hey guys...had a few questions. i went goose hunting for my first time a few weeks ago and loved it, however, we didn' t harvest too many birds. i' m going again this fri. and sat and need some pointers. the birds weren' t as plentiful as i would' ve liked but we did get two flyby' s at about 50 to 60 yards. i shoot a 12 ga. browning gold hunter and i was using a modified invector plus choke tube with 3 in. steel shot BBs. i' m a pretty good shot, dead on with trap and skeet and i' ve never had trouble shooting doves or quail and i felt like i was dead-on but the birds weren' t falling like i expected. were they out of range, was my shot ouncing off and not powerful enough at that distance, what went wrong?? could you guys give me some suggestions on what choke i should use, load (should i go up to 3 1/2?), and finally what' s a good beginner call? i know that' s a bunch, but i' ll take any advice i can get. i really appreciate it.

WAY WAY OUT OF RANGE!!

Keep it under 35 yards,, you keep popping off at 50-60 yards and you will not be invited back, very possibly youll be chased out of the blind!

There is nothing worse to a hardcore waterfowler,, than a SKYBUSTER!!!! and we will let you know about it!

Get them in your face, and have at it!

Dont want to sound anal,, but im being honest!

i wasnt " skybusting" for the fun of it..it was our only shot. they weren' t gonna land so we went for it. but, thanks for affirming that they were out of range. i' ll save my shells next time and that also makes me feel better. it kind of hurt my confidence. i appreciate it.

Swamp is right. Get ' em 35 and under. Some people will take shots at 40+ and get them most of the time, but it' s too far for me.

skybusting is skybusting,, there are no excuses for it. It does the sport of hunting no good when a goose shows up in some park, partially crippled and bleeding from pellet holes from an out of range shot. We owe it to ourselves and especially the bird, to only take shots that are in a killing range. That unfortunately with steel is 35 yards,, maybe 40 maximum!

The rule of thumb I was told,, if you can clearly see the white patch on the head they are in range. I can see it at 100+ yards. So my motto for geese,, wait until you can see theyre eyes clearly. That will definitely put them in range.

Welcome to the wonderful world of waterfowling,,, there is nothing more exciting than getting a flock of birds to work your spread and put the landing gear down! It makes up for all those days when a shot isnt fired!

take it easy guys. He said it was his 1st goose hunt. It is better to let the group fly on by than it is to take some bad shots. 50 - 60 yards is way to far to take a shot at geese or any other waterfowl. 35 yards and under is the perfect distance. But that is the way you have to learn , is by making these mistakes. Everybody that is on you so hard didn' t do everything perfectly right the 1st time either. Good luck the rest of the season !!!!

Next time let ' em pass and throw out a few comeback calls. You might be able to get them to turn and come back in.

Try using Hevi-Shot loads the next time and make sure you allow plenty of lead. Those big birds are moving faster than you realize and you can easily shoot behind them. The Hevi-Shot hits harder than lead and you can use a smaller shot size which helps your pattern. Shooting Canadas here in Colo., we like #2 Hevi-Shot at 1300 fps or BB or BBB Kent Fasteel at 1500. With steel, velocity really helps.

As far as calls go, the Big River Long Honker works good for me and Cabelas has it on sale for $26. Good luck.

Yup, like the guys said...too far. You cannot take those longer shots with steel as you would lead. Up here in Manitoba, we do a fair bit of pass shooting and we use 10ga for that. We handload 45gr Alliant Steel under 13/8oz of steel(BBB) This works for us but during those wonderful,rainy, hard blowing north winds, low cloud , waterfowlers`s dream weather, we all use our 12s for those closer shots when the geese are flying just off the deck. Also, you do not have to lead the birds as much as you would with lead. Hope this helps a bit and good luck on your next hunt.

Ron

What everyone else said. But also, use the shells you are going to be hunting with on the range. Steel and lead shoot very differant, you are handi-capping yourself if you shoot lead at the range and steel in the field.