Hi guys,

I've read different opinions on this subject, and wanted to know what the general concensus here would be. I am new to goose hunting and own a Winchester Super X3 3.5". I generally use #2 Federal High Density loads for geese and #4 Kent High Speed Steel for ducks. I just ordered a Light Modifed Spectrum Ported Briley choke for my shotgun.

In your opinions, what would be the maximum distance where my shot would be effective on geese?

I shoot skeet, and sporting clays twice a week and I average 23 on skeet and 74 on clays. I am confident in my ability to shoot, I just don't know the lethality of the shot at distance.

Thanks for you input,

I once watched a TV program where they were shooting snow geese at 90 yds !! Give me a break !I spoke to a Federal man who had seen this and he agreed it was ridiculous. I had thought that my Federal BB steel 3" was good for 25-45 yds and he agreed completely.With all the different types of shot available make sure you pattern the loads ,they can be surprizing. My Benelli with MOD choke gave extra, extra full choke !My hunting from a canoe ended up with head shots and that worked fine.What ever you use a realistic range is going to be ~ 25-45 yds ,more is wishfull thinking.

What Mete said.

Even still 45yds with a 12bore on geese will result in a fair proportion of pricked birds I would think unless the shooter is gettig practice at these ranges consistently.

I like them at the lower end of the estimate. Ducks at 45yds, no problem though!!

Rgds,
FB

In my opinion geese are some of the most abused game birds on earth. I see people shooting at them at distances that would tax an '06. I don't know what it is about geese that brings out the worst in a lot of folks; remember its called hunting not shooting!
I like them at 25y with wings set and feet down ( don't get that very often, unfortunately). Inside 40y I have no problem killing Canadas with #4 bismuth. I have seen quite a few tagged and lost at 40-50 with steel #1's or B's and that is why I quit using steel. I would think the new high density shot in #2 would kill them at 50 yards without any problems.
C.G.B.

Not recommending making a practice of it but geese can be killed at very longrange with heavishot. As I pulled into the farm I hunt I seen a lone goose in the middle of a field. He got up and could barely fly more than a few feet of the ground. I knew he was crippled and planned to end his suffering. After getting the gun out he had made it close to the field edge and property line. I wanted to get closer but had no choice but to shoot. He was 90 yards out measured with range finder. He folded instantly. I was impressed. I was using 3 1/2 number 2 hevishot with a modified choke. Would I take this shot on a flying goose hell no. But I have great confidence in hevishot and 50 yards is very doable if not 60.

The biggest problem with geese is their size. Looking at canadas on the wing they are probably the best part of 4ft long at least. Because of their size they look like they are going much sower than they actually are, and range estimation also becomes a problem. When I take people ot to shoot flighted canadas at my place they always tend to miss a long way behind. I think it is difficult to miss one in front!!!

Decoyed birds are a different ball game as the angles typically don't need as much of a swing as the birds are usually planing into the angle along which you are shooting.

I've used 36g of #3 (US#1 I think) Steel with good effect out to 30yds, but I would want heavy shot now for flighted birds at longer distances.

The nice thing about ducks and geese is that everyone has the method/setup that works best for them.

Rgds,
FB

The place where we set up is over water with decoys. For the most part they fly about 50 yards in front of us with the odd bird turning to our decoys. They seem to be mostly on a mission for their destination and not into stopping. It's a real good spot though.

I'm not into sky busting so I wanted to know the facts before trying a shot. How much lead would you give a goose in flight at 40-50 yards out? Would 5 feet be reasonable? I was thinking about #4 station at a skeet range.

I was going to use the heaviest load I could find to keep my speed down, energy up so my leads would be about the same.

thanks for the help,

Fallow Buck, yes the size makes them seem slower but when you tell people they fly as fast as 60 mph they don't believe you ! You increase the size of the shot for more range and penetration and use a 3" or 3.5" shell to get more of those shot for better pattern.

"Geese are the most abused game bird on earth.. I have to agree.. I used to get up at 20 below and 20 mph winds to jump them.. Along the bank where they swam inland to get out of the wind, there was bird crap and also where they were crapping blood.. Dieing a slow death from being gut shot.. Very disheartening.. Shot always has a big loss factor.. the birds deserve a fair deal.. And we need to keep our shots within a fair range. Me included! Buckshot on deer is another problem.. dave

Mete,

you are spot on. Here we have large numbers of feraal Canada Geese, and I have driven down the motorway before now keeping pace with a Skein of Canada's at 60mph+ Like you say had I not done it I wouldn't necessarily believe someone that made the claim.

