New duck hunter needs advice on shells.

[Bajr]

I'm kind of new to the duck hunting world. Been deer hunter all my life. Have a buddy that offer to take me duck hunting 2 years ago when he got a duck boat. Kind of hooked now LOL. Alot to digest because so much out there. I have a winchester sxp shoot gun and have jeb .690 choke. Very expensive to buy a bunch of different brand shells to shoot. Does anyone have this setup to give advice on the shells that patterns the best? I know it's kind of a loaded (pun intended lol) question. Different brand guns shoot different chokes and shells different. Just curious is all.

 

[OneGunTex]

They will pretty much all kill birds. So if you are going to be hunting a bunch, going through a box of shells a week, it won't be that much more expensive to buy 5 different boxes, test a couple rounds each on paper, use all 5 boxes hunting, and when you run out only buy your favorite.

 

[OneGunTex]

a jeb .690 choke

Sorry but if this is a 12ga then that's an Extra Full choke and won't work well for you. First of all, you might damage (bulge) your barrel shooting steel shot out of it. Second, your shot will be too compressed at duck-shooting distances (20-40yds) to give you much of a chance of killing them.

Your gun probably came with a flush Modified choke, which will work perfectly fine in almost all scenarios. If it also came with an Imp Cylinder or Full choke, try those out too. (Just make sure you can safely shoot steel out of the Full choke first!)

 

[OneGunTex]

Also, coincidentally, there's an active thread right now about shot sizes for duck. Recommend you check it out, buy a few of the recommended boxes, and pattern your gun.

best general purpose STEEL shot-size for combo of big & small ducks?

Surprised I didnt find 7 different threads on the topic. For you guys who waterfowl hunt a lot, what is your favorite 12ga steel shot size for general purpose waterfowl use? This is mostly fairly open marsh, and a 50:50 mixture of small ducks (teal and wood ducks) and bigger ducks (mallards...

rokslide.com

 

[slvrslngr]

Kent Fasteel 3” #2,3 or 4 out of a modified choke

 

[Bajr]

Sorry but if this is a 12ga then that's an Extra Full choke and won't work well for you. First of all, you might damage (bulge) your barrel shooting steel shot out of it. Second, your shot will be too compressed at duck-shooting distances (20-40yds) to give you much of a chance of killing them.

Your gun probably came with a flush Modified choke, which will work perfectly fine in almost all scenarios. If it also came with an Imp Cylinder or Full choke, try those out too. (Just make sure you can safely shoot steel out of the Full choke first!)

Thank you. It did come with a flush modified. I'll try that out.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Black cloud #2s 3"
I do have the Carlson black cloud choke set mostly use mid range except on big water/sound use long range choke a nd 3.5" #2s for divers.

I did get some of those fancy Boss shells #2 and #3 mixed last year..haven't used any of them yet...

 

[KurtR]

Black cloud # 2 with pattern master code black. Hevi metal 3 also pattern real nice also.

 

[Ringbill27]

I’ve been duck hunting 8-9 years now. I’ve tried Boss bismuth and yeah they work very well if your are shooting well but if you are missing all I see is dollar bills going down range.

I’ve been using the federal power shok or the Winchester superXs for most my years. Normally in 3” 2s for the whole season. I’ll up it to 3.5” 2s for divers in the late season and 3.5” BB for geese.

I mainly use patternmaster.

I know the Winchester SXP is a great gun and many people love their’s. I hated mine. I never got used to the Speed Pump and would short stroke it every time. I shot it a lot. Finally on opening day I missed on two separate wood ducks easy follow up shots. Due to short stroking I’d rechamber the empty shell. That day I took that shotgun, a pistol and a rifle to the gun shop and traded them off and threw more money in on a Winchester SX4 and never looked back. It was honestly the best thing I’ve done for my duck hunting career thus far.

 

[Bajr]

I’ve been duck hunting 8-9 years now. I’ve tried Boss bismuth and yeah they work very well if your are shooting well but if you are missing all I see is dollar bills going down range.

