newbie needs help

rml127 · 10-27-2003, 08:23 AM

I' ve never hunted ducks or geese before. My hunting area is between a lake and fields where the birds are feeding. Every morning and night they fly over the area I have permission to hunt. On nasty rainy days they fly fairly low. If I' m shooting a 12 gauge with a full choke barrel, what shot size is recommended for ducks and geese and how far away can the shots be? They seem to stay around 50 yards from the ground. When all the corn is cut I might buy some decoys and give that a try but right now I only see them flying over. I have a modified barrel for the gun and a couple boxes of steel BBB and steel #1 shot. Will that work?

Jambruins · 10-27-2003, 11:15 AM

For ducks I use #4 shot early in season and #3 shot when they start getting smarter and the shots are farther away. #2 will work for geese. 50 yards is a long shot for ducks and geese. If you hit a bird that high there is a good chance you will only wound it. If you are in a wide open field that might be ok because there would be no place for it to go and you could shoot it again on the ground or run after it. If there are weeds and water around though, it will be tough to find because it will hide in the weeds or swim away. I guess try it and see what happens. If you kill one great, if not you will have to get some decoys.

jlb66 · 10-28-2003, 12:51 AM

Use the modified barrel deffinately and leave the full at home. Unless it' s a double barrel of course. This time of year I would say T' s, F' s, or BBB' s for the geese and BB' s for the ducks. They should start getting pretty fat so you want a little bigger shot to take em down. But 50 yards is pushing it, if you can get them to 40 or under that would be perfect. But for me I won' t shoot at anything over 45 and that' s even iffy. The farther you shot away the more apt you are of wounding a bird and possibly not finding it, especailly in taller grass or even a plowed with corn stalks in it can be hard to find birds even if you do have a good mark on them. Also alot of newer hunters make the mistake especailly shooting at high flyers that they kill some with out even knowing it. Example: you shot at a flock of geese and aim at the lead bird. You shoot and the bird doesn' t fall but flaps a couple times and locks his wings. 98% of the time that bird is dead in the air from a body shot, could be one pellet or a couple hitting vital organs kinda of like shooting a deer and it runs a ways before it drops. But alot of newer hunters think that it if didn' t fall right away that they missed and just go on to shooting at another bird without even knowing that the first one sailed for 1/2 a mile or more and went down dead. If you use to small of shot and don' t get a kill right away this happens alot. It even happens with the bigger shot but is not so likley to happen. That' s somthing very important to rememebr especially if you have a one goose limit or maybe over your limit if you keep shooting. Just somthing to keep in mind. But like I said modified barrel or choke with T' s, F' s, or BBB' s for geeses and BB' s for ducks should do you just right for this late in the season. I use T' s religiously for geese becasue it kills' em deader than ......you know what. For duck earlier in the year I use nothing less that 4' s but mostly 2' s. I' m a firm believer in bigger shot. But you have to have to have to shoot the different loads through your gun to see how they pattern. Example I shot alot of 2' s, last year I tried uping to 1' s. With my setup I can put a shot with 2' s with 90-100% of pellets in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards I tried 1' s through the same setup at the same distance and everything and my percentage went down to about 50% if i' m lucky. But then I went and shot BB' s same setup and I was at 90-100% in a 20 inch circle at 40 yards. You have to pattern your gun if you can put 70-100% of your shot in a 20 inch circle at about 40 yards that' s a good setup for what your going to be doing Good luck and if you don' t get any might just have to get some dekes and maybe that will pull them a little closer to the ground. Good luck.

rml127 · 10-28-2003, 07:38 AM

Thanks for the info. I' m a deer hunter and don' t know anyone who hunts birds. I had a couple of birds fly by the other night nice and low, I lead one by about a foot and missed him twice. How far do you lead these things? A guy I talked to last night told me three feet.

skeeter 7MM · 10-28-2003, 09:53 AM

The most important thing to leading birds is follow through, a common mistake is stop when you pull the trigger. On geese I shoot when I see for the bill and ducks just in front of the bill but you have to keep following through with the shot and the bird.

Gryan · 10-28-2003, 10:25 AM

I have the same situation. I shoot a field between the lake and the feeding fields. My geese come over fairly low, tree top most of the time. I shoot BBB through a full choke and kill a lot of geese. They get wise quickly and they fly out in other directions after I bang at them a while. I adjust and hunt there! Fifty yards seems like a lot to me. Can you get any closer on either end?

The higher the bird, the more I lead them. If they are tree top, I put it right on the head/neck. If they are higher, I get out just in front of the bill.

Greg

jolle · 10-28-2003, 03:20 PM

Depending on how you shoot, you may need to lead only inches to several feet. I like to follow the bird then swing through hard and pull the trigger when I am in front of the bird. In the minute time between me thinking pull and the shell firing, I' m sure the lead is greater, but I think I' m not even leading them. And it helps me to follow through because the gun is moving fairly fast and is hard to stop even if I tried.

I would definitely use the larger shot sizes, especially for the geese. The 1' s would work on ducks if they were within 50 yards. I have never used it, but your situation sounds like a good candidate for steel alternatives such as Hevi-shot or tungsten, as they have much better long range power.

DuckHuntin247 · 10-29-2003, 03:44 PM

If i were you i would use soem BB for the geese before u start shootin at them, then after they get a little wiser use that BBB of yours. For ducks i would also recomend 4 shot, just like Jambruins, for beginning, then move to some 3 shot. Good Luck!

rml127 · 10-30-2003, 07:25 AM

Yesterday I had a whole flock land in the field behind me just out of range. I waited hoping more would circle enough for me to get a shot but it didn' t happen. I did get a big fat wild pheasant walking back to the truck though!!!

VaWaterfowler · 10-30-2003, 10:01 AM

Hey I' m new here to the board and I just had a couple of quetsions after reading through the post.

I was under the impressions that full chokes were not to be used with steel shot and that if you did you it your pattern would actually be worse?

Doesn' t a modified choke using steel shot actually give you a full choke pattern?

Also I would definately use decoys and bring those birds into me. I would not take a 50 yard shot and take a chance at crippling that bird.

Todd