500 
Forest and Stream 
DUCK SHOOTING GUNS AND LOADS 
SUCCESS IN THIS SPORT DEPENDS ON FAST GUN-SWINGING AND 
THE SMASHING VALUE OF THE POWDER AND SHOT CHARGES 
D uck shooting is by far our most 
;liversified sport, because in North 
America there are over sixty va- 
rieties of ducks that supply sport 
for gunners. Scattered as they are, from 
Alaska and Hudson Bay to the Gulf, and 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific — and 
beyond— duck shooting may mean pass, 
decoy, battery, sneak-boat and a half a 
dozen other varieties which may even, 
occasionally, include field shooting. I 
once jumped a black duck from a cattle 
wallow in the middle of a bare pasture 
field six miles from water. 
With such a vast distribution of the 
sport, it follows that the gun or load that 
is considered ideal for one set of con- 
ditions may occasionally be a bit out of 
place in another. This has given rise to 
numerous localized beliefs that seldom 
take well in other localities. The heavy 
ten and twelve-gauge doubles and the 
heavy shot that for years held sway on 
Barnegat, Great South Bay and Curri- 
cut would by many be considered unnec- 
essarily crude for use in the deeoy shoot- 
ing in Texas and southern California. 
The heavy twenties that are so popular 
there must take a back seat for the 
twelve-gauges that rule the boards in the 
pass shooting in the Dakotas and Min- 
nesota. So it goes. What is one man’s 
meat is often in other places consigned 
only to the discard. 
The experienced duck shot, however, 
will almost invariably insist upon a mod- 
erately heavy weapon that shoots hard, 
close and even, and which does not, like 
most trap guns, shoot very high above 
the line of sight. 
In 12 gauges the most popular duck 
loads are probably drams of bulk, or 
26 grains of dense powder and 1/4 or 
1I4 ounces of No. 6 chilled shot. The 
first develops an average velocity of 939 
foot seconds over a 40-yard range ; the 
second, 919 foot seconds. A charge of 
3p2, 134 ounces develops 959 foot sec- 
onds, while 334 , 134 ounces speeds up to 
979 foot seconds. In 12 gauges this is 
about as high as it pays to go with 6’s 
without sacrificing pattern to get ve- 
locity. 
We still find baymen occasionally who 
swear by the heavy double 10-gauge for 
open-water duck shooting. A velocity 
table will show us why. A charge of 4 
drams, 134 ounces, develops 953 foot 
seconds, practically the duplicate of the 
334 , 134 loacl in the 12. A charge of 
434 drams, 134 ounces, however, develops 
993 foot seconds velocity with 6’s. In 
4’s it gives us 1,027 against 997 in the 12. 
When we realize that many baymen 
do not consider that a heavy 10-gauge is 
properly loaded unless it is handling 4j4 
or 4-34 drams of bulk smokeless or black 
and 134 to 134 ounces of coarse shot, 
we begin to see why they were willing 
to handle two pounds more metal in the 
By C. S. LANDIS 
gun to secure the extra range of the 
heavy 10-bore. 
Times have changed, however. Part 
of it was due to the change in fashion 
in guns. Nobody likes to be classed as 
a pot-hunter, so partly for that reason 
and partly because the six shots of the 
12-gauge pump or auto are obviously, in 
most cases, more deadly than the two of 
the double 10, the 10 has passed on. 
I^UCK shooting is an art that must 
^ be seen at its best to be appreciated. 
A real classy performer with a pump can 
get action out of a flock of mallards or 
blacks that must be seen to be appreci- 
ated. 
Some years ago, toward the end of 
the market hunting for wild fowl, I knew 
a man who was the classiest shot with a 
12-gauge repeater of any man I know, 
and I have seen nearly all the profes- 
sional exhibition shots in action. He 
had the knack of estimating the speed 
of ducks, pigeons or doves in flight down 
to almost an exact science and could 
make a larger percentage of absolutely 
instantaneous kills than anyone I ever 
saw in action. W’hen this ability was 
combined with snap-shooting speed that 
was really marvelous, it made an exhibi- 
tion that was never to be forgotten. 
Possibly his most spectacular annual 
shoot was obtained by fitting up a blind 
about 40 yards outside the boundary of a 
certain state live - bird championship 
shoot, and as he always was given the 
choice position among the “bushwhack- 
ers,” he obtained one-third to one-half 
of the chances at all birds that were 
missed from the traps. As two thousand 
to tw'O thousand five hundred birds were 
usually shot at, and as the event was 
always held on February 22, when it was 
sure to be cold, plenty of birds crossed 
the boundary. 
Then the two thousand spectators had 
a real treat. Most of the pigeons were 
30 to 50 yards high, flying with the wind 
and were traveling with every foot of 
speed they could muster. Probably four 
times out of five on the average, the 
bird’s head would snap back, a few feath- 
ers would puff off in the breeze and the 
pigeon would describe a perfect parabola 
to the ground. If it was missed or crip- 
pled a second, a third or even a fourth 
shot would complete the kill. Never 
have I seen such perfect pass shooting, 
and many a spectator attended those 
shoots, only to witness the skill of this 
expert duck shooter. On rising or quar- 
tering birds he could “spin” more birds 
(by hitting them in the head and shoul- 
ders) than any other man on the grounds. 
Few of us will ever have the oppor- 
tunity to obtain such a degree of wing- 
shooting skill. We have neither the time, 
the birds nor the opportunity to combine 
the two until the snap-shooting ability 
of the super-expert is attained. M"e can, 
however, increase our skill b}' choosing 
a combination of gun and load that is 
adapted to our style of gun pointing. 
Once we determine the weight and “feel” 
of the gun and the speed of load that 
enables us to place the charge on the 
mark, we still have the subject of pattern. 
Within average duck-shooting ranges 
— 25 to 60 yards — in most cases, the 10 
to 20-gauges pattern in practically the 
same proportion. That is 70 per cent, all 
through for full chokes, with any advan- 
tage in density or evenness of pattern 
nearly always in favor of the 10 and 12 
gauges. 
■^HE following shot table will enable 
us to directly compare the efficiency 
of dift'erent gauges: 
Size of 
No. Shot in 
Charge 
Chilled Shot— 4’s 
5’s 
6's 
7’s 
Ji ozs. 
119 
150 
196 
262 
1 oz. 
136 
172 
223 
299 
134 ozs. 
153 
194 
251 
336 
134 ozs. 
170 
215 . 
278 
374 
1-34 ozs. 
187 
237 
134 ozs. 
204 
From this we can see that no matter 
whether the guns that are compared 
{Continued on page 519) 
