Define "Duck Blind" first please. Our early season "Nuisance Goose" season opens 1 Sept-runs 15 days, five bird/daily limit.
Usually warm, like dove season in Indiana- for me, mainly pass shooting at lower passing small flocks heading out to feed (cut oats mainly in Sept) or back to water. Either a 12 ga. M12 with Federal 2& 3/4" steel No 2's, or my LC Smith Longrange with 3" Classic Doubles non-toxic loads.
Then it is about a month until both goose and duck opens (60 day season- 2 Geese, 6 ducks daily limit-) in our SW zone- aprox mid Oct. until Dec- Same M12 for ducks (mallards mainly- 4 per day) by then resident geese are a bit wary- either M12 3" Mag or on nasty rain making days, my POS "Black Ops" duck/goose gun- Mossberg 835 Ulti_Mag with 3" BB steel.
I also do some field layout hunting with a local DU group- I love pumpguns, but a semi-autoloader has some advantage when you are shooting from a prone field folding camo blind, ditto a cramped layout boat.
I stay with 12 gauges- but I have my eye on a sweet Lindner Daly std. 10 with 32" Krupp steel barrels and DT- if I end up with this, I'll use RST special 2 & 7/8" shells-expensive, but safe in a hard to replace double.
Chokes with steel or non-toxic- all the above guns except the Mossberg 835 (it has choke tubes) are full choked, and I have been using steel in both M12's for over 20 years- NO damage whatsoever to the barrels- But I am mainly a pass shooter, for jump shooting and layout shooting I use the 835 with a Mod. choke tube. I like to hit big birds hard with a tight pattern, I don't like cripples. But your shooting style may well be different than mine, also age and reflex. I also practice a lot on incomers, off season on barn pigeons and crows, and I prefer an incoming bird as it means a fatal head shot (if you do your part right)--
If you use a double, possibly Imp. Cyl. and Mod. (as in an upland game gun) that might be right for decoys and jump shooting while floating a river- I would pattern test the gun with the non-tox loads just to see what it does for you, and I would recommend a std. weight 12 over a featherweight or lighter game gun (such as you might use for grouse or quail)
Good luck and have a safe season--
