Late-season bucks aren't dummies and they are seldom taken by hunters who don't pay attention to detail and cover all the bases of sound hunting fundamentals. The hunter's game plan needs to be close to perfect.

Some hunters go deeper and deeper into the dense stuff and that's not a bad play with the season on the wane. Big bucks "pattern" hunters and quickly learn where hunting pressure is heavy and how to avoid it. However, there are other options. In woodlot country, I often look for small pockets of dense cover in more open habitat. It doesn't take much cover to hide a bedded buck and by the late season, the bucks are pretty nocturnal anyway and bed most of the day.

A small but dense thicket or even a copse of tall weeds can be all the cover a cagey buck needs. If you find such a hideout, hunt it carefully. Small-cover bucks are sensitive. Spook him once and a second chance is unlikely.

Successful duck shooting is a study in deception. Everything you do to a duck before you pull the trigger is directed at deceiving him. The blind, the camouflage, the decoys, the calls, the whole of both the primary and secondary equipment, tactics and traditions of duck hunting is all about fooling ducks into thinking your location is a safe place to sit down.
If you've ever had the opportunity to fly over a waterfowl concentration, you probably saw that the water was muddy. Ducks muddy the water when they feed by rooting around the bottom.
Flying ducks expect to see muddy water where other ducks (your decoys) are "feeding." Once you've set your decoys, go out at regular intervals and stomp around. Not only does this make your spread look more natural, it also camouflages your decoy anchor lines.
Stirring up the mud works almost as well as a bathroom break when you haven't seen ducks in a while. As soon as you leave the blind, here come the ducks!

Goose hunting differs from duck hunting in a lot of ways besides the size of the birds. Goose guns and loads are often bigger. Geese are more often shot over land than over water. The decoys are bigger in size and numbers and often the strategy for setting out goose decoys is very different.
However, the biggest difference about goose hunting is that the goose hunter must really know the species of goose he's hunting. The three main species geese we hunt --Canadas, Snows and Speckle-Bellies (White-Fronted Geese) -- have different vocabularies and habits. They also tend to more frequently hang out with and decoy to their own species. Even when feeding in the same field, you'll see each goose species more or less staying near its own kind.

Learn the habits of the goose (or geese) species you will be hunting. Set your decoys in a mixed spread appropriately. Learn and master the calls of each species for the best goose-getting success.

Most waterfowlers consider themselves to be hunters first and boaters second -- if they consider themselves to be boaters at all. Nevertheless, much waterfowling involves boats, cold water and sometimes rough weather conditions. Both water and boating safety should be uppermost in the waterfowler's mind.
*Don't overload. We want our duck boats to be small, maneuverable and easy to hide. Then we want to load them with lots of decoys, big dogs and maybe a couple of buddies. Play it safe; make two trips.
*Carry a change of warm clothes in a waterproof bag.
*Carry a compass, fire-starting supplies and signal flares.
*Carry the correct number and type of personal flotation devices. Have one of them on about 50 feet of rope as a "throwable" float.
*Consider a hand-held two-way radio or carrying a cellular phone.
*Take a boating safety course to better understand both the rules and peculiar hazards of boating, especially in cold weather.

Patterning your turkey gun is like sighting-in your deer rifle. You find its true point of impact and determine its maximum effective range with a given load.

Do point-of-impact sighting in at relatively short range, say 20 to 25 yards. To raise the point of impact, build up the comb of the stock; to lower it, lower the comb. To adjust the pattern horizontally, build up or sand down the side of the stock, moving your shooting eye in the direction you want the pattern to move.

To avoid this hassle, many serious turkey hunters use adjustable rifle-type open or low-powered telescopic and "red dot" sights to center super-tight patterns on a gobbler's head and neck.

To determine maximum shooting range, move the target farther away until pattern density diminishes. Many shooters will be surprised by how quickly even "super-full" patterns fall apart. Fire several shots to get a real idea of your turkey gun's performance. Never depend on the fluke shot or that "lucky BB."