What choke for ducks?

I hate duck hunting. Too early. Too wet. And wild duck tastes horrible. Likely due to my cooking inexperience at the time, but the kind of duck, by what they eat, matters. 40 plus years ago. Killed one on opening day, a Saturday. And one on the following Monday.
Anyway, the choke will be different by the kind of hunting you're doing. Full for longer range out of a blind. Modified, if your jump shooting along a river. Number 4, 5 or 6 shot.
 
I used a modified in my 26" 870. #4 steel, 3" shells. Worked fine. Even bagged a Merganser, and they're small fast little devils.

Cannon
 
Well I am I think the odd man out when it comes to today's waterfowl loads and choke choices. If I am shooting my O/U it's either IC/S if the birds are decoying well and if they are pushing the outer edge of the spread its M/IC and my choice of loads rarely varies. I am a 2 3/4" - 1 1/8oz #2 guy. It's plenty of medicine IMO.
We just finished a week of holidays chasing ducks and geese and 90% of my shooting was done with my SX 1 with a fixed skeet choke barrel.
 
Currently running a modified kicks high flyer choke and will switch up to full if im pass shooting past 40 yards. I change up shot sizes as well depending on weather and type of ducks. For duck, i start the season with #4 and move up to #2 as weather gets colder. If im targeting smaller ducks, i use mostly #4 and if im shooting mallards and blacks, i mostly use #2. For geese, i'll shoot BB and BBB and move up to T in colder weather. If shooting BBB and T, I stick to the modified choke. People think im crazy when i show up to the blind with boxes of 5 different shot sizes. But i like playing it by ear and adjust on the fly. If im finding the ducks are decoying well i'll stick to the open choke and use smaller shot size. But if its a day where they are passing by at 40+ yards..i switch to the larger shot size and tighter choke. I'll also switch shells if im hearing geese flying nearby. I'll unload the duck loads from my gun and fill'r up with the goose loads while im honking on my call
 
If I'm shooting my modern hammer double 12 with steel I run4's with IC /CYL bores , but I have used the IC/MOD chokes as well.
I like to run them open most of the time however because we shoot geese at the same time and the 2's pattern better with open bores.
In my vintage guns one is CYL/CYL and the other is CYL/MOD, but I doesn't shoot steel in them, Bismuth and Nice Shot for waterfowl.
My 20 has Trulocks in it, Precision hunter IC/MOD, but they are for steel so the restriction is a bit less than it would be for lead.
My 28 is IC/MOD and I use Nice Shot 4's and sometimes 2's ( IC barrel) in it but not often.
Cat
 
I have a pattern master code black extendo and my modified shoots the same pattern as it(waste of money IMO). Also have great luck shooting snow geese with 3" BB's at 40 yards with my IC
 
I've got 3 shotguns (a 20 gauge and 2 12's) that I used for duck hunting, they are all Full Choke.
 
anchor3593 said:
I like to grab the duck with my left hand around the legs and if the wings are flapping too much to get ahold of the neck, I'll hold the flapping duck out to my dog who will grab the head - making it easy to grab the neck with my right hand and then left also - you have to be quick to twist and choke or the feet will come up and tear your glasses off and your wrist watch - sometimes even a cell phone will hit the drink. The choke is actually not as important as the rate of twist - hope this helps.

Edit: Maybe I misread that question - sorry - I never did find my glasses - and I'm typing this on my old cell phone.
Click to expand...

I vote this one for best post of the year.
 
Happy to report I got my first duck ever today. Mallard Drake. Running a modified choke and 3" #3s. Hunting over decoys. :)

Thanks for all the input guys.

Jeremy
 
Well - A traditional full choke tends to "blow" the pattern when using steel shot. I've recently patterned my duck gun using cheapo Winchester 3 inch shells, and found that I/C held the tightest pattern at 40 y. There are some manufacturers of high end chokes that claim the be able to design a tighter choke that performs, but I haven't seen concrete evidence - perhaps others have.
To complicate matters there are brands of ammo such as Black Cloud that use a special wad that controls the shot column for several yards - Federal is quick to advise against using a tight choke as it screws up the performance of the wad. All these considerations call for the aspiring duck hunter to pattern their gun, and practice...
 
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