The 2011 Federal Waterfowl Stamp.

Do you want to pay more for your Federal Duck Stamp? We probably know the answer to that. But, it looks like the Obama administration is looking to raise the price from $15 to $25 for the 2013 season. This isn’t a new concept. George W. Bush tried to do the same in 2008, but with the economy in real trouble, it was shot down.

Wildfowl has broached this subject before in Chris Madson’s 2010 article “Upping the Ante.”

Delta Waterfowl and Ducks Unlimited have both come out in favor of the price hike. It makes sense if the money goes towards conservation and securing habitats, like the potential purchase of 201 acres to expand Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Washington state. Nisqually is a natural habitat for waterfowl.

But consider the fact the Interior Department will cut 218 National Park Service jobs in an effort to trim its budget and “do more with less,” according to Secretary Ken Salazar. Doc Hastings, the chairman of the House of Natural Resources Committee, has come out and said the government is already burdened with too much land management. Hastings believes it would make more sense for the Interior Department to improve its current lands before buying more.

Stealing the shotgun show at SHOT was the resurrection of an all-time great autoloader, Browning’s venerable humpback A-5, a legacy gun that is back and better-looking than ever. Now if we can just get a cold winter next year to kick us down some of these birds at a reasonable time in the season…

Anyway, here’s eight of our favorite waterfowling shotguns for the new year in alphabetical order.

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Benelli Performance Shop Super Black Eagle II

While not all-new by design but specifically for waterfowl hunters comes what is essentially a Super Black Eagle ll with a tuning kit and aftermarket mods. Polished guts in the gun and a custom trigger are the start, followed by Rob Roberts Custom Triple Threat chokes. Each gun is test fired, and features a Crio barrel with a polished forcing cone to provide consistent patterns while reducing recoil. Also new from Benelli are Super Black Eagle ll models featuring Mossy Oak Duck Blind Camo, and a new M2 in 20 gauge with Realtree MAX 4 Camo; a first for a 20 gauge from Benelli in waterfowl specific camo.
Price: Performance Shop Super Black Eagle ll in Realtree MAX 4 camo, $2,669

Are you planning on buying a new shotgun this year?

But the birth could be weeks away, the doctor also said (whew), and the Albanian Goose Mafia is not to be taken lightly. Only two of my Chicago buddies showed up, Phil and Chris, two of the loudest, most brash guys you could ever meet, ringleaders of a group of Albanian brothers and cousins I met goose hunting in Alberta, who proved to be the overbearing, sarcastic, hilarious, close-knit band of brothers I’d always wanted.

They threw me in Chris Vangel’s truck-mousine, a swank black new Chevy that probably cost more than my first house, along with my Beretta A400 Xtreme, a Remington Versamax and as many boxes of new Federal Snow Goose Black Cloud and Winchester Blindside BBs as I could carry.

I would need them all. Nine hours of driving and five hours of sleep later, one of the easiest, best goose shoots I’ve been on commenced near Jonesboro, Ark.

Our goose guide, Roy Rametta (618-944-1694), is as good old boy as it gets and has hunted these birds since the ‘80s, a pioneer in decoying the huge flocks of white geese that until then had only been shot at by ditch-divers.

A south wind and sunshine, perfect conditions, he said, excited for his first big snow hunt of the year.

I’d anticipated hours and hours of putting out dekes on the way down, but Rametta not only had the spread of nearly 1,500 already set, all we had to do was walk up and get in a pit that would have held six guys or more. We didn’t even wake up until 5:30 a.m.!

Small flocks trickled in, a dozen or so birds were dropped, and the day was already a success, when the first of a ginormous group started to work in on us.

Which in turn sucked every bird for miles, as they started criss-crossing and trying to land on our heads. Chris shot some short video, but couldn’t resist setting it down and shooting once the birds were within 20 yards.

I can honestly say I had trouble breathing and had to force myself to take slow deep inhalations to calm myself down as the noise grew deafening. I thought they were going to blot out the sun. Rametta gets so excited he hyperventilates as well, so the two of us were a comic wreck as the geese circled on down.

“Better gitcher blood goggles on, Skipper, it’s about to get ugly,” he’d hiss as the dropped to the spread by the dozens, telling me for the 50^th time “get ready” because he was about to wet his pants.

