# Question for you that hunt with guides/outfitters



## Core Lokt (Feb 3, 2012)

I have never been out of state hunting so I'm not sure if this is comon practice or not.

Have you ever heard of the guide taking off any bands and keeping them not letting the hunter that killed the bird keep them? I know a guy that went to Arkansas recently and the guide told them up front he takes any bands off when he picks up the birds and the hunter doesn't get them. this doesn't seem right to me and I'd be upset about it.


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## rockwalker (Feb 3, 2012)

I would get my money back and go somewhere else!


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## grunter (Feb 3, 2012)

thats a bunch of crap, sounds like the guide is tryin to make him a cool necklace. ive hunted 1 time out of state for geese, needless to say i didnt pull the trigger amd the 2 guides killed the only 3 we had


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## rnelson5 (Feb 3, 2012)

rockwalker said:


> I would get my money back and go somewhere else!



X2 and then I would  the guide


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## BFifer (Feb 3, 2012)

Don't go with that guide. Not standard and just downright wrong.


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## Larry Young Jr (Feb 3, 2012)

That is not normal practice.


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## webfootwidowmaker (Feb 4, 2012)

agree with all the above


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## DukTruk (Feb 4, 2012)

Vote with your feet....If it happens during the hunt, tip accordingly.


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## levi5002 (Feb 5, 2012)

Im currently guiding now, and we shot two banded snows yesterday and both of them went to clients. one of which was a younger kid. it was worth seein the look on his face when i tossed it to him!!!


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## clent586 (Feb 5, 2012)

I would not say common, but there are several that do that. It is the guides "tip". I think that is a sure fire way to loose clients in my opinion.


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## Boudreaux (Feb 5, 2012)

I've heard of the practice, but have not run into it.

A few things to remember.  He works for you.  If the bird is included in YOUR limit, then it's your bird.  

Don't put up with that crap.

I've shot 2 banded birds in 25 years of duck hunting.  A guide trying to take one from me would find it difficult.


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## emusmacker (Feb 5, 2012)

I hope he is a pretty tough fellow if he tries to take a band from me or my son.   And that's the bottom line.


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## Jaker (Feb 6, 2012)

its a fairly common practice, but I don't agree with it. Its becoming less common than it used to be.


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## rockwalker (Feb 6, 2012)

On the very few hunts I have been on with a guide it would be a tough call to say who actually shot a single bird. Unless you happen to be the last guy shooting and its the last bird that falls that would be the only way I could tell you that that bird is any one persons kill. That is the main reason I have yet to bring home a duck that I will get mounted from any of my hunts. Now im not upset about any of it because in the fury of the hunt and the massive wall of steel that flies out there i cant say hey I killed THAT bird because for the most part there are multiple guys shooting and (hopefully) multiple birds falling but as a guide to take a band from a group of paying customers is PUSHING the envelope big time. I have only been hunting waterfowl for 3 years now and I have yet to see a banded bird in person much less kill one but then again I am almost 33 years old and have only taken one BIG buck too. So i guess i am in for a long haul but the main point I see here is that a guide has no business taking a band from a bird that was harvested by a paying group. Now if the group elects to give up the band then thats one thing but to take it as a "TIP" or for any other reason is a load of crap. This is the first I have ever heard of this practice and as I advance my waterfowl experience I will be sure to ask this question before I set up a hunt for myself and/or a group of friends. This has been very insightful for me and a big page in the book of lessons learned and notes taken. 


sorry for being so longe winded. I'm bored & duck season is over!!!!!


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## chase870 (Feb 7, 2012)

I'm not a guide but I do take people with me when I hunt Canada and I make sure the guest gets a band if he shoots the bird


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## r_hammett86 (Feb 7, 2012)

We hunted a rice field 2 seasons ago and we knocked down a green head with a band. we just drew straws since all 6 of us were shooting at the group. I have heard of its praticial to give a band to a guy whos dog retirved it. If that were in fact the case i should have gotten the band cuz i was the dog that day lol.


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## levi5002 (Feb 8, 2012)

Jaker said:


> its a fairly common practice, but I don't agree with it. Its becoming less common than it used to be.



what outfits yall hunt with, like i said we give em away. its the clients hunt...


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## waddler (Feb 8, 2012)

r_hammett86 said:


> We hunted a rice field 2 seasons ago and we knocked down a green head with a band. we just drew straws since all 6 of us were shooting at the group. I have heard of its praticial to give a band to a guy whos dog retirved it. If that were in fact the case i should have gotten the band cuz i was the dog that day lol.



I have known human retrievers that found and brought back one legged ducks. Just saying.. you know.


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## waddler (Feb 8, 2012)

I was dog hunting Snowgeese one day and ran into a couple of guys and their boys(11-13). I invited them along and we came across a field with probably 15,000 geese. We positioned and turned the dogs loose and when the smoke cleared we had some 20+. I was in the middle of the field shooting out of a ditch, and after the dogs flushed them they started piling the geese up behind me. 


Picking up the geese, I saw two Ross Geese with bands. I cut them off and when we all got back togther, I told the Fathers that I was certain the two boys shot the geese and gave each boy a band. You have never seen such delight as they put the bands on their lanyard.

One of the Dads told me he fully expected his son to sleep with that lanyard around his neck and that it probably would not come off until he wore it to school. I do not understand why, but bands are magic.


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## MudDucker (Feb 8, 2012)

He better have a bigger gun than me if he wants to take my bands!


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## waddler (Feb 8, 2012)

MudDucker said:


> He better have a bigger gun than me if he wants to take my bands!



