Wood Duck Guns and Loads A 12- or 20-gauge loaded with steel 4 shot and an improved cylinder or light-modified choke is all the gun you need. Test your gun at 20 and 25 yards to be sure your pattern is wide enough at close range.
What shot is best for ducks?
#3’s and 4’s are the best shot sizes for ducks. They meet the minimum 3 foot-pounds of knockdown power, and the most pellets present within a 30” circle when reaching the distance of the target.
Is bismuth better than steel shot?
With superior density to steel (9.6 grams per cubic centimeter compared to steel’s 7.86), bismuth alloy pellets hit harder than steel and were safe in old guns that steel shot could damage. They were expensive, however, and brittle, often breaking up upon firing or when they hit bone.
What is the best feed for wood ducks?
Adult wood ducks feed on a variety of nuts and fruits, aquatic plants and seeds, and aquatic insects and other invertebrates. Insects and aquatic invertebrates are particularly important food items of adult hens during egg laying in spring. Acorns and other forest mast are important fall and winter foods.
What is the best shot to use for goose hunting?
Winchester Waterfowl Shot Guide:
Three-inch shells are most common, while 3½-inch shells hold the most shot, but also generate more recoil for the hunter. Both of the larger loads deliver the best patterns when fired from a 12-gauge or 10-gauge.
What is the best shot size for wood ducks?
Wood Duck Guns and Loads
In reality, most shots at wood ducks are at close range if you’re set up right. A 12- or 20-gauge loaded with steel 4 shot and an improved cylinder or light-modified choke is all the gun you need. Test your gun at 20 and 25 yards to be sure your pattern is wide enough at close range.
Is 1 shot good for ducks?
At ranges inside 40 yards, BB, 1, or 2 shot are good for geese; 2 or 3 shot works well on ducks. For pass shooting out to 50 yards, tighten up to improved modified and 1 shot for ducks and snow geese.
Why use steel shot for ducks?
Being lighter than lead, steel shot loses energy faster. The loss of energy reduces penetration. Jordan recommended that duck hunters shoot steel shot two sizes bigger than what they’d use if shooting lead because the bigger pellets have more energy.
What size shell is best for duck hunting?
Ideally, you want 60 or more pellets in a 30-inch circle at the range you expect to be shooting geese, and these pellets need to be large ones that carry more energy. When it comes to ducks, a good rule of thumb is 85 to 135 pellets in a 30-inch circle.
Can I shoot bismuth through a full choke?
While steel prefers a slightly less restricted choke, bismuth will behave closer to lead and a tighter choke tube generally leads to better pattern performance. I shoot a full choke in my waterfowl gun and that generally gives me good performance in that 15-35-yard range for most applications, even upland.
Do wood ducks eat wild rice?
Wood ducks feed on plants (watermeal, duckweed, wild rice, pondweeds, smartweeds), seeds (especially watershield), aquatic insects, and other invertebrates (snails, clams). Adults feed on acorns during fall and winter, searching for them in flooded swamps, bottomlands, and oak forests.
What seeds do wood ducks eat?
Wood ducks are flexible omnivores and consume a huge range of seasonally available food. Most of their diet consists of aquatic plant matter, acorns, wheat, waterlily, sedge, and berries of various kinds.
Is Cracked corn good for ducks?
DO: Feed ducks cracked corn, oats, rice, birdseed, frozen peas, chopped lettuce, or sliced grapes. These foods are similar to natural foods ducks will forage for on their own.
Is 6 shot good for ducks?
It’s also a good shot to have when you’re specifically hunting smaller ducks. The #6 shot is one of the many shot sizes you can use to kill small ducks effectively, with the other two popular ones being the #4 and #5.
What choke is best for duck hunting?
A modified choke tube (0.020”) is the best choke size for duck hunting. It allows for all-around performance for both decoying and passing shots. All types of shot and shot sizes can be put through a modified choke tube with no issues. Full chokes are specialized chokes for long distance shots only.
What shot size for mallards?
2 steel shot, No. 4 Bismuth will do the job. Using Bismuth in a smaller shot size gives you more pellets per shot, a denser pattern, and thereby greater probability of a lethal pellet hit. Because of Bismuth’s malleability, pellets deform somewhat on impact as they dump lethal energy into waterfowl.
Can you shoot ducks with 7.5 shot?
Doves, grouse, pheasants, ducks (with decoys), squirrels and rabbits are perfect for 7 1/2 shot because it won’t destroy the meat or ruin a trophy. Some hunters even say that inside of 35 yards, this shot size is great for turkey as well, while other hunters speak of its effectiveness on crows.
What shot size is bigger BB or BBB?
The main differences between BB and BBB shot are pellet size, pellet weight, and pellet density. BB pellet diameter (0.18 inch) is slightly smaller than BBB shot (0.19 inch). BBB shot weighs on average around 0.8 grains more than a BB pellet.
Will mallards land in wood duck decoys?
However, do ensure your spread consists mostly or entirely of wood duck decoys. While most dabblers will decoy to mallards, wood ducks much prefer to flock to their own species. I like to place a dozen woodie decoys upwind of the blind, with a spinning-wing decoy or small jerk rig in between.
When should you shoot ducks?
Some hunters think they have to shoot quickly before the birds flare out of range. The truth is, when hunters wait that extra second or two when waterfowl are coming in, then rise up to shoot, there’s plenty of time to take three deliberate, well-spaced shots before the birds get too far away.
Can you use lead shot for duck hunting?
Nontoxic Shot Regulations For Hunting Waterfowl and Coots in the U.S. The ban on the use of lead shot for hunting waterfowl was phased-in starting with the 1987-88 hunting season. The ban became nationwide in 1991.