Stan & JOe:
God bless you both. Tenderize those shoulders. Believe in cosmic physics. And enjoy those buffered artillery rounds of hardened shot. The crippled American wildfowl will thank you for it. Not.
Except JOe has a sense of humour for it all. Good for him.
I am not a skyblaster, by any stretch of the imagination. I'd much rather have the ducks "up close and personal", setting down in the dekes where where I can see their eyeballs. That said, KR, I tire of hearing people, who have never taken the time or put forth the effort to learn to do something out of the ordinary, condemning others who
HAVE. Sixty and seventy yards kills are not unreasonable. They are not even a stretch for a man who has taken the time and put forth the effort to learn how.
I have shot competitive clays for many years, and competed in many tournaments that had a long bird game on the side. I would rather shoot that than the course. Great fun, but more importantly, it teaches. If I can kill a clay at 80 yards 7 out of 10 tries, with a 3 - 1 1/8 - 7 1/2 load, I can kill a duck at 60-70 yds. reliably, under the right conditions, with the right load. BTW, I don't own a 3 1/2" twelve, never will. If I can't kill it with a 3" load, it can fly on without being shot at.
See, when people make blanket statements , stating absolutes, they are being set up for a fall. The world of shotgunning encompasses so much more than one man's little sphere of it. Just because you don't believe there are gunners that can handle a 3" magnum duck load, and use it to it's fullest capability, doesn't mean they don't exist.
Tenderize my shoulder? Maybe you should check into why a magnum load out of a well fitted and properly mounted gun hurts you so bad. I am not a proponent of heavy loads for everything. I probably shoot more 7/8 oz. loads than anything else, at game. But heavy loads have their place, and long range shooting does, too.
All my best, KR.
