PD shooter:<p>You sound like a good shotgun shot who just needs a little tuning (spelled practice) to be great.<p>If the only shooting you are going to do is decoying ducks with your 870, I would load 3s for the first shot in your 870 and back it with 1s or BBs. If money is tight, the 1 1/4s are perfectly adequate for decoying ducks as long as you don't push the ranges. BTW the chokes in your Ruger are fine for steel and decoying ducks, and if you are wearing the usual colder weather gear, felt recoil will be minimal. I like O/Us for the instant choke selection, but you can't go wrong with an 870 either. I would pattern it with your choice of steel and see if mod or IC works best. For straight decoying ducks with steel I would probably use IC, although that is a close call. I am just not too fond of modified chokes, which is a personal preference. I like either more open or tighter. I usually shoot almost everything with IC and Improved Modified, unless there is some strong reason for choosing another choke set up.<p>If you are going to possibly have geese in the mix I would go with 1s and BBs. I know it is a pain to have 2 different shot sizes, easiest way to handle it is to buy 2 brands(different colors) so you can identify them at a glance. And keep them in different pockets.<p>If I was in your shoes, I might buy 1 1/4 3s for the first shot and 3 inch 1 3/8 oz 1s or BBs(depending on whether geese are in the mix)for the back ups.<p>Hevi-shot is undoubtedly expensive, roughly $15-18 for 10 shells but it can be reloaded for about the price of factory steel. It is a tungsten, nickel, iron, shot that is 11% heavier than LEAD, and patterns much tighter. There is still a steep learning curve going on with it, but it appears that you may be able to successfully use one size smaller shot than with lead and get superior results. Smaller shot obviously equals more pellets in the pattern. Thanks to my procrastination in reloading, normal for me, I only had about 25 shells in Canada this year, but the performance was impressive. A load of 4s absolutely crushed a couple of Greater Canadas at about 50 yards. And for 4s that is the best I have ever seen at that range. Ducks over decoys or on the edges looked like they were hammered. Of course, some of those reloads were faulty, they had some misses in them, too. But, it is the new paradigm, a much misused word, in shotgun shooting. Hopefully, with bigger sales volumes the price may come down a little. Check out their site
www.hevishot.com Or for reloading it, or almost anything else in the shotgunning area,
www.ballisticproducts.com
