Steel shot for Geese.

If I could afford it, I'd shoot hevishot and nothing else. I hunted with lead, was forced to switch to steel--nearly quit, found Bismuth. I hunted with that for years (and only shooting .30-40 ducks a year I could afford to).

Came to AB and was shooting hundreds of birds a year (103 this season so far). Steel it has to be. But hevishot will kill birds well beyond what lead could. I like to keep a box of 3.5 inch 4's around for those 70 yard wounded goose water swats.
 
USP said:
I think the only one I havent tried is Kent Tungsten Matrix, is it any good?
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TM is good stuff. If you connect with a bird inside 50 yards with TM you will KILL it. Another good alternative (actually better then TM as its more dense) is Remington HD. Both are significantly more expensive then steel but have the killing power equal or better then lead (as a function of shot density). Give some TM or HD a try and you will quickly learn if it is the shooter or ammo that is the problem.

For what its worth I use TM, HD and steel at times throughout the entire waterfowl season. I've had success with all 3 out to +50 yards on geese and ducks.
 
We've dropped 34 geese the last 2 weekends combined. All steel.
Either Kent FastSteel or BlackCloud all BB.

Most shots have been about 35-40 yards and they drop like a stone.
All over decoys in fields.

IMO stay away from Kent SilverSteel and stick with FastSteel. The SilverSteel made patterns that looked like figure eights.

Let me know if you want me to show you how its done :p
 
My goodness.....

Here we go again :)

I'll make it simple: speed kills. You get the same terminal energy as lead by bumping up the speed of the projectile. Early comercially produced steel shotshells were crap....the manufactures hadn't figured it out yet. Either buy the fastest shells you can fine (I try to use nothing under 1650 fps) or roll your own. I've dropped geese out to an honest to goodness 50 yards with steel BB handloads.

Shot size? I used to use the biggest shot I could find for geese but now it's 2s in the early season and BBs after that....with all the extra speed, I stack the deck by using as many projectiles as I can.
 
USP said:
Turkeyslayer, come out and show me how its done, dropping Geese at 65 yards. I will buy you enough beer that you fall down and have brain damage for a week.

I had one Goose on the ground. I was about 10 yards away. It was sitting there looking at me so I went to finish it with a 3 inch magnum of #2. It messed it up big time but it still had mobility in its head and neck. I finished it off point blank with another shell.

Inspecting the meat revealed very little damage, almost drill like through and through punctures with only one BB being found in one of the Geese.
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I do not regularly stretch out to 65 yards but I have done it a few times in the late season. This is after 3 months of real goose shooting practice. I don't recommend it and really I had it go bad once this year so I try and avoid it now.

When you have a goose sitting with it's wings folded head up you are unlikely to kill it instantly without striking the brain. We walk/ run the birds up and break their necks in this scenario.

Honestly I like to center my geese in the pattern and not shoot for the head, i'd rather 15 pellets traversing the body cavity than missing the small target of the head and only having a couple pellets in the body. Like you said the pellets exit the birds body, typically if you centre the bird you break a wing and hit lungs at the least. This drops the bird and it is dead when you pick it up.
 
I went Goose hunting for my first time during the early season on Lake Simcoe near Beaverton 3 weeks ago. I had the fortune of going with a friend who is an excellent caller and was well equiped with a nice spread of deeks. From our blind the furthest decoy was 35 yards out measured. We waited for the birds to come within a few yards of that last decoy. 4 of these birds were taken by a novice fowler(me) using cheap steel 3" BB Winchester experts, non of the 4 birds I took had made it to the last decoy so I can HONESTLY say they were all taken at 40 yards or more. Each bird dropped dead on the first shot, non needed any extra holes to finish them off. The guy I was hunting with was using heavyshot, his birds were not any more dead than mine.
 

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Ok so in Tungsten Matrix or the Remington HD, what size do you guys recommend for Geese? Larger slower pellets? Or a larger pattern smaller shot? I might have to online order this stuff, this late in the season.

Thanks for all the tips so far, appreciate it.
 
USP said:
Ok so in Tungsten Matrix or the Remington HD, what size do you guys recommend for Geese? Larger slower pellets? Or a larger pattern smaller shot? I might have to online order this stuff, this late in the season.

Thanks for all the tips so far, appreciate it.
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For the Reminton HD go for 4's for TM go 3's .

Best Goose load ever made was 15/8 ounce of Hevi-shot 4's at 1330 fps.
 
Where do you guys go for good prices on Hevi Shot and TMs? I havent found alot of it in stock other than the Turkey stuff from Hevi Shot that I buy.
 
USP said:
Where do you guys go for good prices on Hevi Shot and TMs? I havent found alot of it in stock other than the Turkey stuff from Hevi Shot that I buy.
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The words "good prices" and "Heavi Shot" don't go together in the same sentence.

I paid $27 at Lebaron for Heavi Shot B shot at the beginning of the season. You only get 10 in a box and FWIW I didn't really see any big performance increase over the Kent FastSteel, it really wasn't worth the $2.70 per pull of trigger.

