First time in the blind

[69beers]

I'm going home to the beautiful southern shores of Lake Erie, near Sandusky OH, this weekend for some waterfowl hunting. This will be my first time legally hunting ducks (I grew up on the lake, enough said) and was wondering if I should use my IC or M choke? I'll be shooting Winchester Xpert HV 3 1/2" 1 3/8oz BBs out of my SBE 1.

 

It should be a pretty killer weekend: Fri night walleye fishing, Sat & Sun in the duck boat, Mon & Tue deer hunting in southeast OH.

[Cleric]

Sounds like a blast! To make sure you give yourself the best possible chances with those ducks, go pattern your shotgun with both your M and IC chokes and the rounds you will be using. Every gun is bit different and you need to determine which will work better for you.

 

I can tell you that I shoot M most of the time, but there will be many, many others who shoot IC. Patterning is the only way to get a good reading on the topic.

[bwnr]

I reiterate and stress Cleric's post. Shoot that round through both chokes....30" circle, 40 yards away. Count the pellet strikes in each circle. Sacrifice an unspent shell and count how many pellets are in there. Divide holes in paper by pellets in shell to give you a percentage of hits inside the circle. You may not notice very much difference, but every gun/shell combination is different. For me, I like IC over decoys with steel and Mod. in fields.

 

Man, what a weekend you're in for! It looks like an Alberta clipper is coming through today and tomorrow here in NE Ohio. Hopefully it will push some birds down for us (I drew Magee Marsh for this Saturday). Maybe we'll hear each other wackin' some birds! Good luck.