Duck hunters - do you take your nice guns in the field?

[dave3006]

I have an Benelli M1S90 in 12g that I use for dove, quail, and chukar. I have a buddy who is going to introduce me to duck hunting.

I have heard stories and seen the muddy photos of some of his trips. Would I be better off getting an inexpensive pump gun (870) instead of dragging my nice $900 gun into this type of field?

What do you guys do?

 

[duckslayer]

My rule of thumb, and I believe many others rule as well, is that I don't take a gun that I am not willing to use as a boat paddle if necessary!

I use an 870 express, and leave the Wingmaster and 1100 at home.

 

[Dave McCracken]

You're better off getting an 870, anyway. It'll do everything your Benelli will and leave some change for hunting trips, ammo,yada,yada......

More seriously, it's a judgement call YOU have to make. I've never immersed a shotgun and generally keep the mud off them when hunting no matter how nasty the conditions, but others have not been so lucky.

A good coat of lube, which can include non gun stuff like Johnson's Paste Wax for cars is SOP.

Some goose guides I know melt paraffin into Express finishes with hair dryers.

I've seen everything in blinds, including Model 12s with gold inlays and Parkers with lots of engraving, but it boils down to your decision.

Note, my oldest 870 was made in 1950 and has seen a fair tomiddlin amount of blinds, salt marshes and sweat. Zero rust.

HTH.....

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

I don't know if a Citori counts as a "nice gun", but its the only gun I have used for everything since I bought it 20 years ago, including canoeing down the Arkansas for ducks and geese.

I use it because I shoot it so well. It has some minor scratches and quite a bit of honest wear, but I figure it will never be a collector's item anyway.

 

[sm]

This is a trick question - right?

If you need an excuse to buy another gun - I have plenty of excuses.

"Honey - some guy on the Internet said I have to buy another gun" .

I have taken Perazzi MX8 , Super X Model 1, Krieghoff, Citori's, 1100s, Beretta O/U and semis, etc. ...duck hunting. Then again though I do take care of stuff, it is only a tool. I only own Blue&Wood guns - I have hunted very little with syn stocks. Not as natural a sound when syn bumps into stuff out in the wilds.

Hard to beat a good pump gun. 870 Express with RIG, or Carnuba wax to protect , don't forget to seal end grains.

FWIW - the Perazzi I used in the midst of snow, and I found a bar ditch ( as usual).

The Krieghoff...I never got wet, in fact I was wearing LL Bean rubber soled boots, blue jeans, and took off my wax cotton jacket. I was at a "Gentelman's Hunt" Concrete from parking lot to blind, served breakfast, I chose a gun from rack, sat in a heated "gallery" ...sipping coffee while a Pro Duck caller - called. I actually stood up the first time to shoot ( couldn't see the dogs). I took the other 5 greenheads sitting down. Talk about a rough way to hunt.

I had to park my own vehicle, I had to walk back to my own vehicle...the nerve of it all...

At least they made up for it...served us lunch of Steak and Tail before we left.

 

[Lee Woiteshek]

When we went to steel, I bought and carried nothing but a Mag-10 for ducks. Had Briley chokes put in it, cut it down to 23 inches, and Robared it. It was pretty much perfect for ducks regardless of the weather or conditions (bottom of a boat, etc.)Turned 46 this year and no longer liked carrying the weight, nor getting my world rocked everytime I hit the trigger. Sold the Mighty 10 and brought out my 12 Browning Citori. My Citori had only seen sunny days and dove fields. Figured with hevi-shot in the 3 inch chamber it would do anything the 10 would. Opening day I booted about 10 feet out from the bank, hit a root, tripped and went completely underwater. It was with nothing less than disgust that I watched twin streams of water running from my O/U. When I was through sputtering, had you been around you could of added new words to your vocabulary that you could not use either at church or at Thanksgiving dinner. That said the hevi-shot absolutley crushes ducks, and I shoot the Citori better than I ever shot the 10. It fits me better. I shoot less, with more birds to hand. End of season I was planning on getting a SBE II. Now I just don't know. Might get the Citori Robared and be done with it. I won't say scratches and rain no longer bothers me when I carry the Citori, but the upshot is that its a tool, I'm getting older and if I don't use it now, what am I saving it for? Hope this helps.

 

[EghtySx]

I have hunted with an 1100 since I got it 30 years ago. I shoot trap with a Kreighoff Model 32 but have hunted dove with it on many occasions. Your hunting gun will definately get some scratches on it but like someone said, its just a tool. It is meant to be used.

 

[JohnBT]

I think everyone needs a back-up gun anyway, so I'd vote for buying an Express. Having a beater is nice when someone suggests "Let's go belly crawl through that muddy field and sneak up on those birds before it stops raining."

Another thing that bothers me is cedar sap on a nice gun. A friend of mine likes to build blinds out of freshly cut cedar branches and I hate having to scrub that sap off a nice gun.

I like rain and snow and sleet though, because it makes it easier to keep the mud and saltwater off the gun.

Speaking of nice guns, I know a guy who always hunts with an old engraved Model 1100 with gold bird dogs on it.