The prroblem with incrasing shot size too muh is that it decreases pattern density and multiple strikes are key to succesfull shooting with shotguns. I tend to think that rather than go to 3.5" loads in a 12bore, a nice 8-bore double will do the job you want it to do right out to 65yds. It is a gun designed for geese, and if you are regularly seeing birds at 50yds, then that is the way forward.

As far as lead is concerned then it's a tricky call. Lead is a perceived concept and most people see it differently. but at 50yds, with a n 8-bor I'd want to giv it the best part of a Toyota Hilux...

Another tricky thing is ranging birds on water or in low light, so I often place a marker decoy out at a range that I have paced at low tide, (or ranged) so I kno that if birds are inside the marker I can get involved!!

RGds,
FB

There is a good chance that the people in the blind next to you will say 125 yards.

Geese = 10 gauge

I'm probably going to catch a lot of flack over what I'm going to say but 90% of the shotguns out there will kill a goose further out than 90% of the hunters using them can hit that same goose! Most of the cripples I have seen - not all, mind you, but most - were not too far out when shot but were hit with the very edge of the pattern.
A goose is a big bird and he can carry a lot of shot. And they can fly a lot faster than most hunters are willing to believe. I have many times seen a duck or two try to fly mixed in with a flight of geese and believe me, a mallard cannot stay in the flight with them for very long. If the goose is traveling and got a little tail wind pushing too, you absolutely cannot shoot in front of him!
When I used to call geese for people (guide) I would always try and get them down to where they could "Shoot their bills off!" and my standard instruction was "You want to be able to see their eyes - and if you can't see his feet, you can't kill him!" Amazing how many people thought you should call the shot when the goose looked about the size of a crow!
Take a dead Canada sometime, hold him up by the wing roots with the wings spread wide and start backing up slowly and mark him at 40 yd, 50 yd, 60 yd, etc. Now do the same as your buddy backs up with the bird while you watch. The goose will still look pretty big way on out there so keep this in mind when you are hunting. Might bring 'shooting' and 'killing' closed together for you. As the old Cajun that taught me to call ducks once told me, “You cain’t shoot where that doick (duck) at, you gotta shoot where he gonna be!†Good advice then and good advice now.
For what it is worth, I used to load a lot of shells with 1 1/2 OZ of either copper or nickel plated BB size shot, a Herter's shot cup and a hefty load of Herco, all put together in a 3" hull. I have myself and watched my father kill birds at unbelievable distances with this combo but he was one of the best wing shooters I have ever seen. Would I try this today if I could use the lead shot, etc.? I would not, but I would try and get the birds inside 25 yds and let you or someone else shoot them at a range where I knew you could hit and kill them. I truly enjoy fooling the birds and love to watch them work the decoys before they decide to settle in. When they commit to land, drop their big black feet and cup the wings my heart still jumps up into my throat and my palms itch – and I killed my first Canada 56 yrs ago this November.


“If it flies and you shoot it with a shotgun, put me in – I’m your boy!â€

TrapperP,

This season, we just did something similiar to what you mentioned. We used our decoys, lasered out to 50 yards and use that along with eyes/feet as a benchmark. I picked up some 3.5" Heavishot #2 at BassPro, and they fold like superman on laundry day! I now know my limit is 50 yards and closer. It's much more gratifying than skybusting hoping for a bird to faulter.

Great advice everyone and I now know my limit and the reaction is evident and confidence is up as well.

Thanks,

If you hit the bird on the front half BBB or T shot steel will kill cleanly at 50 yards, in fact most of the pellets will exit at that distance. Remember that you need to shoot 2 sizes larger with steel than you do with lead for similar killing range.

quote:

Originally posted by DuaneinND:
If you hit the bird on the front half BBB or T shot steel will kill cleanly at 50 yards, in fact most of the pellets will exit at that distance. Remember that you need to shoot 2 sizes larger with steel than you do with lead for similar killing range.

I totally agree - "If you hit the bird on the front half." I just received an email from Remington wherein they guarantee their 'new' alloy waterfowl shot will patter 60-65% in a 30" circle at 60 yds. Now, with the lead angle, the wind drift, etc., etc. we have to put a 30" circle on top of the front half the bird.... and as I posted up earlier, "90% of the shotguns out there will kill a goose further out than 90% of the hunters using them can hit that same goose!" I stick by that observation.
BTW, Your set up and limit of 50yds is realistic - as Clint Eastwood said, "A man has got to know his limitations." And I could buy a lot of shels if I had a buck for each time I have seen someone pop a cap at a goose out beyond 75 yds. And when they break a wing, etc and actually knock one down like this, is seems a lot of others feel they have to try and take one way on out yonder. I guess we have all seen this happen?




