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There's not really too many things besides fishing that can get me out of bed at 4:00 am, but duck hunting is one of them. A budy an I set up near St. Anthony this morning and waited anxiously for 7:00 to roll around, we had our decoys set up and ready by 6:30, and by 6:45 we probably had 50 live ducks swiming in our spread (which didn't actually do us any good becuase we weren't sitting in our spots yet but still cool). Any way to make a long story short, I was again reminded that I'm not too good of a shot [blush], but by 11:00 we called it a day, and had 7 ducks and 4 geese on the ground. It was a blast! I hadn't ever shot a goose before so that really made my day!
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4 we woke up at 3 to get over to beat lake were we were hunting. We didnt see near as many shots as we had the 2 days we scouted over there last week. but we had a good time we ended up with 10 ducks and 2 geese. between 2 adults and first time hunter with his single shot 20 gage (who ended up with 1 duck and 1 goose.) we had a great time. but i also was shown that i need some practice. I think 3 of my birds were over 50 ft but couldnt hit the easy ones at all.
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Yup I sure do love blasting those happy little ducklings out of the sky! I got out of bed at 3:00 for it - it's one of my favoritest things. Anyway, 3 of us shot 17-18 ducks and 6 geese (2 of which were banded: YIPEE!) It was a riot as always.
Anyways Jigs, ever tried patterning steel shot? I'm not sure if you meant 50 yards or 50 feet, but I had a real eye opener when I patterned it last year. I patterned 3 different loads @ 50 yards with 3 different chokes. I did 1 1/4 oz of 3 shot (or 2, I'm not sure), 1 1/4 BB, and 1 1/8 of BBB. The chokes I tried were Full, Modified, and Improved Cylinder. I had big sheets of cardboard w/ 30" circles - I aimed right in the middle of them.
I counted the pellets within the circles, but I won't get into that. I was mostly just looking for nice even, uniform patterns, without any holes that you could fit a duck (or goose[laugh]) in. Here's what I will tell ya: if you plan on shooting ducks @ less than 50 yards, you better be shooting Improved Cylinder, or something more open than that. Otherwise you'll have to be a really good shot to hit them, and chances are you won't be eating much of them either. Conversely, if you want to shoot them at 50+, Modified is great.
One thing that I thought was pretty interesting was that the BB load with the full choke looked really good @ 50 yards. Everything else with the full choke was more uneven, and everything with the mod was a little too tight.
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ya 50 yards.
I have tried messing with the diffrent chokes a couple of times. but what i found out is that is messed up my shot. like when i would go pheasant hunting i would switch it to reg or whatever i was using and i had to shoot diffrent or in my mind i did. so i just go with the whatever is on my gun.
were was it that you went to get the banded birds?
i also have a problem maybe someone will know how to fix. i got a new 870 2 years ago now its one of the ones that shoot the 3 1/2 inchers but if i am shooting straight up at ducks. it doesnt catch my second shell and either kicks it out with my spent round or jams it were i have to pull it out. it did it when i first got it but didnt put it together that it is when i am shooting verticaly.
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It was the same spot we always hunt. Those 2 banded geese came out of the same flock. We have killed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of ducks there and only 1 band: the first duck my dad shot on his first time there. . . . and he's only came about 4 times [unimpressed]. We've shot a ton of geese there too and these are our 1st goose bands. Just one of those fluke deals I think.
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saturday was rough for me i didnt down one bird i was hitting them and watching feathers go every wear but the ducks would just take the shot back pedal and turn and leave so i switched from that crappy winchester hivelocity stuff i was using and went to the estate bb 1 1/4 for the next day we got are decoy spread set up right at 7 we were running a little late i was literaly standing in the middle of my decoys and ducks were landing in them not more than five feet from me well we got sat up and guess what the different shot did the trick we were dropping ducks left and right we killed 11 ducks and 2 geese saturday good time.
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let me guess. . . winchester expert? That stuff is pathetic. I would rather be throwing handfuls of gravel at them. Pop one of them open, and take a look at the pellets. The ducks can probably hear those irregular shaped pieces of crap whizzing through the air as soon as they get out of your barrel, and get out of the way[sly]. Not to mention the confetti they throw in the air and all the unburnt powder that splatters in your face and eyes.[pirate]
BB might be a little on the big side for ducks, but most people don't like to eat duck anyway.[crazy] Glad you worked out the kinks and got some birds.
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you got it it was winchester xpert and i will never shoot it again as far as bb being to big it didnt seem to big plus the only way i eat duck is jerky so i shred them anyways. going to market lake tomorrow evening gonna throw a spread out for the last 2 hours of light then im gonna hunt mudlake saturday and then back to the idaho falls area for sunday. i would deer hunt but i dont rifle hunt and i dont feel like dragging my bow out on opening weekend of any weapon deer. im sure i would just leave frustrated from my stand or stands.
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Lucky! That sounds a heck of a lot more satisfying than the madness of the rifle deer hunt opener.
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