Couple of college buddies and I number of yrs back always went on opening day in CT around central CT. Shooting steel couple of times a yr made it real interesting! The scary part was the guy getting the most birds was using #4 steel out of a 20 ga Mossberg (single injector bar) and more often than not it was a single shot because he had to pull the case out of the barrel because the "claw" that was suppose to grip the rim case was so worn out! The kid and I were using 2 3/4". #3 steel or #2 steel. Use to drive us batty that the ducks that hit the water always needed another round or else they would swim off. Had to make sure it was DEAD before trying to double up.
We did get some geese. Two of use would set up and the other person would drive them. We would switch over to BB's and the guy using the 20 ga was of course only had #4, but he always downed his bird - he was a much better wing shooter than I ever could be on game.
Yup, the heavier & longer barrels keep you swinging due to the momentum for sure.
Dad and I would go for seaducks (mainly Eiders) in late Jan/Feb. NUMBING cold days were the best..... saltwater mist would freeze on us and we would sometimes get stuck to rocks ..... LOL. Man, my shotgun has taken a beating - fair amount of rust along the rib, rust inside the tube & spring for the recoil operated action. I had taken it to local gunsmith and when he saw it he knew I was a seaduck hunter! He said not to bother packerizing it, but to slather on motor oil so that was what we use to do. Pretty funny & it made a mess of things. Dad is 70 now and doesn't like freezing his nads off any more and doesn't like to be outside fishing in the dark.
When I got talking to a guy at local outdoor store he was saying that the 12 ga 3.5" shotguns were going to cause the 10 ga to go away. Seems like bigger bore would allow powder to burn completely rather than something narrowed down. I say that because I would always have unburned powder in the barrell at the end of the day when I was cleaning the shotguns out. I was checking out new LH shotguns - not much of a variety for semi-autos and the barrel selection is even WORSE.
Yeah, I could go top tange safety in a pump. :P