Duck Hunting Gear Checklist : My Opening Day Duck Season Hunt Northern Zone In Ohio

Table of Contents :

• Duck Hunting Gear
• Duck Hunting Shotgun
• Shotgun Ammo For Ducks
• Duck Decoys
• Duck Calls
• Duck Hunting Backpack
• Hunting Chair
• Duck Hunting Camo
• Gear Sled
• Bird Dogs
• Hunting Cooler
• Legal Hunting License
• Duck Hunting Gear Checklist

This past weekend on Saturday, October 18th was opening day of waterfowl season for the Northern Section in Ohio. Myself, and my two friends joined me in hunting at Mosquito Creek, section G. We were fortunate enough to win a waterfowl lottery that gave us permission to hunt here. Mosquito Creek was about an hour and a half drive out of Cleveland Ohio. We drove out at the ass crack off dawn to be at our parking spot by 5:30am. This gave us about an hour to get to our spot, set up, and waiting before legal shooting light at 7:09am. Now we did make the critical mistake of not scouting our section before we got there so we ran into some early morning running around to decide which pocket of our section to hunt.

Once we were decided on where to hunt, we set out our decoys, found some good cover, and bunkered down to wait until shooting light. While the sounds of ducks flying above and even landing across us in our water filled the air, I was able to pull some coffee and breakfast out of my field hunting bag which was a life saver on this trip. I had just purchased it a few days earlier to have a camo bag instead of using my gray backpack I had been using as an excuse of a hunting bag previously. Well, this got me thinking, what new gear was I using on this trip and for this season, how well will it perform, and what duck hunting gear will I need to get for next time around I started making the ultimate duck hunting gear checklist in my head.

Well, between legal shooting light, tons of ducks flying above, lots of down time waiting and calling, and 4 ducks hunted later I was able to compile a list of what gear I was using, and what I would want to improve on or include for next time.

Duck Hunting Gear

When it comes to duck hunting gear, I am admittedly not the most experienced out there, but I have strong opinions, and a take on just about anything, plus a lot of you really enjoyed my breakdown of the Best Duck Hunting Shotguns, so let’s see if you like my list of all the gear you’ll need. There are some obvious things, like the previously mentioned shotguns, but shot gun ammo, duck decoys, duck calls, and other things you may not think of like a hunting chair, a good hunting bag, and a sled to haul all of your waterfowl gear. So let’s get into the breakdown and let me know your thoughts. Before I start, remember this is a list of things that I used on this particular, and successful hunt, but let me know what you use and if I left any gear off this list.

My Duck Hunting Shotgun

So I previously was using a pretty basic Stoeger 12 gauge over under shotgun with a 24 inch barrel. This is a great shotgun for upland hunting, maybe trap shooting, depending on the range and chokes you have on it. The metal on the loading chamber was a bit shiny, and I felt like having the 3rd shot vs only two would be worth the upgrade. I purchased one of our in stock Stoeger M3500 Waterfowl 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun with a 28 inch barrel. I added a medium choke on it to give myself acceptable range shooting of 30-40 yards. Let me tell you this thing is a great duck hunting shotgun. It was cold, wet, rainy, and very muddy out and this shotgun took a fairly decent beating but was still able to consistently perform when I needed it too, and shoot smoothly the entire time. The only thing I would change about it, or I guess add would be a sling for easier transport when I am walking around to retrieve ducks, switch my spot, or adjust decoys. Another great benefit to the Stoeger M3500 12 gauge is that I can toss on a red dot and use this as a turkey hunting shotgun too. Overall a great duck hunting shotgun.

The Duck Hunting Shotgun Ammo I Used

The 12 gauge shotgun ammo I used for this duck hunting trip was the Browning Wicked Wing XD Waterfowl 12 Gauge 3.5” 2 Shot box of 25 rounds. This duck shotgun ammo, is a nontoxic round since it is a steel shot, which is required by law when duck hunting in Ohio. On top of it legally being acceptable, I like the 1500 fps velocity that gives it serious penetrating power when hitting incoming ducks. My shotgun was rated for 2.5 inch – 3.5 inch 12 gauge shells, but this particular ammo is designed to give you extra range for high flying ducks, which in my opinion, is a real advantage especially in Northern Ohio where you are only going to get a couple of opportunities. No jams, or malfunctions, again a little water or dirt didn’t bother this round at all, and easy ejections so no complaints when it comes to this duck hunting shotgun ammo.