John

 

[mete]

I bought my M1-90 with it's plastic stock so I don't have to worry about it as I hunted from a canoe.Yes it did get dunked . BTW I used a 1/8" nylon line to attach the gun to canoe , if you want to keep stuff in a boat ,tie to boat or you !Even on land if hunting with climbing on rocks etc the plastic stock is a no worry gun. When conditions are good I take a nice O/U.

 

[lycanthrope]

The Mag-10 deluxe didn't come real cheap, but it was bought to hunt with. Guns are tools. I don't buy Wal Mart because I refuse to get the Craftsman stuff dirty!

 

[Dave McCracken]

Pop believed in mud guns, and as I scanned this thread I recalled he originally bought the 870 that's now mine used to spare his old Savage O/U. How well that worked I cannot say, the Savage had zero rust on it when it was stolen. So does the 870.

Shotguns are always tools. Some have some claim to being art, for we have always beautified our weapons. Achuelian hand axes 100,000 years old are knapped out symmetrically well past the demands of utility.We started making things prettier not long after we started making things.

A friend from the Geezer Squad has a custom made Grulla SxS, built to his specs, a masterwork of lethal art. I told him I could never own one like that, it was too pretty to take in the woods and too well made to leave home.

None of my shotguns are too pretty to use. I might not take the 870TB duck hunting, but it may see a dove shoot where I don't mind hauling a 9 lb gun along. Number 6 will see some handling marks added to its character in much the same places Frankenstein's campaigning has left them.

Gil Ash, among others, mentions that people shoot better with pretty guns, or guns THEY think are pretty. IMO, there's something to it.

 

[TrapperReady]

I used my Beretta 391 (which was nice once) all season long. It was dunked a couple times, and is a little worse (looking) for the wear. I don't regret it at all. I thought about getting an 870 Express, but then thought "Heck, I've already got this gun, and I shoot it well."

The only guns I "baby" a bit are already collector's items. They still get shot, but if the weather is really crummy, I'll go with something else. If my main option is a gun which is currently in production and readily available, then I wouldn't let cost determine when or how I'd use it.

 

[308win]

What is the value in keeping it NIB condition unless you bought it only as an investment. When you use them you ding them. But they aren't really dings they are memories that you can't redo, only remember - there is the real value in my humble opinion.

My Sportsman 58 was bought new for me by my father when I was 11 I believe I would have been. It has always been taken care of the way he taught me. It has dings, dents, and scratches and everyone of them represents a part of my life that is priceless - the barbed wire scratch from my first quail hunt with it; the scratches on the grip from my stepfather's ring when I let him borrow it on opening day of pheasant season one year; the dent in the stock when I went charging out of the goose pit after the first Canadian I knocked down. I can close my eyes, handle that gun, and see my father and stepfather again as if they are in the room with me. That gun has meaning and is priceless!

Time's wasting you need to get'er done! Just my .02.

 

[rust collector]

My M1 super 90 was made for ducks

Plastic stock, 5 minutes to dismantle completely, 24' barrel, can't imagine a better oufit over dekes. Put it in a gun sock, keep it out of the bilge and it'll blast greenheads all day.

For upland, you want a nice little double to take the wind out of a rooster's sails. For ducks in the mud, you want something you can hose out if need be.

 

[Kingcreek]

I have one dedicated waterfowl gun. a winchester super X2 with 26" pipe and synthetic stock with homemade camo spray paint. Its all I want in a duck/goose gun and it saves my other nice shotguns from the abuses.
If I wanted to take an A5 or the 391 or one of the doubles, I could but I would worry too much about the gun and not enough about the birds.

 

[sm]

For instance I have a 1974 Win SX1. I have put easily shot over 200K rds through this gun.

It has some character, from Skeet , 5 Stand, Sporting Clays,"Exotic Clay Games" Quail, Dove, Deer, Duck, Goose, hunting...you name it - I have done it in all kinds of weather with this gun. Paddled canoes and johnboats to breaking ice.

I have decided to let this one rest a bit, retire if you will. I use a New 870 Express bone stock ( sans the J hook safety) for everything now.

Cause I want to. I have used a variety of nice guns over the many years. I appreciate the simple , and for the most part part if I can see it - I can fell it.

 

[HSMITH]

I take my favorites hunting, though for the last couple years it has been my SuperX2 that gets all the duck hunting.

I have and will continue to take the most expensive guns I have out hunting.

 

[PJR]

I believe in back up guns but I don't believe in foul weather guns. If your Benelli is your duck gun then use it for the purpose.

I shoot a moderately priced Euro sxs for upland hunting no matter what conditions. On a hunt I was asked by a friend whether I was going use my "nice" gun in the day's foul weather. My response was that if I was going so was the gun and the only time the gun wouldn't go out because of the weather was if I didn't. I have used this gun for ducks although prefer a semi-auto for waterfowl.

They are using guns not showing guns. They aren't collectors items, any dings or scapes can be set right by a gunsmith and why wouldn't you bring your very best ever chance you got?

 

[esheato]

Personally, I believe every tool has it's role. I buy clay guns to shoot clays. I buy hunting guns to hunt.

As it stands, O/U for target and pump for hunting. No, I don't have any problems switching between 'em either.

Ed