Although most of the waterfowl season has passed, now is time to think about which shotgun will accompany you into the blind next season. (Shutterstock photo)
January 15, 2025
By Lynn Burkhead
This list will be updated in the following months as new guns hit the market. Stayed tuned for to see the latest and greatest in waterfowl shotguns. More guns, ammo and gear can be found here . Sitting in a rice field hunting blind recently with Jim Ronquest, the mild early season weather had ensured that there weren’t always greenheads in the air despite the storied grounds we were hunting near Des Arc, Ark.
As our multi-day hunts unfolded, duck blind conversation turned to clothing and waders—Ronquest is the 2006 world duck calling champ and vice-president for development at Drake Waterfowl Systems—along with duck calling, decoy placement and how to blow an RNT Mondo cut-down style call.
Oh yeah, and because there was an all-star cast in the blind that day—Mossy Oak’s Bobby Cole and his daughter Jessi Walters, Delta Waterfowl ’s Paul Waitt, and Ducks Unlimited’s Chris Jennings among others—there was a healthy discussion of waterfowl hunting shotguns due to the blind featured several models, some timeless classics and others a part of the latest and greatest scattergun generation.
Look for a story soon detailing some of waterfowling’s most cherished classics and why they still have a place in the modern duck blind. But in the meantime, as the 2025 SHOT Show approaches in Las Vegas, here are a few of the newer shotguns that are catching the attention of duck and goose hunters.
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Browning Citori 825 Field Photo courtesy of Browning Browning has quite the history when it comes to over-and-under shotguns, from the Belgium-made Superposed to the more recent Cynergy lineup, including one of my favorites, the Cynergy Wicked Wing model.
In recent times, however, it's the Browning Citori lineup that waterfowlers and upland bird hunters are most familiar with. Building on the 50-plus years of the Citori's legacy, the Utah gunmaker has brought forth the Citori 825 Field model in 12-gauge, 3-inch shotshell editions, one with a 26-inch barrel and the other with a 28-inch barrel. While targeting the upland hunting market, this stack barrel will also perform well in field hunting for geese and ducks, as well as in a duck blind. With a Grade II/III black walnut stock featuring a gloss oil finish and a silver nitride receiver finish, this shotgun features a chrome-plated chamber, a polished blue barrel finish, an Inflex 2 recoil pad, a gold-plated trigger, and full, modified, and improved cylinder screw-in chokes.
Some might opine that it’s best to not take this over-and-under out in the harshest weather conditions, but Outdoor Sportsman Group contributor Jace Bauserman might beg to differ since he tested the shotgun out on a ptarmigan hunt in Alaska (Link: https://www.gundogmag.com/editorial/shotgun-review-brownings-citori-825/506924 ). Built on Browning's famous stack barrel legacy, this shotgun should treat you well hunting ducks and geese in the Lower 48 for years to come. (browning.com )
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Retay Air Control Extreme (ACE)
Photo courtesy of Retay USA Founded in 2006 with a mission to set a new standard of excellence in the Turkish firearms industry, RETAY ARMS has gone on for nearly two decades now as a top gunmaker with a reputation for innovation and craftsmanship that more and more waterfowlers have become familiar with.
RETAY USA, the North American sales and distribution arm of the company, will look to take center stage once again in the shotguns on display at this year's SHOT Show in Las Vegas. While full details aren't known just yet, the company will bring out its ACE (Air Control Extreme) and ACE Type R (a slightly raised receiver) shotguns that are a part of the shotgun maker's next generation.
Photo courtesy of Retay USA Being built off the company's popular Masai Mara platform, the new ACE scatterguns will also add 16 all-new, high-performance features to be unveiled in Vegas, all of that coming in 12-, 20-, and 28-gauge editions in a variety of finishes.
Stay tuned for the RETAY ACE and ACE TYPE R debut next week, there's more to come on this new scattergun. (retayarms.com )
TriStar Raptor II Photo courtesy Tristar Arms Also making a splash in the waterfowling shotgun world over the years is TriStar Arms, a premier importer of quality Turkish shotguns for nearly 30 years now. With a few dozen models to choose from, this year's SHOT Show will bring the company's anticipated semi-auto, gas-operated Raptor II and Raptor II Compact shotgun models, available in 12 and 20-gauge models and finish options that include a black synthetic model, a walnut stocked model and a Mossy Oaks Country Roots finish.
