Curious as to what all of you fine gentlemen are armed with in the duck blind.

I've always used my semi-auto or pump, but am leaning towards a double this season.

What's in your blind?

Winchester Super X2 or when I'm feeling nostalgic a Browning A-5. I dont usually duck hunt out of a nice cozy blind, I'm in the water and my gun ends up in the water alot too. We actually sit in the water on marsh seats, guns get wet, sometimes they get dropped, just how it goes. The Winny has treated me good for almost a decade and its still going strong. I hunt the RWB and Platte in Nebraska mostly...along with salt marshes here in Utah...with the exception of hunting the Platte, both the RWB and salt marshes are nasty, silty beyond belief and 95% of the time you couldnt get a boat in there if you tried, pretty tough stuff to haul a nice double out into. Another thing...I shoot alot of ducks, bismuth or TM is too costly to shoot. In a typical season..I can go thru two flats of Kentfasteel easily. If I just hunted ducks less than 10 times a year...I guess I could justify shooting expensive non-tox. Until they make a double that is tough enough to shoot a truckload of Kent Faststeel and not fall apart, it'll be the Super X2.

Dustin

I will be using my 30" barreled BSS mostly, with my old Beretta 390 as back-up, or if it's really wet. When I go to Arkansas I will probably take the Super Fox for another outing. Just don't seem right not to take her in a duck blind at least once a year.

Stan

My regular steel shot gun, ten gauge AYA lightweight in unmodified factory condition. Backup would be a steel barrelled Parker, DH Grade, sleeved to steel and 3 1/2" chambers by Frank Lefever and Son. The AYA has never let me down so the Parker has never killed a duck or goose in my hands. I have not killed a duck or goose with any gun less than a ten gauge for about seven years. I have enough ten gauge ammunition to last my lifetime and more.

Define "Duck Blind" first please. Our early season "Nuisance Goose" season opens 1 Sept-runs 15 days, five bird/daily limit.
Usually warm, like dove season in Indiana- for me, mainly pass shooting at lower passing small flocks heading out to feed (cut oats mainly in Sept) or back to water. Either a 12 ga. M12 with Federal 2& 3/4" steel No 2's, or my LC Smith Longrange with 3" Classic Doubles non-toxic loads.

Then it is about a month until both goose and duck opens (60 day season- 2 Geese, 6 ducks daily limit-) in our SW zone- aprox mid Oct. until Dec- Same M12 for ducks (mallards mainly- 4 per day) by then resident geese are a bit wary- either M12 3" Mag or on nasty rain making days, my POS "Black Ops" duck/goose gun- Mossberg 835 Ulti_Mag with 3" BB steel.

I also do some field layout hunting with a local DU group- I love pumpguns, but a semi-autoloader has some advantage when you are shooting from a prone field folding camo blind, ditto a cramped layout boat.

I stay with 12 gauges- but I have my eye on a sweet Lindner Daly std. 10 with 32" Krupp steel barrels and DT- if I end up with this, I'll use RST special 2 & 7/8" shells-expensive, but safe in a hard to replace double.

Chokes with steel or non-toxic- all the above guns except the Mossberg 835 (it has choke tubes) are full choked, and I have been using steel in both M12's for over 20 years- NO damage whatsoever to the barrels- But I am mainly a pass shooter, for jump shooting and layout shooting I use the 835 with a Mod. choke tube. I like to hit big birds hard with a tight pattern, I don't like cripples. But your shooting style may well be different than mine, also age and reflex. I also practice a lot on incomers, off season on barn pigeons and crows, and I prefer an incoming bird as it means a fatal head shot (if you do your part right)--

If you use a double, possibly Imp. Cyl. and Mod. (as in an upland game gun) that might be right for decoys and jump shooting while floating a river- I would pattern test the gun with the non-tox loads just to see what it does for you, and I would recommend a std. weight 12 over a featherweight or lighter game gun (such as you might use for grouse or quail)

Good luck and have a safe season--

The 1800 acres of flooded timber I hunt near Stuttgart Ark. doesn't have a blind on it.

A little rain hasn't hurt my 10 ga. W.&C. Scott 'Premier Gun' in 130+ years and a handload of 1&5/8 oz of #4 Bismuth at 1260fps does real well out of the 32" light full barrels.
Cabelas had their Bismuth ammo on sale and I just got in a case of 20 ga. I may take my Scott 12 hammer gun with 20ga. Briley tubes a few times. It patterns really good with an improved modified choke.

The main deal when using these old guns is to have them cased really well for the boat ride.

I can believe that

nine pound winchester model 12 with 3" chamber and 32" barrel.

Most of the time I take a Baker double that was marked as a Montgomery Wards. Think of a nine pound plus gun with barrels thicker than heck and chokes of .050. In nice weather I take a Lefever HE or GE grade. The HE has a straight stock with beaver tail fore end that someone used as a trap gun for years. The GE is a restored gun that looks like new and I hate to get it too dirty.

