Wisconsin four curl mallard

Just started duck hunting this year in earnest, jump shot woodies before but never called or set decoys, so I’ve been calling in the car on the way to work and scouting and most importantly hunting with friends and hounding the hell out of them for advice, this morning saw a ton of birds and got my first drake mallard, and a four curl to boot, on the way out got 3 cracks on a canvasback too but it was out there and only managed to knock some feathers off, awesome morning though and next weekends gunna be violent if my new blind is as good as it looks

Looks like a double curl to me….

Nice bird!

Thats a nice mature bird you got there.

MMmmm..Duck breast with a Red Wine sauce..
A few mushrooms and Angle-hair pasta…Heaven!!

Looks like you did well

Nice Mallard! Its always exciting when a plan and hard work come together!

What area of the state were u hunting?

That’s what I thought but my buddy said pluck em off to count em I had four curly ones not sure if that’s how ya count em or not

Well, not really but I guess it works!

If you go by that, I had a 6 curled mallard last weekend. A true 3 curl (each curl consists of 2 feathers).

Okey doke yeah I’m clueless on duck terminology so I just go with whatever I hear, I was just getting into it for the change of pace but think I’m hooked now, it’s gotta be the whole dumping a moving target thing, even when I’m deer hunting (gun) I love it when they’re hauling Mach 8 on a drive, I’ll never bowhunt again now

You ever eat the heart/liver outta ducks I was poking around at the guts and the heart would only be a bite but I think they serve duck liver at ritzy restaurants????

Negative. I breast out all my birds. plucking is a huge waste of time and energy after a long day’s hunt. I just peel the skin, fillet the breast, and head for the couch. I don’t mess with guts or anything inside the bird.

If you are interested in a good duck recipe.. here is my favorite.

Duck breasts (boneless, skinless), poked several times with a fork or a meat tenderizer.
1/2 cup terryaki sauce
1/2 cup red wine (any kind will do)
1 cap full of soy sauce.

Let them marinate for 24 hours and then grill/broil the breasts to medium rare/medium. NO FARTHER THAN MEDIUM OR IT WILL TASTE LIKE LIVER. 165 internal temp is what you are shooting for, take it off the grill/broiler at 160. You can wrap them in bacon if you want, its good both ways.

Serve with some sauteed green peppers and onions and a side of fried rice.

yum yum yum.

Also works VERY good with goose. A goose breast ends up like a big steak and tastes VERY VERY good. I absolutely hate goose but I love it with that marinade.

Jig… It’s a matter of opinion

As the young whipper snapper says, some feel it’s a waste. On the other hand plucking, singing and cleaning the whole duck is the best tasting duck there is.

Although there isn’t a lot of meat on the backs of ducks (more so with teal) it’s very tender and moist.

Many folks (maybe a thing of the past now) would use the hearts, livers and gizzards in the dressing. To some, it made the dressing. Personally I didn’t care for the gizzards in dressing. But that’s me.

To me…and I’ll say again…to me, breasting out a duck is like shooting a deer and just keeping the back straps.

Try them both ways. You are going to be the one that decides which is better.

Quote:

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To me…and I’ll say again…to me, breasting out a duck is like shooting a deer and just keeping the back straps.

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You are right, but have you ever had to clean and eat 100+ deer in a 6 week period? You would be breasting them out too!

BK I didnt know you hunted? Would you be up for a cast n blast next fall? Always wanted to hunt and fish the pool 4 area. I promise I won’t bring ANY copies of “the picture” with me… and I’ll even let you pluck all the ducks

So true. Even when my dad could eat as many ducks as I we never shot more then we could eat (whole). Well, I do remember giving a few of those old dry mallards away (after plucking and cleaning them of course). Dad wouldn’t ever let me even think about giving away ducks or fish that weren’t cleaned.

Hmm, never thought of myself as “old school”, but if the shoe fits….

No, I don’t hunt anymore. After getting a butt chewing by a farmer that thought I was walking in his bean field when in fact I was battling the steep bank of a County ditch, I hung it up.

Oh, I did go on a game farm for pheasants once. Chris Tuckner started shooting at me and figured it was Ido’s way of saying “so long muchacho”.

Could I convince you to get in the boat if I allowed spam to be cooked on the heaters? Heck you don’t even have to bring a gun, you can just be the chef. Get that smell going through the air and we are bound to get every shoveler in MN to come on in.

Thanks for the recipe I’ll definitely try it, up til today I’ve never seen more than 10-15 ducks in a morning (not many birds fly through around home )with maybe shooting at one or two so cleaning my one bird isn’t a big deal but hopefully next weekend I’ll have to streamline my cleaning process I musta saw 50-60 birds today but the setup sucked, I just found this spot this week after work so now with a little live practice I think I’m ready, if I get a few I might smoke one too

So far from what I have heard the hunting has sucked all throughout the MN/WI/IA/IL region. Only shooting has been teal and divers up north, and we are mostly shooting teal down here in IA.

So far our private blind’s average is 57% teal, 30% woodies, 2% pintail, and 9% mallards killed.

Hopefully that mallard percentage rises tomorrow.

We haven’t seen hardly any mallards, except for last thursday when we finally got into a few.

Agree…a plucked duck is a fine feast!