Duck hunting shotgun question...

[Ontario Hunter]

I don’t have a camo knife for this reason, but I can’t imagine actually loosing a shotgun after setting it down. Are you saying that they never recovered or simply had a hard time locating them?

I have made this mistake many times with a black shotgun. Haven't lost it yet but close once. Had to help my dog up out of a canal and set the gun down. Ellie likes to parade with a downed dead bird and sometimes I have to go to her to end the show. And it's usually necessary to remove my vest to get a rooster in the gamebag. Yesterday I set the gun down and went to her. Loaded up the bird and turned to find my gun in the grass. Had to look for it for maybe five minutes and I didn't walk away ten yards. Yeah, I coulda and probably shoulda broke her of that as a pup but I guess the dogs deserve to have some fun showing off. Crippled birds always come straight to hand. Dogs know the difference.

Tip: I wear size large jacket but only size medium upland vest. I need the snug fit (hence needing to remove vest to load a pheasant - smaller Huns or sharpies can be shoved into the gamebag through the front loading ports). Gun gets caught in a loose vest when mounting in a hurry. If shooting a jacket with sleeves it's not an issue. I've also had to remove the butt sling stud on my A5 as it was also getting caught in the vest. Don't ask me how, but it was quite an annoyance. The stud stays on the sling in my gamebag (sling is deployed when daily limit is filled or walking out in the dark).

 

[Ontario Hunter]

It is hard not to laugh when one of those big honkers burns in on top of the blind next to you. I have never seen any real damage other than a few full body decoys severely wounded in action.

Over the years I've had to fend off two falling geese with my shotgun. I'm convinced the first one was trying to get me. His head was down and appeared to be aiming at me. Kamikaze honker! I recovered and knocked down another with second shot. Pearl fetched that one up but wouldn't pick up the first one I batted away maybe four feet. "Go get it" "Why? It's right there. Get it yourself." It had died shortly after impact. We were then done for the day as I'd already taken a triple shortly after daybreak. Back then I only had a dozen shell decoys (now two dozen) + a limit of five honkers was a helluva load to haul off the field on my back. Now I have a cart but it's still a lot of work.

When hunting, the shiny wheels come off, shelf folds down, and everything is flattened and concealed underneath the empty camo decoy bag.

 

[Ridge Runner]

I have made this mistake many times with a black shotgun. Haven't lost it yet but close once. Had to help my dog up out of a canal and set the gun down. Ellie likes to parade with a downed dead bird and sometimes I have to go to her to end the show. And it's usually necessary to remove my vest to get a rooster in the gamebag. Yesterday I set the gun down and went to her. Loaded up the bird and turned to find my gun in the grass. Had to look for it for maybe five minutes and I didn't walk away ten yards. Yeah, I coulda and probably shoulda broke her of that as a pup but I guess the dogs deserve to have some fun showing off. Crippled birds always come straight to hand. Dogs know the difference.

Tip: I wear size large jacket but only size medium upland vest. I need the snug fit (hence needing to remove vest to load a pheasant - smaller Huns or sharpies can be shoved into the gamebag through the front loading ports). Gun gets caught in a loose vest when mounting in a hurry. If shooting a jacket with sleeves it's not an issue. I've also had to remove the butt sling stud on my A5 as it was also getting caught in the vest. Don't ask me how, but it was quite an annoyance. The stud stays on the sling in my gamebag (sling is deployed when daily limit is filled or walking out in the dark).

Yeah, been there, still doing that and for the life of me can't figure out how or why of all things that butt sling swivel +/-3 inches forward of the butt finds its way to interfere with mounting a shotgun or rifle.

 

[Dirtdart]

When hunting, the shiny wheels come off, shelf folds down, and everything is flattened and concealed underneath the empty camo decoy bag.

The decoy cart we used was a 14' cargo trailer packed to the gills pulled by a crew cab 4x4 pickup. I never did any solo hunts for geese it was more of a squad size operation.

 

[Jaegerstu]

If you follow the rule of the "Three Bs, Benelli, Berretta, Browning" you should find one that fits you and you shoot well, Due to the elements you may shoot a gun with a coating of your choice. This may make keeping the gun in serviceable condition a bit easier. Shiny blue steel can be reflective and somewhat easier to degrade. Enjoy the quack life, Good Luck and Good Times

 

[roverandbrew]

If you follow the rule of the "Three Bs, Benelli, Berretta, Browning" you should find one that fits you and you shoot well, Due to the elements you may shoot a gun with a coating of your choice. This may make keeping the gun in serviceable condition a bit easier. Shiny blue steel can be reflective and somewhat easier to degrade. Enjoy the quack life, Good Luck and Good Times

I thought the three Bs were Babes, Boos, and Belt Line......Now I know others exist.

 

[Jaegerstu]

Perhaps this pertains to the Two Ps "Priorities and Perspective" or what game you are pursuing and the time of day? Good times

 

[Ridge Runner]

I thought the three Bs were Babes, Boos, and Belt Line......Now I know others exist.

Wow yet another 3 B's:

Booze, Boobs, & Butts
Bacon, Bacon, & Bacon
Bit'h, Bit'h, Bit'h
Bullets, Beans, Bedroll

 

[Dirtdart]

I have posted that my personal goose gun is an O?U. Most of my friends that used autos were switching from X-make/model to a Benelli of some sort and praised them.

The Sauer SL5 made by Breda was not available at that time but since there is a lot of field knowledge in this thread on autos I am curious if any of you guys have run the SL5? I bring this model up because it has what is a suitable finish for waterfowl hunting and one of the more attractive diarrhea guns out there IMHO.

 

[BeeMaa]

@Dirtdart - I know the SL5 requires a break in period of 200 rounds of 1 1/8 oz (minimum load) and to use a minimum of 7/8 oz loads to operate the inertia drive after that.

I know there are some reports of the trigger pin falling out due to improper fit, which is a little concerning. You'll want to check that out.

Not a lot of other complaints after the initial break in. The occasional failure to feed or eject when using light loads which is common with inertia drive actions. Also letting it get gummed up...improper care of the shotgun will always be a problem regardless of the action type.

Field strip and blow it out with air after a day in the field. Lightly lube everything and blow it out again to remove excess lube. Put it back together, cycle the action several times and you should be good to go. After a long week of the muck, mud and water on a hunting trip...do a complete breakdown and give it a good cleaning. I even take out the recoil spring in the stock, disassemble the magazine, remove the trigger group...etc. Full strip down, blow out, lube, wipe down, blow out and reassemble. Good for the next trip.

Pretty pice of timber on that shotgun. Is it 3" or 3.5" chamber?