Goose guns

cant_rope_the_wind01 said:
I use a rangefinder and set up little flags similar to those used for marking utility lines at 20 ,30 ,40,50,60,70,80,90,100, yards in 5 different directions from the layout blinds, its a pain in the ass and add a lot of walking and time to the set up, but it helps with the green horns and not so experienced hunters in the group, and for those that cant judge distance, by the end of the season they have their distance estimations down pretty good, just one thing I learned from an old timer years ago
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Seems like an awful lot of work put out flags that will disrupt a decoy spread. But please excuse my disbelief that your group makes regular shots at a distance approximately that of a football field. By my estimation, BB’s travelling at 1600fps at a bird travelling at 40-45 kph would need about a 20 foot lead and 3 foot hold over. And thats assuming there is no wind. Thats one hell of a shot...

I like my method better....call them in close and shoot them in the face. Beats the hell out of putting out 45 coloured flags
 
1963beretta said:
Seems like an awful lot of work put out flags that will disrupt a decoy spread. But please excuse my disbelief that your group makes regular shots at a distance approximately that of a football field. By my estimation, BB’s travelling at 1600fps at a bird travelling at 40-45 kph would need about a 20 foot lead and 3 foot hold over. And thats assuming there is no wind. Thats one hell of a shot...

I like my method better....call them in close and shoot them in the face. Beats the hell out of putting out 45 coloured flags
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Close and in the face is my preference as well. If the birds are over 50 yards, we let them fly. We do very well without resorting to long range shooting.
 
stubblejumper said:
Close and in the face is my preference as well. If the birds are over 50 yards, we let them fly. We do very well without resorting to long range shooting.
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Agree...in my opinion, that kind of long range shooting does nothing but potentially put non fatal pellet wounds in multiple birds who will suffer and may eventually end up dying due to infection. Has anyone ever tested the shot pattern of their shotgun at 50 plus yards? I bet the pattern of steel shot out of a modified choke will spread to several feet at 80 yards, which to me spells lots of collateral damage. No thanks
 
1963beretta said:
Agree...in my opinion, that kind of long range shooting does nothing but potentially put non fatal pellet wounds in multiple birds who will suffer and may eventually end up dying due to infection. Has anyone ever tested the shot pattern of their shotgun at 50 plus yards? I bet the pattern of steel shot out of a modified choke will spread to several feet at 80 yards, which to me spells lots of collateral damage. No thanks
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I have only patterned to 50 yards, and with 3" Kent Fasteel #2 or BB, out of my SX-3, the patterns were uniform with a Briley LM extended choke, but they started to get less uniform with a Briley M extended choke. The pattern density was still okay at 50 yards, but I wouldn't feel comfortable past that. A friend tried the same loads in his SBE2, as well as 3-1/2" Black Cloud and Blindside, and he chose to go with LM as well. The 3" patterned more uniform.
 
I’ve patterned a few of my guns for turkey hunting at 25 and 40 yards. Now, these tests were done with various lead turkey loads and with full/xfull chokes. The difference between the 25 yard and 40 yard patterns was substantial which I suspected. I was more concerned with where the POI was. In any event, I’d hate to know what that pattern would look like out to 80 yards using steel shot. I bet the pattern would be sprayed across a 4x8 sheet of plywood. And again, thats a stationary target. Take shot string into account since it is a moving target and you’d be spraying a lot of pellets across a much greater area
 
1963beretta said:
Seems like an awful lot of work put out flags that will disrupt a decoy spread. But please excuse my disbelief that your group makes regular shots at a distance approximately that of a football field. By my estimation, BB’s travelling at 1600fps at a bird travelling at 40-45 kph would need about a 20 foot lead and 3 foot hold over. And thats assuming there is no wind. Thats one hell of a shot...

I like my method better....call them in close and shoot them in the face. Beats the hell out of putting out 45 coloured flags
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believe it or don't
I don't care
when I take my little grand children out with me
I get the little guys 9 or 10 yrs old to set the flags outs and check them with the range finder
that way I can concentrate on setting the decoys, and it works very well ,
the flags are only 3x3 inches and not shiny so they don't bother the geese at all
it gives them the feeling of importance, and they have fun doing it
a 10 gauge in the right hands can and will consistently knock geese out of the sky at 60 to 80 yards, and its not very uncommon for a 12 gauge at 40 to 50 yards to knock geese out , but yes you are right waiting till they come in close, is best, I use a 10 gauge mostly and usually wait until the 12, and 20 gauges have finished before I start shooting, and the little guys get to burn of energy retrieving the far out birds, keeps em from getting bored,
its all about having fun , not about how many we get or how successful we are
 
Waterfowler said:
I'd pay money to watch someone ethically and consistently kill geese at 80 yards with any shotgun.
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If you paid the shooter a dollar for every bird he killed, and he paid you back a dollar for every empty hull in excess of the number of dead birds, I am thinking that you would be the one coming home with extra money.
 
stubblejumper said:
If you paid the shooter a dollar for every bird he killed, and he paid you back a dollar for every empty hull in excess of the number of dead birds, I am thinking that you would be the one coming home with extra money.
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Yup, you got that right! I’ll never forget the time I was hunting with a youngster who took an ill advised shot at a duck that was to far out to make the attempt. However, the duck did eat steel when first shot at in close. Long story short the bird eventually dropped dead after travelling some time, and it just so happen to coincide with the late shot made by the youngster. It was funny to see the look on his face when he thought he made the impossible shot.

