Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Loads and choke for 40+ ducks....

High velocity loads work fine for close kills but to get large shot in heavy doses to stay in tight patterns the loads need to be slower.

I have patterned more then enough guns and have never seen an after market choke tube pattern better enough to justify me buying them. You can argue that all you want with yourselves but seeing with my own eyes you ain't changing my mind.

Don't even get me started on those Muller chokes either.

What works for one doesn't always work for others. And what some demand is more or less than what others demand.

Never heard of a muller though so you may well be spot on there!

I know my 10 does WAY better with an aftermarket tube than the factory tubes.

Kent Fasteel #2. I use either Briley, Terror, or Wad Wizzard tubes.

Count me in the Kent Fasteel fan club. The #2s out of a modified choke hit em hard.

Remington Nitro-Steel 3" 1300fps 1 3/8 #2s I-Mod Briley out to 45. BB's beyond.

I just bought a box of Kent Faststeel #2 to pattern - the 12 gauge, 3", 1-1/4 oz., 1425 FPS load. Which load are you Kent shooters using?

I have been shooting the 12 ga 3-1/2" with 1 and 9/16 oz of #2 shot.
Advertised at 1300 fps. solid kills to 45 yards

Kent fasteel 2-3/4" #4's and 2-3/4" #2's.

#4's for duck

#2's for Geese

Now that we have all that out of our systems... Anything passed 40 yards is sky busting.. You cripple more birds then you know.. Birds that you will not see move or rock.. They simply go off and die.. Never mind the fact that you are educating more birds then not.. This is very unethical.. Sorry guys it had to be said.. The worst thing that can happen is a lucky shot and the ding-ding is thinking that he is a waterfowler... Never mind the fact that 40 yards will turn into 50+ yards...... There are ding-dings that show up each year at the public blinds in the little marsh that is in the head of the gunpowder river in Maryland.. Soon after these "rubberheads" show up and start shooting the birds get out in a week or go nocturnal.... They ruin it for everyone AND to the man they think they are not sky busting ....

Well put Cigar, I want to shoot ducks decoying with their feet down. I am not mad at any ducks, and I'm happier to not shoot them then to have them go away to die. Wish more folks felt that way. There are still folks around, even after all these years, that remember when a 40 yd duck was easily killed. And I see it happen some even now, but not nearly as cleanly. It's amazing what a difference there is from 30yds to 40yds, especially in a strong wind.

Cigar I agree. The problem is most of those "rubberheads" couldn't tell you what 40 to 60 yards is.

I always set a single deke out at 40 yards so I have a marker.... and wont' shoot past that unless I feel a bird is crippled. It also tells you when you can start your shot... hope like heck you get em at least 10 yards or more inside that marker before you move....

Though IMHO if you hit the bird with a solid pattern at 40 yards, given say at least 5-6 pellets of #2 steel, that bird will never fly away... Of course they don't die like they did with lead either...

rost495 I would not call you a "rubberhead".

I think I am going to adopt that term, I like it. LOL

Love the 3" 1 1/8oz 1560fps loads.

I do the same thing when hunting over water.. On land sometimes we are forced to have a rig of 6/700+ decoys... Then birds are in the pocket big time....

Of course but if you could do that consistently at 120 yards that would not be sky busting that bird would be in range...

I hunted with lead for years then when the government made steel mandatory for 12ga I dropped to a 16ga.. I can remember the gentlemen showing up at the gunshop angry with steel shells for blowing out their high end doubles.. The 1st steel shells were junk sometimes not shoot or pattern erratic... At times they would rust together and end up like a steel slug.. Cripples everywhere.. God it was awful.. Some old timers quit gunning..

You said it I do think some of these new/old shells like Hevi/Bismuth are just as effective as lead.. Except lead has take'en on lure of it's own... Guys think we never had a cripple..

I can remember chasing a Black Duck all over a marsh in Wachepeague, Va one day a long time ago.. I can't remember how many shots it took to get him in the boat.. It was more then a handful ....

Rubberheads don't put out a range marker.. They just shoot and move their head in an unpredictable repetitive fashion violating all the rules of concealment..

I guess we have white rubberheads down here.... I get my paint or face mask and paint on, gloves, chew my nephew for moving, teaching him when they are way out and coming get your gun ready slowly, then when within committing range dont even breath no matter what(well you can breath) but dont' adjust gun etc. until ready to shoot, then do it all at once.....

The rubberheads here don't wear gloves, or face cover and skygawk.... WTF good does the rest of your camo duckblind bla bla bla do? I'd be better off in tan carharts with face and gloves covering up the white.... than the best camo and white faces....

Used to always rib a black state trooper that hunted wiht us that it wasn't fair tha the didn't need face paint or gloves.....

We put up pieces of cane as a 40 yrd marker. One thing that has to be remembered, if the duck is at your 40 marker and is up in the air 15 to 20 yards, he is not a 40 yrd shot.
When I started hunting, we used lead and I was taught to take a good shot or don't shoot. With steel 30 yards and in have a lot better chance of success than 40 yards and longer.
With the coming of the 3.5" shells some guys think they can take ducks at 60 yards or more. I heard one guy say that the only reason he shoots 3.5" is because they don't make a 4".....
I have no problem with anyone shooting 3.5" shells as long as they do it at birds that are in a high precentage range. I have more than once stood up to shoot at birds only to set right back down because the shot just did not look as good once I got into position.
I guess it all boils down to this for me, you have to respect the game you hunt. For me that means taking high precentage shots and killing the bird (or whatever) as quickly and cleanly as I can. I spend a huge amount of time at the skeet,trap, and sporting clays range every year to make sure I have my shooting skills as good as I can in order to do this.

I need to practice, I come from a competitive long range rifle background for many years, being pretty much at the top of the pack so to speak, generally in the top 100 in the nation. THe problem there, shotgun is totally bass ackwards.... I need help there bad, but refused to take time until I quit rifle competition.... Shotgun breeds BAD rifle habits...

So now I need to work on the shotgun skills.

And yes, I"ve passed up more than a few birds that once you drew down on them you realized, nope, not in range....

And yep, well aware of slope distance vs horizontal. 40 yard marker just makes me think, lets be 10 inside that for sure and hopefully 20, and by the time we move and shoot, hopefully we are at 30 or so....

The problem with ducks, for me at least, is the multitude of angles you get. its never simple crossing shots.....

What I wouldn't give to shoot a season with some kind of glowing pellets so I could learn what the heck is going on.

Now back to practice.... do you shoot 1500 fps loads but practice with 1200 fps loads? The more I think about some of this that seems defeating totally.... I should either load really fast lead to practice with, or shoot the slower heavier payload steel shells.... seems like you should practice with the same speed. And I dont' really want to shell out 10 bucks a box on steel to shoot trap/skeet...