First duck hunt for my sons today.

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Prairie Hunter

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Saskatoon, SK
Today is the first day of waterfowl hunt. Even at 4 o'clock in the morning, my sons couldn't sleep any more, they were so eager to go to their first duck hunt. My third boy is almost 12 years old. I bought him a Remington 870 compact 20 gauge. He had been shooting lots of clay pigeons, now is the real deal that he's going to try to shoot his first duck. He was so excited! The youngest boy is only 5 1/2 years old, but he insisted to come with us too. It's going to be his first hunting trip with dad and brother.

We drove to our favorite spot, but found out the road was closed! I didn't know where else to go, so we were driving up and down the grid road try to find a place with potential. We found a small pond away from the grid road, far away from any farms, and started to shoot some ducks. Suddenly, a SUV pulled over and this lady rolled down the window and telling me that it's not legal to shoot off a road, and I'm setting bad examples teach young kids to hunt. I tried to explain to her that we didn't shoot across the grid road and we were far away from any buildings. Well, she told me the game warden lives close by, she's going to report it if we don't leave. We left right away, but my sons were so disappointed and discouraged to hunt any more. Luckily, my son did get his first duck later on today.

Is it true that no one can hunt even off a grid road away from buildings in sight? I parked my truck on side of the road, and walked to the pond to hunt, is it illegal? I thought I did pretty good to teach my boys to hunt and start early. Did I do anything wrong??
 
Don't know what a grid road is. In Ontario it's illegal to shoot within a certain number of meters of the road side of a maintained road. I think 15m? Someone will know. You can shoot on an unmaintained road. Sorry to hear your kid's first hunt got interrupted by anti's.
 
Not sure about your neck of the woods but in Ontario you can't discharge a firearm between the fences or within 8 m of the center line of a road. Don't quote me on that exactly (there are a lot more details) but I know that's the general idea. I stay as far away from roads as possible, it saves a lot of hassle. Glad your taking your boys hunting but please look into the regulations a little harder next time. Not judging you but you are laying down the ground work for what kind of Hunter/person they'll be. Good luck and good job introducing your kids to the beautiful outdoors!
 
It's BS. There is always some goof who calls the game warden or police on some guy doing absolutely nothing wrong. I see it all the time and it absolutely drives me foolish. But on the upside you did get out hunting. I recommend going back there next weekend and shooting your limit. I've shot hundreds of ducks and geese in Saskatchewan under exceedingly similar circumstances.

Edit to add...do you people not bother to look at the location before telling the OP what it says in the Ontario regs? Do you suppose he, or any of the multitude of us not from Ontario give a big fat rat what the Ontario regs say? Notice that I didn't chime in with information about the Nova Scotia regs? A reason, you suppose? Likely he cares about our regs just as much as yours. Before you allude that he was doing something wrong or negatively influencing what kind of hunters his kids may grow up to be (my opinion is they sound like pretty keen kids to be all lathered up to hit the field for early season ducks - good on you OP, they're welcome in my decoy set any time) you might get off your high horse and get some perspective before you puke up some holier than thou sermon based on your own lack of ambition to use the information so plainly visible in front of you.

Rant off.
 
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I'd call the cfo's office and ask specifically the location in question whether it's permissible to
hunt ducks there or not.
Then you know for sure.
 
Sask regs say no shooting on, along, or across a roadway. But you can take one step off the road and take your shot and your legal as long as your not shooting across or along the road you were just on.
 
^ this is how it was explained to me. I hunt using grid roads all the time in areas that I know the land owners.

Congrats on starting introducing your kids to hunting. Hope to see you in the field someday. Don't take it to personal if someone tells you something. Landowners, their neighbours, the dog and anyone driving by will always give you an earful. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it can be bad. I personally have been told to leave an area because shooting will scare all the geese away. I have also been asked by a farmer on the side of the road to swing by his fields to shoot problem ducks and geese.. Take the bad with the good.
 
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...sorry to hear about the down side of your experience...

'it is a violation to shoot across or along a provincial highway, provincial road, or municipal road' - SK Guide 2014

...pretty straightforward...same in MB...my property borders SK and i do hunt there...putting up with crazy people is not an issue way out here...even so, i prefer isolated sites that are difficult to get to...

hang in there
 
Thanks guys for all your support. Next time I'll try to go as much off road as possible to avoid any harassment. My boys already forgot about the incident. They are asking me when are we going for duck hunt again? What about geese? When can we go to shoot some geese? I'm confident that I'm having two more hunters in the family. Happy waterfowl hunting everyone!
 
oldbill said:
Don't know what a grid road is. In Ontario it's illegal to shoot within a certain number of meters of the road side of a maintained road. I think 15m? Someone will know. You can shoot on an unmaintained road. Sorry to hear your kid's first hunt got interrupted by anti's.
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Well... didn't mean to puke sermon all over this thread. I thought my original comment above suggested that if you were away from the road (which the OP said he was) you are likely able to shoot without trouble. And that if a "grid road" was like an unmaintained road here in ontario, you are likely able to shoot on it. Sorry for comparing the situation to the only regulations I know and understand. And while the regs differ from province to province, they are often similar in many respects. Didn't think there was a negative connotation, just basic info.