Duck Decoys

Duck decoys may be where my lack of experience comes into play for a successful duck hunt. In the 3 years that I have been duck hunting, I have never gone without decoys, except I don’t have a great concept of how to place or pattern them. I admittedly need to spend more time researching this, but let me know what your best tactics for placing decoys are, and what you’ve done to see success. For us, we placed out about 7 mallard duck decoys and 3 goose decoys. Some of our mallard decoys were from the GHG 70010 Essential Series Mallards 12 pack, and our goose decoys were the Higdon 77965 Full Size Half Shell Sleeper Canada 6 Pack. I will add we didn’t have a ton of water to work with, and it seemed like a lot of ducks flew above us checking out our water, but wouldn’t commit to landing. We decided to pivot and removed 2 of the mallard duck decoys, and removed all of the geese decoys, creating a larger area of open water for landing. Once we did this we were more successful in getting more ducks to land in our pocket, and in turn being able to shoot a few that way. This part of duck hunting has really been trial and error for me, but share this article on socials, and let us know your thoughts of how to best lay decoys.

Our Duck Calls

Another area of duck hunting that I’m not very experienced with, but starting to practice, is duck calls! Typically, my buddy handles calling in the ducks as he has more experience and skill in that area, and out in the field, probably isn’t the best place to learn and practice. The duck call that he was using was a Buck Gardner Mallard Magic Cajun Style Duck Call, paired with a Zink ZNK5014 Nightmare On Stage Poly Goose Call. I even picked up a Zink Drake Mallard Whistle to begin practicing and getting familiar with some calls if I am ever hunting without my buddy who calls them in. Either way, whoever is calling in the ducks it is a great way to get ducks attention and bring them into your water, while looking cool with duck call lanyards around your neck.

My New Duck Hunting Backpack

Something new I added to my duck hunting gear arsenal this time around was a really high quality duck hunting bag. A few days before going I was checking out our selection of hunting packs, because previously I had been using a gray backpack that stuck out and is more of a shooting range bag than a hunting bag. I decided to go with the Browning Wicked Wing Shoulder Bag in the Mossy Grass Blade color. Let me tell you, this thing is KICK ASS! It has elastic bindings on the front overlay pouch that are capable of holding 10 shotgun shells, which makes reloading quick and easy. When you unclip the pouch there is a pocket with a clear plastic overlay, which I used to hold my hunting license, federal duck stamp, and wallet, in the off chance we were stopped by a game warden I could easily flip the bag open and he could see all my information right there. There are two other pockets on the outside, the one was a rubber mesh that had some elastic qualities which made it easy to store and transport dead ducks and hold them out of the mud while I continued to hunt. The other was standard canvas material that the bag is made of. Then the main pocket was a large spacious soft cooler like pocket where I kept the rest of my shotgun shells, there is a water bottle cup holder which I utilized with my carb and electrolyte drink. I had an additional two mugs one with water, one with coffee still hot. I even had enough room for a couple of pop tarts, and a beanie if it got too cold, and miscellaneous trash and used shotgun shells. Overall this bag was a huge addition to my gear check list and highly recommend picking one up to make your life easier.

Using a Hunting Chair

Whenever I had gone duck hunting in the past I didn’t have a seat off the ground which caused a couple of problems, general discomfort, soreness, even cramping when sitting in a weird position under a bush, and let me tell you, I have put myself through some seriously tough mental situations, but nothing makes time move slower and have less fun than being uncomfortable and in pain while waiting for some ducks. But, with a comfortable hunting chair, the game has been changed completely. I picked up the Primos Double Bull Ground Blind Tri Stool in Truth Camo, and it made my hunting experience infinitely more enjoyable. Now I will say the hunting stool did have a couple of challenges, there were a couple of times where I had to adjust or get off the stool because the reeds and grass weren’t tall enough to conceal me so I had to dip down and adjust my position for a bit, but overall I will be taking this stool with me for all my future duck hunts, it simply beats kneeling for hours, especially if there is standing water in your cover area.

