Finally, at 28 I'm getting in to Birds. Always thought it was the most entertaining way to hunt, but I've pretty much done deer, coyotes, rabbit etc.
Hunting Long Point Bay area mostly.
Got a new Maxus 28" in the spring (I LOVE this gun!)
picked up a good set of waders, blue bill dekes, magic mallard call tonight.
And, I have a dog that I trained years ago, and if I could just get him to settle down a bit in the blind (we can't whisper or move the guns, he knows it's bird time) he would be a great dog.
Went out last weekend, 10 birds between the two of us in only a few hours... Shooting #4 23/4 winchester (xpress I believe). I couldn't believe how many birds we just crippled and had to go out and shoot. We only folded about 3 birds with one shot.
Both using a Maxus with modified chokes... Has to be something we're not getting!
Went to the trap range last week, hit 23 of 25 in my first round in 14 years, so I'm pretty well on it, aim isn't the issue.
While cleaning the birds, most of the bb was hardly in to the breast muscle. Only 2 were found with internal injuries to the body, everything else was killed via head trauma. They are like mini A-10s!
Are you sure your not shooting behind them and the bbs your seeing are from shooting the crips on the water??? Just remember, it only takes 1 bb to break a clay, but it takes 3-4 to bring down a duck. My favorite load is #3s Win High Velocities.. Steel has a lighter weight than lead and the extra speeed 1550 FPS helps to overcome that a little..
You will be surprised when you open up an Xpert shell and look at what's inside.
Anywho, like CJ said, steel is 'light.' The density is so poor that steel shot can not hold its velocity very long. The only way to overcome this is to go bigger (weight increases faster than cross-sectional surface area in a sphere, so therefore ballistic coefficient improves as the sphere gets larger). Be mindful not to be taking very long shots. If you need to shoot further, you need to shoot bigger. It may help to shoot a more premium shell; bigger shot like BBs will be pretty decent in cheap shells but 4s are going to look like pears. I usually shoot nothing but 3s for all my duck hunting, and xperts suffice, because I shoot fairly close up 10-30yds. One thing you need to do is get some big paper and shoot it to see how your patterns are looking. You may need to switch chokes, ammo, or both if you have ugly spotty patterns.
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I agree with on the clay pigeons. If you are "Powdering" the clays then you are hitting with a large amount of bbs but it clay just breaks that could just be 1.
You could switch to a harder hitting shot #3 or #2 shot. More than likely being you're new to birds your lead isn't proper and thus the reason for cripples. Try to focus on your lead so the birds you fold and the ones you cripple are the same lead.
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Finally, at 28 I'm getting in to Birds. Always thought it was the most entertaining way to hunt, but I've pretty much done deer, coyotes, rabbit etc.
Hunting Long Point Bay area mostly.
Got a new Maxus 28" in the spring (I LOVE this gun!)
picked up a good set of waders, blue bill dekes, magic mallard call tonight.
And, I have a dog that I trained years ago, and if I could just get him to settle down a bit in the blind (we can't whisper or move the guns, he knows it's bird time) he would be a great dog.
Went out last weekend, 10 birds between the two of us in only a few hours... Shooting #4 23/4 winchester (xpress I believe). I couldn't believe how many birds we just crippled and had to go out and shoot. We only folded about 3 birds with one shot.
Both using a Maxus with modified chokes... Has to be something we're not getting!
Went to the trap range last week, hit 23 of 25 in my first round in 14 years, so I'm pretty well on it, aim isn't the issue.
While cleaning the birds, most of the bb was hardly in to the breast muscle. Only 2 were found with internal injuries to the body, everything else was killed via head trauma. They are like mini A-10s!
That is some of the reasoning behind why we switched to HeviShot
and HeviMetal....more pellets on target, more knockdown and
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