Targeting the intersection of function, reliability and good looks, the Raptor II is a sleek and comfortable model to shoot according to the company, with upgrades including a redesigned stock and forearm, an oversized operation handle and bolt release, 26- or 28-inch chrome-lined chamber, Beretta/Benelli Mobil Style choke tubes, and a fiber-optic front sight among other things.
We'll learn more about this gun soon on the SHOT Show floor in Las Vegas, but for now, it certainly appears that TriStar continues to live up to its billing as the firearms industry value expert. (tristararms.com )
Mossberg 940 Pro Waterfowl Optics Ready Photo courtesy of Mossberg Astute observers might remember that Mossberg unveiled its 940 Pro Waterfowl Model back in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic was running its course and forced the 2021 SHOT Show into the virtual world.
The Mossberg 940 Pro Waterfowl Optics Ready model —along with its sibling, the 940 Pro Snow Goose 12 gauge—has gone on to become a dependable upper-level shotgun aimed at those who live in fall goose pits, flooded timber and box blinds setting next to a Great Plains stock tank at daybreak.
A gas-operated semi-auto that takes the company's 930 model a few steps further, the 3-inch chamber size, a 28-inch long vent ribbed barrel, a Patriot Brown Cerakote finish on the barrel, a quick-empty magazine release, adjustable length of pull and drop at comb/cast, a chrome-lined barrel and bore, and the feature you didn't know you needed until you do, a self-draining stock. You know, if you have to use this scattergun as a boat paddle on a stormy day!
In addition to all of that, the 940 Pro Waterfowl Optics Ready model comes with an HIVIZ CompSight Fiber Optic Sight, is drilled and tapped on the receiver, and is, as the name suggests, optics ready thanks to its Shield RMSc footprint. (mossberg.com )
Breda 3.5 Waterfowl Shotgun Photo courtesy of Breda If the name Breda is a new one for today's waterfowling generation, your grandfather's generation was certainly with these shotguns made in Italy. In fact, company visionary Bruno Civolani actually patented his inertia action with a rotating bolt back in the 1960s and then licensed it to the newly formed Benelli Armi S.p.A., a fledgling company of which Breda was an owner.
With the design marketed by the Benelli Armi S.p.A. brand as the "Super Black Eagle," that scattergun began to be imported to the U.S. in 1991 by H&K, and later, Benelli USA. As Paul Harvey used to say, now you know the rest of the story. Today, the story for Breda is a design built off a two-piece receiver design that Breda introduced back in 1947 as the Breda 1001 Shotgun. With the company's most recent import—the B3.5SM—materials are selected carefully, including Italian-sourced, high carbon steel for the upper receiver and a solid billet of military-spec 7075-T6 aerospace-grade aluminum for the lower receiver.
With a matte black finish on the lower receiver that comes with a deep, double anodizing process and ceramic embellishments applied by hand before being set in an oven, this is a tough gun with a Cerakote polymer ceramic finish, along with a stock and forend made from Rilsan fiberglass reinforced resin. All in all, this is a sleek, stealthy and handsome shotgun that will prove to be tough, durable, impervious to humidity and scratch-resistant, no matter what harsh landscape or weather a day spent waterfowling can throw at it. (bredaamerica.com )
Weatherby Element II Tungsten Photo courtesy of Weatherby Weatherby made a splash with shotgunners with its introduction a little more than a year ago with the Orion SXS, a classic-looking side-by-side with double triggers, a splinter forend and an English stock. While the gun delighted modern-day upland bird hunters, the model--available in 12, 20, and 28 gauge along with .410 bore--can be pressed into waterfowling service thanks to the 28-inch barrels and selection of Yildiz screw-in chokes.
Now the Sheridan, Wyo. based American gunmaker swings back to the modern side of the pendulum with the Element II Tungsten semi-auto shotgun. This scattergun features oversized controls, including a large slammer button, charging handle, and safety so that smooth operation happens regardless of conditions and the heavy gloves a waterfowler is wearing.
With Weatherby's inertia recoil system, dependable cycling of magnum and lighter loads happens everywhere from a snowy late-season goose pit to a flooded timber pin oak flat to a sultry September dove field. Coming in both 12- and 20-gauge models, the 28-inch barreled scattergun also has a synthetic black stock, a Tungsten Cerakote finished receiver and a Tungsten Cerakote barrel with a chrome-lined bore. (weatherby.com )