Got My Goose

[Myk]

So here I am newbie waterfowler, just picked up a goose call because my friend says he can't call them. (But I sure do wish he would help, he honks OK.)

A single come in and I start talking to him. I call, he calls. That set the all area going. It sounded like there were more geese in this area than there probably are in the whole state.

I kept up my rythym honking and doing pleas when he was going away. Getting excited when he was coming in. Not following the lead of the other blinds.

He went up and checked out all the others and then headed back to ours. I started double clucking and honking. Guess which caller he picked.

I kept calling as he came in on the other side of the blind and started to land (sort of a brain fart because I kept on calling after the blind was shooting, partially because I figured they had him).

We unloaded 12 shots on him in the air and he was rocking with almost every shot. He had more wing feathers pointing up than he had flapping. He still glided a long way, almost close enough that another blind would've swatted him and claimed him. But they got the boat and ran after him and he thankfully couldn't take off, but he tried. So he dove before they could swat him. When he came up he took two more shots. And he was still alive when he got back to the blind.

Tough birds and steel is absolute crap. His wing bones were peppered with shot and they didn't break (and we even had a 10ga in the blind).

The wing span is as wide as mine so he was pretty big.
Not bad for a new caller at a place where geese are rare to fly over in range let alone land.

[Mossyhorns]

Honkin Myk--Waterfoul hunting is a blast isnt it.Can't even compare it to pheasant hunting.Its just another hunting sport to get addicted to be careful,or you'll have decoy bags hanging all over in the garage.

Try the newer heavier shot thats out on the market next time you go out.Youll see a big differance in your hits and distances.That steel just wounds alot of game in my opinon.Some places you can only use steel on pheasant hunting too.That kinda bits.

[Myk]

I agree about steel wounding and it causes complete misses. But that Heavy Shot is expensive and hard on barrels. I've thought about Bismith but I couldn't find it when I went to restock. Luckily if you do connect hard enough to really hurt one with steel out there but not drop it there are enough blinds that it won't make it to the refuge unless you are right next to it.

I picked up an "extra full" T-F choke. I've figured out that it's actually a modified-full and it seems to do better with the 3 1/2" loads and the BBB loads and I think better with the 3" BB loads which was what did best with the tubes I had. I'll know if I like to eat ducks and geese by the next time I go out to know if I want to spend that much per half box of shells for the alloyed shot (the Bismuth wasn't that bad of a price when I saw it). I've got a woody, a ringneck and a goose to cook up.
I do bet the blind next to us is using something other than steel though. They get some long shots that drop the birds pretty good.

If I had some goose fields I would be more willing to try the other shots. The BB's seem to work good on ducks at distances I can shoot and that new choke is throwing BBB's just as good. I think the math of shots per duck to dollar per shot would work out better but at those prices I sure

But the problem with that goose wasn't distance. He was well within 35 yards when we first shot and stayed near there while he circled to fly up the river. It was just bad patterns, steel not having enough umph with all the shot and one hell of a tough bird. He had shot in his head from what I assume was the swats and that didn't even stop him.

We were working on the boat hide gate today (it fell off yesterday) during a lack of action today (which was most of the day). I watched for ducks until it sounded like they needed help then I jumped down into the water until it was nailed. While my duck hunting friend was adding screws I saw two mallards coming in so I told him not to move and started calling on a call I just got last night. My other friend's help was done so he got back up in the blind and the birds dropped and came into the spread picture perfect. They got 10' off the water and flared. We unloaded on them and MISSED every shot!
The blind right across from us was picking up so they were right in the line of fire which caused both of us to hesitate. Even if they are a couple hundred yards away it throws you off shooting when you can see bodies moving around in your sight picture.

I wouldn't say it's better than pheasant hunting (especially since my dog is flusher who doesn't like retrieving birds which is all he could do waterfowling, but the small ducks are helping).
But it is cool to call the birds in when you know it was you doing it and your calls beat everyone else. All of my calling is for deer and I'm the only one in my group who calls

[Myk]

I like the taste goose so I may go to the non-steel stuff. But I'll give this new choke a try first. It's doing better than the other chokes with the same shells by far and the 3 1/2" shells with heavier shot which weren't patterning good at all before are with this choke.

If the BBB's aren't enough now that I have faith in their patterns I'll try one of the alloys or Bismith.

[Myk]

Here's a problem with Hevi-Shot and the alloys. Hevi-shot is limited to #2's, the alloy are limited to BB.

Bismuth allows BBB. So the next time I see that I'll grab a box.

Illinois has to be one of the dumbest states there is.