CaptainA

Brand spanking new to duck hunting. Will be using a 11-87 special Purpose... Choke tube and shell combo suggestions would be awesome. Thank You!

skiftcky

There's not much to it. Just make sure you're using steel shot that fits your gun. Every body has their own personal preference as to the brand of ammo. about the only rule of thumb is to use #4 shot for your smaller birds (teal, wood duck) #2 for regular duck ( Mallard, Gadwall, widgeon) and BB,BBB is mostly for goose but I have known a few ppl to use BB on duck. It's all personal preference. I know guys who buy 10gage shotguns and use #2 magnum loads for duck and I know guys who will shoot 20gage #2 shot. Me, i'm right in the middle.
By the way, you sure you want to be a duck hunter? It is 1000 times more addicting than crack cocaine laced with meth and heroin. ~

skiftcky

PS. Modified steel choke is fine

fowlmouth

Same here! I just picked up some books and DVD's on duck hunting. I have a buddy that hunted last season and i will be going with him, My questions is why not #3?

Doc E

Use steel if you want, or heavier metal non-tox, but I'm 100% sold on HeviShot.


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Paulpskp

Your 1187 is a fine choice for waterfowl hunting. I prefer IC choke for most of my waterfowl hunting. Shot size depends on many factors, size of birds, distance of shots time of season. I would agree with earlier post 4's for small birds 2's or even 1's especially late in season on larger birds. Use the time now to test a number of different brands and shot sizes to see which work best in your gun. A couple of afternoons at the range and patterning board can pay dividends come fall. Good luck.

blondemallard

Start practicing your calling now or leave the calls at home. Less is often more, especially with new hunters. The best way to practice is to record yourself on a laptop or cell phone. Try to do the recordings outside (if the neighbors don't yell at you) or in the kitchen or garage. Small rooms can make the recordings turn out a little weird. Keep altering what your calling until you get something that sounds good.

ksfowler166

My advice if your decoy step up and topography allow it use #5 or #6 steel with i.c. or a more open choke. This last year the water on the river was way down shrinking the size of the back water we hunt all shots where under 30yds. Think of it this way we use extremely small shot relative to body size for turkey. The reason being we aim for the head. The small shot fills in the pattern and the open choke gives you a greater chance of multiple hits to the head/neck of the duck. #6 will work just fine for mallards.