Next to the last day of goose season.

[DIRT Farmer]

I was loafing around the house this afternoon and my hunting buddy called. He knew where there was some geese working.
He and I have worked togather for to many years, all the way back to when we both were in good health, for those of you who understand that.
Twenty years ago he and I had taken a kid with us goose hunting, now the kid calls and takes us rabbit hunting. Such is the reward for good deeds.

He was with me when I shot my first goose with a muzzleloader, my Brown Bess and the goose was banded, my first band.

Today was to warm for a good goose day and the sun was shining bright. I was using my Pedersoli 10 ga. loaded with 95 grns of ffg Goex and 1 1/4 oz of Bismuth BBs. We saw a lot of geese, then pulled of six from a group, worked them in and landed them at 20 yards. We each picked a goose on our side, and shot. The first load from my gun rocked the bird hard, the second folded it. He also shot his bird twice with his modern 3.5 12 ga.

This was a great day, in the field with a good friend, good stories keeping up with our kids watching Gods creation. The only down side was we both forgot coffee and snacks. Age showing? All in all, a good day in the field, Black powder shooting side by side with black plastic. And a goose apiece was enough.

We tried to take pictures after we picked up but it was two dark for cell phone cameras.

[camerl2009]

cool cant wait to build my double's

so stalking a goose never thought about that i bet it could be done with a .22lr
but no fun in that

i'll have to look in to that see if its even legal here i dont see why not but you never know here

[DIRT Farmer]

WGO, I have dreams of traveling and hunting. My ancesters made their living market hunting on Chesapeak Bay shooting ducks and geese with M/L shotguns. If shooting decoying birds was genetic I should shoot a lot better than I do. I would love to try hunting sea going waterfoul.
There was an article in the last Muzzle Blasts on shooting sea ducks with M/L shotguns, but I guess I will have to stick with field hunting and the odd set on the Ohio river.

[camerl2009]

In the USA You have to use Steel Shot for Migratory Waterfowl.

regulations prohibiting using a rifle.

So that would mean a high powered unrifled BB Gun which could be considered a small bore shotgun

HUNTING METHODS
It shall be lawful to hunt migratory game birds by the aid of dogs, artificial decoys, manually or mouth-operated bird
calls, with hand-held bow and arrow, or by the practice of falconry, or with shotgun (not larger than No.10 guage and
incapable of holding more than three shells) fired from the shoulder. Every other method is unlawful



NONTOXIC SHOT - STATEWIDE: The use or possession of ammunition loaded with other than nontoxic
shot while hunting wild ducks, geese, brant, rails, or coots is prohibited. Nontoxic shot means any shot
type that does not cause sickness and death when ingested by these birds and is approved for use by the
Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Steel, bismuth-tin, tungsten-iron (2 types), tungsten-matrix,
tungsten-bronze (2 types), tungsten-polymer, tungsten-tin-bismuth, tungsten-tin-iron-nickel, and tungsten
nickel-iron (HEVI) shot have been approved nontoxic by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.



If you get down to Old Orchard Beach we can try for some Sea Ducks with Black Power Shotguns. Now that would be a challange.






My RWS .177 will shoot Steel BBS but they are not accurate as the lead pellets are. OK If you stay withing 10 yards or so.

And yes I have shot Geese 'head shot with the .177 Hollow Point Pellets but they were my own domestic geese and the distance was about 2 feet away.

I would think that you would need a larger bore to effectivly shoot them at any reasonable distance as the Steel BB does not
have the shocking energy needed for an effectice humane kill.


They do hurt like hell though so be careful with them.

some one needs to read im not in the US we do have to use non toxic here for
duck and goose and pluged for hunting now 3rd for all shotguns
normaly we can have 5 rd max in semi auto(5rd used to be the hunting limit)
and as many as a pump will hold but its only for non hunting

and its shotguns only whats the differnce between smooth bore rifle and a rifled
as laws go as far as i know no difference here i think i can even have a smooth bore pistol

sorry for the

[Fishman]

Dirtfarmer, that was a great story! Thanks.

[gnoahhh]

I too whacked a couple of geese this past season using a ML double gun, a modern Pedersoli 12 gauge. I shoot 1 1/8 oz. #2 Nice Shot (which was ok'ed as a non-tox shot a couple of years ago) over however much FFg Goex powder is actually dispensed by my antique powder flask set on 3 Drams. (I know, I should get off my lazy ass and double check those settings.) It was fun and will continue with it in the future. We hunt geese so much over on the Eastern Shore on my buddy's farms that it starts to get boring, so we mix it up a little. We started a thing called "Around the World" meaning each guy has to kill at least one goose with every common gauge between .410 and 10 gauge. Three of us have done that so far. This year I added the muzzle loader to the mix.

I wimped out for the last day and used a "modern" 12 ga. L.C.Smith Ideal grade Longrange model. 1 1/8 oz. #2 Nice Shot @ 1250fps. Two shots, two geese. Now for the post-season blues!

[DIRT Farmer]

We shoot the local flock and they get to where they know whose setup it is by the decoy set. There are several hundred birds that stay in the area year around. When heavy weather sets in North of here the geese stack up. Tonight three good sized flocks droped in on the farm pond, figures. By tomorrow they will be in the cooling pond at the power plant about two miles away soaking in warm water.

[looseprojectile]

lead was outlawed for migratory waterfowl in the days when I was so poor I could only own one gun at a time. About 1962. Raising a family makes you poor.
Hunting license was $7.50 and a duck stamp was $1.00 had to make it pay.
I had a Harpers Ferry musket. Loaded it up with a half handfull of black powder and toilet paper wad and a half handfull of shot, #5, and a toilet paper wad to keep the shot from rolling out. I snuck up on a bunch of geese in the fog, could hear em talking to each other. Waited for the fog to clear a little and watched till two heads were close together and killed two with one shot. About a hundred feet range.
My best day with a muzzeloader.

Life is good

[DIRT Farmer]

Now that is the style our forefathers used, and would have shot 4 if they could have lined them up.