[Fish Springs]

Here's a few informal notes from yesterdays hunt:

Clear day, birds not decoying well. Ducks, young snows and some speckled bellies in the air. Combined bag 5 geese, 7 ducks.

1. #4 shot, 3" steel: 3 ducks crippled and retrieved @ ~40 yards. 2 died by the time we got to them. One required chasing.

2. #4 hevi-steel, 3" 4 ducks and a snow goose all dead with no chasing wounded birds. Same distance as above.

3. #2 Kent Fast Steel, 3.5"--2 geese, dead when before they hit the water. ~50 yards

4. BB Win SX 3.5", one Blue Goose and one Speckled Belly. The Blue was ~50 yards up--saled 1/4 mile and retrieved. Speck was a solid hit, BB at 50 yards.

No scientific data here--#4 Hevi Steel was the smallest/lightest pellet that we are going to use in the future.

For 3.5" shells not enough data to distiguish between #2 and BB in 2.5" hulls.

 

[Fish Springs]

Blunder has good advice--3", 12 ga, #3 is an improvement on #4 and when used in a solid load will cover the duck space very well. It also works well on wetlands when phesant hunting requiring non-tox shot.

 

[Fish Springs]

This may stimulate some discussion.

On a windy Snow Goose hunt near Katy, Texas we observed the following:

1. Increasing wind speed requires larger steel shot. Moving from BB to T work well in both 3" and 3.5" guns.

2. Hevi Steel B was visibly more effective than BB Steel, Federal Ultra Shock.

3. HeviShot was excellent in both #4 and #2 pellet size but a tighter choke and lead are still needed. Holding dead on a flying bird in the wind with Hevi just means you've missed. Performance is the same as with steel ;O

4. The folks shooting #2, 3, steel shot were glad that there were some T shot shooters in follow up positions and lots of BB to pass around.

5. Apparently a box of 1996 vintage Fiocchi 3" 1 1/4 oz BBB was better than 2 boxes of Win Super X #2 Steel. More birds fell to the BBB than during the previous two boxes.

6. #4 steel worked for chasing the three cripples, on two other's TT worked better and left the bird more intact.

7. Practice getting into shooting position from the bottom of a corn field furrow 'cause there is no such thing as a good gun mount when you are in the ditch and trying to get a head of the bird.

Come shoot some Snow Geese in Texas and bring a variety of your favorite shells :wink:. There are lots of Snow Geese and a lot of shooting to be had.