What makes a trophy duck?

On Mallards I have always been told it is the number of "Full Curls" that the duck has.
On a Pintail it is the lenght of the longest tail feathers, kind of like on pheasants.
On a Widgeon it is how white the cotton top on there head is.
And on any water fowl if it is banded I consider it a trophy. But the farther from its banding location the more of a trophy that band is, or the older the bird is from the band info the more of a trophy.

Good info to know. So the most curls i've seen on a mallard is about 3/4 of a curl. Guess I'm just shooting the young ones.

Thanks for the info DeadI

depends on where your at. here we rarely shoot wood ducks, there very pretty birds, but i went to a buddy of mines place and you could shoot many limits of woodys. banded birds are pretty cool. i killed a double banded mallard last year. 1 of the bands was a $100.00 reward band---TROPHY!!!! when i got the carsd back on it the bird was banded 9 yrs earlier and was mature when it was banded. i dont know what the lifespan of a duck is but that seems very old. unfortunatly the reward had expired 3 yrs earlier. but not to many guys have a money band on there lanyard :thumb

To bad you were not able to collet the 100 $ killer.

I have never shot a banded bird so there fore when I do, it will be a trophy for me. I have shot a few mallards with (3) full curls, and I have shot one with 4 full curls. I have got a pintail that had about a 9" pin which I beileve to be a pretty long pin (tail feather).

My boss shot a goose up in Canada this year that was banded 19 years ago.

holy &^$# 19 yrs??? someone [ usually AGCHAWK lol lol ] should try to figure the lifespan af a duck or goose. i thought my duck that was 9 had to be about max. maybe not? 19 yr old goose, i bet that sucker seen some decoys in his day............ but not mine :))

I don't know about ducks, but the oldest goose band to be harvested according to a waterfowl magazine this same kid has says that the oldest goose known is i think 23 years.

I did some reading and it looks like the average lifespan of a wild duck can be anywhere between 15 and 20 years. It is different depending on the type of duck and where they are located but that is the round about life span. It suprised me that they lived that long but it was cool to look it up and find out. Anywho hopefully I can get my first banded bird this year! :thumb happy hunting to you all.

thats interesting. i would have never guessed that old. thanks for the info :thumb

My first though on this thread was, a sound out of the normal will make a trophy duck. Or maybe jumping the string! Then I see it is a duck and now I read of a 19yr old goose. How do you cook a 19 yr old goose?

Don, I think ya BOIL a 19 year old goose cause he probably ain't worth eating at that point!..LOL

Killer, the AVERAGE lifespan of a typical Canada Goose in the wild is 10-24 years of age. I'm sure it's still rather rare to bag one that old, it's got to be even more rare to bag one that is also banded.

But, it sounds like you bagged a duck that is just as rare. The average lifespan of a wild mallard is 5-10 years. Therefore, you duck is every bit as comparable to the 19 year old goose.

Sneekee, you are also not "wrong". A mallard in captivity can reach 20 years of age and there have been a few documented. I suppose if you found one in the wild that spent the majority of it's life in a city park, state park, or something similar then they could certainly breech the average wild age of that same species.

you can always count on you hawk! :thumb good info
i have a buddy who shot a banded widgeon. the band was so old and wore out you couldn't read the numbers and the edges of it are sharp! makes you wonder how old that duck was. but we also figure that could be caused from being in a sandy area for a while. that, you would think, would put alot of where on a band....