![]() ![]() Repeat this same gun-mounting routine while wearing your cold-weather waterfowling clothes, so you learn to push the gun out and away from your body to keep it from snagging on all those layers. Concentrate on bringing the gun to your face first, then tucking the butt into your shoulder. Practice your gun mount at home with an unloaded gun. ![]() Learning to bring the gun to your face smoothly and consistently helps you shoot instinctively, without conscious effort. The most essential skill in field shooting is a good gun mount. TIPS FOR TECHNIQUE Quick Fix #10: Practice at home Look for a pattern that puts 75 to 80 percent of its pellets in a 30-inch circle at that range, with good coverage out to the pattern's edges. When you choose chokes, pattern your gun for the distance at which you expect to take most of your shots. Improved-cylinder or light-modified chokes work very well at decoying ranges. You don't need tight patterns at 40 yards if you shoot your birds over decoys at 25. I also keep a bunch of 2s or 4s in my pocket for dispatching crippled geese in dry fields. Shoot a little low at swimming cripples so you don't waste the top half of the pattern. Steel 6s give you greater pattern density for hitting birds in that small, vital area. You can use up a lot of ammunition trying to hit a crippled duck or goose in the head. Quick Fix #8: Use Swatter Loads for Cripples Take geese out of the equation and I'd go with 3s as a good all-around pellet. If I had to choose just one load for all waterfowl, it would be 1 1/4 ounces of size 2 shot at 1,450 to 1,500 fps. They shoot patterns that are dense enough for close-range teal and yet sufficiently powerful to bag decoying geese. Steel 2s come as close as anything to an all-purpose pellet for waterfowl. Quick Fix #7: Choose an All-Around Pellet Cold air affects larger pellets less than it does smaller ones. You can compensate for this by selecting shot that's one size larger than the pellets in your regular load and then tightening your choke. You might lose up to 75 fps of velocity and shoot patterns that are 10 percent wider late in the season, when temperatures drop. The increased resistance of dense, cold air slows pellets and opens patterns. Load one of those, then follow it with two standard premium steel cartridges in a larger shot size. Winchester Blind Side and Xpert as well as Federal Black Cloud Close Range tend to open up faster than many other steel loads. You can get some of the benefits of a double gun, with its two chokes, by first chambering a shell with an open pattern followed by two tight-patterning loads. TIPS FOR CHOKES AND LOADS Quick Fix #5: Mix Loads for Maximum Results You can always use a slip-on recoil pad for early-season teal or other shirtsleeve-weather hunts. A good solution is to adjust your stock or have it cut to the right length for hunting in winter clothing. Late in the season, when you're bundled up in heavy clothing, you might find that a shorter-stocked gun is much easier to mount. For any repairs beyond that, the best insurance is an extra gun. And sometimes a spray of Break Free CLP or G96 Gun Treatment will help you get through a hunt when a grimy gun becomes sluggish. Quick Fix #3: Be Prepared for ProblemsĪ cleaning rod is a handy tool to have with you in case a shot wad, or even mud, gets stuck in the barrel. If the bead distracts you, replace it with a less obvious sight, remove it completely, or blacken it with a permanent marker. As soon as your focus shifts to the bead, the gun stops moving and you miss behind the bird. You're supposed to see it in your peripheral vision to help you keep track of the muzzle-target relationship as you look at the target. The shotgun bead is not there to be looked at. Combining all three can make your shooting a lot more comfortable and successful. A good recoil pad such as a LimbSaver or Kick-Eez is yet another buffer against felt recoil. A gas-operated autoloader is the second-best recoil reducer, especially if the gun has some heft to it. If your gun beats you up, try a load that's 1/8 ounce lighter and 100 fps slower. The best recoil reducer is a lighter load. Cutting the kick makes you a better shot. TIPS FOR SHOTGUNS Quick Fix #1: Cut the Kick ![]() ![]() Here are 25 tips that will help you fine-tune your shooting technique for waterfowl. In practice, however, it's all about the other 5 percentthe tiny details that can mean the difference between a big day in the field and an empty duck strap. In fact, the phrase "eye on the target, head on the stock" covers about 95 percent of what you need to know. ![]()
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