I stopped taking autos and pumps duck hunting several years ago. When you get old you rather watch the birds work than shoe them away with rapid banging, tons of smoke and two ounces of shot here, there and everywhere.

Most of the time it is my plastic Beneli auto..... but last year I took out my 10 Ga. LC Ideal grade (a rail gun from the Maryland shores) w/ home loaded bismuth and nice shot and my Pedersoli 12 Ga. muzzle loader. (Never hit anything with the Pedersoli. I am restoring my LC so I am not sure how much she will go this year. I have also taken my Fox Sterlingworth ejector too. Also while pheasant hunting on my club I jumped in the blind with my 16 Ga. LC 3e and my 20 Ga. RBL.

This year I intend to do the same.

Life is good when you have so many choices! Kind of like looking into the liquor cabinet and not knowing what whiskey to drink!

Jerry

I think I have the most fun with my Greener single 10. 40" barrel,3 1/2" chamber,10 lbs. Overbored by Stan Baker, may he (RIP), many years ago to 9 ga. It puts a lot of fear,and a few BB pellets, into the hearts of our local wintering snow geese. The barrel adds a lot of range (at least 12" anyway)

In the blind it is a 1910 LC Smith 00 with 30" barrels and full/fuller chokes:




In the field it will be this obscure spanish gun I picked up on a whimsy and fell in love with:



I'm tossing nice shot down the tubes in 7/8-1oz reloads.

Always non auto. Hammer or vintage shotgun. I believe in the sporting chance not the heavy bag. HomelessJoe appears to be at that stage too.

T

Hi, well I've got just two dedicated duck guns, both doubles, both 12ga and both are tubed for use with steel. Here they are:

Bernadelli Italia Hammergun:



And my Fabarm Beta Classis:



Great posts by everyone and some great pics.

Josh, fun post BTW!

All the best!

Greg

T you got me figured wrong...I hunt for "the heavy bag" and I'm not a believer in "stages"....I just like old guns and shooting them, I'm not dreaming of old times just trying to make the best of mine.

Ps...don't let the old looks of the W&C Scott fool you I'd almost be willing to bet she can out kill any modern gun....by more than "12 inches".

Lefever "E" 10 bore.......

As a 16 ga. user for ducks over decoys I'll be useing a Long Range Arms with 30" barrels with bismuth and Kent Matrix. That's in Wisconsin, in Louisana it will be an 870 Express 16 ga, with steel. Also might use my old Bernadelli Gamecock Deluxe 12 when hunting locally as I have a lot of 2.75" bismuth.

Garcia Bronco in .410 ... Just kidding.

AYA 10 bore 32" barrels for geese and SKB 100 12 w/choke tubes for dragging through the "crick" and jump shootin wood ducks. Oooooh I luvs them woodrow's.

Early goose starts tomorrow (I could limit out with an airgun, there must be 200 feeding in the park connected to my back yard) Nasty things crappin all over the soccer fields...

When it's ducks over decoys it's my Fox Sterlingworth 16 gauge in what I like to think of as "field" condition, all finishes worn away, missing the pistol grip cap and with a butt pad so hard and cracked it reminds me of my ex. When geese are on the menu, I bring my great grandfather's Fox A grade 12 gauge F/F, bought new by him in 1911. All the other working guns in the safe get used to kill things, just not near water.

Starting to think I need to find myself a nice old 10 gauge!

Here is sampling
10ga Ideal

Super Fox 12ga HE

XE 12ga Fox

LC Smith 10ga Pigeon

16ga Simson with I/C and light full chokes. I know it's not the gauge of choice for waterfowl, however, we hunt smaller ponds and kill the ducks at under 30 yards. The 16 with Kent Matrix does very well.



tunes

My favourite is the Jeffery hammer gun with 2 3/4" tungsten matrix or the BSA 3" with bismuth. Lagopus.....

I mostly use my Parker DHE 34 inch on #3 frame for ducks. I've got a pretty good stock of Kent TM and Federal Polymer so ammo isn't an issue for that gun. Sometimes it's an early Model 11 Remington or an A-5 too, but mostly it's the big Parker.

For geese I've got a factory Parker magnum 10 gauge I've had a long time and seems to kill them pretty well. I've been goose scouting hard for the Michigan opener tomorrow but haven't found a thing so it looks like I'll have to wait for the Ontario opener next week to do my first fowling of the season.

The one bright spot in all the goose scouting was finding some fields that were literally black with barn pigeons and managing to trace them back to the source which is a big dairy farm. Talked to the farmer this morning and he was thrilled I wanted to come shoot a few for him. I'm supposed to meet him next week so he can show me all his ground and give me the lowdown.


Destry

390 3 inch 1 1/4 #2 steel, IMOD choke,kills them dead out to fourty yards

bill

my 57th season of duck hunting starts 11-20

Craig,

Does your 10 LC Ideal have steel or damascus barrels? Mine is damascus. Only 158 ideal 10 ga made. I thought most were with damascus.