You can buy all you want on e-bay. You can then sleep late, stay warm and never get muddy. Still you'll be able to strut around with enough hardware around your neck to drown you when you hit a "hat floater".


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## 01Foreman400 (Feb 8, 2012)

Bands flare birds.


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## king killer delete (Feb 8, 2012)

*Bands do not flare birds.*



01Foreman400 said:


> Bands flare birds.


I hunted ducks with an 870 Wingmaster with a very nice finish on it for years and it did not flare birds. Bands go to the person that kills the bird. I have been hunting for allot of years and it sounds like some one is claimin somebodys glory by takeing their band. If I paid some one to guide me I dont think I am going to give him my bands because its your band not his and for him to take it and wear it is like somebody saying he was in the military and wearing medals that he never won.


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## Core Lokt (Feb 8, 2012)

Like I said, never been with a guide but have friends that do and this was the first I heard of it. Personally if I'm paying you to take me hunting and I kill a banded bird I expect to keep it.

 From the replies it doesn't sound like a comon thing which I expected.

Thanks


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## waddler (Feb 8, 2012)

killer elite said:


> I hunted ducks with an 870 Wingmaster with a very nice finish on it for years and it did not flare birds. Bands go to the person that kills the bird. I have been hunting for allot of years and it sounds like some one is claimin somebodys glory by takeing their band. If I paid some one to guide me I dont think I am going to give him my bands because its your band not his and for him to take it and wear it is like somebody saying he was in the military and wearing medals that he never won.



My duck guns have a thin coat of rust all over. No flash for sure.


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## 01Foreman400 (Feb 8, 2012)

killer elite said:


> I hunted ducks with an 870 Wingmaster with a very nice finish on it for years and it did not flare birds. Bands go to the person that kills the bird. I have been hunting for allot of years and it sounds like some one is claimin somebodys glory by takeing their band. If I paid some one to guide me I dont think I am going to give him my bands because its your band not his and for him to take it and wear it is like somebody saying he was in the military and wearing medals that he never won.



The only reason I said that is some guys go through a lot of trouble to hide while wearing silver jewelry around their necks and shiny acrylic calls.  Sounds a little crazy to me.


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## 01Foreman400 (Feb 8, 2012)

waddler said:


> My duck guns have a thin coat of rust all over. No flash for sure.



If my guns had and rust on them I would sell them.


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## waddler (Feb 8, 2012)

01Foreman400 said:


> If my guns had and rust on them I would sell them.



Mine aren't for sale. This is a custom rust job.


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## 01Foreman400 (Feb 8, 2012)

waddler said:


> Mine aren't for sale. This is a custom rust job.



Rustuflage.


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## bogeyfree31 (Feb 8, 2012)

I see my story is spreading around the WWW.

The guide was out picking up a couple mallards by boat, and one of my buddies joked about seeing the guide "slide" the band off and put it in his pocket.

When the guide got back to us, my buddy asked if the bird had a band or not and he jokingly said "No, but if he did, you wouldn't know it".

Another buddy asked him "Are you serious? Do you really slide the bands off?" and he replied "I sure do".

Now we had been cutting up with the guide all morning, so he may have been cutting up with us too, but if he was, he didn't give it away.  He also had a lanyard with about 100 bands around his neck.

I'm the kind of person that this doesn't really bother me.  If I want a banded duck mounted, I'll buy 5 bands off eBay for $4.50(that is the going price) http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Decoy-Out...704?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6ff946b0 and just slide them up on the leg.

I mounted a banded a couple woodducks a few years ago, and to be honest, after that $380 bill, don't plan on having any more done.    Now if one of my kids kills a banded duck, that's another story.  It just doesn't mean that much to me after 15 years of hunting ducks.


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## king killer delete (Feb 8, 2012)

*I know and I was just messin with you.*



01Foreman400 said:


> If my guns had and rust on them I would sell them.


 I killed a many a greenhead in an old army 1951 Fld Jacket and a pair of blue jeans. Back in the old days no body wore camo , only brown cotton duck.


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## GADawg08 (Jan 20, 2016)

hate to bring up an old thread, but me and a buddy were just talking about this....since no one has commented on this thread in almost 4 yrs I figured I would stir the pot. Have any of yall had any problems with guides trying to keep bands in recent yrs?


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## king killer delete (Jan 20, 2016)

If you kill it it is your band.


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## Curtis-UGA (Jan 20, 2016)

No guides....no bands......no problems.


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## Uptonongood (Jan 21, 2016)

I've heard of guides taking the bands from their clients' birds.  I would tell the guide "You can have that band, my hunting group will keep your tip."  Then I would post a hunting report on any and every forum I could letting folks know of your experience.


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## copperheadmike (Jan 21, 2016)

Im no Tony Vandemore but, I assure you, should a banded bird fall while I have clients firing guns, it is going to one of them. If they want to argue over who shot the bird they can do so but I sure as heck am not taking it. I had four clients let a single redhead get by them the other day and shot it at the same time one of them shot in its general direction. Guess who shot that bird, the client! Turned out to be his first one too! Guess who got a nice tip, this guy! Seriously though, when I guide, it is all about my clients and them having a good time. Also, as cool as having a band is, if I didn't shoot it, I don't want it. That is like mounting a bird you didn't shoot.


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## triton196 (Jan 26, 2016)

client get the birds bands ect its their hunt your there to call ducks and kill cripples and get the ones that are getting away and do anything else to help them have an enjoyable hunt.


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