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Long-tailed Duck Harvest Study

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

long-tailed-duck-harvest-study

Do you love hunting Long-tailed Ducks in Michigan? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting ducks, whether it’s making the perfect shot, learning to call effectively, or buying the best choke tube, we want to help people in every aspect of duck hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting Long-tailed Ducks is.

Harvesting a Long-tailed Duck is the most iconic achievement in duck hunting, especially when it’s a memorable hunt or you get a banded bird. However, there are a few people who have made harvesting Long-tailed Ducks their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many Long-tailed Ducks have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the Long-tailed Duck harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many Long-tailed Ducks are harvested each year and what areas shoot the most – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at the adaptive harvest reports for each state in 2021 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for harvesting Long-tailed Ducks.

Where are the Most Long-tailed Ducks Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt Long-tailed Ducks in Michigan are the most likely to harvest the most amount of Long-tailed Ducks per hunt, followed by in New York and Maryland. Since 2021, those in Michigan have harvested 16,828 Long-tailed Ducks, whilst in New York and Maryland, hunters have harvested 7,261 and 5,296, respectively.

The ten states that harvested the most Long-tailed Ducks, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. Michigan – 16,828
  2. New York – 7,261
  3. Maryland – 5,296
  4. Wisconsin – 3,824
  5. Maine – 2,380
  6. New Jersey – 801
  7. Alaska – 567
  8. Massachusetts – 557
  9. Virginia – 459
  10. South Carolina – 113

(Sources: USFWS Harvest Survey)

The data showed that the Long-tailed Duck hunters sticking to the rivers and lakes of Michigan are most likely to harvest a Long-tailed Duck. Shockingly, Maine Long-tailed Duck hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see a Long-tailed Duck on the average duck hunt.

More Waterfowl Harvest Studies
Harvest studies are conducted by the USFWS each year in the U.S. to gauge the number of ducks and geese that are taken by hunters. This aids in setting bag limits and managing migratory bird populations from year to year. Below are the most common migratory species with available harvest data. Please click the links below to see how many birds were harvested and where.

The Most Common Shotgun Used for Harvesting Long-tailed Ducks

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a Long-tailed Duck, the 12-gauge was revealed as the most commonly used shotgun, with over 80% of hunters choosing it. A 20 gauge and a 10 gauge shotgun rounded off the top three, with 20 gauge being the second most popular.

The 28 gauge came in fourth place with 12% usage, while the 410 bore came fifth, with 5%.

We also delved into which month people had been harvesting the most Long-tailed Ducks, and discovered that December was the most common, with 43% of Long-tailed Ducks harvested. The months of November (33%) and January (24%) came in second and third. This is likely due to duck season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months.

states-that-shoot-the-most-long-tailed-ducks

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

“As any duck hunter will know, harvesting Long-tailed Ducks is a lifetime achievement – unless you’re a well-known hunting guide, an amateur hunter with multiple limit hunts on Long-tailed Ducks is quite the accomplishment.

“It’s interesting to see those in Michigan harvesting so many Long-tailed Ducks – especially when the hunter participation rate is lower than many other states – you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Mississippi Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how Long-tailed Duck harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe New York will surpass Michigan this time next year.”

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