June 10, 2022 Midlife Flyway: What Do I Need to Start Waterfowl Hunting as an Adult? By; Justin Hunold When we are introduced to hunting at a young age we generally grow up with a solid idea of what we need as far as gear goes. For those of us lucky enough to get to see the sunrise over the water and through the reeds from a childhood, waiting for the whistles of the wings and the calls of overhead ducks and geese, we have a great idea of what we need to have to go duck hunting. We likely started with hand me down wares, and by adulthood have worked into our dream gear. Unlike most of the past, there is an up and coming population of hunters diving into the field that are past the hand me down stage. These hunter’s have taken on the moniker of “Adult Onset Hunters” and they can often afford to go right into their dream gear and do. But how would they know what’s for show and what’s for go. This leads people to duck duck go things, and at the end of the day one question rings true: What do I need to start waterfowl hunting? This could end up being a series because of the depth and quantity of answers possible, but we are looking at someone who has decided to pick up waterfowling for the first time and needs to start a gear drive from scratch. There are levels to every game, but we will be trying to run at about a mid to higher end level for quality, and more than likely price. Also focusing on one hunter and assuming they can walk in or have a boat, canoe or kayak. So, what does an individual NEED to try and shoot a duck or goose in their first season or so of concerted effort. Shotgun- Obviously, a shotgun and ammo are the meat and potatoes of what makes hunting different than hiking, wading, paddling or boating. I would suggest a 12 gauge repeating shotgun to start. If the shooter is uncomfortable with recoil or a larger gun a 20 gauge would be a great option, but a bit more limited. If I had to choose one choke to run for most waterfowl situations it would be modified. I like a fiber optic bead and generally a 3 inch semi auto. Black or Camo synthetic stocks fit the bill. Your gun will also need a sling of some sort. That about does it for the “Needs”. Ammunition- When hunting waterfowl you need to shoot non toxic ammunition. This has been the case since 1991 and will probably never change, rightfully so. The lead ammunition gets ingested by waterfowl and other wildlife like Eagles and kills en masse. I would suggest steel shot in sizes #2-4 for ducks and #2 and larger like B or BB for Geese. 3” shells will be plenty as long as your gun will handle them. Almost every new or semi new shotgun will. There are also more recent to the market non toxic loads made from Bismuth or Tungsten alloys. These are closer to the mass of lead and will certainly deliver more kinetic energy and penetration. These shells cost more per individual shell, but maybe cost beneficial when having to shoot birds multiple times with steel comes into play. If I can make a suggestion here it would be to grab a few boxes of target loads and some clay pigeons, or better yet go to skeet or sporting clays course and break that gun in, along with yourself. Get to know your gun and what chokes are good for what ranges. This will change with steel shot but in general more practice is better.Waders– Waders are important. You can shoot ducks without them but you’re really limiting yourself. A person with a pair of waders, shotgun and ammo can feasibly hunt ducks in a lot of places and situations and not need anything more than those things. Waders are what gets you in the game, duck hunting is all just a level of how wet you are and waders keep half of you dry. The half that would definitely be wet in most hunting circumstances. You will wear them hunting, putting out decoys and picking up birds. I like boot foot, breathable waders if budget allows, but for most a good pair of neoprene waders fit the ticket. Boot foot keeps your boots attached when stuck in deep mud. Plus, boot foot is generally less expensive than stocking foot waders with the added expense of a wading boot. I would get a good set of brown or camo waders. When in doubt brown is a good color to go with in the world of duck hunting. It just blends everywhere. Decoys- We can pass shoot or jump shoot ducks and skip decoys all together, but that’s not what you had in mind when you pictured yourself duck hunting. You picture your camo covered face looking up at ducks cupping up coming into land in a well placed decoy spread. Decoys are arguably more effective as a duck magnet than calling, and fake friends can bring birds that were passing by closer into your effective shotgun range. I would start with a dozen mallard decoys. You will need decoy line, weights and a bag to carry them in. The line and weights attach to the decoys to keep them from floating away and the bag is there for transporting and organization sake. Decoys can range from a few bucks all the way into the hundreds. The more realistic the decoys the better off you will be, but there have been a lot of birds killed over “economy” decoys and this is where I would start. A spinning wing decoy is another great addition but not a necessity. There are wind operated models and mini models that cost a little less than the professional grade decoys. Either of which would be a fine addition to the spread, but aren’t absolutely needed. Clothing- A good waterproof and windproof jacket is a start. Camo is great but a simple brown will work as well. All hunting is a game of layering. When you have a camo or brown outer layer you can layer whatever color you need under it for temperature regulation. This means that red fleece you love to wear can go under your camo jacket for extra warmth, just make sure the red isn’t showing. I would say a hood isn’t necessary but is a good option too. I like a camo or drab baseball hat when I