Regardless... +1 for carrying regs while in the field. Fishing in my province is even worse, with each zone having different slot sizes for fish, so a 20" fish is ok to keep in one lake but not the next.
 
Sorry to hear that some stupid cow ruined your sons first duck hunt. Nothing wrong with discharging a shotgun from road allowance on un numbered grid roads in Manitoba. With this said I would choose a rather unmaintained road allowance as well. Thats 100 feet wide and a mile long. A lot of land for the general public to hunt be it sharptails, ruffies or such. Only problem you may run into would be that should a bird drop past the fence line into a field then you may be trespassing. Lastly....where else could one take kids, especially when they're little.
 
OP, this may be an option for you. I would stop by the Saskatoon office of Ducks Unlimited and ask for a map of all the land DU owns and manages out of that field office. They should have some available, as I used to mail printed maps out of the South Sask Field Office (Regina) to American hunters who were coming up to hunt. Go scout those areas. Yes, you can hunt on DU land, it is foot access only, no vehicles allowed. If you can catch a wetland which the ducks are using to drink before or after feeding in the fields, you can have one heck of a hunt. Plus, you never know what opportunity you may run into while scouting. Hope this helps. Best of luck. It's my oldest son's first year of hunting as well. I'm not sure who is more excited, him or me.
 
Sivy97 said:
OP, this may be an option for you. I would stop by the Saskatoon office of Ducks Unlimited and ask for a map of all the land DU owns and manages out of that field office. They should have some available, as I used to mail printed maps out of the South Sask Field Office (Regina) to American hunters who were coming up to hunt. Go scout those areas. Yes, you can hunt on DU land, it is foot access only, no vehicles allowed. If you can catch a wetland which the ducks are using to drink before or after feeding in the fields, you can have one heck of a hunt. Plus, you never know what opportunity you may run into while scouting. Hope this helps. Best of luck. It's my oldest son's first year of hunting as well. I'm not sure who is more excited, him or me.
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^This........is awesome.......I did not know........thank you.
 
Urlec said:
^This........is awesome.......I did not know........thank you.
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Anytime. I help out where I can. When I moved to Saskatchewan fourteen years ago, that's how I was introduced to Sask hunting. I was taken out and we drove grid roads and would stalk any ducks sitting in wetlands along the roads. I believe they called it "puddle jumping."
 
One thing with DU land. Watch for feed stations, there is a specified distance from the feeders that you may not hunt. Others may have more details.
 
oldbill said:
. And that if a "grid road" was like an unmaintained road here in ontario...
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Saskatchewan has a grid road system to allow access to farms and farm land. The system is HUGE in comparison to any other province. They are maintained, and named (Rural Route or Range Road). Thus, no you cannot hunt off a grid road, or the road allowance. Being that you walked into your hunting spot, the only issue you may have is hunting permision from the land owner. You can pick up a RM (Rural Municipality) map at the RM office in a nearby town for information on who owns what in the area. The RM map identifies every grid road and land owner...and they cost $1 to get one (maybe a couple bucks now). Good source of information for hunters of all types of game.
Good Hunting!
 
Sivy97 said:
OP, this may be an option for you. I would stop by the Saskatoon office of Ducks Unlimited and ask for a map of all the land DU owns and manages out of that field office. They should have some available, as I used to mail printed maps out of the South Sask Field Office (Regina) to American hunters who were coming up to hunt. Go scout those areas. Yes, you can hunt on DU land, it is foot access only, no vehicles allowed. If you can catch a wetland which the ducks are using to drink before or after feeding in the fields, you can have one heck of a hunt. Plus, you never know what opportunity you may run into while scouting. Hope this helps. Best of luck. It's my oldest son's first year of hunting as well. I'm not sure who is more excited, him or me.
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I'm glad that I'm learning something new! I didn't know one can hunt at DU land. Will certainly go to their office for a map and regulations. My buddy just got a kit mailed to him from Ministry of Environment for taking duck wing samples and geese feather samples. That will give us more excuse to go out to shoot some birds together then. Awesome!
 
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