As for the flag trick, its an interesting technique to incorporate into a hunt. Have you ever thought about how far a bird actually is if flying over lets say a 50 yard flag? Geometry says the hypotenuse would be much more then the 50 yard flag would indicate. And how do you judge its height from the ground into the equation?
 
1963beretta said:
Yup, you got that right! I’ll never forget the time I was hunting with a youngster who took an ill advised shot at a duck that was to far out to make the attempt. However, the duck did eat steel when first shot at in close. Long story short the bird eventually dropped dead after travelling some time, and it just so happen to coincide with the late shot made by the youngster. It was funny to see the look on his face when he thought he made the impossible shot.

As for the flag trick, its an interesting technique to incorporate into a hunt. Have you ever thought about how far a bird actually is if flying over lets say a 50 yard flag? Geometry says the hypotenuse would be much more then the 50 yard flag would indicate. And how do you judge its height from the ground into the equation?
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And if the bird is still 40 yards up, and you are on the ground, you would not even be able to tell exactly which flag the bird is above. You would need a top view to be able to tell.
 
I think you guys have to learn to shoot a shotgun :)
I have made many 80 yard and even 120 yard shots over the years with the 10ga
Measured from the blind to where I picked them up. :)
Seriously yes there was a few long ones maybe 80 yards but it was always going straight away up the ass third shot of TT on a cripple after firing on him at closer ranges with BB. Might get lucky and snap a wing
Cheers
 
Well if anyone is going to consistently make those kinds of shots its likely either stubblejumper or 3macs1.......maybe even Spank, but he’s not chiming in. So, if you guys don’t make a habit of taking those shots for obvious reasons, then I have no business taking them either
 
1963beretta said:
Well if anyone is going to consistently make those kinds of shots its likely either stubblejumper or 3macs1.......maybe even Spank, but he’s not chiming in. So, if you guys don’t make a habit of taking those shots for obvious reasons, then I have no business taking them either
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I would not even think of making a crossing shot that far out
Spank maybe could but not me
Like I said going away and I mean straight away ( like high 1) on a cripple yes in the old days with LEAD BB federal or winchester copper plated buffered loads 2 1/4 oz full choke the 10ga would take some but with steel no way
Yes I may try and have but not 80 maybe 65 and only a third shot on a cripple with a load of my own high speed TT and I may FLUKE and break a wing
Most guys I have seen from guiding shoot the bird at 40 yards and he glides to 80 and they think they made a 80 yard shot
Cheers
 
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3macs1 said:
I think you guys have to learn to shoot a shotgun :)
I have made many 80 yard and even 120 yard shots over the years with the 10ga
Measured from the blind to where I picked them up. :)
Seriously yes there was a few long ones maybe 80 yards but it was always going straight away up the ass third shot of TT on a cripple after firing on him at closer ranges with BB. Might get lucky and snap a wing
Cheers
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If you are measuring from the blind to where the bird hit the ground, on a going away bird, your distances will measure longer than the actual shot distance due to the momentum of the bird. The faster it is flying, and the higher it is, the further it will carry. Using that method, we had a 14 year old shoot at a Canada goose that came In, he hit it, but it kept flapping it's wings and trying to fly until it bounced about 150 yards away. We were one bird from our limit, so there was nobody else backing him up. The actual distance when he pulled the trigger was likely about 40 yards.:)
The longest shot rhat I have ever made on a bird was about 65 yards on a chukar last summer when I was gunning for a NAVHDA test. The bird flushed in front of the other gunner, he missed twice, then the bird turned in front of me and I touched off the IM barrel in my Grulla 16 gauge SxS. The chukar folded in the air and the handler sent the dog on the way. The judges and the other gunner estimated 70 yards, I thought at least 65 yards. I was using #6 shot, and a pellet or two must have struck the head/neck. I would never shoot that far at an unhurt bird in a hunting situation.
 
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stubblejumper said:
If you are measuring from the blind to where the bird hit the ground, on a going away bird, your distances will measure longer than the actual shot distance due to the momentum of the bird. The faster it is flying, and the higher it is, the further it will carry. Using that method, we had a 14 year old shoot at a Canada goose that came In, he hit it, but it kept flapping it's wings and trying to fly until it bounced about 150 yards away. We were one bird from our limit, so there was nobody else backing him up. The actual distance when he pulled the trigger was likely about 40 yards.:)
The longest shot rhat I have ever made on a bird was about 65 yards on a chukar last summer when I was gunning for a NAVHDA test. The bird flushed in front of the other gunner, he missed twice, then the bird turned in front of me and I touched off the IM barrel in my Grulla 16 gauge SxS. The chukar folded in the air and the handler sent the dog on the way. The judges and the other gunner estimated 70 yards, I thought at least 65 yards. I was using #6 shot, and a pellet or two must have struck the head/neck. I would never shoot that far at an unhurt bird in a hunting situation.
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It was a joke. Did you not see my smile face :)
Real 120 yard shots never in my life
Cheers
 
If your buddy with the 2-3/4" gun wants to level the playing field and shoot at a normal 50yd range tell him to invest in some tungsten shells. They will kill geese easily at max range if the pattern is still good out there. That pattern retention is key. I use
3-1/2" #2 Wingmaster hevishot thru my Citori and routinely kill geese out to 80yds. Killed not wounded. After 80 the pattern falls apart and I won't shoot at em. The heavy #2 cuts thru feathers and meat easily and is better than the lead we used to use years ago.
I should mention that I used to have an SP10 that I liked to shoot steel thru. Steel shot sucks hands down. Half the birds we pick up are still alive. So I sold the 10 and stick with the hevishot thru the 12. Yeah its expensive but it works.
 
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