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Successful wood duck hunt

1K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  Gen1:26 
#1 ·
I hunted this morning with both of my labs. I ended up shooting two wood duck hens, the first one was about 40 yards out and landed in the lily pads. I sent my 3 year old lab for that one since he's much more experienced. The 2nd one flew right into my decoys, I got up to shoot and hit it just as it was taking off. It was perfect for my 1 year old lab's first bird in a real hunting situation (she was too young to hunt last season). She didn't see it land and she's not fully trained on blind retrieves yet but I managed to line her to it and she found it no problem.
 

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#4 ·
Agreed! I did leave out some important details.

1) I used a Remington Versa Max 12 gauge, left handed model. This is my first season hunting with it and I love it so far. I've been shooting trap all summer with it and it works perfectly. It cycles very light trap loads equally as well as 3.5" steel waterfowl loads.

2) Load was 3.5", 1 3/8 oz. steel #2 at 1550 fps Remington Sportsman 12 gauge. I'm not a big fan of recoil but this load patterns the best with my modified choke. It's overkill for woodies but I bring it anywhere that I might see geese and bigger ducks as well. The recoil is actually very manageable out of the Versa Max. That load has less felt recoil than some 3" loads have out of my son's Mossberg 500.

I went out again with a buddy of mine this morning. He missed his shots but I managed to get my limit of 2 black ducks and also a mallard hen. The ducks all landed pretty far out so I had to send my older lab to get them. I was hoping one of us would get an easy shot for my younger lab to do another retrieve, hopefully next time. She's pretty sensitive and not that confident yet so I'm not pushing her to go beyond her skill level until she has some more training under her belt.
 

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#8 ·
Thanks! I'm sure having a lot of fun with them. I hate disappointing them when I miss. My older dog is trained for upland now too so I'm looking forward to getting out in the woods with him soon.
 
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