HuntingNet.com Forums - Took my great-grandfather's old Beretta duck hunting

This season, I had two great locations - one on Reelfoot Lake, and one on private property - I was able to hunt, so I was really excited in the months leading up to duck season. Unfortunately, I had long ago sold my duck hunting gun, and since money was kind of tight I didn't want to buy a new one. So, I dug through the gun safe and found one that's been passed down through my family - a Beretta Silver Snipe O/U 2 3/4" 12 gauge. Seeing as its barrels have fixed chokes and were made decades before steel shot was even a consideration, I had to order some special shells. Kent came out with some new bismuth loads before season, so I ordered some. I took the gun apart to figure out which barrel had which choke to make sure the Beretta was suitable for hunting - they made a few of them designed for different types of clay shooting. This one had its more open choke (improved modified) in the bottom barrel, with the tighter choke (full) in the top. Seeing as it fires bottom barrel first, then top, this meant it was a hunting gun.

Well, duck season sucked. Hard. I managed to go twice early on, but it was awful. We killed one at one spot, and nothing at the other. I kept contact with my two groups, but they kept coming up empty handed. Then, work got busy, and I wasn't able to hunt much at all from about the middle of December into the start January.

On the last weekend of duck season, I was invited to the private property. A recent cold front had pushed a few ducks down. In the floating pontoon blind hidden between some trees at the corner of the property, we finally started calling in some mallards. On two occasions, two separate singles worked their way in, wings cupped and feet down. Twice I shouldered the gun, drew a bead, and fired. Both times, the ducks folded and splashed into the water with not even a twitch.

There's something special about hunting with old guns that once belonged to relatives you never even got to meet.