Sure, I've shot ducks on the water. Mostly to sluice cripples, but there have been times where I've shot them on the water.

The negative connotations associated with expression 'shooting sitting ducks' comes from back in the days where market gunners wpould get out their punt guns and the like and hose down massive numbers of birds; birds that could not fly, as they were in the molting stage. Clearly not to be confused with any sporting endeavor. The negative connotations stuck, but was bastardized somewhat.

If I find that a duck has slipped into my spread, and I see it at 15 yards, I'll pop it in the water and add it to my bag. I'm not going to miss at that range. To jump it up is only risking a cripple, and as I hunt teh New England coast, you dump a bird too far offshore, you got a lost bird or a cold swim (I often hunt alone in waders--no boat)

This is an ethical questionm, and ethics are personal. I love most seeing locked up birds rocking their way on the wing into my blocks, and that's what keeps me going. But now and then, yeah, I shoot a bird on the water. That make me a slob? Not by a long shot.

But then, I speak for me. Only.

Leighton