20ga waterfowl question

winruger

winruger

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Hamilton, Ontario
I have a friend who runs a snow goose/duck guiding operation in Arkansas.
I was talking to him and he says he just uses a Benelli M2 20ga these days.
I was thinking of going that route but it looks like 20ga waterfowl ammo in Canada can be
difficult to come by.
Anybody have any experience water-fowling with 20ga in Canada? would love to hear from you.
 
Not with waterfowl, but upland game.
The 1100 has done well for me on Grouse.
Ammo is plentiful.
Steel shot is available and the few times I have gone into the local BassPro they have a large selection in stock.
$$$ though and my local shop carries a small selection of 20 gauge ammo in steel.
So, I suppose it is a regional issue when it comes to ammo availability.
Buyearl in the season and buy what you might hunt with ( one or two cases ).
Rob
 
I have a little experience. My son used my 20 ga 3" Browning A5 to learn how to shoot shotgun and during that time we used it for several waterfowl hunts each year for 3 years. The 3" steel loads by Faststeel are actually pretty decent for ducks and small geese. For greater Canadas and cranes the #2 shot is a little small for my preference. In any case useable range with an ounce of steel is limited to about 40 yds max, which is entirely feasible for most situations over decoys. Not so great for pass shooting or jump shooting. If jump shooting you'd better be very sneaky for consistent results. As far a "difficult to come by" that can easily be avoided by ordering at your local gun store by the 10 box flat. Look for loads with good quality round shot in #3 or #2 size and at least 1500 fps and you will have an effective close range waterfowl load. Bigger shot is too big for the small bore to pattern effectively. Avoid the expensive and foolish flattened shot or finned shot in the 20 ga. since the long narrow shot column already provides ample shot stringing to contend with for crossing shots and the fancy / expensive out of round loads only make that long sparse shot string longer with more spaces between pellets.
My son on the right, a pretty good mixed bag typical of a field shoot in our part of Saskatchewan. About half of those birds were taken with a 20 ga.
 

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I do all of my early season waterfowling with 20 gauge shotguns. I use a Browning Gold, Browning Citori 525 and Browning BSS. I use Winchester Xpert 3" #4 steel. I take alot of woodies, teal, mallards and blacks, and usually a goose or two, paddling beaver runs and flooded timber, and shooting over small decoy spreads.
 
Haven't had any trouble finding Winchester steel in central Alberta. I've brought my 20g over under with me as a spare on a few field hunts. Tried it out a few times just for the heck of it, and it dropped a few nice big mallard drakes no problem at all. Just be mindful that it isn't your 12g 3 1/2 inch shells, so shot placement is a bit more important.
 
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