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.
