12 gauge shotgun shells for duck hunting ?????

[shotgun707]

what are some good 12 gaue shotgun shells for duck ,goose and, pheasant

[edgerly779]

For ducks & geese Kentsteel are the most reasonable as long as your gun will handle steel. For pheasant #6 shot 1 1/4 oz loads are ok . Watch for sales @ turners or if your near a bass pro shops or go online to graf & sons free shipping small handling fee.

[TrailerparkTrash]

I prefer anything but steel. Sadly, steel is the most affordable. Pretty much any major brand is good now that you find on the shelf. I like #2 in steel for Geese and ducks.

For pheasant, #6 is good, especially in 2 3/4" shells and 7 1/2 is acceptable with 3" mag shells in my own little world.

I've also home brewed some #5's in 2 2/3" shells for pheasant and longer range shots. But it the birds are holding tightly, I'd be happy with 6 or 7 1/2.

[Bearclaw]

Black Cloud for Ducks and Geese
Prairie Storm for Pheasant

Shot size and load are dependent upon hunting conditions.

[problemchild]

The steel are total crap. They go about 20 feet and drop out of the sky. I cannot tell you how many missed birds I had on steel. Actually missed and wounded that fly away.

Then I switched to heavy metal magnums with number 2 or BB and knock em dead at 70 yards now. No more missed birds. Why go all that way and spend all that money to miss?

[choprzrul]

Was crazy mad involved in watwefowling before moving here from Nebraska. I can tell you from extensive experience that shooting steel over the heavy nontoxic loads does not save money in the long run. Count on shooting twice as much steel per bird harvested compared to the heavy. Like mentioned above, you will pull feathers, see the bird drop several feet, catch itself, and then fly off to die. Steel shot kills (inadvertently wounding only to fly off and die later) more waterfowl than lead poisoning from the bottom of ponds and streams; although I would suspect that the coyote population has benefitted.

OP, if you would like to try the heavy nontox, PM me as I have dozens of boxes of it just gathering dust that I will sell ar a reasonable price.

.

[sargenv]

I dunno.. tell that to the two specks I shot today with 1 shot each The problem with steel shot is not the ammo, it is the hunter who chooses to shoot steel shot like they shoot lead. If they would just call the bird into range, using proper lead and technique, then ducks and geese will fall with a single round expended. Most hunters only fire their guns during hunting season, no practice, no warm ups, nothing.. go out and blast away leaving crips all over the place.. know your gun, how it patterns your selected ammo and don't hunt past your ability and things will improve.. keep on blasting away at ducks 50+ yards out because "You made that shot this one time last season" and you will generally continue to sail birds.. Heck I gave up shots today well within range, but not exactly how I wanted them to present and I still managed to scratch out a limit plus two specks 10 mins before legal shooting time ended. Stop skyscraping.. and the problem goes away regardless of steel, tungsten, heavy shot, black cloud, etc.

With steel, speed kills.. Kent Fast Steel claims 1560 fps in the 3" load at 1 1/8 oz. Actual chrono data measured it at 1620 fps out of my 3" Gold Hunter. Heavy loads moving slow worked ok for lead, but for steel you need larger pellets and a light very fast load.. For years before the current really fast load, I used to load an ounce of 2's or 3's to 1450 ish fps and it outclassed factory ammo until the factory ammo caught up. I've used tungsten, and it worked well, but at a reloading it for $1.25 a round.. it is still very steep to shoot much of.. this season I switched to the $10/box Winchester 1 1/8 - 3, 2, and BB's which on the box report 1550 fps and it has proven effective since I regulate myself and try very hard not to take marginal shots. I am not without fault.. I learned the hard way.. but to say that XYZ is a problem dosn't always really address the whole issue.. I will agree that Lead was effective.. but there were the same shooters back then as now.. people who only fired their guns starting opening day.. and way beyond their abilities.. an ongoing issue..

