2 3/4" 12 ga favorite loads for ducks?

Gene R.

Gene R.

Well-known member
I picked up a used O/U that I'm going to use for clays and some Fair weather duck hunting. But It's only a 2 3/4 chamber any pet shells to recomend before I hit the pattern board. I use sped shok 3" , 3'S 1400fps 1 1/4 oz on puddle ducks & 2's 1 1/8 1550 sea ducks, divers now . So I guess my question is keep speed up w/ less shot or keep same payload & slower. Or heavy types of non toxic shells, most of them are middle of road speed wise. I was surprised to see 2 3/4 blk cld only 1 oz payload.

Gene
 
I like the 1 1/16 oz Kent loads. If you can find 3s you will have nearly the same number of shot as 2s in a 1 1/4 oz load. I normally only can find 2s and 4s though and they work fine.

Tim
 
Gene,

Don't worry about the light load. I shoot 7/8th oz of steel out of my 20 ga. and had one of my best seasons last year with 15 different species, 7 of puddlers and 8 of divers including Scoter and Old Squaw. Get the birds in close and they won't care if you only have an ounce of shot. I like higher speed loads myself.
 
I bet you though I was going to say....... hehehehehehe

How about pick a few different rounds from different manufacturers too, from 2's to 7's and pattern them out of an IC at 30yds and see which on has the pattern density you're looking for. Every one of those shot sizes will kill ducks at that range cleanly.
 
Like Pete said, Don't be afraid of light pellet loads.
I've been using an old Sterlingworth for the last couple years and one of my favorate loads
is 1oz of NiceShot at 1150fps. I use both #5 & #6 and both are deadly. I havn't taken as
many shots but I'm getting as many ducks and most hit the water dead.
I'm enjoying the light recoil too!! John
 
Thanks all, that is encouraging to hear about lower pay loads. Short of shooting woodies on beaver ponds, I haven't used much 2 3/4 steel since the lead ban. I will be patterning multiple brands @30 the pile of chokes I got as recomended also. I guess as long as I center them it won't matter.

Jon, Nice Shot? Been reading a little here and there about it. You like it, I take it. I messed with loading steel in early 90's and results were poor to say the least.

Thanks
Gene
 
Thats all I shot for Sea Ducks Xpert 1550 FPS 1 1/16 oz #4 shot. It works fine and its cheep. Thats out of a LH Model 1100 30" Full Choke, its the only choke I've got.
 
I have shot lots of 2.75" steel the last few years, #4-#1. A buddy died a few years back and I got 37 boxes of 2.75" shells. His old 870 was not a magnum. I been trying to use up his old shells and some of them are old steel. This past season, I killed lots of mallards and Canada Geese with 1 1/8 ounce #2 steel. I used a box of #1's which were old blue Peter's Steel Shot and killed the ducks and geese with no problem. #4's worked good in the early part of the season on teal and wood ducks. #3's worked great on wood ducks. I been shooting Federals, Remingtons, and Winchesters they all seem to kill birds. I did not pattern any of them. Just stuff them in the gun and go shoot birds. I am going to use them one way or the other, so why waste them on paper. Imp Cyl for close shooting and Mod for a little farther shots. Most of my shots are 15-25 yards in the decoys and maybe 30-35 on the 3rd shot if they are getting out fast. I do not think they smack birds quite as hard as the 3" 1 1/4 oz. 1400 FPS or 3" 1 1/8 oz 1475-1550 FPS loads, but my shooting percentage has still been good.
 
Don't sell the Black Cloud 1oz load short. After two seasons, I have lowered my cripple rate and had a few longer then average kills with these shells.

Tom Armbrust, from Ballistic Research, recommends for older 2 3/4" guns, steel shells shooting less than 1400fps, and only up to 1 1/8" loads, as well as constriction of less than .0020 to keep chamber pressures low.