Three times we were mobbed like that, and two to four smaller flocks came in range every hour or so. We killed 68 birds, just the four of us (and Roy didn’t shoot a lot) and two hunters in our group in a different blind shot three dozen more to bring the day to well over a hundred. We quit at 11 a.m., with birds still flying, and only hunted an hour in the evening before I stopped everyone for a photo shoot, during which more flocks wanted in.

The birds never quit flying; I’m pretty sure we could have doubled our take if we’d hunted all day.

Rametta says about every third or fourth day it gets like that. Sunshine and a south wind are key, for some reason. Most days he’ll still scratch a few dozen. The next day, it poured rain and everyone had had enough by 11 a.m., not a single shot fired! What few birds flew came in low, got us excited — and stayed 70 yards or more out.

I called him the next week and he’d had two slow-ish days followed by another spectacular day of south wind, sunshine, and eagerly decoying birds.

Look for a full feature on this and other snow goose hunts in Wildfowl soon. Snow populations continue to be characterized as grossly exceeding biologists’ goals, severely destructive of the arctic tundra where they breed, and are generally regarded as badly underestimated even by those who count them.

All I know is, we are surely blessed to live in a time of this kind of abundance, when hunters can go out and enjoy no limits shooting while still doing right by the resource. And with four veteran guys, it still took two hours to clean that many birds — that’s all the success I ever want!

Rametta owns Arkansas Waterfowl Freaks, based in Johnston City, Ill.

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L-R Albanian Goose Mafia members Phil Thiem, Chris Vangel, with Wildfowl Editor Skip Knowles.

Surprisingly, no geese landed on my blacktop spread.

My old man stood at the end of the driveway. He would wrench on that goose call for hours, my younger brother and I nagging him incessantly to perform the “gun powder trick.” That’s where you spread a line of the black stuff down the driveway and make a tiny mound at the end, dispersing a large POOF! I guess you can set fire to it with a match, but dad preferred the lit end of a Marlboro Menthol Light. The boys satisfied, he continued to call, awaiting sunset and the flock of resident geese to pass directly over our house. Decoys in the front yard—I’m not kidding—the Canadas never gave him a second thought. Weird, right? He cursed them. He cursed the call tapes. He cursed the call. Ah, he probably should have been cursing the caller. But, that was his religion in the off-season.

A few weeks ago, we got a batch of Wing Nutz goose calls in the office from Sean Mann. Not long after, I hear the boss wailing away on one in the office. So, I joined in. Thinking back, we should have grabbed some dekes and taken them out to the parking lot, ala Don Genzel. He would have been proud, or maybe ashamed his eldest son was following in his footsteps.

I’ve been blowing my new call ever since, and Skipper continues to bark office calls, pulling me out of late-afternoon, coffee-induced comas. On the way to and from work, I hammer that thing, along with a custom-made duck call (post-Christmas present). It’s become my off-season project, my religion. What’s yours?

This all-green mallard was taken in Dermott, Ark.

This viral photo of a solid green Frankenmallard crossed our desk courtesy of biologist and WILDFOWL contributor Brad Fenson, who got it from an outfitter, who got it from a little bird flying around the Internets…this supermallard would be gorgeous to see glimmering on a lake in the sun and would make a cool mount, but the question remains, is it just a nasty hybrid-domestic/muscovy inbreed from the local park that got a “Call of the Wild” urge to fly with his wild brethren into shotgun range? Or could it be a legitimate high-flying mutant mallard of true wild-bird genetics?

We’ve all seen photos of those gorgeous solid black/green rooster pheasants, and mildly mutated black/duck mallard hybrids. And dark colors are genetically dominant. What do you think? Have you seen a quacker like this Christmas-y freak? The duck was allegedly killed in Dermott, Ark.

A view from our blind at Rice Pond

Lately, I’ve been feeling like Bernie Lootz — at least in the goose blind. You know Lootz, a down-on-his-luck character played by William H. Macy in 2003′s “The Cooler.” Whenever someone gets hot at the gambling tables in Las Vegas, in goes Lootz to “cool them off.”

