So I stopped at a gas station to fuel my net boat on the way to the water. After paying for the fuel I was walking out the door when a guy asked me the specs on my boat. I told him it was a 24x72. He went on to tell me his dad had a similar boat with a cab on it. He said you probably have seen it parked in a small town east of me. I told him yes I had seen it as I had one just like it about fifteen years ago. I told him I seen the boat parked up the highway at a guys house. He said that is where my dad lives. He said his dad bought the boat from a couple duck hunters.
He went on to tell me that when his dad bought the boat they were cleaning it out and found a bunch of duck rings laying all over the boat. I asked him what a duck ring was. He said those metal things that you clip on a duck. This guy tells me he is not a hunter and has never duck hunted. I ask him what is on the rings. He said numbers. Numbers on the ring and a 1 800 number was on the ring too.
I was playing dumb and I told him "are the rings your describing duck bands"? He said yes that's what I was trying to remember. He said if there was one there were 200 or more. He said he got to looking at the band's and some of them had a $100 reward. He said there was a large handful of reward bands. He said I called the 1 800 number and told this person about all these bands. I gave them some of the reward numbers and they had been reported.
He said his mom and dad don't throw anything away. The sent a couple handfuls of bands to their cousins in Florida who duck hunt. The rest were used for arts and crafts.
The guy told me just about every time they went to the river a band or two would work itself out from under the ribs if there was rough water.

Dang. Didn't know what he had. That's an eBay fortune lol!

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Do you think the original owners of the boat killed that many banded birds? Or could they have been the ones banding the birds and had a bunch of leftovers in the bottom of the boat?

cool story. i'm ready to kill some birds.

I bet them boys were somewhere they shouldn't have been.... or bands didn't mean squat to them. I don't think they were USFWS banders because as far as I know there are no mallard banders around here. Just wood duck banders.

Maybe one of the numerous Indiana game wardens that monitor this site would like to chime in and help us figure out where all the bands came from

DA
We start oct. 12th, want to catch a flight up? Waiting to fly in to our moose hunt, been raining for 4 days, hope the float planes fly tomorrow

Thankyou for the invite Big Dave, It would be awesome, but I will have to take a raincheck. Obamanomics and the oilfield have me on lockdown here lately!!!!!!!
You are welcome to come hangout down here any time u want to as well.

good luck on your hunt!!!!!!