flatwater bill
AH legend
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2013
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- Hunted
- All 6 Continents
For the last 25 years I have hunted geese and cranes mostly with a 20 gauge. I use a Browning A-5 with a fixed modified (lead) choke and a 28" bbl. When you're talking waterfowl and 20 ga, a 3" gun is a big advantage. Cranes are easy to kill, and that is partly because non-toxic shot is not required. But geese are much tougher. Our birds are mostly the Moffitt subspecies of Canada....the second biggest behind the Giants of the Midwest. 10 and 11 pound birds are common, and a few outliers up to 13 are taken every year. Complicating this is that large shot often does not pattern well in a 20. I have not found a steel load bigger than #3 that gives a uniform pattern in my guns. Plated #3 steel kills ducks cleanly over decoys, and it is my choice. But it is not effective on our geese. And so using a 20 means using expensive shotshells. I have had moderately good luck using Hevi-Shot #4 with 1 1/4 oz loadings and better results with Kent Tungsten Matrix (Impact) #3 shot throwing 1 1/8 oz. I purchased 10 cases of the latter at a good price a few years back. Wingmaster HD by Remington was spectacular. So good, in fact, that they discontinued it. While I have written extensively about the merits of TSS for bear defense, I am unwilling to pay $15 a shell for goose hunting. Are there any 20 ga waterfowlers that have used something I have overlooked, say copper plated bismuth or similar that could comment? Would like to hear how your goose season is going, or has gone........and what loads you use..........FWB