Skybustin'

Skybustin" is...

  • ...perfectly legal and acceptable

    Votes: 8 4.7%

  • ...legal but un-sportsman like and will get you voted off the island

    Votes: 83 48.5%

  • ...near the end of the season if the freezer is empty I'll "light'em up"

    Votes: 9 5.3%

  • WTF IS SKYBUSTIN' ???

    Votes: 71 41.5%
  • Total voters
    171
You are missing an option in your poll.

Only idiots skybust

I had to deal with a few of them last season. I didn't spend a couple thousand bucks on decoys, calls and blinds to have some lazy idiot set up on the hedge row downwind from my decoy spread and bust birds that i worked hard on.
 
I look at skybusting differently than pass shooting.

To me skybusting is shooting at a flock of birds committed to another hunters decoy spread, or shooting at birds flying at ridiculous heights or at ridiculous range.

50 yards is attainable in pass shooting, if you know what you are doing. Most guys only shoot there gun a few times a season, haven't patterned there load and aren't familiar with the lead required to take a shot at the edge of there effective envelope.

Personally I don't pass shoot. I like the challenge of calling and decoying. 90% of my shoots for geese this season were inside 20 yards.
 
Skybusting is akin to "spray and pray" or "let's see what happens". You are looking for the "golden BB" -- the magic pellet that will, against all odds, strike the CNS of a bird and kill it at ranges beyond what you are proficient at shooting. Usually you just wound the bird and it dies a few days later.

Sky busting is different for every individual and is dependent on their skill, the choke of their gun and the load they are using. Basically it is impossible to regulate.

I shoot a few hundred birds a season and shoot 95% of them inside of 30 yards. There are days though when I have to stretch to 50 yards. I have enough experience and practice to know that I have to change the leads and the loads for those days and my kill percentage doesn't change much that I've seen.

I hate sky busters. There are people I consider sky busters who shoot at birds way closer than I can kill them. They are still sky busters because they, themselves, don't have the EXPECTATION of killing the bird, they are just "seeing how it goes". Every time I pull the trigger I EXPECT to see a dead bird falling and am pissed if it doesn't.
 
I voted for the second option, and only when I waited for a few replies to figure out what the hell skybustin was. Only a fool would do such a thing. For one, as the above poster stated, it's possible someone called in, setup, to get the birds within that person's range, and some random jackass is scaring them away at a ridiculous range thinking that somehow one bird might get hit. Even if that's not the case, shotgun shells are not rimfire rounds. They cost $$$. When I shoot one, it better hit something. I'm not going to waste money shooting at birds, just for the hell of it. When I shoot, 'just for the hell of it,' I go to the range and shoot at paper.
 
Cinch said:
I find local boys the worst. Most NR freelancers are commited/equipped to decoy in birds and are not likely to waste a day sky bustin'.
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I think the reason for that is the average non resident couldnt hit a duck or goose sitting in the decoys, never mind hit one at an extended range.
 
Yes I couldnt agree more with an above post of sinking money, time, effort into the right spread, in the right field. Then you have local older fellas who are still stuck in the lead shooting mentallity, standing at the fenceline on the same field you are, shooting at birds that are clearly wing locked into ur decoys. Then they let loose, get nothing, and have utterly ruined any chance of another bird coming into ur spread. Had that happen a few times.
 
Don't do it and wish less people did seen too many birds glide away and die somewhere far from the hunter with no hope of recovery.
 
Cletus said:
Yes I couldnt agree more with an above post of sinking money, time, effort into the right spread, in the right field. Then you have local older fellas who are still stuck in the lead shooting mentallity, standing at the fenceline on the same field you are, shooting at birds that are clearly wing locked into ur decoys. Then they let loose, get nothing, and have utterly ruined any chance of another bird coming into ur spread. Had that happen a few times.
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It isn't just the old folks around here. The only thing worse than a skybuster is a creeper. Nothing gets me up faster than a truck "stalking" my decoys with the windows down. I like to hunt, but I've got no desire to get shot in my own spread.
 
We see a lot of sky bustin amongst wannabe hunters on opening day.

Usually uneducated hunters that dont understand a shotgun or their own limitations.:D

Dont see too many sky busters when the weather turns cold and real calling skill and dog work comes into play...Pros play the birds, amateurs play with their guns...:)
 
.17 said:
I think the reason for that is the average non resident couldnt hit a duck or goose sitting in the decoys, never mind hit one at an extended range.
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We must hunt with different NR hunters. For the most part the visiting hunters I have hunted with take their shotgunning fairly serious, gunning w/top shelf equipment and spending time at the skeet range. It's the same reason most NR's wouldn't drag a trailer of decoys thousands of miles to sit on a fence row trying to scrape out a couple tall birds.
 
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