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Hunting Geese

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Hoyt

45 Cal.
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I'm thinking about trying to shoot a few geese this yr. (they're all around where I live) and don't have a clue as to what type shot to use. Talking about what's legal. I know my barrel is not steel shot approved....Colerain Turkey Choke Barrel. So I guess that leaves me with Bismuth and I don't know a thing about Bismuth.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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I also have a turkey choke colerain in .62. I have taken Canada geese with my 11 ga flinter using #2 bismuth, also with BB steel. I think I will try some of the new ITX shot carried by Ballistics Inc in my Colerain barrel. I may even try to make a duplex load of #2 and BB. The geese I have taken were all with in 30 yds or closer pass shooting. I have used heavy loads to kill geese in the 11 ga. and they were dead in the air! So I am planning to use some adaption of the turkey load recommended for the colerain barrel. It will be fun doing some patterning. If the gun kills turkeys, it should kill geese too! Let me know what you decide to use for a load and how it works. My goose season isnt until November.
 
haven't tried a ml on geese yet where im at it's nontox only for water fowl. out of the 870 I use 1 1/4 onces of bb for geese at 1400 fps.
 
Hoyt.."Nice shot" would be an option with the turkey choke barrel.

Just can't see getting a protective shot cup past the choke that would work with the harder non-toxic shot and still seal the barrel.

Any chance of getting a different barrel?
 
I would expect that a fabric shot cup, made with two strips of patch fabric, crossed over the muzzle, with a small gauge OP wad pushed into the center to form the cup and keep the sides against the wall, would allow the shot to be loaded right through that "turkey choke" tube, into the barrel. with fine results. He might have to turn his OS cards sideways, and fold them over his finger a bit, to get them down through the choke, but that is not a surprise, nor that difficult to do. Once through the choke, the cards will turn back to 90 degrees in front of the loading rod, and seal the shot in the cup.

Using two strips of patch fabric, instead of one, would give more strength to the cup, preventing any rubbing of the harder shot poking holes through the fabric and scoring the barrel. Of course, the fabric should be soaked in some oil, like Ballistol(mineral oil), or Olive Oil, and dried, and rolled up before the shooting. Cut strips sized to the amount of shot, and the bore diameter could also be used, and carried in their own container to the field, eliminating most of the time used to cut at the muzzle- IF- you can place the strips accurately on the muzzle of the barrel. if the strips are cut wide enough that each strip covers the interior surface of the bore, you have in effect a double cup.

To tighten patterns( I can't think why this would be necessary with a Turkey choke in the barrel), you can cut a band-like strip of Card stock( Index cards) to place inside the cup wrapped around an overlapped a bit, wide enough to cover most of not all the shot load, giving more protection to the bore and choke, and delaying the separation of the shot from the cup longer. That should result in tighter groups at longer distances. At least my few attempts at experiments with this has indicated that tighter groups are possible, using my cylinder bore guns.
 
Hoyt said:
I'm thinking about trying to shoot a few geese this yr. (they're all around where I live) and don't have a clue as to what type shot to use. Talking about what's legal. I know my barrel is not steel shot approved....Colerain Turkey Choke Barrel. So I guess that leaves me with Bismuth and I don't know a thing about Bismuth.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


My frame of reference is dated, like 20+ years ago when we could still use lead shot up here. I took a lot of them using my beloved NA 12 gauge SxS and 1 1/4 oz of chilled #4's over 80 grains of 2f. I worked hard to get them inside 30 yards and concentrated on putting my shots right at the base of the neck, timing my shots also to land while the near-side wing was up, or if they were coasting, when the angle was right to let me see under the wing. Very dead geese, and every single crip was my fault and not the load.

I'm not sure how much of that will translate into your location and gun using "modern" loads. In those days I used Winchester WAA12R shot cups with a lubed wad under them and a single shot card over, which yielded near-Modified patterns from my cylinder bore barrels. With the turkey choking on your barrel and suitable non-tox, I doubt you would need any kind of shot cup to beat my pattern results. That's just the nature and intent of jug choking.

My biggest concern in your boots after a little rudimentary pattern checking would be strategies to get the geese within range and marksmanship to hit them in the right spot. In my local circumstances results went up proportionally with days in the field, allowing me to keep tabs on the changing habits and movements of the geese, then being in the right place at the right time. Some locations just won't let you get close enough to where they'll be landing, but if you keep at it you can get pretty sneaky.
 
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I also have a turkey choke colerain in .62. I have taken Canada geese with my 11 ga flinter using #2 bismuth, also with BB steel.

This topic caught my eye because I am waiting delivery of a TVM Fowler with this same Colraine turkey barrel. I asked the Colraine barrel manufacturers about steel shot and they strongly advised against it because of the tight choke constriction. As I understand it there could be a risk of damaging the barrel. At the moment I am considering ITX or Nice Shot for ducks over decoys.
 
To expand your options, Bismuth is available again, from Precision Reloading. If anyone knows of other sources, I'd appreciate it. My preferences are for bismuth (still have the last of my old stash) or NiceShot - I'm still somewhat skeptical of ITX in a bare barrel.

Regards,
Joel
 
Joel: Thank you for the information about Precision Reloading and Bismuth shot. I have asked repeatedly at the retail stores here that cater to shotgun sports and no one seems to have Bismuth shot here. Now, I have a source. :hatsoff:

The only source for the Eco-tungsten or NICESHOT, seems to be in the expensive shotgun shells that load it. Kent makes it, but I don't know of any other ammo makers that do. And, we rarely have Kent ammo here on the shelves. But I will keep an eye out for some this Fall and Winter. Does Precision Reloading also sell the Nice Shot??
 
Hoyt said:
So I guess that leaves me with Bismuth and I don't know a thing about Bismuth.

I recently started playing with ITX shot. While not "cheap" it costs less than Ecotungsten at $129.50 for 7 pounds. While certainly astronomically expensive compared to lead, it works out to roughly $1.45 per shot. Heck, at that rate it's cheaper than some of the premium modern shotshells. Maybe as word spreads some of the modern guys will switch to muzzleloaders! :rotf:

Truth testing, I never recall taking more than 13 shots for a limit of 7 mallards in the days of lead, and that was a day of lots of bad shooting. With ITX that would have been a $19 day. Heck, I know guys that spend more than that on their hunting lunch. Even with modern guns I don't recall ever taking more than 6 shots for geese, so with a muzzleloader that would be roughly $8.50 for a hunt. I'll take it.

I have to say I was pretty skeptical about the weird shape of the stuff, but it seems to pattern as well as anything else I've tried. I was all hot and bothered to find a cheap source of bismuth, but I'm not going to bother now.
 
paulvallandigham said:
Does Precision Reloading also sell the Nice Shot??
Yes, they do. The current price is listed as $59.99 for 1kg/2.2lbs. The bismuth is listed at $174.99 for 3kg/6.6lbs, so we're looking at something close to $30/lb either way from this source. As a note for those unfamiliar with these shot, they can be used just like lead shot, and their densities and hardness are close enough to high-alloy lead that you can do your load development (and practice and/or non-migratory hunting) with magnum lead shot, and just fire one or two patterns with the expensive stuff for verification. The non-toxic often patterns somewhat better than the lead due to lower deformation on firing.

Regards,
Joel

p.s. for other Canadians on the forum, Will Bilozir is the distributor for Ballistic Products up here, and he is also handling Nice Shot (C$70/kg) and bismuth shot from Ely in the U.K. (C$160/3kg).
 
Thanks for all the good information. I can't use lead shot here and I haven't seen a goose yet that's worth the price of the other stuff. Looks like I'll just shoot doves instead.
 
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