WoodieBoater

+2 on the aftermarket choke. When I went for an aftermarket I got a patternmaster and a Comp-N-Choke. I like the Comp-N-Choke better, its less finicky about what you feed it and very consistent. If you go the CNC route they tend to run a little tight, modified is more like improved modified or even full. Ill say one thing you have to watch for is that you cant shoot a "flightstopper" (black cloud) wad through a lot of the ported chokes and definitely cant shoot them through the wadstrippers.

well said in my opinion. I think you have to go to the store and handle some guns to see what you like. Ive allways been a firm believer in you'll know what gun you want when you pick it up. That said, I have a 1963 Browning a-5 mag and a brand new one that I won at a DU dinner... I shoot the old one. It fits me better and I shoot it better. I have a hasting's barrel and aftermarket chokes for it and it kills ducks. A lot of the problems people had with the older a-5's came from a lack of knowledge on how to clean them and how to set up the recoil rings. do it right and they work. Phil Robertson pushes the benelli's but if you listen to this interview ant start at about 4:06 the question of his favorite shotgun comes up and his immediate response is the browning a-5. The problem of recoil ring set up was fixed with the new a-5 so user error was essentially removed. Ill probably catch hell for this comment but they are pretty similar in concept (inertia operated action) to the benelli SBE and such. However they do come with that browning price tag (although the benelli isn't any better). go out and look to see what you like, in terms of reliability you shouldn't have any issues with the a-5 as long as you care for it properly.

I agree with Kevin. There are times when they work wonders. Especially in early season when birds haven't seen 1000 of them. A jerk Chord is cheaper and more consistent throughout the season Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

if they're far off I just hit a regular mallard call to help get their attention but I never call when they're in close or taking passes. like you said I never hear them "say" much..

it is not illegal to shoot waterfowl from a powered vessel. it is illegal to shoot waterfowl from a vessel that is under power and in motion. My guess is more likely they were harassing cormorants but that's still illegal. Are you sure they were shooting ducks? (black ducks aren't so much truly black as much as they resemble a dark hen mallard). Either way, report them next time. they give the rest of us a bad name.

Usually any big open water has a lot of divers on it during late season. Conesus had a pretty solid population of redheads last year too. And yeah I would definitely recommend the flagging. You can define rely tell when the birds see the flag. They bank hard and at least swing by for a closer look Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

more decoys will definitely help, and if your buying new you can definately diversify but don't wory about that aspect too much. We set mostly redhead deeks (probably 90 percent). We also allways put a big white canvasback decoy on the outside end of each string and let me tell ya, you can see that thing from a long long ways. Also second the motion recommendation. Real ducks are always moving and if your spread looks "dead" you'll have a real hard time getting birds to come in. A cheaper way to add some motion is to put some of your standard decoys on a jerk cord (I personally don't run a mojo because geese never come in when a mojo is running). We set some goose floaters off to the side of our spread and every once in a while well get a few to come in. A little elbow grease and a jerk cord goes a long ways on still days. And im not knocking the mojo, if you want to run one run it. Another thing we do is bring black "flags" (like you use field hunting geese) into the blind and flag at ducks out in the middle of the lake. Every once in a while that will catch their attention and pull some into the spread.

we like to set up a "ball" of divers (redheads, buffleheads and bluebills) close to the blind with two strings pointing at the ball (if you were looking at our blind from the lake). More often than not the divers will line right up with the string that points downwind and land between the strings near the ball (the setup should look kind of like a funnel). Don't be afraid to set ALOT of deeks (we do 15 dozen) as well as BIG deeks. The more visible you can make your spread from far out in the lake the better off you are. This is a pretty killer spread when we hunt Seneca. Good Luck