Did a little pond hopping after lunch on Christmas Day, 3 Gadwall and 3 Baldpate's.

Nice waterfowl! That shotgun a single barrel? Please elaborate as I have been itching to get a single shot lately, probably in .410. Getting bored with my O/U and feel like abit of a challenge

Nice haul!

Here's a 2 man limit o' blacks from this morning:

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Nice waterfowl! That shotgun a single barrel? Please elaborate as I have been itching to get a single shot lately, probably in .410. Getting bored with my O/U and feel like abit of a challenge

It is a 12 gauge, 36 inch Full Choke barrel. I started hunting with single shots back in the late 1960's and have always liked them. It is more of a nostalgia concept with me, single shots or side by side doubles. I also have and use a double barrel 10 gauge with 32 inch barrels choked Full & Full and have used if for hunting doves as well as ducks.

My own personal belief is that with a single or double, a person concentrates more on their shooting and works a little harder on making their shots count on game.

So out of curiosity.....how many tanks did you have to hit before killing 6 ducks with that single shot? Or did you shoot at a pile of em on the water and kill more than one with each shot?

Norton - Love the black ducks, we don't see them very often in NE AL, SE TN or NW GA.

Curious as to why you have the trigger lock on the gun? Is this a NH law?

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Originally posted by Solo:
Norton - Love the black ducks, we don't see them very often in NE AL, SE TN or NW GA.

Curious as to why you have the trigger lock on the gun? Is this a NH law?

Solo....we hunt a lot in MA because it's equidistant and has more birds. Yes, they are nuts in MA with laws and will bang you for any slip up. Every gun "not in your direct control" must either be in a gun case or trigger locked. Try leaning a loaded gun against your truck, or carrying your buddy's black duck, or not risking your life to retrieve a duck in lieu of a wanton waste ticket, or not wearing hunter's orange until you arrive at your duck blind during deer season....and they watch with spotting scopes.

You need to be pretty good at duck ID down there especially late season because it's mostly blacks......you do NOT want to shoot 2 accidentally. Hence the reason why shooting a black as your first duck in low light is a minor handicap unless you're an eagle eye ID'er.

Kamo Gari can definitely expound on this.....

Thanks for the explanation. I assumed it was a crazy gun law being you're from that region.

The laws around waterfowling can be very confusing and hard to understand, especially for someone just getting started.

We hunt mostly private farmland in NE AL, that consists of ponds, small lakes and a little flooded timber. I was reading this document http://www.fws.gov/le/waterfow...ing-and-baiting.html and trying to determine the best way to make habitat improvements, but I'm not sure if there is anything legal that is worth doing?

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So out of curiosity.....how many tanks did you have to hit before killing 6 ducks with that single shot? Or did you shoot at a pile of em on the water and kill more than one with each shot?

3 ponds, 4 shots. Out of curiosity, where does it say in the regulations that a person can not water swat a duck if given the chance?

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Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

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So out of curiosity.....how many tanks did you have to hit before killing 6 ducks with that single shot? Or did you shoot at a pile of em on the water and kill more than one with each shot?

3 ponds, 4 shots. Out of curiosity, where does it say in the regulations that a person can not water swat a duck if given the chance?

Nowhere. Was there an inference in my post indicating that I thought there was? No need to get defensive. If you were shooting anything other than a single shot I wouldn't have even asked. Not a single thing wrong with water swatting em.

Let me preempt your next post: we all know you don't care what anyone thinks about how you kill game.

Happy New Year Norton.

Unfortunately you guessed wrong on my response.

A certain TV celebrity that has received a good bit of discussion on AR as of late, was in the middle of filming one of his duck hunts, and at some point a drake wood duck flew in and set down near the decoys. Said celebrity swung around and water swatted said woodie.

The cameraman and whoever else was along asked him why he did such an action and his comments were I believe, "There is no law against it, and I will take a drake woodie anyway I can get it"!

Ethical on my part, in some folks opinion no. In my opinion, I can't eat ethics and we don't have enough water and ducks to become noble.

I knew what you were asking and why and did not take offence. Normally however the first shot is taken at a bird on the water, I reload and can usually get at least one more bird as they are flying away. If the gun has a good stout ejector, with enough usage a person can get off two or even 3 shots fairly quickly with a single, 4 shots with a double.

Roger that, Randall.....Happy New Year to you as well.

If it's a slow day and the only chance that presents itself is a water swat......BOOM! If I'm jump shooting, then the first shot as you said is usually on the water. Nothing unethical about it.