can get away with it. The Brim is nice since I will be looking up most of the time. When temps dip I leave the hat on and put a winter hat over it. Two sets of gloves. I like a good set of wool gloves for most of my hunting. Wool insulates when wet. The other pair are elbow high decoy gloves. These are worn when setting and picking up decoys. They can also be a lifesaver when it’s truly cold and you forgot to bring any other gloves. A facemask is optional if you choose not to wear face paint. But one way or another camo your face. Your face is one of the most unnatural sights a bird can see coming into a decoy spread. Plus human skin shines, so keep that to a minimum. Calls- If I were to choose one call to hand a first time duck hunter it would be a drake whistle. These are often a horn shaped whistle that can imitate a Mallard Drake, Widgeon, Green Wing Teal and Pintail. They are easy to learn, and don’t freeze up. Understatement in calling is often better than over calling. And drake whistles fit the new hunter, understated, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it mold. They are also generally not expensive. From there I would go with a double reed duck call. They tend to be easier to learn with and have a bit of rasp to them that sounds good to you and the ducks. I generally blow a single reed call, they have a wider range of volume and tones available. They are a bit tougher to learn on, but once you get them you can blow any duck call well. There is a very valid argument to learn a single reed call first, because you will be a better double reed caller once you do. In any case, please watch videos and listen to professional callers and live ducks to learn how to call. Practice at home, in the car, but never while hunting. Until you have calling down, and you sound like a reasonable version of a hen mallard, don’t take your call to the woods and water. Stick with that drake whistle and you’ll be surprised how many ducks you can call in. Blind Bag- You will need a blind bag of some sort to keep your gear organized and have a centralized location for your stuff. There are backpack style blind bags and duffel bag style. I prefer a duffel style most times although each has their place. If I were hunting standing timber, pass shooting or jump shooting I would always use a backpack style. I like the duffel style because much like a pack mule load distribution matters when walking into spots. I can sling a gun on one shoulder, blind bag on the other, and a decoy bag over both. I couldn’t do that with a backpack style. What goes in the bag? We have a list of things for your blind bag listed here. Licenses, Stamps, Tags- As far as I can tell most content outlets virtue signal and say this first, but I think my readers are smart enough to understand that these things are first and foremost. Plus, each state has different requirements so check your local regulations and verify that just like after using the can, your paperwork is in order. If possible try to keep your Federal Duck Stamp every year. They have a culture all their own. That’s it, with these eightish things you’re on your way to duck hunting. I would suggest taking a peek at my mindset into detailed duck hunting. There are other things that you will certainly need, like a headlamp, reasonable binoculars, water and snacks but again I believe that you are smart enough to piece that together. Take your time to learn your different duck identifications, this is super important as bag limits are different between different sub species. Black Ducks and Mallard Hens can look a lot alike for instance, and too many in your possession of either one is illegal. Also watch some videos on duck behavior or go see it live and in person in your hunting area. The more you watch waterfowl and take in what’s happening and what they sound like the less your gear will matter. At the end of the day, you will buy some things you don’t need but maybe you want. You will dive into jerk rigs, and confidence decoys, acrylic calls, different duck species for decoys, swamp stools, the list goes on. I say this in full confidence, because if done right there are few styles and types of hunting that are as fun and as rewarding as waterfowl hunting. I am a solo hunter most of the time, but waterfowling is always best with friends and family. I would make a concerted effort to align with some local friends to hunt with, or even someone far away if you’re willing to take that adventure on. Will I hunt ducks by myself, yes. Do I prefer it, no. So in my opinion the very best investments you can make into your waterfowling career are first in yourself, to learn as much as you can, and second into a hunting partner because ducks or not, my hunting partners have become lifelong that rank among my closest family and friends.
June 3, 2022 What Shells are Best for Waterfowl Hunting Pt 2 A cannonball in the shallow end of shotshell selection By: TJ Rademacher In my last article I talked about the evolution of the modern waterfowl shot shell and how we have gotten back to offerings available that closely match the performance of lead. Hell, in some ways they might be better. So, you’ve got a whole lot of choices! Honestly, you can do well with any of the modern offerings. The knowledge I’m about to leave with you will help you understand what sizes of shot in a given material for some general situations. Some of this might surprise you. Since we are talking about shot let’s talk about chokes for a minute before we get too deep into this. Chokes obviously effect your pattern size and density (pellet count) through tighter or looser constrictions. You can go as far down the rabbit hole as you want on how company A guarantees 50% denser patterns and company B says birds will actually put themselves on your strap because if the decreased shot string length produced by their wad grabber