"Shoot their bills off!"

Check the Natchez site and note the shotgun ammo listing shown for Kent and other makes of duck and goose ammo. The marketing says you can now shoot at longer ranges. No you can't - unless you prove the load and target which should be possible with an improvised target and a trap launcher.

Everyone is convinced they can reach out and bring down incoming fighter bombers. I would suggest the duck and goose people who would like to stop this abuse suggest to the makers to get off the long range air defense aspect of their hevi-shot ammo.

I've been shooting Geese quite regularly out at 60-70 yards this season and seasons past. Using #2 Hevi-Shot 3" 12 guage and BB Tnngsten-Iron 10 Guage. This year I took 2 Cacklers down with one shot at 40 yards with #2 Hevi-shot.

Forty yards is skeet and trap range for this inept shotgunner. I read on an English language Finnish site (I think) that some early Swedish shotguns possibly with a wad-lock feature, could (with whatever loads they used) reach out to 100 yards. This is sprinkling the target area for most of us.

But if you are using big bore, magnum, or heavy loads of hevi-shot, and have the experience and the skill then a longer range is workable. The best I can do is get some satisfaction with using the full barrel of my Baikal to nail a dropping clay bird I missed with my first barrel.

This retired shooter is with cgbach. Something about geese, Canadas anyway, {which are what I shot at} -notice I say "shot at", not necessarily always "shot" ) seems to inspire people, as cgbach says, to want to shoot at ranges that a 30-06 might be needed. Maybe it's the spread of wings and sheer size (as distinct from the smaller ducks) but what ever happened to the old idea that you want to see the eyes? We shot Canadas with #4s on the Hudson river (NY)(near Cruger's Point)at about 40 yards distance. {THey were coming down the river at full speed after getting up from early morning feeding and when hit fully, they almost skipped on the water, they hit so hard -OK, I'm exaggerating -but not much} This was all nearly 60 years ago and I suppose the Canadas are being shot at by better shooters at such long ranges as I read here.

I’m going to have one more go at this then leave it alone. I still believe 90% of the hunters out there have a gun that will kill a goose further than that same 90% can consistently hit that same goose. And most of the ‘near misses’ will put shot in the birds butt, mainly this will result in birds that are never retrieved but will either die or never fly again – go visit any refuge and see how many such cripples you can see, birds that will never fly again, as I have said. First ‘resident‘ Canada’s ever at Horseshoe Lake (IL) came from such cripples and I have seen many such birds amongst the snows in AR. TX. and LA, all states where some guides will tell you, “Go ahead and shoot, you may break a wing.â€
To illustrate my point, let me go back a long, long ago and tell you a story. When I was about 10 years old I got home from school one afternoon and went to a pit we had in a cornfield, all alone and by myself. I called a bunch of geese out and over the cut corn, big old birds that had flown over a lot of decoys coming South. I worked them a couple of passes but they would not commit so I decided if they would come straight over I would try them.
Now, consider what I just said – I was about ten or so, I could call birds with my mouth and I was really, really good, knew just about everything and would readily tell you so. Dad and Mr. Pye had been watching me miss birds and were trying to coach me about lead but again I was so smart! Just think about it as I did – squirrel jumps up on side of tree, I put the bead on him and pull the trigger, squirrel falls of tree, dead. End of story. Lead, what lead – we don’t need no stinking lead.
Back to the story: The birds caught the wind and turned to pass back over me, now flying slower than normal but still moving. The lead bird looked big as an airplane and I wanted so I put the bead on the end of his beak and pulled the trigger – and the 4th or 5th bird in line behind him came tumbling out of the sky, dead as a doornail! At that point, I decided the old man might be on to something with this lead business.
Now that occurred more than fifty years ago and I have bagged a lot of birds since then. I’ve hunted in at least a dozen states and several countries on three continents. That is not brag, just the way it is. I’m still trying to learn, I must be as I still miss! And I hope to have many many more opportunities to miss yet again.



"Shoot their Bills off!"

TrapperP

You are right, of course, about your point that the gun is often better than the shooter. (My father used to say that any rifle off the shelf was better than the shooter and that "it was a poor workman who blamed his tools") I do think, however, that the thinking by many of today's shooters is that they believe the great looking ads always apply to them if only they will shoot this particular shotgun or use these particular shells - and that basics of wingshooting don't apply. I learned to always want to see eyes (for geese) and wing color (for ducks) -after I had learned how to shoot a shotgun. I stick by my hunting training -starting when I was about 8 - Be sure (meaning that you were sure about killing the bird or animal) It stopped me from attempting ridiculously long shots in a 64 year hunting career) I don't think you are any different.