Reality: duck hunting and goose hunting is a harsh, unpretty application for fire arms. You can drop your gun in the drink when you trip over marsh grass getting into position in the dark, you can jam your barrel down into the mud when you trip,you can splash water over your gun while wading out to retrieve dropped birds. Your gun can slip in the blind and get smeared with mud and dirt on the floor of the duck blind. You can hunt in the rain and snow. You might not want to takea "pretty" shotgun out there.

When I bought a shotgun to begin duck hunting, I got a cheap shotgun with a synthetic stock. My thinking was, the synthetic stock is largely impervious to the elements. The shotgun isn't particularly pretty, so if it gets beat-up, I won't feel guilty. Additionally, because it was cheap, worst case I throw it away and buy a new one. I think there are several makes and models of shotgun that would fill this particular niche.

It happens that I bought a Remington 870 with a black synthetic stock. It has not yet landed in the drink after three seasons. I did trip over swamp grass and land on my face in the drink, but I held my gun aloft and it remained dry. I have not dropped it in the water or jammed the barrel in the mud. I clean it after every hunt (used to be every outing when shot, now I'm just going to clean after every weekend's hunt is over -- I think that is enough, except that if it get's wet I'll go over the external metal with a lightly oiled rag) and wipe it down with an oily rag. The gun looks like new. It does the job for me. It cost me $280. A $2,000 gun would not do more for me than this gun does.