technology. I don’t care what kind of snake its named after or what type of violent weather pattern its supposed emulate. Your choke and shotgun combo will literally be not worth a damn if you don’t pattern it with whatever load you choose to run through it. One more thing to consider for those who can’t or choose not spend money on some of the more expensive choke options your shotgun probably came with a few factory chokes. Just because its stock doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Try them out with some of the partial boxes of shells you have. Get some cardboard out draw a 40-inch circle on it and shoot it. The results may surprise you. Let me preface this next part with the following, it’s an educated opinion. I’m not a ballistician and my physics formula game is weak so if you don’t completely agree with everything I have to say I’m sorry for any imperfections. There are tons of studies about the actual science of why a certain shot size does what it does as it travels down range or when it makes contact with a bird. I highly suggest you read some of the stuff by Tom Roster if you want a real understanding of the science. If you like the details like me, you will find this information extremely interesting. This is not that kind of article though. I’m going off the research that I was able to digest from folks like Tom over the years and the experiences I have had in the field. Here are the cliff notes. Ditch the 3.5 inch shells. You don’t need them. The tradeoff for more powder and heavier pay loads is more recoil. Recoil affects your ability to be able to get back on target after you either miss or you are trying to get after that other drake you see slipping out the back. Even if you are pass shooting I hold the same opinion. If you are shooting a steel shot shell, I recommend a 3inch shell. You can get more than enough speed to kill birds as long as you are choosing the right size shot and plenty enough payload for dense patterns. If you choose to go with Bismuth or tungsten I maintain that you really don’t need anything more than a 2 ¾ inch shell for birds inside of 40ish yards. This is because we are back to the near lead performance level with bismuth and way beyond with tungsten. I’ve also found that tungsten, bismuth and steel pattern out of 2 3/4 and 3 inch shell more uniformly and denser than 3.5-inch shells in my results. This is just my experience, but hey it jives with the science too. It’s weird how that stuff works. On to shot size. I don’t really see why you would need to shoot more than BB in a quality steel load for any North American waterfowl. To be completely honest I think #2 shot is plenty if your pattern is doing what is supposed to and you are being ethical with your distances. Here is why the shot is roughly a sphere. It’s not super aerodynamic like a bullet so the larger the sphere the more drag it creates. its gong to slow down faster than a slightly smaller shot and also when it hits the bird it probably going to drag more crap with it through the wound channel. So at the effective ranges shotgun operate in the #2 shot will most likely be traveling faster longer and penetrate deeper. This is why I would go with #2 for big ducks and Geese. For smaller ducks I go with #4 and #6 shot sizes. If its early season teal, go with the extra pellets #6 offers. If you feel like you need some more thump for those wood ducks, widgeon and even a pintail if he’s close go #4. This is what I consider optimal If you choose steel. If you go with the bismuth and tungsten blends you can drop a couple shot sizes and expect The same performance you had with your steel loads. You are going to pick up some density in your patterns with the same sort of ballistic results in a larger steel load. This is where I have found is the happy medium for me. I’m getting lead-ish performance for a little bit more. Plus, I get fewer holes in my pattern. These make the most sense to me if you can make room for it in the budget. Also consider this, if the amount of shooting you do is low volume and opportunities are hard to come by it may be advantageous to use a higher density shell. You will not be burning through them as fast. I’ve adopted this approach because in my home state of North Carolina I can count on one hand the times I’ve ever gotten close to going through a box of shells in a single hunt. Food for thought. If you can justify them and want to shoot a pure tungsten load more power to you. I’ve shot a handful of boxes at birds and patterned them and they are truly devastating on and off paper. I know for a fact that #9 and #8 will crush mallards at all ethical ranges. I’ve not seen it but have heard of people putting geese down with #7 1/2. The patterns are dense enough that you do not have to worry about a bird slipping through. There is just not enough room. If you put a good shot on them with tungsten odds are the bird is going down hard. However, the price is asinine. We are talking around 70-90 bucks for a box of 10. It’s hard to wrap your brain around that kind of price tag for waterfowl hunting. If the cost was no object I would shoot these. For now, I’ll stay in my budget’s lane. I encourage everyone to use their best judgment on what shells to pick. Don’t get too hung up on the material because you can have success with all off the flavors of shot shell on the market. What you should get hung up on is how a given load performs out of your particular shotgun. Don’t get caught up in the opinions of others either before you try something. Don’t let anyone price shame you or tell you it’s not good enough. If it patterns well you will be just fine. Remember you have to find them before you can shoot them. I recommend money be spent on fuel and a decent set of binoculars before I got carried away with ammunition. Drink water… there is nothing worse than pulling your foot out of wader boots with a calf cramp. T
