Small Game

FULL-SIZE FUN FOR ALL AGES.

If one of your biggest passions involves hunting small game, you’re in the right place. Our small game hunting videos and articles will provide you with key insights and information on how and when to hunt your small-sized quarry, and more effectively put you hot on the trail of sought-after squirrels, rabbits, pheasants & doves.

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Learning that Necessity Is the Father of Invention for Duck and Goose Hunters

One of the best goose hunts we've ever had up here happened after we had put all our decoys out. I pulled the trailer that we carry our decoys in back to a spot where I could hide the truck and the decoy trailer. Before I could return to my blind, the other hunters all had filled their limits of geese. As I mentioned, the fellows I hunt with are pretty much all seasoned veterans.

Small Game, Waterfowl

Hunting Ducks and Geese on Sandbars

When we duck hunt the Missouri River, most of the time, we’ll set up on sandbars. Instead of using duck decoys, we’ll put out Canada geese decoys. We use full body as well as floater goose decoys. Occasionally, we will put out a few duck decoys, but the majority of our decoys will be Canada geese.

Small Game, Waterfowl, Mossy Oak

Waterfowling 101 in the Heartland

I hunt the Missouri River as well as some large lakes, and I have some private ground where we duck hunt. To be honest, our duck hunting is the very best right at the end of the season. We haven’t had a good flight of early ducks here in Missouri for about the last 3 years. Warm weather has held back the migration for us here in the Midwest, just like it has for hunters

Small Game, Waterfowl

Ducks Unlimited partners offer new Mossy Oak® Shadow Grass Blades®

As the Official Camo of Ducks Unlimited (DU), Mossy Oak has developed a DU-specific Shadow Grass Blades pattern for DU partners. The DU-specific pattern features the DU logo embedded within the pattern, making it easy for waterfowlers to show their passion for hunting and support of conservation.

Small Game, Waterfowl, Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Blades, News, Mossy Oak

DU celebrates 80 years

Sunday, Jan. 29, marks Ducks Unlimited's (DU's) 80th anniversary. Started by a small group of sportsmen on a mission to save North America's waterfowl populations – and the continent's strong waterfowling traditions – DU was founded in 1937 during the Great Depression and one of the worst droughts in history, far from ideal circumstances for an organization in its infancy.

Small Game, Waterfowl, Conservation, News

How to Set Up Your Decoy Spread and Get to Duck Hot Spots Before Other Hunters

Our decoy spreads are different in most of the holes we hunt. We know that ducks don’t like to fly over decoys or other ducks before they land. So, if we have a north wind in our face, we don’t put any ducks on the south side of where we’re hunting. If we have a north wind, we’ll concentrate most of our decoys on the north side of our duck hole. Later in the year,

Small Game, Waterfowl, How-To

What To Do When Hunters You Don’t Know Move Into the Spot You're Hunting

When hunting public lands, a common occurrence is to have other hunters come into the area where you're hunting and want to hunt there, because they can tell by all the shooting that they hear that you’ve found the ducks. I've found that the best approach to take when this happens is to kill the other hunters with kindness, and be extremely cordial to them.

Small Game, Waterfowl, Mossy Oak Bottomland, Mossy Oak

How to Know Places to Avoid and Where to Hunt on Public Lands

My friends often ask me, “Brooks, when I want to hunt on public waterfowl areas, what do I need to look for there?” I explain, “Search for balls of feathers and shotgun shells. If you see them on the place you think you want to hunt, don’t hunt there. More than likely, someone has shot ducks from that spot the day or two before you’ve arrived. But when you see a spot that has individual

Small Game, Waterfowl, How-To

How to Dodge Hunting Pressure on Public Land Waterfowling Areas

One of the reasons we spend more time duck hunting in Arkansas than we do duck hunting in Mississippi is that we’ve found fewer and fewer places in Mississippi where we can dodge hunting pressure. We've discovered that if we can walk into an area rather than going to it by boat, our opportunities are much greater for dodging hunter pressure than if we use a boat to reach the places we want to hunt.

Small Game, Waterfowl

Secrets of Public Land Waterfowling

Brooks Tinsley of West Point, Mississippi, hunts some of the most heavily hunted waterfowl areas in the nation, but he has been highly successful. We wanted to know what tactics he was using to take ducks in often overcrowded areas on public land.

Small Game, Waterfowl

What Happens at Honey Brake Lodge after Limiting Out on Ducks

Another question I'm often asked when people are considering hunting with us at Honey Brake is, “What can we do if we have taken our limit of ducks before 9 or 10?” Guests who want to can shoot sporting clays; or, you can do an upgrade and hunt wild hogs; or, you can go fishing in Larto Lake. Our lodge is on beautiful Larto Lake, part of the Larto-Saline Complex. Lake Larto is rated the

Small Game, Waterfowl

How to Call and Decoy Those Ducks from the Sky at Honey Brake Lodge

When I speak to different groups, I'm often asked, “Besides food, water, habitat and regulating your hunting pressure, what else are you doing to get those ducks to come in to your decoys at Honey Brake?”

Small Game, Waterfowl

Why No Snow Means No Geese at Honey Brake Lodge

I'm often asked, “Do you have snow goose hunts at Honey Brake after the duck season is over like many duck-hunting operations do?” Well, no, we don’t. We don’t promote snow goose hunting. We’re not opposed to it, but because our lodge is so remote, and those snow geese are so unpredictable, we’re not sure we can deliver the type of waterfowl hunting that our hunters will expect. We’re all about having our hunters see

Small Game, Waterfowl

What Are Yo-Yo Ducks and Gumbo Mud at Honey Brake Lodge

At the first of this 2016 season, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service folks came in and did their annual duck count. They were very excited. They said that Louisiana was holding more ducks statewide than the state ever had had since 1910. Their count was more than 3-million ducks in Louisiana for the first week of duck season.

Small Game, Waterfowl

Hunting with Drew Keeth and Honey Brake Lodge

Sometimes when I’m waterfowling, I really don’t want to shoot. I’d rather just watch. One of those times was the first time I went waterfowling at Honey Brake Lodge in central Louisiana. I saw 100 or more ducks lighting in the decoys, and I was so excited that I wanted to observe that spectacle as long as I could before the ducks started dropping, and the other ducks raced to get away from the lead

Small Game, Waterfowl, Land Management, Mossy Oak