[robairto]

My choices are:
Duck (decoy and passing) 3" #2s 1 1/4 winchester super X and supreme X
estate steel
geese (pass) 3" BB same

pheasant anything #4/5/6 lead 2 3/4 is plenty on wild birds
club birds over a pointer I usually go 20 ga 7.5 trap loads

Sargenv is correct in that it's all about the shot and hunter. My specific issue from a few yrs ago was with Remington steel loads that weren't sealed. I hunt refuges sometimes and the shells from remington didn't work in the water. I switched to winchester and estate with no issues. Good luck and enjoy the hunt.

[FLIGHT762]

I dunno.. tell that to the two specks I shot today with 1 shot each The problem with steel shot is not the ammo, it is the hunter who chooses to shoot steel shot like they shoot lead. If they would just call the bird into range, using proper lead and technique, then ducks and geese will fall with a single round expended. Most hunters only fire their guns during hunting season, no practice, no warm ups, nothing.. go out and blast away leaving crips all over the place.. know your gun, how it patterns your selected ammo and don't hunt past your ability and things will improve.. keep on blasting away at ducks 50+ yards out because "You made that shot this one time last season" and you will generally continue to sail birds.. Heck I gave up shots today well within range, but not exactly how I wanted them to present and I still managed to scratch out a limit plus two specks 10 mins before legal shooting time ended. Stop skyscraping.. and the problem goes away regardless of steel, tungsten, heavy shot, black cloud, etc.

I started hunting ducks in 1965. Made the switch to nontoxic (Steel) in the late 80's.

I've shot a lot of Ducks and Geese with steel. I tested all of the different loads over the years and finally came to a load that consistently does it.

My go to all around load is 12 ga. 3" 1-1/8 of #2's or#3's @ 1550 F.P.S., Kents, Winchester Xpert or Federal Speed Shok. I use an I.C. Comp-N-Choke and it drops Ducks and small Geese (Specks & Snows) if you take them within 40 yards. If I want a little snugger pattern, I'll use my Pattern Master.

I can push it a little farther when using Black Cloud BB's with a modified non ported choke or a 12 ga.3-1/2" 1-3/8 #1's or BB in a .675 Terror choke. I taken geese out to about 50 yards.

I do have a BPS 10 ga,but don't use it too much. The 12 ga. does fine for Ducks.

I do shoot Hevi-Shot for Turkeys but, I don't have the need for the heavier than steel loads for ducks. Hevi-Shot flattens Gobblers out to 40 yards.

If I was going to Canada or on a special hunt for the big Canada Geese, I'd spring for the $3.00 + per shot non tox.

[Thefeeder]

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100% Sargenv

Its also good to try and match which loads shoot best in your gun.

100's of Ducks and Geese have been table fair using an 870 2 3/4" steel and when I used a differant brand or load...it was like shooting sawdust.



Flight762......on those Honker hunts.....you will be taken shots at 20-30 yards....no need for the heavy stuff. A lot of guys show up with BB, BBB and T shot, 3 1/2" guns and Full chokes only to find standard duck loads are perfect.

[sargenv]

Yep.. and the one time I hunted properly decoyed and called Honkers at Modoc.. I could have been using steel #7's and dropped the ones I did.. we had a very awesome caller, and 7 honkers locked up and into the dekes.. we dropped 4 on the first pass, and he managed to call back the three that had eluded us the first time.. this goes back about 15 years or so..

If I were shelling out thousands of dollars to go hunt in another country, you are damned right that I too would shell out the serious money (or load my own ITX shot) for the trip.. seems paltry to pay all that money and depend on $10/box steel.. Since I'll be shooting my club, I have a little control of what shots I take.. and since we hunt blinds, we can generally call them in closer than if I hunted a public area where pressure is seemingly higher.

Kind of like ppl I know who go compete USPSA and mutlti-gun matches.. after all is said and done, the trip will cost $1000-$1500 or more if international, all of a sudden using new brass at $100/1000 seems like so little to pay for absolute reliability..

The early remington loads were lousy when wet.. and back in those days, they loaded steel the same as lead.. heavy shot charge, under 1300 fps.. and ppl cripped all kinds of birds because they didn't understand that the shells WERE inferior.. which is why I started handloading steel pretty much from the get go when Gray Lodge finally moved to steel also. It took some time to convince my dad that the lighter 1 1/8 loads were superior to the 1 1/4 or 1 3/8 loads he was used to buying.. he eventually came around..