May 27, 2022 The Evolution of Shot Shell Performance Part 1 Choosing The Best Waterfowl Load Through Observation By: TJ Rademacher Lead shot has been gone for a long enough to become the stuff of legend. I’ve heard stories of its abilities on ducks and geese. Before the 1991 ban on lead shot shells for waterfowl hunters never really had to deal with a lack knockdown power. There have been thousands and thousands of birds killed with a very limited selection of lead shot shell lengths and payloads. Since lead became off limits to us, we’ve been chasing its characteristics in other materials. This is a look at how we’ve really come full circle to match, and in some instances greater ballistic performance of the venerable lead pellet. The best waterfowl load is matching or exceeding the performance of lead. I’ve heard the guys who used lead before the ban talk about a how 2 ¾ inch #6 loads where absolute poison on decoying big ducks. 3 inch #4 was the surefire solution to putting geese on the ground. Bluebills being crushed by #7 trap loads over a big water layout boat rig was commonplace. Lead is a very effective transferor of energy. It is very dense as compared to the surface area. This density allows for penetration through vital organs and kinetic energy transfer that can break key structural junctions that keep birds in the air. Lead loads were propelled around 11-1200 FPS in traditional loads used for the take of waterfowl and still are for applications where they are still allowed to be used. Once this wasn’t allowed and shot shell manufactures looked for an answer with nontoxic properties, steel was picked up as the substitute. Early steel shot users had horrible reviews. Hunters with claims of shot bouncing off birds not penetrating the fat layer on late season birds. Early steel loads were of low quality in some cases. The modern ways that manufactures have squeezed the maximum amount of performance out of steel loads was not present then. It was a time of adjustment and as with anything totally new there was a lot to figure out. To get the same kinetic energy the size of shot had to go up to consistently kill birds. As shot size goes up in relation to a constant payload weight the number of pellets in that load goes down. You’re getting a less dense pattern. So, if you look at the voids that this can create in the pattern, you can see how a bird could pass through untouched. Worse yet the same bird might not absorb enough pellets to make a quick kill. Extra powder longer shells like the 3.5” chambering in 12 gauge were ways to make payloads increase and to make up for the other thing that helps steel ballistics wise. Speed. The speed of the pellets increased to help make up for steels deficiencies. Advertised speeds up to 1700 fps have come to market to cure steels shortcomings. There are many other factors in the evolution of steel shot that increased its performance for a budget friendly alternative to lead, but we don’t have room for all of the finer points we are hitting the high points here. As the market evolved some companies brought to market new materials to move the standard seen in steels shells. Steel has killed a lot of birds from its inception until now. Enter bismuth and tungsten. These elements are what have brought us back around full circle. They get us close to some of the properties of lead and in some case surpass its performance. These two metals are good substitutes because they have the density like or greater than lead based on what blend of either. They are also nontoxic, which is a continued push in modern ammunition. The only real problem with loads utilizing these two types of material is cost. Even with blending these with duplex steel loads like Hevi Metal the price of a box of shells is noticeably higher, no matter what flavor combination you choose. You are also getting fewer shells in some loads based on what blend of either type of material is being used. Tungsten and bismuth are typically blended with other metals or polymers make them more affordable and increase performance on some areas. There are a few offerings in a pure tungsten load which allow for shot as low as #9 with ballistic capabilities comparable to that of larger lead and steel pellets. These are very cost prohibitive and are not a normal selection for even the most dedicated shell snobs. I have used some of the lower density blends and had really good results. In my opinion the reasons why the bismuth blends are worth the increase in cost is the increased pattern density. The fewer number of holes in the pattern, from a properly choked gun, is noticeable in downrange performance on birds, in my experience. There are other nuances to this material, but these are the high-level differences and advantages that I feel most hunters would see as pertinent information. The next part of this series will have more to with what sizes of shot to choose given a particular material and more about the ballistics of different lengths of shells and weight of payloads and why you might choose one or the other for different situation or when choosing one load to do it all with. I felt it was necessary to understand the history as I’ve observed it before we go into the why. I’ll leave you with this. Most of us need to spend more time shooting clays. Many times, the reason the bird doesn’t drop is because you didn’t put the work in during the off season. You may also make a choice to take an opportunity on something that is low percentage at longer range. This is not the end all be all or a reason to buy the cheapest stuff out there but the advantages in one material over another shine when the shooter is performing at their highest level. To put a modern spin on an old saying it’s probably the indigenous individual not the archery equipment. More to come soon. Don’t Stop your swing T