Turkeyslayer offered to shoot all your geese for you for room, board and gasoline. I'll come shoot your geese for you for beer only. :p IMO that's a much better deal.
 
Geese & steel

Yes, steel does shoot differently. 'Taint wrong, just different. I run 2 to BB in the early season, then BBB or a custom 40:60 stacked B:BBB at about 1600 fps. Every season I go shoot some clay first, and I practice ranging. During the season, it's all about shot selection for me.

Ducks and geese are dropping close and far, and it doesn't much matter whether it's head, wing, or body shots. Of course a 10-gauge does have certain advantages. :D
 
I am fully satisfied with steel shot for ducks and geese. Our hunts are mainly mixed bag field shoots, so any ammo choice is a compromise. Two days ago we shot 42 ducks and geese, including pintail, mallard, ross' & snows, and lesser and greater canadas. OUr #2 and #1 Faststeel 1-1/16oz loads at about 1600 fps and modified chokes were very effective. For example, I cleanly killed a pair of greater canadas with 2 shots, they were some of the furthest but not the longest shots where we had clean kills. I stepped off 47 long steps to the farther one, the other was 5 or 6 steps closer.
Yesterday 3 of us killed a couple dozen snows, ross's and lesser Canadas and 8 pintails in the field in the morning, and the rest of our duck limit of 8 apiece by shooting mallards in a marsh in the evening. We were mostly using #1 faststeel and #2 win expert 2-3/4" shells. Using my guns, in our conditions, I find steel shells throwing anywhere between 1-1/16 oz and 1-1/4 oz of #2's or #1's at least 1500 fps fully adequate. Any poor results are better blamed on hunting and shooting skills, not your ammo.
 
I've had mixed feelings about steel shot since I started using the stuff 2 years ago. I used cheap federal steelshok #2's for one hunt the first year with mild to no success. The 2nd year I used black cloud #3 and #4 for the beginning, but switched to kent faststeel #3. Took only a handfull of ducks, 3 snows and one lesser. I can even recall hitting a mallard 3 time with #4 and it didn't go down. Until it was like 200 yards away, even then it tried to raft away on the dog.

On our hunt trip to Manitoba, I used 3 1/2" kent BB's, and 3" blindside 2's. I was happy with the blindside, ducks usually hit the water dead. The geese on the othe hand were not so co-operative. Only 2 lessers come down dead for me. The greaters landed usually with enough life to try to make a run for it. I can honestly say the shot had nothing to do with that. First experience on a big goose hunt. Aim for the head, lol. From the looks of the red bellied birds my shots were hitting center mass. One of the lessers had a fair size hole in the breast bone. Buddy beside me had 2 3/4 #4 federal speedshok. Dropped one of the lessers, it still had some life in it, but only a few pellets in the breast.

So steel shot IMO does not have the killing power of leadshot, but if you learn to lead the bird right the drop and for geese. Aim for the damn head because I watched us almost stop a canada in flight, hell I think we pushed him back, but he didn't fall right away and he could still run.
 
USP... I've been guiding waterfowl for 9 years and have seen every combination of shot, gun choke imagineable. What I have seen is this....a normal shot within 40 yards - setting birds etc., you should have no issue with even the cheap Winchester Xperts. What I have seen as the best combination is a 3" shell with 2's and a Patternmaster choke. There are tons of forums that discuss the patternmaster and the biggest thing that they seemingly do is shorten the shot string. If you hit any waterfowl with a shorter string with a decent number of pellets, you will kill them, period. 99 percent of the hunters I see shoot too far behind the bird and therefore cripple. For those who figure the lead, they are usually very effective.

In my opinion the Hevi shots etc. can produce more knock down but calling the right shot and executing it properly will kill birds without spending 3 bucks per shell. I watched nearly 600 ducks fall last year while guiding and 95+ percent of guys were using the Winchester "xperts". Check out the patternmaster chokes and call 30-40 yard shots with a good lead and you will kill ducks and geese.
 
2233 said:
USP... I've been guiding waterfowl for 9 years and have seen every combination of shot, gun choke imagineable. What I have seen is this....a normal shot within 40 yards - setting birds etc., you should have no issue with even the cheap Winchester Xperts. What I have seen as the best combination is a 3" shell with 2's and a Patternmaster choke. There are tons of forums that discuss the patternmaster and the biggest thing that they seemingly do is shorten the shot string. If you hit any waterfowl with a shorter string with a decent number of pellets, you will kill them, period. 99 percent of the hunters I see shoot too far behind the bird and therefore cripple. For those who figure the lead, they are usually very effective.

In my opinion the Hevi shots etc. can produce more knock down but calling the right shot and executing it properly will kill birds without spending 3 bucks per shell. I watched nearly 600 ducks fall last year while guiding and 95+ percent of guys were using the Winchester "xperts". Check out the patternmaster chokes and call 30-40 yard shots with a good lead and you will kill ducks and geese.
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Do you know of any online retailers of patternmaster based in Canada?
 
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