Also how much does it weigh? Mine is on the lighter side for a 10 ga. about 9.5 # Choked improved mod & full.

Jerry

Tunes,

I like your spaniel.

I used to hunt ducks with a springer. Now I have slowed down my field hunting and use my Gordon.

It is fun to see the looks on other duck hunters faces when you show up with alternate hunting dogs.

Jerry

20ga o/u SKB for early birds, all within 30 yards, Kent matrix.

I ought to use my Miroku/Daly 500 with steel shot for all my duck hunting, but I have a good supply of 16ga and 12ga Bismuth laid in, so I use all my old doubles once or twice during a duck season. I do make the exception when I travel to prairie Canada in October, and shoot whatever 3-inch afromatic I happen to have...a Beretta Urika this season...Geo

Jerry: My 10 ga Elsie Ideal weights 10lbs 4oz, Damascus A real big fella.

Here is my new blind gun for 2010 10 ga Elsie #1 Grade 30" Damascus, 9lbs 14oz, killed a spring turkey with it this year. This gun has had MANY days work in the duck blind.

1924 vintage L.C.Smith Ideal grade 3" Long Range, 32" bbls, F&F. 1 1/4oz. of either Bismuth or Nice Shot #2's @1250fps drops decoyed Eastern Shore geese with alacrity. This gun has spent it's life waterfowling in Maryland and I hope to give it at least another 20 years doing that!

Hello All

L.C. Smith 10 gauge Grade 2 Syracuse Hammerless made ??

It has been very difficult to get data on this hammerless made late in the Syracuse days.

I'm going to try my "lion" gun for the first time this year, a 12ga belgian guild choked m/f, using Kent TM 1 1/8oz. 5's over decoys.

Jerry: I know what you mean about "alternative" dogs. I married the girl who came along with a half-Irish Irish Irish Water Spaniel. I'd really get some looks when we showed up in the field. I told them he was a Standard Poodle and most believed me. Anyway, they shut up pretty quick when they saw him go to work.

For duck guns, I've got a 10#4oz Lefever G 10-bore with 32-in damascus barrels ... no "wand," as they say, but man, will it whack those high-flyers! When I'm going easier on myself, I take a 1956 Model 12 Duck gun, one of the last made with a solid rib, or a 1961 A-5 Magnum with a spare Hastings barrel for steel shot.

By the way, I really enjoy putting faces with names (what a bunch of geezers we are!), and seeing all these pretty guns. Happy hunting. TT



P.S. This is my Sweet Sixteen, built the year I was born, and loaded with Bismuth. A change of pace for decoying ducks. Not all of these birds were mine, but my buddy wanted an impressive looking bag.

In recent years it has been one of following three Husqvarnas. A M51 16 bore with 75cm barrels, half and full chokes, a M34 16 bore with 80 cm barrels, cylinder and full, or a M48 12 gauge with 75 cm, full and full barrels. All hammer guns. Ammo for 16 has been #6 or #5 bismuth handloads with 28 grams shot at about 1250 fps and some factory 16X67 bismuth loads with 28 grams #6. For 12X65 it has been factory 12X67, 28 grams #5 bismuth at 1300 fps.

Hunting where I go was terriffic some years ago but in recent years the South Platte has become so overgrown with brush and small trees that ducks and geese find little to attract them. About time to find somewhere else to hunt.

Niklas

A new to me Model 21 Duck is going to the field this year in addition to another Model 21 and an RBL.

Favorite picture of the RBL and an Aleutian Teal from last season.

Nine times out of ten I'll have my Maxus with me but at least twice a year I take out the Winchester model 50 that my Grandfather left me and my Flues model Ithaca. I sure wish that Hevi-Shot Classic Doubles ammo didn't cost so much. I'd use those guns a whole lot more if it was cheaper to feed 'em.

A couple of proven performers :
D grade Parker 10 g with 30 & 32" barrels


Lindner Daly 10 g


and a new one this year: Garbi 3" 12 bore heavy proof!


All will be fed bismuth # 4s and maybe try some of BPs new shot made for the old guns.
best regards,
JBP

absence of winchester m21 users is thunderous!

There is at least one out there.

Gentlemen,
And you too HoJo!
I'm selling a 1936-37 vintage Nitro Special with beautiful original case colors, 30" barrels choked .050/.025 (yes! .050!) I'm not a duck hunter, but this gun would look really fine in someone elses duck blind. I put an ad in the doubleguns for sale section of this website on August 4th. Check it out!
Email me at steve_thornhill@hotmail.com and I'll email photos.
Steve

870 express synthetic stock, shoot it better than any gun I own, and can also use to paddle the canoe if necessary.

Rock,

What is that bored?

Sounds interesting, think it is original?

Best,
Mark