Missouri Duck Areas Had Higher Harvests per Hunter on Weekdays While Busier Days Fared No Worse

IChoosing when to hunt

About one extra duck over seven weekday outings

Per trip the weekday advantage amounted to 0.15 ducks for each hunter. At those pooled rates it takes about 7 trips for a weekday hunter to gain one extra duck over a weekend hunter. The advantage exists but is modest. Its size deserves a look before you spend vacation time chasing it.

Thursday led with 2.04. Monday followed closely with 2.02. Taken together Monday through Thursday produced an average of 2.00. Sunday trailed every other day with 1.76. Thursday's rate exceeded Sunday's by 16 percent. Friday returned 1.89 while Saturday returned 1.88. Those nearly matching rates leave Friday with less of an advantage than other weekdays offer.

IIComparing locations separately

Weekdays led at 15 out of 18 sites

A combined average can give the wrong impression if weaker areas also draw heavier weekend crowds. We therefore compared weekday and weekend results separately for each area. The weekday rate was higher at 15 of 18 sites.

Ted Shanks had the biggest difference among areas averaging more than ten hunters daily. Its weekday rate was 1.93 compared with a weekend rate of 1.62. Fountain Grove produced 2.17 for weekdays versus 1.97 for weekends. Differences narrowed among the highest-producing areas. The weekday and weekend figures were 2.74 and 2.66 at Grand Pass. Bob Brown's figures were 2.87 and 2.70.

Those leading areas matter more than the overall weekday finding. In the table Grand Pass and Bob Brown held the two highest weekday rates as well as the two highest weekend rates. Grand Pass delivered 2.66 on weekends. That easily surpassed Duck Creek's weekday figure of 1.58. Among these areas where to hunt affected the rate much more than when to hunt. Choose your area before choosing your day.

Three sites favored weekends instead, though each difference was small. At Otter Slough the weekday figure was 2.23 versus a weekend figure of 2.34. Four Rivers recorded 2.05 for weekdays versus 2.07 for weekends. At Settle's Ford those rates were 0.91 and 0.97. Little River had the table's largest gap with rates of 1.77 for weekdays versus 1.19 for weekends. It averaged fewer than ten hunters daily, so we would give that result little weight.

IIIChecking attendance

Crowded days did no worse

Weekends brought higher daily hunter attendance than weekdays at all 18 locations. The mean Saturday turnout was 49.4 hunters for each area-day. Monday's was 40.0. More guns in a marsh would seem to leave fewer ducks per hunter. These reports do not back that explanation.

We checked that explanation by comparing days within each area. For every date we compared attendance with the median hunter count for that same area. That meant a crowded morning at Duck Creek was measured against its own usual attendance. Above-median days produced an average of 1.93 ducks per hunter. For days meeting or falling below the median the average was 1.90. The crowded days held a slight advantage.

Perhaps hunters arrive when ducks are present, making crowded days appear productive. These reports cannot evaluate that possibility. They show that higher-attendance days did no worse on average than lower-attendance days.

IVLimits of these records

The difference exists without a known cause

The records tally ducks and hunters for each area on each date. They cannot isolate a weekday effect from weather or the ducks present that day or the hunters who choose each day. They do not assess rest days or refuges or how frequently an area gets hunted. These averages describe groups across trips. They establish nothing certain about an individual hunter's chances. Available area-days vary across days of the week because opening dates and holidays and closures fall on different days. The file contains 1,360 Saturday area-days compared with 999 for Wednesdays.

The rest days and refuges guide looks at another measure. It describes work at three Mississippi areas where duck counts under a schedule of four hunting days per week were not detectably lower than under two. That study counted the birds themselves. This one measures ducks per hunter at Missouri areas. The two studies therefore address different questions.

We began by cleaning the file. The source contained 8,161 rows. Of those we retained 8,065 area-days. We removed 55 rows with duplicated combinations of area ID and date. For records lacking an area ID we matched the area name and retained 819 out of 850 rows. We removed 31 of those records as duplicates. Another 10 lacked hunter counts and were removed.

VOur takeaway

Use a weekday you already have off

Our approach is to settle on an area before taking a weekday that costs nothing. If a weekday costs wages or vacation time, the small difference makes Saturday a choice you need not regret. Thursday and Monday produced the strongest rates. The file put Sunday last, making Saturday the stronger weekend option. These numbers give no reason to stay home solely because a draw is crowded. Days with more hunters than usual averaged as well as quieter days. Weekdays provided an advantage of about one duck over every seven trips. That gain warrants using an existing day off. It does not warrant taking a day off you otherwise lack.