Duck Hunting: Shooting in a Coffin Blind

Last week I wrote about my duck hunt on the flats of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. We hunted out of coffin blinds, which was a first for me, although I have done a lot of shooting out of layout blinds and sneak boats. Coffin blinds are the same thing, but they are waterproof so you can use them in a few inches of water. Shooting off your back is a lot harder than shooting with your feet under you.

A couple of tips can make it easier. First, angle your blind so it’s pointed to the right (if you’re right-handed) of where the ducks will land. The easiest shot from a lying down position is about 20 degrees to the left. You can swing a long way to the left but not so well to the right before you bind up. Second, don’t rush. Ducks aren’t looking at you–they’re focused on the decoys. You can’t dawdle, but you can take the time to be as smooth as is feasibly possible when you’re trying to sit up, mount the gun, and shoot in a tippy coffin blind.

The GoPro guys were along on the trip and they set up their cameras in the decoys to take this video of me and GoPro’s Ryan Chuckel banging away. Notice how the recoil lifts our feet out of the water.