Having said this, in my "new" (1906) Parker, I have decided to leave the original full chokes and hand load ITX in 2 3/4" because family, kids, flyfishing, duck boats, and decoy making don't keep me busy enough.
 
Mike T, what fps are the blk clds I don't recall? I did see rodgers has them alot more managible than the $175 for 3" As for older steel shot gun it 's not. It's a 96 citori Ultra Plus Sporter w/invec +. Thanks for the info good to know. I have a '72 skb 500 2 3/4 that I'm deadly with. I'd love to take out but haven't bought the "Classic dbls" heavy loads. I can't compute how something harder than steel and heavier can be better than steel through no steel gun? Am I missing something?

n.Mike, 37 boxes! yeah thats hard to just let sit. that amount you could practice on crows doves clays whatever.

Gene
 
If you can stomach the price-#6 Wingmaster HD's are the ticket. I use them on everything from teal to greater snows for the last 3 or 4 years. I only shoot 2-3/4 as that is all my old A-5 will eat. If I was a handloader, I think I would use the nice shot mentioned before.
 
Gene,
I too prefer an older O/U double gun. Mine is a Winchester model 101 with 2 3/4" chambers. My shell of choice is the Winchester DriLok with #3 or #4 steel shot. It patterns well and I shoot it well...it's my duck gun of choice.
Lou
 
Gene, google, New Era Ammunition, a Michigan company that offers the best price on designer non-tox ammo for your older double.
 
The SxS I use for most all my waterfowling has 2 3/4" chambers, but throws a great pattern with the Winchester X-Pert 1550 fps 1 1/16 loads in # 2 (duck) and in BB (geese). Very reasonably priced... especially when I tell my kids that what I want for Birthdays & Christmas is a couple of boxes of shells. ;-)

When the ducks were hitting the cornfields when we hunted geese late in the season, that BB load was stoning ducks for me as well.

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I found a hand load for ducks when we had to go to steel years ago and the factory stuff was bad but then Kent came out with a nearly identical load...2 3/4 inch 1 1/8 oz of #3's or #4's at 1425 fps. Been killing nearly every kind of duck over decoys since then with those Kents. I shoot a Ithica SKB 100 SXS with the full choke opened up to true Mod as the factory Mod choke turned out to be a Imp Mod. These two chokes work great with those Kent loads.

NOTE 3-24 ....OOPS, I corrected the choke info on my gun above.

I use heavier loads for sea ducks and geese but everything else see's those Kent loads.

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kent faststeel number 4 for everything in the humpback. Spent some time cutting up shells at the club one afternoon, you would be amazed what companies pass off as shot. Kents were nice and round and almost polished-like. After the visual put them on paper. Kent was the most consistant at 30 yards.
 
kent faststeel number 4 for everything in the humpback. Spent some time cutting up shells at the club one afternoon, you would be amazed what companies pass off as shot. Kents were nice and round and almost polished-like. After the visual put them on paper. Kent was the most consistant at 30 yards.
Click to expand...
It is amazing what some companies pass off as shot. Not doubting anybody about performance with x-perts but damn. It's as bad as heavy shot. I have a good direction to start now. Good lord if the Hoody crew twenty somethings were to read this post they would think we're insane not shooting 3.5" roman candles.
You guys ever notice your hit ratio goes up when you know you only have 2 shots? Even if you only shoot twice with your pump or auto. Ya know what I mean?

Gene
 
i dont think round matters... kinda round is as air-o-dynamic as round... which is not very. do a few pellets get kicked out of the pattern, probably... but thats why they put so many in there. clean a duck, and you only got a handful of pellets that killed it anyway. lead loads used to deform so bad (and dove loads still do) that a lot of the pellets werent round by the time they hit a bird anyway.... thats why they tried to make them harder and copper coated them. i think our ideals of round pellets doesnt pan out in the real world. x-spurts are our shell of choice even if they werent 1/2 the price of regular shells. travis
 
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