BIG TUNA

Looking at stocking up ammo for Canada Goose loads early, to spread my budget between now and Sept.. Have a new good spot with geese flying only a little above the trees. They fly an easy hieght to shoot, but no room to land. I have a bad habit of wounding them, but can't get them to drop. The aim is good but not getting penetration. Should I use the lighter 1 1/8 oz loads to get the 1550 higher speed, or the heavier 1 3/8 loads at a slower 1300 fps. Usually buy Rem Nitro Steel BB. Just debating on weight vs speed.

mnhunter_32

i'd go with the heavier shot charge . more pellets in the air more in the bird

DuckHuntin247

im with mnhunter, if you got the aim down, maybe you just need a little more pellets in the air. You might have to adjust your aim now if you've been using faster loads as you'll proabably be behind the birds. Maybe get an extra box of the shells you decide to use for the season and shoot some clays before opening day to try and adjust.

SwampCollie

Hevi-shot #6....and pull out in front of the bird and shoot them in the head instead of in the body.

KonaBoy

In steel I prefer the faster loads (over 1500 fps)

mustad

I think you should save your money on the shells and buy and train a good dog.

cgguy

I have done alot of sea duck hunting(eiders,scoters,oldsqaw), I think sea ducks are very hard to kill. I have had better luck with more speed. I tried the kent steel last year and it was very good. I load all my own 12ga now and the most important thing is how well the shell is put together. If they use junk parts its not going to work well. The nitro steel....I think is crap. Just my thoughts.....

inhuntr

If I were you I would go with more speed. You are getting cripples because with steel when you shoot it doesn't have enough energy left to cleanly kill the goose when your shot gets to the bird. I have always been told with steel get the load with max amount of speed.I'm with SwampCollie on this one go with the hevi-shot. Even though that it is more exspensive you use less shells than you do steel shellswhich evens out in the long run.

whiskeysnoot

Go with the better of both worlds. Higher velocity and drop down in shot size. If you are using BB or BBB drop to #1s or #2s. Take a lesson from the turkey hunters. The difficulty to kill a turkey is about the same for a goose. Turkey hunters are only concerned with head and neck pattern density. You'll never hear them talk about effectiveness of body shots. The most popular shot sizes for turkey are #4-#6s. So, just like a turkey, concentrate on more pellets to the head and neck.

More than anything though, get in front of the bird. You may think that your aim is good because you are blowing feathers off their tail when in actuality you need to be 12-24 ins. more in front. Believe me, I am talking more about myself than you. I am constantly reminding myself to do this.

Bottom line, I have been killing geese more successfully since dropping shot size for more density and increasing lead.

Worc

With steel the added velocity makes a bigger difference than other heavier shot materials. Going from 1 3/8oz to 1 1/8oz you will be loosing about 15 pellets. Your energy per pellet will go up somewhere around 25% from 1,300fps to 1,550fps. Recoil energy between these two loads will be almost the exact same.

This where the 3 1/2" chamber shines for geese and steel shot. You can get the same 1 3/8oz at the faster 1,550fps.

I'd take the 1 1/8oz at 1,550fps if I were to use a 3" steel load for geese.