Posted: 6/29/2010 10:11:26 AM EDT
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Somehow, the wife bought a duck hunt at a charity auction. Private wetland leased by our "guide" (church's pastor). Neither of us has ever hunted birds (waterfowl or upland) before but have always wanted too and I want to make this as enjoyable/rewarding for her so we can hopefully go again. We already hunt deer, turkey, coyotes and p-dogs together.
We plan on going for the early teal season here in Nebraska and will be hunting from a blind. Equipment to be used will be 12 gauge Benelli SBE for me and a 20 gauge Remington 11-87 Compact for her since she's small (5'1") and hates the recoil of the 12 gauge, even with WinLite shells. Since I have some time, I assume we want to get a lot of practice. Any pointers/recommendations you have will be helpful so we can get started and don't make complete fools of ourselves. Thanks in advance. |
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Quoted:
Somehow, the wife bought a duck hunt at a charity auction. Private wetland leased by our "guide" (church's pastor). Neither of us has ever hunted birds (waterfowl or upland) before but have always wanted too and I want to make this as enjoyable/rewarding for her so we can hopefully go again. We already hunt deer, turkey, coyotes and p-dogs together. We plan on going for the early teal season here in Nebraska and will be hunting from a blind. Equipment to be used will be 12 gauge Benelli SBE for me and a 20 gauge Remington 11-87 Compact for her since she's small (5'1") and hates the recoil of the 12 gauge, even with WinLite shells. Since I have some time, I assume we want to get a lot of practice. Any pointers/recommendations you have will be helpful so we can get started and don't make complete fools of ourselves. Thanks in advance. Can you be more specific as to what you want advice on? |
| Essentially, we have never hunted waterfowl or upland birds before. To practice, we have access to both a trap and sporting clays. We also have access to an open area where we could throw our own clays by hand if needed. Should we spend time on both or one versus the other? I figure we can go at least three times a month to either trap or sporting clay range for 1 to 2 hours. Or is there something else we should be doing to get ready (ie practice now and maybe head out early in the dove season to hunt actual birds)? |
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Quoted:
Essentially, we have never hunted waterfowl or upland birds before. To practice, we have access to both a trap and sporting clays. We also have access to an open area where we could throw our own clays by hand if needed. Should we spend time on both or one versus the other? I figure we can go at least three times a month to either trap or sporting clay range for 1 to 2 hours. Or is there something else we should be doing to get ready (ie practice now and maybe head out early in the dove season to hunt actual birds)? Spend some time at the clay range with an experienced shooter. Wingshooting is not always what it seems and takes some experience. The presentation of birds at the actual blind can differ greatly depending on whether they are decoying or passing over and at what angle they are flying. Practice all scenarios. If you are going for teal season, certainly spend time with clays that are moving pretty quickly because teal are some fast birds and will come out of nowhere quick! Definitely go on a dove hunt or two, it will dramatically improve your duck hunt. Oh, and hide in that blind like a son of a gun. Ducks have some wicked vision when it comes to something seemingly out of place. Cover your face if possible. Anything else? |
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Nothing can really prepare you for teal. Shooting clays is always good practice but teal are a bit bigger than rigneck doves and faster. They show up out of nowhere and fly sporadically.
Take a Thermocell if early season hasn't killed off the mosquitos yet. Hide good and be still. Kent Faststeel seem to be pretty good shells at a good price ETA Duck hunting is a sickness. Get out while you still can! |
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All good info so far. I'd add that if you are in a teal-only season, keep the choke open (IC) and use a small pellet size. If steel, #4 at largest. Some folks I know use #7 Hevishot for teal. The birds are small and fast as hell. I prefer to use a smaller pellet and open choke to get a wider pattern full of more pellets than the #2 steel I'll typically use for mallards, etc.
If you plan to shoot Teal with a light, fast paylod like the aforementioned Fast Steel, be sure to bust your clays with that load as well, since some steel loads can be pushing 1700FPS, vs. a target load around 1250fps. This will affect your leads, especially on such fast birds. No doubt that Teal are a hoot to hunt. Good luck! |
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Quoted:
All good info so far. I'd add that if you are in a teal-only season, keep the choke open (IC) and use a small pellet size. If steel, #4 at largest. Some folks I know use #7 Hevishot for teal. The birds are small and fast as hell. I prefer to use a smaller pellet and open choke to get a wider pattern full of more pellets than the #2 steel I'll typically use for mallards, etc. If you plan to shoot Teal with a light, fast paylod like the aforementioned Fast Steel, be sure to bust your clays with that load as well, since some steel loads can be pushing 1700FPS, vs. a target load around 1250fps. This will affect your leads, especially on such fast birds. No doubt that Teal are a hoot to hunt. Good luck! this is good advice. i've hunted teal with either IC or Skeet tubes and either #4 or #6 steel. let them fly into a wall of steel, it keeps everybody honest. teal are delicious and my favorite waterfowl to hunt. |
| If you are still going to the range, make sure you are throwing the clays with your gun down, do not have it shouldered. You need to practice quickly pulling your gun up to shoulder, then finding your target and shooting. Ducks have great vision so you cant sit there and expect them to come right at you when you already have your gun shouldered. You will have to stay down in the blind and wait for right when they are in range to jump up and start shooting. I also like to wear a hat b/c if they are circling around your area, you can hide your white eyes better. But then again your teal hunting so they will move in quick like a swarm and be gone before you know it. |
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If you really want the duck hunting experience.
Wait for the coldest day of the season Find out your waders leak while setting decoys @4:40 in the mourning While finding leak in waders let dog eat sack lunch While dog is making off with said lunch, he knocks blind bag out of boat and spills all cold weather gear in 40degree water. ie gloves, watch cap, and handwarmers. After waiting all mourning for ducks and finally you have a big drake at 25 yards with feet down ready to set in, find out hunting partner played a prank and unloaded your gun but not his. Same hunting partner conveniently left his waders at home, so you can retrieve decoys in your leaking waders. Find steel shot in your new $160 robo duck decoy from your partner shooting what should have been your duck. Leave partner 6 miles from town with a shotgun case and dog, when he steps out to relieve himself on the drive back. Enjoy Duck Huntin. 
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Lots of great advice. I always thought that teal were fast, however I was surprised to find they are not that fast.
Blue-winged and green-winged teal, thought by many hunters to be the fastest ducks, are actually among the slowest, having a typical flight speed of only 30 mph. It’s the dipping, darting and diving of a flock as it strafes the decoys that make some hunters go all thumbs as the tiny birds rocket by.
http://www.ducks.org/blogs/Default.aspx?blogID=1&blogEntryID=94 |
