doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shot string myths.

Canvasback ducks can go 70mph. I shot a many one of them in my youth and was always amazed how fast a big duck could fly. Teal can hit Mach 3. Well that what most hunters think. In fact they are among the slowest at 30 mph. Decoying ducks are often coming in a less than their maximum speed which is 30-70mph. Canvasbacks being the fastest. I picked 40 as a rough average. If f they are coming in slowly they might be 20-25 or less and some might be over 40.

Teal with a tailwind do seem twice as fast. Even better are late season mature Dove with a good 25-30mph tail wind. They can hit some truly impressive speeds.

But the math is the same. At 20mph the distances traveled is half the 5.86� and at 80mph it is still under a foot at 40 yards. And shit string only theoretically works for you if your are in front of the bird. If a fringe part of the pattern of 5� makes much difference you most likely should not take the shot. I�d rather not shoot instead of crippling a bird. And the outside 2-5� of your pattern almost always sucks when you look at it.

Interesting discussion, thanks.

I google duck flying speeds just for fun. I feel speed is very tough to judge in the field and background, foreground vegetation and body size make for interesting illusions.

This looks like a decent discussion of the topic.
http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2014/02/duck-speeds/

There are many more out there. Most discussions of speed are usually of top speeds which are probably not what we see when we are shooting at birds coming into decoys or flushing away, so pragmatically, I would guess we actually are shooting at velocities well under half of max.

This one makes some interesting observations on Mach 3 BWTs.
https://www.reelfoot.com/migration_121206.htm

I think body size has a whole bunch to do with the illusion of speed. Giant Canadas seem to be almost crawling at times, but I often hit them far back while intending to make a head shot.

My estimate of bird speed depends upon how many I have missed that day...Geo

Ain't that the truth?

But I now have a new gun coming, and I have never missed with it, so those days are behind me

Geo. I have learned the two most dangerous places to be are the following.

A minority male, just standing alone, minding my own business. Almost certain to end poorly.

But by far the most dangerous place to be is teal number three inline when buzzing a spread of decoys. Almost a 100% fatal position. Best by far was number one in line. Almost never hurt.

LOL, Would never argue the math with you Jon. Not my strong suit. In fact, quite happy you worked it through because it's pretty interesting....separating myth from fact.

A bird's airspeed is more or less constant. Ground speed is airspeed plus wind drift. We all know the hazards of wind drift on rifle bullets but rarely consider wind drift of shot.

Example: A bird is flying at 40 mph with a 90 degree tailwind of 20 mph. Should the forward allowance be for 40 mph? 60 mph? Somewhere in between?

DDA

Well the lawyer in me would say that if the bird was flying at "40 mph" then the answer would be he is flying at 40 mph, but I understand your point. But one thing to consider is a duck decoying, is that they almost always will come into the spread against the wind when possible, not with it at their tails. Pass shooting would be another issue, with the tail wind giving them more speed one would expect. Teal seem to be always traveling at what I refereed earlier as mach 3. Landing with a strong tail wind is more difficult for a bird, while landing against the wind is much easier.

But even at 60 mph, the assumed maximum of your example, the lead goes from 5.866" to 8.799". Still not that big of a deal. I will continue to consider shot string to be of little or no help in killing birds. Pattern density and proper centering of the pattern on the bird will be much more effective, than hoping a shot string will makeup for my margin of error. Might be 99% of the chance for a clean kill, string 1%. Or in plain English. When I miss I do not think the shot string will bail me out. I miss.