im just curious if yall shoot banded ducks in texas... is it a once in a lifetime thing here in texas? or common thing? this is my first year duck hunting and shot close to 60 so far this year.. no bands of course which brings the question to the table... thanks!!!

I've shot two in Texas and one in Oklahoma. Shot my first one in Texas 14 years ago and my second once this past weekend. Teal and a pintail. If you hunt in a place where you shoot mottled ducks you got a pretty good chance. They band quite a few of those.

Depends who you ask.

Out of the thousand or so our group has killed in the cross timbers region the last few years, not one has been banded.

I guess we only shoot the smart ones who don't get caught by biologists.

took me over 20 years to find a band

I have a couple from Texas.


Bands a make her dannnnnncee.

I shot a pintail the last day of the first season that was banded. Guess I was lucky, or at least thats what everybody tells me.

Just as rare in Texas as the rest of the country. It's a numbers game. They mmband more mallards than any other birds.

Of course its random, but from what I've seen growing up in Arkansas, about every 500 mallards is banded.

Like I said, they band more Mallards than any other species on the continent. Last year only 169 mallard bands were reported in Texas.

4 years of hunting in michigan resulted in 7 bands.

1 season of hunting in california resulted in 7 bands.

7 seasons of hunting in texas resulted in 0 bands.

so, in my un scientific data collection, yes, they are rare in texas.

Never killed a band in Texas.

banding is done during the summer months when hatchlings are large enough to handle, and adult birds are molting.

the further you get from the banding areas (breeding grounds) the more the birds disperse, making it more rare. we are quite far from the breeding grounds.

like said earlier, mottled ducks are banded here, so you have a decent chance at a mottled band. Same with white wing doves. they are banded here too.

I shot five in New Mexico in 10 seasons, but not one in Texas. I noticed this when I was reviewing some of my Waterfowl stats from seasons past during in the split.

1 in 10 mottled ducks are banded , we killed 1,159 teal during teal season 1 band
So far we have killed about 500 big ducks 1 banded ring neck hen , sorry forgot the banded gadwall hen
If you hunt where there are lots of mallards or blue wing teal those are the 2 most common banded ducks

Lots of the mallards are banded up north and are killed there and never get to Texas

your bands from Michigan dont count.

I've gotten two BWT bands in 11 years on the Prairie and shot a banded Wood Duck on Livingston in the last 2 minutes of LST of the 2008-2009 season.

We've shot over 200 birds on our lease this year without a band. My cousin got two in one hunt down the road during early teal.

Blue wing thats funny I got 2 banded woodies that year 2 days apart on Livingston

This.

Don't remember how many bands we got in Kansas, but it was several. In 8 seasons of duck hunting Texas and killing over 1000 ducks, I have got ZERO bands.

In 24 seasons averaging about 65-70 birds/season, I have shot 6 bands in Texas (and 1 in Canada).

3 - Mallard Drakes
1 - Pintail Drake
1 - Pintail Hen
1 - Speck
1 - Snow Goose (Shot in Alberta, Canada; banded in Alaska)

The intersting thing is I shot a band each season the first three years I waterfowl hunted, went 16 years without one, and then shot one 4 straight seasons again. I just missed getting one this year in North Dakota (missed on a lone eagle head blue goose that my friend shot before I could get off a second shot - banded).

In over 40 years of hunting it has resulted in 1 band

I haven't collected a band, but took my uncle with us and he shot a mallard that was banded a couple years back. But hey, at least I can say I called one in even if I didn't get the shot. That almost mends the wound.

We've killed right around 1,000 birds in the last 4-5 seasons with only taking one banded woody drake. I did however shoot a banded do a few years back in College Station.

We killed 3 banded pintails last week. 3 out 4 hunts. Lots of luck.

3 in a 2 man group in 2 years

We kill one or two every year. Got the monkey off my back the last day of the first split this year.