I’ve been using the federal power shok or the Winchester superXs for most my years. Normally in 3” 2s for the whole season. I’ll up it to 3.5” 2s for divers in the late season and 3.5” BB for geese.

I mainly use patternmeaster.

I know the Winchester SXP is a great gun and many people love their’s. I hated mine. I never got used to the Speed Pump and would short stroke it every time. I shot it a lot. Finally on opening day I missed on two separate wood ducks easy follow up shots. Due to short stroking I’d rechamber the empty shell. That day I took that shotgun, a pistol and a rifle to the gun shop and traded them off and threw more money in on a Winchester SX4 and never looked back. It was honestly the best thing I’ve done for my duck hunting career thus far.

I know what you mean on the speed pump. Still getting use to it.

 

[steelheadmike]

Start with shooting steel out of your factory mod choke and go from there. A mod choke and steel shot will work for 94.5% of duck hunting shots. Play around with a couple loads and go from there. An aftermarket choke might help but if you're throwing a good pattern with the factory, just leave it alone.

I have been using a Kicks High Flyer Mod for years and it has worked well. I couldn't even tell you what the gun shot with a factory choke. The kicks has been in there for over 20 years.

 

[Havoc]

Migra was one of the top sellers at the waterfowl shop I worked at. Kent fast steel was also very popular. Migra is a stacked blend, so shot size 2 and 4 in the shell.

 

[podestaj01]

Lots of good info to surf through

 

[RockAndSage]

OP, here's a tip on shell choice: try to find practice shells for trap and skeet (7.5, 8s, etc) that shoot the same speed as a good waterfowl load you can shoot - it'll help a lot in getting you dialed in on how much lead you need to hold in shooting birds.

All my goose, duck, pheasant, chukar, quail, etc, and practice ammo runs right around 1350fps. But most low-base ammo runs around 1100fps, and hot duck loads can be as fast as 1550fps or faster. That's an extremely big difference in how much lead you need to hold for. My hit rates went up quite a bit on waterfowl in doing this - before, my practice ammo was my dove and quail ammo. I'd crush that, but found I was actually shooting too far in front of a lot of waterfowl shots, especially in jump shooting ponds. Once I unified velocities, things tightened up quite a bit.

 

[TimberRunner]

Don't shoot steel through that choke. You'll endanger your gun, and maybe yourself and those around you.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Kent Fasteel 3” #2,3 or 4 out of a modified choke

This, except I like IC for decoying ducks and Mod for pass shooting divers. I almost always prefer the #3's unless it's real late and we're hitting the bays just for Redheads. Kent is good steel though.

 

[KurtR]

jebs would disagree with not shooting that choke.

Yes, you can shoot steel out of a Jebs .690 choke. The Jebs Precision Choke Tubes 12ga.Crio .690 is designed to handle steel shot and any type of shell. The .690 choke is for long-mid range and is the long range equivalent for larger shot sizes.

I hunted first 30 years of my life with a full choked solid bbl wingmaster and never had any problems it patterned really tight and thats what i like. I have heard the stories about not shooting tight chokes and steel but never seen it be a problem. Its was always a brothers cousings uncles gun blew up type thing

 

[Bajr]

I found this chart for shotgun bore/chokes. The SXP has a .742 Bore Invector-Plus (also find it in manual of Winchester website) so using a .690 really does constrict it down.

 

[dtrkyman]

Jebs makes waterfowl chokes rated for steel in .690, it is tight and a long range tube.

I shot a bunch of tubes from my benelli, .695 was impressive but Benelli tend to have a tight bore so ymmv.

A stock IC and Mod. tend to cover everything within reason and will out perform most shooters!

You should definitely try multiple loads and find what you combo likes!

 

[Ringbill27]

I found this chart for shotgun bore/chokes. The SXP has a .742 Bore Invector-Plus (also find it in manual of Winchester website) so using a .690 really does constrict it down.

You are essentially shooting slugs at the ducks. Id switch to a more open choke. The SXP uses invector plus so based on the chart you posted. Looks like your Jebs is tighter then a turkey choke.