Late Season Wood Duck poppers and one for the trophy room (pics)

TideEggHead

Me and a buddy brought home a few wood ducks this Sunday so once we got them cleaned I threw them in some milk until this morning. We decided to make some duck poppers and grill some chicken wings to go with! I set the grill at 350 direct (I normally do wings indirect). The duck breasts were marinated for a few hours before cooking.

duck marinade:
olive oil
apple juice
apple cider vinegar 
Worcestershire Sauce
salt & pepper
garlic

chicken wings were marinated overnight in buffalo ranch sauce (Moore's).

wings and poppers went on @ 350 for 20 minutes flipping at 10 minutes.





I like my bacon a little crispy (some got a little too crispy haha).





 We had a great weekend, I'll be getting this one mounted!

Thanks for looking!

Killit_and_Grillit

Well done. I have wanted a wood duck for a mount for years. Every time I get one I have blasted him to hell with a 12 gauge. One of these days I'm going to find me some swamp area and go down with a single shot .410 and get me one for the trophy room. 

Beautiful bird!

SciAggie

I never seem to be able to get a wood duck. I'm envious. 

YukonRon

That is a beautiful harvest.

bgebrent

Nice work brother!  Pretty bird. 

Focker

Nice post all around.

lbbf

Love me some duck poppers! The wife hates them so I don't get to duck hunt much. Great looking woodie. Sigh, some day.

Theophan

I've always loved the idea of duck hunting, and hunting wild geese, but I've never done it.  Do wild ducks and wild geese taste really different from domestic ones?  

Killit_and_Grillit

@Theophan the flavor of wild game mostly has to do with diet and exercise. Most commercially bought meat gets little exercise and eats a grain diet. 

For the most part you can't control the diet of wild game. And these birds are constantly moving south during season and their diet is changing as they fly. Some get more specific about their diets and some just eat garbage.  (Especially diver ducks). 

A lot are still very good, they just don't taste like they were raised on a farm. 

You should try try it at least once. I would look around and see if you can't find a buddy with a lease or a guided hunt and go with some friends. Duck and goose hunting is a community event. 

TideEggHead

Thanks everyone, I was super pumped to get one for the wall! Yea @Killit_and_Grillit I got lucky on this one, most of are end up in the same condition! @Theophan I think it really depends, I haven't had many of the other ducks but just like anything else I think it depends on what they eat. The wood ducks in this area like acorns so they taste really good! I've heard a lot of the diving ducks don't taste near as good.

Edit: I didn't see @Killit_and_Grillit 's post before I wrote this, some of this is redundant.

Theophan

@Killit_and_Grillit and @TideEggHead, many thanks for the replies!  I love duck, but have only had domestic duck.  I've had venison a number of times, and liked it, but was a bit disappointed that I didn't love it more.  It didn't taste like beef, but it was similar enough that I was surprised, and I hate to say it but I think I like beef every bit as well.

I had some sort of game, elk, I think it was, from a trip out west that someone I knew once took, and his wife cooked it just as a stew, and used only salt and pepper as seasonings, but it tasted like someone had spilled a ton of sage in it because of what the animal had been foraging on.  It was DELICIOUS!  Amazing.  Never had it before or since.

The "community event" aspect of duck or goose hunting sounds like fun, a lot more fun than sitting all day alone in a tree blind waiting for a deer, which the only hunter I know loves to do.  But I'm an old guy and in lousy shape and I just don't think I'm up to even modest hiking out to places people can bag some water fowl.  That deer hunter I mentioned did shoot a turkey, once, and we had that with him and his wife, and it was good, but I was surprised that it didn't have a stronger "wild" flavor.  Like you guys, he said it all depended on what the bird had been eating lately.  This one had acorns in its stomach, which I think were nutritious but didn't add a particular flavor.

Anyway, those wood duck were gorgeous, and I envy you the experience of hunting them, and of eating the fruits of your labors!

Killit_and_Grillit

@TideEggHead where do you hunt ducks? (I'm assuming down in Bama)

@Theophan if you didn't like venison my guess is it was overlooked (very common mistake). But I agree, elk is the filet of the deer world. I lived in Colorado for several years and any time I could get my hands on it it was in my freezer. 

Theophan

Killit_and_Grillit said:

@Theophan if you didn't like venison my guess is it was overlooked (very common mistake)...

Never thought about it, but yes, the only venison I've had was cooked like a stew, long and slow, and it was very, very done.  It's the only way my wife knows how to cook it, and I knew nothing about venison, so I never suggested different.  I didn't hate it, liked it OK, but I was surprised that I didn't love it.  No idea what a medium rare venison steak might taste like.  Maybe I'd have loved it.  I don't know.  We live much farther away, now, from that guy I know who loves to hunt, and we don't get his venison anymore.

TideEggHead

Killit_and_Grillit said:

@TideEggHead where do you hunt ducks? (I'm assuming down in Bama)

@Theophan if you didn't like venison my guess is it was overlooked (very common mistake). But I agree, elk is the filet of the deer world. I lived in Colorado for several years and any time I could get my hands on it it was in my freezer. 

Yes sir! We are close to the AL river. Alas, right now we don't have the money to make the trip over to Arkansas or Louisiana.

SciAggie

@Theophan I only shoot puddle ducks. I like their flavor. I wouldn't shoot a diving duck if it landed on the end of my gun barrel - they taste like mud to me. 

Killit_and_Grillit

TideEggHead said:

Killit_and_Grillit said:

@TideEggHead where do you hunt ducks? (I'm assuming down in Bama)

Yes sir! We are close to the AL river. Alas, right now we don't have the money to make the trip over to Arkansas or Louisiana.

I hunted Arkansas in Cotton Plant (down by Stuttgart, self proclaimed duck capital of the world) in high school and college. Buddy had a lease. By 06-07 we stopped hunting it because the ducks changed patterns and pushed through Kansas and east Texas. It's pricey to hunt there too...if i wouldn't have known someone I would have passed on sheer price to buy in to a lease.  

Ive heard some buddies have been slaying them in Louisiana the past few years. 

TideEggHead

@Killit_and_Grillit My thoughts exactly, I poked around and started looking at lease prices. I stopped looking quickly! LA isn't as far so I will have to go look for myself one of these days, I've also heard the same types of reports from there!

Teefus

I ate so much duck as a kid (mallard) I got sick of it. Picking lead shot out of my teeth got old too. We used to have families of Wood Ducks in the creek behind my house. They were always sacred. Too pretty to eat. No judging though. Hunt safe and eat hearty. 

Toxarch

Would love to have a couple for mounts. But I don't care for eating duck so I never shoot them. I am a DU member though. 

Sea2Ski

I love eating duck, but do not shoot them. I do not hunt anything but fish.

Nice quacker....