Man of Steel

Heading to Walpole Island, ON on Monday afternoon/evening for some more duck hunting. On the last trip, I just borrowed a friend's gun to smooth the trip through customs. After finding out that it's not really that complex, I've decided to bring my own. But this raises an interesting challenge. My Winchester 1200 is a great shotgun, but its from the days before steel became prevalent (and legally mandatory) for waterfowl.

So, I started researching bismuth and tungsten ammo. OUCH -- $30-40 per BOX! When you need a couple of boxes, that just won't work. Especially when decent steel ammo is $12-15.

After some discussion with one of the knowledgeable outfitters at Cabela's last night I discovered that the simplest solution is to simply swap out the choke for a steel-compatible choke and shoot away. So $18 for a Carlson Modified choke and I'm ready to rock. The savings on ammo for this trip alone make this worthwhile. And in the future, I can now shoot waterfowl with this gun.

Since this gun is my hunting all-arounder, I'm very happy to have it all set for yet another use. I've really not made friends with my Remington 11-48, and my Stoeger side-by-side is really best suited to upland birds. My Winnie was my first shotgun and it just works for me. Pump action is 100% reliable, and this gun really shoulders well and just fits me. I'm hoping that shooting my own gun ups my accuracy.

-Sean-