A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Monday 2 April 2012

Stalking The Wild Duck, 18th Century Style.

It is not the done thing old chap to shoot duck on the water! "What?" said the country boy, "they can fly!?"  An oldie but a goody. When hunting for food you don't shoot fowl on the wing if you can help it, it is a much surer thing to shoot them on the ground or on the water. This is the way it was done in the 18th century when hunting for food.



Sorry if some of my videos will not play on here, but some people have been using my videos to promote their commercial sites and wares! So I have had to disable the embed. By clicking on the video, it should take you directly to youtube and play there.

Wood duck on Cattail Pond, Wychwood Forest, Armidale NSW Australia.





Wood duck. They have been known to nest in the reeds, but more commonly they nest in hollows in stags/dead trees. Here you can see the darker headed male on the left, and the female on the right.

4 comments:

Bob Mc said...

Not the same thing we call a wood duck here Keith. Here's a link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Duck

Daniel S. said...

Good article mate! i hope you dont get much backlash from people who say shooting ducks on the ground is un-sportman like, you are correct for food gathering its fine. How does your powder rifle go shooting duck? do you use a bird shot load or try to get one with a round ball ?

Keith said...

Hi Daniel. Most people realise that this is a living history blog, so I doubt I will get any complaints. I use a smoothbore & #6 shot.
Keith.

Keith said...

Thanks Bob. Yes your male wood duck is a fine looking fellow.
Keith.