10 tips to prepare for duck season

In just a few short weeks, hunters across the southeast will happily skip sleep as they celebrate the opening of duck season. We thought we’d help them prepare by gently reminding them to do the following:  

Do you have your ducks in a row?

1. Secure your space – Communicate with landowner(s) and any other members of your group to avoid surprises on opening day.
    
2. Check and double-check opening dates, times, limits, and licenses – Don’t rely on last year’s information; in many states, legal shooting begins later than normal on opening day.
    
3. Test your transportation – Nothing would be more frustrating than starting the season with motor trouble.
    
4. Scout – It’s likely that terrain has changed since last year; test your transport while scouting for areas that are holding water well or have a good food source. Take notes.
    
5. Prep your pups – Take your dogs scouting, do a couple practice retrieves, and let them explore the area to ensure they’re comfortable and calm on opening day.
    
6. Prep yourself – Get some exercise. This season will hopefully be filled with long and fruitful hunts: make sure you have the stamina to enjoy them to the fullest.
    
7. Clean your gun and buy ammo – Don’t be the person that has to blame not having limited on gun trouble. And if you’re applying a choke, make sure you’re using a lubricant that won’t freeze and bind it to the barrel when temperatures drop.
    
8. Plan your outfit – If you’ve been street-styling your Saint Hugh since teal season, you already know your gear is good to go. If not, pull last season’s duds out from the back of your closet, and make sure they still fit and work.
    
9. Organize your decoys – Are your decoys still the tangled mess they were at the end of last season? Fix that.
    
10. Practice your calls – Use a five-note descending call on opening day, then modify the tempo and timbre based on bird response.

Happy hunting!
Emily

Sign up for emails, and get content like this in your inbox! 

in our sights: hunters for the hungry

At last weekend’s Pop-up for National Hunting and Fishing Day, I had the pleasure of meeting Kim Marie Tolson of Hunters for the Hungry. If you’re a hunter, you need to know about this nonprofit. Here’s why.

An estimated 6 million deer or 288 million pounds of venison are harvested by American hunters each year. Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 7 Americans face hunger a daily basis. Hunters for the Hungry bridges this imbalance by minimizing wasteful harvesting.

Through their Fresh Game Program, hunters can donate whole deer, ducks, or fish to those in need.

• Game is processed at no cost to the hunter when brought to a designated HFH processor
• Hunters can keep the backstrap of processed donations
• HFH partners with local food banks, soup kitchens, and shelters to provide nutritious meals to those in need

Since its inception in the 1990s, Hunters for the Hungry has distributed more than 150,000 pounds of donated meat to Louisianans in need. And in advance of deer season opening in most of the state, they’re hosting a “clean out your freezer” event this weekend. Donate frozen game or fish at Cajun Field in Lafayette this Sunday, October 2nd between 10:30 and 3:30. You can also donate throughout the season at a processor near you.

With chapters in Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, and elsewhere, Hunters for the Hungry proudly serves communities all across the country.

 As hunters, we have the unique ability to provide for ourselves and our families. Let’s do our part to help neighbors who aren’t so lucky.

Happy hunting!
Emily 

hey what's up hello

Introducing: Saint Hugh & You

Hunting is a sport. Saint Hugh is a lifestyle. Saint Hugh & You where they collide and form community.

what it is

Saint Hugh & You is a free space for you, female hunters, to find, share, and connect with each other. Unless you were born into a family of hunters, you've probably had trouble finding female friends to hunt with – if you’ve been able to find any at all. We know that struggle and wanted to try to make things a little easier. 

Enter: Saint Hugh & You. 

how it works

Here on the Saint Hugh & You Blog page you’ll find tips, game recipes, and musings on hunting in general. On the Saint Hugh & You Connect page, you'll find a series of forums titled #WomenWhoHunt in [your state], where you can find and share with other female hunters near you. Did you discover an awesome local preserve? Tell us about it. Did you bring home a type of duck you’ve never seen before? Someone else probably knows it. Are you new to hunting and just looking to make a few non-judgmental friends with whom to give it a try? Perfect, we are too. You don’t have to write lengthy posts; feel free to just ask a question, share a story, or suggest a meet up. This space is for whatever you want it to be for. But it is designed to be interactive. So post!

And don’t be shy about connecting with each other. Our goal is to build a supportive community where you can celebrate your successes, commiserate and learn from your failures, and just be there for each other as we grow in our sport, together. 

So I hope you find Saint Hugh & You useful. If after playing around a bit you’ve got suggestions on how to make it better, shoot us an email. We’re here for you, and we’re all ears. 

In the meantime, happy hunting. 
Emily