Is Camo Important When Duck Hunting?

To help disguise yourself from ducks seeing you, it is obviously recommended to wear camo, or at least colors of dark green, brown, and any beige shades that match the grasses around you, or if it is winter with snow, you can wear white. I have a Patagonia camo jacket that I wore as well as a brown Nike vest and a 5.11 beige top. For my bottoms I was wearing some woodland camo jeans, but above those I was wearing Fin Feather Fur branded waders that were grassy camo patterned. I didn’t have a camo face cover like my friends did so I used some camo face paint as well. Overall, we were pretty covered in camo and of course no orange or anything crazy like that. But I have seen clips online of people hunting in basically street clothes, black shotguns, blue shirts, no blinds, and ducks fly into their spots no problem, so I sometimes wonder how important is this really? Do you all think camo is that important? Let me know.

Duck Hunting Gear Sled

I don’t personally have one, but my friend has a sled to haul all of our duck hunting gear, and somehow the job of pulling the sled falls onto the hunters who didn’t bring the sled. Jokes aside, this thing is a life saver, not having to lug decoys, guns, waders, chairs, and any other miscellaneous gear. If you don’t have one, and are lugging all the above mentioned gear on your back, it is probably worth it to spend a few dollars on a hunting gear sled, if you think they are too pricey, then just double up and use it as an actual snow sled for your kids, boom now it’s worth the money.

Duck Hunting Dogs

This is by far the most, and I can not stress this enough, important thing on this list. I did not have a dog with me and I would trade anything to have a bird dog with me to retrieve birds. After shooting our ducks, having to sludge through the deep mud and waist high water to get the ducks just to hike back to my spot I was exhausted, you get hot sweaty, and take up way to much valuable time while moving around like crazy. Not to mention there were two ducks we lost in a field because the stuff they landed in was just too thick to navigate. Having a good duck dog would fix all of this, so if you have a dog to take, you’re so lucky. Plus, dogs just rock.

Hunting Cooler

While this isn’t completely necessary, it is a great thing to have for post hunt when transporting your ducks. It will help keep them cool, and contain any smell from getting stuck in the car. Now if your wife doesn’t want you to ruin the good yet, you can pick up a different option like the Yukon Outfitters Insulated Cooler Bag in Vintage Camo. If you go with something like that, it adds camo coverage if you take it out into the field with you, and it has a nice pretty Fin Feather Fur logo to make it look nice! Throw a couple ice packs in there and keep your ducks fresh until you get home to process them.

Hunting Licenses & Stamps

Let’s quickly talk about the things you legally need to go duck hunting in Ohio. First off you have to buy a federal waterfowl stamp, which is absolutely gorgeous. I love these things, I keep mine every year, and eventually would love to make some sort of booklet of them. I’m putting a picture of this years below, because they’re just too cool not to. On top of that you will need to purchase a hunting license, and with that you will take the HIP Survey where you will get a number that you write down on your hunting license. This all comes with the understanding that you know the local laws and regulations of bag numbers, responsible shooting, and everything else that comes with hunting especially on public land and water.

Duck Hunting Gear Checklist Review

Wow what a list! We covered everything I took on my opening duck hunt of the season, and some things I wish that I had as well. Please share this article on your socials and let me know anything I missed, anything you do different, and some of your favorite strategies for successfully getting ducks in. I really enjoyed using my new gear like my new Stoeger M3500 waterfowl 12 gauge, my Primos Double Bull Ground Blind Tri Stool, and all my other gear. It was super fun to get back out there with a successful opening day. I hope you all get some fresh gear and get back out there to bag some ducks. Be sure to tag us in your pictures when you post your results online, and if you have any questions on any of the gear listed feel free to contact us and talk to our expert team! Good Luck.