Assembled October 9, 1999

Hi Ted.

Thanks for the goose hunting article. When I read of all the pain you guys have to go through to bag a couple of geese I appreciate the way we hunt geese. One thing we never do, is to get our feet wet or use a boat. All our shooting is done in grain or corn stubble. Sometimes we shoot in summer fallow or in a broken harrowed field. We use a pit when I can persuade a couple of young fellows to dig it, but only in sandy soil. If you want a lot of geese the three men pit with a hinged spring lid is the most productive.

But the various blinds work not too bad if you are a halve decent shot. Most people are poor shooters on geese. I also have a straw bale and a hay bale blind. My friend has an artificial corn blind for three people made in Minnesota and two goose chairs. The goose chairs work well in strong winds. I have a Jeep Wagoneer and a trailer on the farm for hauling goose hunting equipment and blinds.

Big decoys? Yes we have 36 Magnum super G&H Henrietta and 41 silhouettes. The silhouettes are made from ½" chip board and have real goose wings attached to the sides. They are set up 45 degrees into the wind. The silhouettes are very good and look deceivingly real in three different poses. These and the big decoys are set up in family units, 6-8 in a group. The layout is a U-shape with the blinds down wind on the bottom of the U or on both sides 50 yards apart. The birds will fly into the open U, or to the left or right, but mostly circle over the setup. The open end of the U is 40 paces from the blind. The lay out is quite concentrated. The decoys are not more then 6-0 ft apart with landing spots among the groups.

Steel shot, the first time this year we are forced by the law to use it. For a long time I fretted about the idea of using steel shot, which eliminated the long time use of my two most used waterfowl guns. The first gun a 20 gauge Win 101 O/U which I used with 1- 3/16 oz of #3 Italian hard nickel plated shot until the very cold weather settled in. The slow Blue Dot powder did not work too well under 4 C (40 F). This gun bagged hundreds of geese and has custom .633"bores, long forcing cones and custom chokes which patterned 90% or better with the #3 nickel plated shot.

My second and cold weather gun a model 21 Win SxS 28" F&M using 1-3/8 #2 copper plated shot performed indescribable well. It is a sad good by for both of them. Of course I can Use the Model 21 with Bismuth shot although most unlikely. The 20 gauge still finds use as a chicken, pheasant and sporting clays gun, but any run off the mill gun will do that. Fortunately I had a Win 101 30" Water Fowler with screw-in Winchokes, which are not suitable for steel shot.

Using the Hastings screw in chokes designed for steel shot the 101 became a "Steel" gun. My 3" hand loads with 75 BBB's shoot 93 and 94% pattern at 40 yards. First time out I killed six geese with six shots 2 doubles and two singles. One bird did glide a long piece and did not move after hitting the ground and had only two pellets in him but in a vital spot. This shot gave me an idea how far not to shoot. It was well over 50 yards. I have since reduced my range to 45 yards and at that distance the BBB’s fold a bird.

I found I could hit the switch a tad sooner with the steel loads? Don’t know I haven’t missed any geese because of the lead, only because of the unfamiliar gun mounting and pointing. I also toke one inch off the stock; my left arm/shoulder is not as strong any more since I had it operated on.

The bismuth shot is Ok, but who can afford that stuff. In our Canadian money it is $2.00 round. A can with 7 lbs. of pellets cost a 123 bucks. That will make 81.45 1-3/8 oz shells. That is a $1.51 for the shot only. How did things ever get that far out of hands? Mind you some guys only get 3 or 4 birds with a box of steel shells so the cost per bird/shell is even more. Regular 3" steel BBB cost $1.00 each that makes it $6.00-$8.33/bird. So if I get 16 birds with 20 rounds or 40/16 is only $2.50/Bird or 1/3 the cost. As you can see the economics of bismuth is clearly apparent.

But then I would really have to concentrate to shoot that well, and that takes the fun out of the game. Besides my steel shot hand loads are more than adequate and quite cost effective compared to----- what? $16.50 Can. for a box of 25 all inclusive. They are about the same as hard nickel plated lead shot. Here is my load. "12 gauge Active 3" all plastic case. 1-1/4 oz Multi Metal Wad from Ballistics Products. CCI 209 Primer (I use Win 209 because the CCI 209 is not available here). 32.0gr of Blue dot (or Win 571which I had on hand). 75 Pellets BBB is 1-1/4 oz. Case is crimped with a 6 point crimp. Ballistics Products Inc recommended this load.

Using a Ponsness 375 press loading requires unconventional techniques. Shot bushing was replaced with a .080" rubber band fitted in the bushing chamber. The powder bushing is not used. Case is de- and re-primed and is then removed from the press and charged with powder from a powder measure near by. Then the wad is hand started. The die and case is put back into the press and the wad fully seated. The shot bushing holder is knocked three times with a small rubber hammer to settle the shot and then dropped. The crimp is started and crimped and the shell ejected. The whole procedure is slower but not too bad, since I seldom use more than two boxes of shells a week, I make them as I go along. Keeping track of the hulls I found they will reload six times.

Accuracy is one pellet plus or minus. The rubber shot bushing prevents the shot from binding, since the steel shot won't give or shear. The rubber supplies a little give to let the bushing rotate to the drop station. This is just another little loading invention of mine. I also mix a spoon full of motor mica into the shot for better lubricity. A shake with motor mica in the wad bag helps wad seating and increases velocity. The wads are so long that the wad starter does not work too well because the drop tube gets in the way.

That ‘s about it for goose hunting. Have Fun, and shoot for the head, and always deliberately concentrate on the white spot on the head of the goose and never take your eyes off it. Make a fast swing through and fire. "Dead Bird", every time a Dead Bird. When they come in to land look at their feet and fire. When they flush from the ground, shoot a bit above the head, Dead Bird most every time. If you see the bird over your barrel you will miss him as he gets up. And please don't shoot him on the ground. If you fooled him give him a sporting chance to get away.