New to Waterfowl
 

I am extremely interested in hunting, specifically deer and waterfowl only. I have posted a few questions in the Deer forum for those particular hunters but now am going to move onto waterfowl.

1. I am not familiar with shotguns only I have a 12 and 20 that I used to shoot when I was much younger, like 12-14. I am now 22. What are some basics of the shotgun I need to know? What type should I choose for waterfowl in SW Pennsylvania?

2. I have never done trap before. Should I find some place to practice that?

3. What the heck should I do?

Thank you all so much for your help and consideration. Everyone on this website has been so helpful and has welcomed me to the hunting world, encouraging me.

DU

RE: New to Waterfowl
 

If you are interested in good advice on how to hunt ducks and geese, I'd get a copy of T.R. Michels' Duck & Goose Addict's Manual. If you are interested in deer hunting get his Whitetail Adict's Manul. They areby far the best book I've ever rad on the subject.

And you can e-mail him any time you want at [email protected] and ask him questions. He usually gets back to me within a couple of hours.

You can get the books here. http://www.trmichels.com/TMcatalog.htm

RE: New to Waterfowl
 

greatone,

Welcome to the sport and the forum. Been a lotta new fellas coming around this year wanting to get into the sport. Therefore, we already got a coupla threads addressing what you need to know as a new waterfowler. The first thread has some excellent advice and suggestions from Chris H and Alsatian, both fellow forum members. The next two links are to posts where I have shared some of my own brilliance :eek:...joking.

Anyway man, welcome, check out the links, and come on back with more questions if you got em.

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=3100102 - General

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=3073224 - Calling and General Tips

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=3106798 - Etiquette

RE: New to Waterfowl
 

greatone: See the other posts linked above. I assume you are not experienced as a shotgunner. Getting some experience shooting at flying targets is a good thing to do before you go out duck hunting. Find a skeet range, a trap range, a sporting clays range and goshooting a few times. You don't have to become expert, just work at it a little bit.

Be aware that there are some things different about shotgun shooting from rifle shooting. You don't "aim" you "point" a shotgun. What this translates to in terms of real-world action is a process: (1) you mount your gun by bringing it up and back to place it firmly against your shoulder with your face contacting and aligned with the stock (this is done while your eyes remain focused on the bird); (2) your eyes look at your target (flying duck); (3) you swing the gun barrel from behind the duck, over take and pass the duck and -- without stopping your swinging motion -- pull the trigger. No aiming took place -- no conscious alignment of rear sight, front sight, and target. This is a key point to understand. The rest is just experience and adjustment. Different shotgun loads will shoot shot at different speeds, which maps to different amounts of lead. Different angles of duck flight maps to different amounts of lead. Different speeds of duck flight maps to different amounts of lead. Different distance of ducks maps to different amounts of lead. Generally, people don't think a lot about these things, they just do what feels right and get dialed in with more and more experience. Your "dialed in" condition can be thrown off if you change shotgun shell loads, but otherwise you're probably OK.

I'm sure there are other shotgun shooting refinements that are important, but if you master the above, you are probably 80% of the way to perfection. From what I read, a smooth, consistent mount of the shotgun accompanied by balanced steady footing are key to skilled shotgun shooting. Things like selecting loads, chokes, shooting glasses to enhance vision, etc., is getting into a more advanced mastery of the art to which I am not yet privileged to be admitted. I guess when I think the birds are going to be shot at relatively close distances I use an Improved Cylinder choke and 2 3/4" shotgun shells with #6 Hevishot Duck when I think the birds are going to be shot at in a middle distance (later part of the season whenbirds may be more wary and reluctant to drop into the decoys)I use a Modified Cylinder choke and 3" shotgun shells with #4 Hevishot Duck, but that isn't exactly what I would call super sophisticated adaptation to conditions.

RE: New to Waterfowl
 

you can go to www.buckgardner.com for all of your call and instructional needs, you can also see his instructions on youtube. you may also want to visit www.theducklodge.com for more info also