When we have an off day in the duck blind, it’s usually due to our errors, not because ducks are exceptionally evasive.
The cure? Often as not it’s simply more shooting. Forget what’s happening, and just keep hunting. After a few more shots, you’ll connect. After another dozen, you’ll come out of the slump.
Problem is, nowadays, a dozen or more shots at ducks could represent a big portion of your hunting season. Is there a better way?
Yes, and the key is simple. Do some self-analysis, and figure out if you’re missing because of bad habits. If you are, it’s not too late to change them.
Bad Habit No. 1: Failure to focus
To bag a duck, you must focus on that duck and that duck alone. Yet many hunters fail to do this. When a flock approaches, it’s tempting to aim into the mass and fire randomly instead of choosing a single target. But this usually results in embarrassing misses.
When you see several birds approaching, choose a single. Concentrate on proper aim and follow-through. If you miss, adjust, but stay with the same bird. Don’t attempt to bag a different duck. Get one on the water before thinking about a second.
Here’s another tip: Load one shotshell at a time until your shooting improves. Knowing you have only one shot improves concentration and can help you become a better shot.
Bad Habit No. 2: Analyzing each shot
Many ducks are missed because hunters worry too much about the details of each shot. Take lead, for example. Maintaining proper lead is necessary for clean kills. But if you try computing the proper lead in your head each time you shoot, you’ll get frustrated because each shot is different in terms of flight angle and speed. Some shots are going away, some head-on and some passing at 90 degrees. Some shots are at ducks rocketing past; others are at birds hovering over the decoys. If you must consciously think about how much lead to hold, you’ll probably miss.
Shooting should become instinctual. Don’t waste time figuring answers. Let unconscious reaction take care of firing the gun. Focus on your target, and follow it with your shotgun. Your brain will automatically determine the correct lead, and if the bird is within range and you have good shooting form, you’ll connect.
In his book Modern Water Fowling, John Cartier summed this up when he said, “Shotgun technique is directly opposite that of a rifle. With a rifle, you place your single bullet with perfect aiming and slow precision trigger squeezing. With a shotgun, you ‘throw’ a cloud of shot with lightning reaction.”
Frequent shooting practice can cure overanalytical hunters. Sporting-clays courses, with targets simulating ducks floating into the decoys, flying straight overhead and passing at various angles, are particularly good. Shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. The more you shoot, the more instinct takes over.
Bad Habit No. 3: Not studying your quarry
Top-notch shooters tend to know a great deal about habits of the ducks they hunt most often. They know how their quarry reacts to various weather patterns, the types of foods the ducks eat, the ways their flight patterns change throughout each day and season, and can tell you with a great deal of certainty whether the hunting will be good on a given day. Hunters know these things because they’ve learned everything they can about the ducks they pursue. They know being a good hunter means studying even minute details about their quarry’s habits.
The best shooters I’ve met are hunters who have studied hundreds of ducks dropping into their decoys. They know what the birds will do, how they’ll approach the decoys, which way they’ll flare and whether they’ll go high or low. The knowledge thus gained enables each hunter to know approximately where he must point his gun even before it touches his shoulder. This is why most great wingshots are veteran hunters. And it’s also the reason why many excellent skeet and trap marksmen fail miserably at connecting with game birds.
Take, for example, the veteran mallard hunter. He knows a decoying greenhead will almost always tower straight up when the gunners stand to shoot, reaching an almost stationary point before leveling off. Know this point, and you have an almost motionless target.
Diving ducks seldom tower when surprised. They curve away in broad arcs, relying on speed for escape. The best shooters know how to adjust to the differences in ducks’ behavior.
Dabblers such as pintails, shovelers and wigeons will spring up and drive into the wind immediately when flushed off flooded fields or potholes. This allows the gunner to focus his attention on a small arc instead of a complete circle, increasing the odds of connecting.
Divers coming in with wingtips barely above the water’s surface almost always decoy perfectly, enabling the gunner to hold fire until the nearest ducks are well within range. He then fires his first shot at a bird near the rear of the flock and his last shots at front birds still within shooting range.
Divers crossing high and fast usually pass. Thus the hunter must be prepared to shoot at the exact moment the flock passes closest to the blind.
Knowing such things is extremely beneficial to the hunter. But the benefits are realized only if the hunter consciously studies behaviors of the birds he pursues. “Pay attention and learn”: that phrase sums up the cure for this bad behavior.
Will getting rid of bad habits allow you to kill every duck you aim at? Not likely. There still will be times you’ll wonder how you missed such an easy shot. Even the best marksmen miss occasionally. Some days, they miss frequently.
One thing’s for sure, however. If you analyze your bad habits and try correcting them, you’ll become a better shooter. And being a better shooter is part of being a good sportsman. We may not bat a thousand each time we’re up to the plate, but true sportsmen feel an obligation to try.
Break bad habits, bag more ducks. That’s a goal we all should make part of our hunting.