On Sunday I was laying in bed, talking with my wife, who had just arrived home from work (she’s on third shift at a nearby hospital). As our conversation wound down, I told her that I’d be going for a run and then watching the NFL games. That was my entire plan for the day. Then I decided to forgo the run. As I mulled over how many pounds of chicken wings to order for the big games, I got the text: “Going crappie fishing/goose hunting in an hour, who wants in?”

My younger brother, Carl, came over, we drove to our buddy Chris’s house, and off we went to Rice Pond. Located on the Illinois River, and just 20 minutes from my front door, Rice Pond is a premiere place to waterfowl hunt in this area. Everyone around here wants a crack at this place. With the river frozen up, we were hunting a blind on the back of the property — a spring hole where mallards, gadwalls and pintails were cruising in. We all cursed them under our breath as duck season ended here more than a month ago.

Since there were a few guides using the blind, and no geese in sight, we headed over to the fish shack for a chance at some crappie and small mouth. No bites, not even a nibble. My brother almost immediately caught a snag, which snapped off his bobber and minnow. What an amateur.

My younger brother Carl awaits the geese

With a few hours left for shooting, it was onto the blind. We saw duck after duck, but no Canadas. Not a honk. Some gents to our south would blow a goose call every now and again, getting us all riled up for a few moments, but we never saw a goose. I couldn’t believe it. My last two hunts have produced two freaking geese.

But as with most hunts, I did come away with a great story. Cecil, one of the Rice Pond pushers, had a doozy. He was sitting at the breakfast table with his kids recently, when a coyote appeared. Cecil grabbed his rifle and announced the impromptu hunt for all to hear. The kids were ecstatic, “Daddy’s going to kill something!” So, he leans up against the side of the house and decides once the coyote gets within 100 yards, he’ll shoot. Clicking the safety off, Cecil had his finger on the trigger, when the wife appeared right in front of the gun barrel. “What in the hell are you doing?” he asked. “Uh, I have to feed the dogs,” she barked back. “You need to be more careful with that thing.”

Crisis averted. And thanks to Cecil, my Sunday was salvaged.

Because it is Inertia Driven, the Affinity has the feel of smaller gauge guns without compromising the punch expected of the actual gauge, due to the recoil spring surrounding the magazine tube located forward of the receiver, which keeps recoil in line with the shooter and helps reduce muzzle climb.

Ryder on retrieve

A scary situation turns into a victorious tale of a persevering chocolate Lab from Steve Osborn, a waterfowl hunter out of Terre Haute, Ind.

It was mid-December, and my long-time hunting partner, Larry, and I were duck and goose hunting in southwestern Indiana. Soon after our arrival, Larry knocked down a goose. It landed on an iced-over lake, and I sent my 5-year-old, chocolate lab, Ryder, after the bird.

While Ryder was on another retrieve, Larry shot a drake mallard, which looked as if it would fall a few yards off shore, but landed on the ice. Ryder saw it fall, and before I could call her off, she was running full speed ahead. She retrieved the bird and advanced about 10 feet before falling through the ice.

We immediately began shouting for her to leave the bird and come back, but she stubbornly kept that duck in her mouth. Since we had no poles or flotation devices with us, I decided to return to my truck. I drove to a spot closest to the water and removed a canvas bag of decoys for floatation assistance, an extension pole and proceeded to ease my way across the ice. I made it about 15 or 20 yards before falling through myself.

After about 20 minutes, for whatever reason, divine intervention, luck, and a very strong, determined dog, Ryder finally made it out of that icy hole. She wasn’t worn out by a long shot. I was walking toward her; she still had the bird. A few steps later Ryder fell in the hole where I had fallen earlier. I was able to reach her with the decoys, and remove the bird from her mouth.

After a big shake, she went to the truck with me. I removed her Avery vest, which I believe helped keep Ryder afloat and conserve energy, and placed her in the warm truck. Needless to say, we now have a strict rule: no birds will be shot unless we are very sure they will fall on land or in open water.

A plethora of state preserve land surrounds Mike’s property, which is a top-notch place to hunt ducks and geese, as I have been there before. The state land is made up of flooded fields and marshes. It’s really beautiful out there. A lot has been done to get the birds to come in. Mike is one of the proponents of that. He’s done an amazing job with his property, and the work continues.

