Waterfowlers are definitely a different breed of bird hunter. You have to be to want to get up at 4am and freeze to death on the edge of a swamp or lake. Personally, I rather enjoy September Canada goose with its far more pleasant temps. But, for those of you that relish those artic conditions, there are some very simple tips you can follow to add more birds to your bag during waterfowl season.
Practice like you like play. So many times I have a hunter come to me for a tune up before he/she heads out on a trip and they have not only not practiced but, they haven’t practiced according to their specific hunting conditions. The chances of having all or any of your shots within 20yds straight ahead and waiting for your trigger pull are zero and nil. Unlike some birds, waterfowl have a pretty strong desire to keep flying and can be quite elusive. This means you must practice and become proficient in all manners of crossing shots and quartering angles at varying distances. One very simple thing you can do is to play to your strengths. You will find that any shot originating on your dominant side will be easier for you versus a shot originating on your weaker or sub-dominant side. So, set yourself up in the blind accordingly. For example, if you are a right eye, right hand shooter, you will easily rotate to the far left. Your ability to rotate to the right will be limited to only about 15 degrees of rotation before hip lock. This is accentuated if you shoot from a sitting position.
Also, in practicing, make sure that you shoot from standing and sitting positions. Practice smoothly standing and mounting your gun in one fluid movement to the bird. You will be amazed at the awkwardness of this, if you have never practiced it. Whenever a student comes to me in preparation for a bird hunt, we ALWAYS practice for their specific conditions. If it’s upland birds, we work on walking up and transitioning to a smooth mount when the dog goes on point. If it’s for waterfowl, we practice moving from a seated position to standing and also, shooting from a seated position. If coffin blinds are to be used, yes, we practice the safest and best shooting methods for harvesting birds laying on the ground. By the way, try to get your coffin blind situated so that you are not directly facing the birds when they come in but, instead have it an angle to compliment your swing. Trust me, it makes it much easier to swing and rotate with the bird and offers cleaner additional shots as the birds pass over.
Set up for success. It is very, very tempting to set your blind and decoys up so that the wind will be at your back and your birds will be “dead” ahead. This can be problematic though as the birds will flair as soon as you move and break downwind of your blind. This means that they will probably flair sooner than you want since they are facing directly into your blind and your next shots are going to be at difficult angles with little or no chance for a follow up shot. It may not be as comfy while you are waiting on birds but, set up your blind and decoys so that the birds are slightly crossing into the decoys. This helps to keep you and your crew better hidden and offers better follow up shots since the birds have to cross back in front of you when they flair.
Not all shot is created equally. When was the last time you patterned your hunting load? Did you switch loads or even chokes or guns? I know for a fact that none of my Berettas care for a particular hot and heavy load as they throw large gaps in the pattern. I admittedly fell victim to this last year on a tundra swan hunt. We had a flock of swans come straight into us and then turn hard right about 45yds out. I picked out my swan, pulled the trigger and watched them fly away. I was completely dumbfounded and beside myself. When I got home I patterned my gun with that same load only to find out that at just 30yds, my pattern was absolutely crap! So, I now religiously pattern any load before I hunt and take note of the effective killing distance. Such a simple thing to do, especially when you are about to harvest an animal on a paid hunt. Why wouldn’t you take 10 minutes to insure you reaching your maximum potential?