The Evolving Water Fowl Gun

Guns Magazine, Dec, 2001 by Holt Bodinson

Today's waterfowl guns have been adapted to meet the demands of current hunting conditions.

It wasn't that long ago when something as specialized as a dedicated waterfowl gun was pretty rare in the average duck blind or goose pit. What one would see at the water's edge were a lot of standard field-grade pumps and autoloaders that had largely displaced those quality doubles of yesteryear: Browning Auto-5s; Winchester Model 97s, 12s, and possibly a Model 50, 59 or Super-Xl; Remington Model 31s, 870s, l1s and ll-48s;. Ithaca 37s; and a sprinkling of Stevens, Savages, High-Standards, Marlins and Long Tom 36-inch barreled bolt guns. Fixed chokes were the standard, but after-market Poly-Chokes and Cutts Compensators were making inroads.

The most specialized waterfowling gun of the time was Winchester's Model 12 Heavy Duck Gun. It was chambered for the 3-inch shell and featured a heavy-walled barrel of 30 or 32 inches. Weight was a substantial 9 pounds.

A Decade Of Change

Trends in the '60s and '70s began to change the face of waterfowling. Plastic shells and plastic wads revolutionized shotgun ammunition, which was typically stashed in wet blinds and the bottoms of duck boats. No longer did waterfowlers have to deal with paper hulls that soaked up moisture like a sponge, often failing to either chamber or extract. Camouflage clothing became the rage. And suddenly I was looking at my shiny duck guns and coming up with creative solutions to hide them as well. Working with camouflage tape and a razor blade, I turned out some pretty bizarre looking fowling pieces. And when camouflage paints and leaf stencils hit the market, my artwork deteriorated further.

In 1975, Ithaca gave the goose-hunting public exactly what they had been waiting for, the Mag-10. The new 11-pound, 10-gauge, 3 1/2-inch autoloader, pushing a full 2 1/4 ounces of shot at 1,200 fps, was just what the doctor ordered for the big Canadas. The Mag-10, modified and now marketed by Remington as the SP-10, became even more valuable in the wetlands when nontoxic shot regulations were imposed on the hunting community by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The big-bore 10 gauge proved that it could digest and pattern steel shot better than any 12 gauge on the market.

In the late 1980s, a unique collaborative effort took place between Federal Cartridge and Mossberg to develop the 12 gauge, 3 1/2-inch magnum shell and the Model 835 Ulti-Mag pump gun to chamber it. The 3 1/2-inch magnum -- with its potential of handling 1 9/16 ounces of steel shot at 1,300 fps -- has become the most versatile 12-gauge waterfowling load on the market, approximating the effectiveness of the big 10-gauge shell in guns that are both lighter and much less expensive.

Enter Steel Shot

The impact that steel shot had on traditional waterfowling shotguns cannot be stressed enough. Because hard steel shot lacks the easy flowing characteristics of lead shot through forcing cones and tight chokes, older guns could not handle it without some damage to their barrels. As a result, many fine guns that had given decades of service over the water and grain fields were retired forever or returned to service only after the development of softer and more expensive nontoxic shot such as Bismuth and Tungsten-Polymer in the 1990s.

There is a positive side to the story, however. Steel shot did hasten shotgun design changes that have been very beneficial to overall shotgun performance: specifically, lengthened forcing cones, back-bored barrels, and refined, screw-in choke tubes.

After much debate and hand wringing in the hunting community about the effectiveness of steel shot, waterfowlers have adjusted to steel shooting and discovered that it works, Shot sizes and velocities in steel loads increased in order to gain energy and range. BBBs and Ts in a modified choke were found to be effective on geese. Steel shot numbers 2, 3 and 4 worked for ducks over decoys. And if the wind was really blowing, or if the ducks weren't decoying well, BBs saved the day.

Today we have a stunning selection of waterfowl guns to choose from. Whether the choice is a SxS, 0/U, pump or autoloader, there's a model out there for every taste and style of hunting.

The 12-gauge, 3- and 3 1/2-inch magnum chamberings are the most popular because of their ability to handle 1 3/8 and 1 9/16 ounces, respectively, of low-density steel shot at high velocity. Velocity counts with steel shot. And we're now seeing factory loads for the 3 1/2 inch with 1 3/8 ounces of steel shot at 1,450 fps, and for the 3 inch with 1 1/8 ounces of steel shot at 1,500 fps. These are great loads. Try them. If you handload, focus on the 1,400 to 1,500 fps velocity levels for your reloads rather than on heavier charges of steel.

The current trend in waterfowl guns is certainly heading in the direction of autoloaders and pumps and away from traditional doubles. From my observations in the field, the autoloaders are the most popular guns today among the general waterfowling public. The distinct advantage of the gas-activated autoloader is its ability to soak up the considerable recoil generated by heavier waterfowl loads and high-pressure cartridges like the 12-gauge, 3 1/2-inch magnum. Plus, current 3 1/2-inch guns offer the flexibility of interchangeably handling 3-inch and 2 3/4-inch shells. In the case of the 10-gauge, 3 1/2-inch magnum, Browning's Gold and Remington's SP-l0 autoloaders really tame that big Roman candle and place it at the top of the list for pass-shooting geese of all varieties. And with autoloaders and pumps, that third shell in the gun can come in mighty handy sometimes.