It was incredibly cold that morning; temperatures in the 20s with wind gusts over 50 mph. Plus, it was snowing — a goose hunter’s paradise. But when I sat down in the water blind alongside my wife’s cousin, Wes, our third hunting partner, Dan, piped up, “Yeah, they really slayed ’em out here yesterday.” Crap. I knew the action wasn’t going to be as heavy as I had thought. But hey, I can’t kill anything from my king-sized bed. We weren’t in the blind for a few minutes when the geese started flying over us. They were high and it was not quite shooting time, but very encouraging.

Soon after, a loner came in. A speckle, and it was cupping. Dan turned to Wes and I and said, “This one is yours!” Damn right it was. We waited as long as we dare, and I said, “Let’s take him.” Both of us popped up and unloaded — he never had a chance. Well, ahem, he stood some chance, because the speck didn’t go down instantly, and ended up in a brush pile (I think) some 100 yards away. Our fourth man, Rick, had the dog, and he hadn’t arrived yet. Dan gave it a valiant effort, and Rick sent his Lab to scout the area later on, but to no avail. We lost it.

Shooting a Browning Citori, the author's not afraid to goose hunt with an over-under at times.

The rest of the day was pretty slow. Wes and I listened to Rick and Dan chat — and Rick’s dog whimper. Around 10 a.m., we finally got another speck to come in. Rick’s keen eye spotted him cruising in from our left. Before I knew it he yelled, “All right boys, take’em.” We did. The dog plunged into the icy water. The wind was strong enough that 1-foot waves had capsized our decoys on the pond in front of us most of the day. But this Lab wasn’t concerned about the elements, though Rick was. He scurried out of the blind to retrieve his retriever. We were all impressed with the dog’s determination.

Soon after, the three in my blind had to go to work — suckers. So I joined Chris and a few others in a pit blind. They hadn’t fired a shot in hours. I could tell it was wearing on them. I thought maybe I could bring the group a smidge of luck, but it wasn’t to be. A flock of four came within maybe 50 yards, but only one shooter had a chance. With the wind, it wasn’t going to be a high-percentage shot, so he passed.

Though we didn’t kill anything, the best part of my day was spent in that pit. I climbed in, loaded my Browning Citori — yes I goose hunt with an over-under at times. I also have the option to shoot my dad’s BPS. Some day I’ll break down and buy a three-shot semi-auto…I guess. Don’t judge me. I’m old school. So I get situated, look to my left, and there it is: thousands of specks, Canadians and snows just sitting in the cornfield across the road. Then they all got up at once. It looked like God had filled a shaker with salt and pepper and sprinkled it from the heavens. That alone made the trip a success.

Left to Right: Alex Mack, Joe Thomas, Jim McConville and Ken Ripich show off some nice birds from the hunt.

When the training, performance and business commitments of being a NFL lineman dictate that you only get a couple of off-days, luck plays a priceless role in obtaining good hunting. The waterfowl hunt took place in a cattail marsh off of Lake Erie. The hunting party:

All-Pro Left Tackle, Cleveland Brown’s #73 Joe Thomas

All-Pro Center, Cleveland Brown’s #55 Alex Mack

Ken Ripich, Elite Waterfowler from Cleveland Area

Greg Yarbrough, Elite Outdoorsman / Camera man

Jim McConville, National Sales Manager for Wildfowl Magazine and Kylie, his 8 year old black Lab female

“Joe and Alex arrived and settled in, and we all checked our watches and made sure that we knew the local time for sun rise before loading the Benelli 12 gauges,” McConville says. Once it became legal shooting time Ken and Jim started calling and the birds starting coming. The first group to arrive was a flock of Canada geese.

“We soon found out that the more you called the better the birds reacted to us,” Jim says. “Joe and Alex were becoming Federal Ammunition ‘best customers’ by running through BlackCloud  like it was the opposing defense lineman and folding up ducks like an old-style Arkanas suitcase.”

“Ken recommended that we move the decoy spread and add a Mojo to the set-up. Our efforts paid off big and Joe and Alex continue to get opportunities while Kylie kept busy retrieving down birds,” Jim continued.

We love a happy ending—enjoy the video.

Gear used:
FEDERAL – Black Cloud
BENELLI
FA BRAND DECOYS
UnderArmour
Mojo