out in. Cold dull wind blown days are good...but being out in a spotted field with a full blown AB. blizzard is pure heaven for bird hunting.
Good luck and don't get discouraged if at first you have a hard time connecting because somewhere along the line you will be adding phot'os to this forum.
Yeah, so far i have a friend that said he would take me on a hunt, so I got that going for me at least! However, I ALWAYS try to do my homework regardless. If I ever get the itch to do something, I'm not the type that wants to wait for someone else to join me to do so.
I think i'm going to aim for going hunting on public land at first, just so I can hammer down and iron out my good habits and try to remove any bad ones I may have before trying to get permission to hunt on someone's private land. I've been wanting to get out and bird/duck/waterfowl watch, but I've been busy getting my actual license, buying and selling gear, and doing digital research haha. But, I think I might just do that when it's not a long weekend! Thanks for that tidbit.
I've been reading the regs religiously, as they are much more in-depth than the freshwater fishing ones i'm used to!
Honestly, hunting (from what i've read, anyways) seems a lot like fishing. Sometimes, even with the best gear on the perfect day, you get nothing. Other times, you can try something random, out of the ordinary, in the worst conditions, and have massive success! As for weather, i'm prepared for any and all of it. I work outside, so it doesn't bother me too much to be in the rain and snow haha.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post and type out a really helpful response. THANK YOU!
