What size bismuth shot to purchase for ducks...
 

Hi All,

I am about to place an order for bismuth shot for my Trojan 12 gauge. Its choked Mod and Imp Mod. I will mostly be jump shooting ducks from the front of a canoe. I cannot decide what size shot I would be best off with.. 4, 5, or 6.

Almost entirely wood duck and mallards.

Thanks!

I would go with no 5 shot enough shot for the woodducks and teal and big enough to bring a big mallard down...charlie

"Back in the day" lead 6s was my choice for ducks over decoys and passing shots. With my fine older guns I have gone to, by modern standards, low velocity (1150 - 1200 fps) Bismuth 5s. Still a good shot count, nice patterns, and dependable knock down. Get your best "dove lead" out, throw it out in front of 'em and let'em run into it. I have found this is actually a better success rate for me than the high velocity steel we're shooting today.

I have shot #5 bismuth for many years with great results in vintage Parkers and Foxes, 1 1/8oz 1125fps handloads. However for late season hunting hunting for big feathered up Mallards and Blacks I use 1 1/4oz #3 Kent TM in a 3 farme 12ga Parker or a Super Fox.

Are you loading your own 1200 fps bismuth loads?

Ken

Ken's question is a good one. Also, what are the typical ranges at which you'll generally be shooting? Early season or later (I assume early to mid-season if you are jump shooting from a canoe)?

Early and close, I'd go with the 5s also. Later and/or with greater distance, I'd opt for number 4 shot.

Center 'em and close range and any of the sizes will do it.

Ken, I just had some tested at Precision, 16 ga. and 12 ga. hand load bismuth.
12 ga.
20 gr. Int'l 1 oz. #5 bismuth Cheditte 2 1/2" Cheditte 209 comp spcl short wad
avg 1265 fps avg 7692 psi
Just a bit faster than I anticipated but happy pressures. I may back off 1 gr.
16 ga.
15.7 gr. Int'l 7/8 oz. bismuth Cheditte 2 1/2" Cheditte 209 sporting 16 wad
avg 1229 fps avg 8733 psi
Same 16 ga. load w/Fioche 616 and lead #7 Avg 1211 fps avg 8433 psi
Shooting in Parkers with steel barrels.

Here in nh we shoot a lot of wood ducks and for the most of my shooting is 7/8 th oz bismuth 6 s out of a 20 ga, so out of a 12 ga 6 s or 5 s should work just fine.
Scott

test data
 

Ken, thanks for sharing the test data on the loads. :)

For jump shooting on open streams I wouldn't use anything but #4. The chances for 40 yard plus shots are going to be high.

Ducks dive. You gotta kill them dead if you want to find them. Unless you have a good duck dog and you like to make him work, go with #4 or larger.

-Victor

4's

I love 5's. I puddle jump woodies here in GA with them. I also shot them in Canada and dropped cranes, geese, ducks and upland birds with them

From what ive been reading alot of guys who shoot bismuth say drop down 1 size from the lead shot they used back in the day

My experience both jump shooting over fresh water or shooting eiders and scoters in the salt was as follows:

Generally in the early part of the duck season when the ducks plumage is still fairly light we jump shot with #6 shot and same in the salt over 30 to 75 decoys as the shooting was close in.

As the duck season in our part of the north east, (plymouth, mass.) wore on and the ducks plumage got heavier due to increasing cold weather, we switched to heavier #4 shot.

I've been jump shooting ducks from a purpose built fiberglass kayak for many years, with doubleguns. If I use bismuth in my vintage ones, I go with 4s. Reason, you're shooting the toughest shot there is to bring a duck down dishrag dead ...... the rear-ender. You've got to drive shot up though the innards into the vitals because there's a good chance the head will be hidden behind the rest of it's body. It takes heavier shot to do that cleanly, and 4s will do it better than 5s in my opinion. I wouldn't use #6 bismuth for jump shooting any ducks. I don't do any jump shooting here until late season, times when it gets cold enough to ice over the ponds and lakes, causing all the ducks to be on current where there's no ice. Full plumage by then.

I just can't recall a missed shot, over my duck hunting life, that I believe was caused by using too large a shot size.

SRH