Eaglesnester wants to jump in on migaritory waterfoul

[HuntNHookSports]

3 1/2" shells = autoloader. Trying to shoot them with anything else is a trip to the chiropractor. I prefer to shoot my o/u but my autoloader kicks amazingly less using 3 1/2" 1650 fps than my o/u using 3" 1550 fps.

I have good goose decoys, layout blind, experienced dogs, and access to world class property...that is why I shoot 3 1/2" shells at geese.

Marc laid it out black and white.

[Duck Buster]

I'm with branthunter, I have a BPS and have been shooting it for over 15 years. I love it. At the time I checked out all the guns available from the Winchesters, Ithica's, Remmingtons, and even Berettas. I found the Browning with a 28" barrel to be the best fitting, best feeling gun out there. They will all kill birds, it all boils down to which gun you feel the best bring to your shoulder. I only shoot 3" shells now, but as long as you pattern your gun with a bunch of different loads, shot sizes, and chokes, and spend the time on the trap range, you can head to the feild with confidance and have no problem taking birds of any size out to 50 yards. In my experiance shots beyond that range, which is the very very far end of my limit, are unnessary there will always be more birds that will come in closer. Just move your set up to find the right spot and leave the 3.5" shells in the store.

[f350ps]

I'm also with Branthunter on this one. Your best bet is go to Reliable or whatever gun shop you like and see what turns your crank. What one guy likes may not fit you or feel right in your hands. I've never had a use for 3.5" plus I like the fact that I just paid $96 per case for the shells I like. If ya know some guys that will let ya try their guns better yet. Can't go wrong with the BPS or the 870. Have fun and good luck! K

[HuntNHookSports]

there will always be more birds that will come in closer. Just move your set up to find the right spot and leave the 3.5" shells in the store.

3 1/2" shells do not give more range but a better pattern. I shoot to kill.

[branthunter]

"$17.99 a box of 25. Hard to find a box of 2 3/4 for that price."

Try Stillwater Sports in Ladner----under $12/box by the case--

[Duck Buster]

I agree that the 3.5" don't give more range but most guys that use them think that they do, which results in 50+ yard shots that produce alot of crippled birds, and in the case of geese these birds generally just fly away hurt only to die a slow death somewhere else. My point is that you need to be well practiced and proficient with whatever gun and load you choose and build your setup so that the birds are as close as you can bring them in and then make clean kills.

[Marc]

I pretty much limit myself to 40 yard shooting over decoys. With the set up I use you don't need to be taking longer shots. Most times I wait until they move away a bit so I don't blow them up at 10 yards.



I still like the 3 inch #3's for ducks at 1550 fps. This makes an awesome teal round with a good dense pattern using a modified choke to hit the little suckers. Teal are probably one of the most challenging and fun species of ducks to hunt as far as trying to hit them on the wing. I managed a few over decoys this fall and never destroyed one of them. This load is still strong enough to anchor a big drake mallard skirting the decoys at 40 yards as well.

The majority of the ducks I shot this fall so far were dead by the time they hit the water. I lost one bird this fall and it was more my fault then the dog for not connecting or marking the bird properly in the grass. I'd sooner see a duck with a few more pellet holes in it then a cripple that gets away. I’m not saying in any way that shooting heavier loads is a substitute to practice either. The trap and skeet range besides actually shooting live birds is the best way to get used to how your shotgun feels and handles before you take it to the field.

That being said what size shot do we normally use for skeet or trap? # 7 1/2 lead. Why? Have you ever tried shooting skeet with #2 steel shot? Hard to break them isn’t it. The reason we use #7 ½ lead shot is for a denser pattern making it easier to hit the target. I also find a lot of newer hunters who have shot skeet for several years are attempting longer shots then they should on ducks because they are used to breaking clay pigeons beyond what they should be trying to kill a live bird at with steel shot.

Yes 2 ¾ steel shells will kill ducks and geese. It's personal preference to use larger payloads and I do so for denser patterns and ultimately a higher pellet count. If you look at what was used when lead shot was being used it doesn’t seen that strange to be using 3 ½ inch shells.

For example a 3 inch lead shot #2 1 7/8 oz loads is equal to the capacity of 1 3/8 of steel shot. So for geese, with steel shot being less dense, I like to bump the shot size a few notches and speed it up.

So we're comparing to 170 lead # 2 pellets in a lead 3 inch shell to 97 steel BB pellets in a 3 1/2 inch shell. Does that sound excessive? Remember a #2 lead shot has roughly the same energy as BB steel shot for comparison. That's 73 pellets less then what we were used to using for shooting geese before the lead ban came into effect. Now let’s look at the 2 3/4 shell. 1 3/8 lead shot #2, 125 pellets. So were still looking at 28 pellets less than a 2 ¾ standard lead goose shell. Doesn’t seem so excessive when you look at it that way does it?

Do I see a need to be using 3 ½ for ducks? Personally I wouldn’t choose to but that’s not up to me to decide for others.

The ultimag also has a larger bore then a standard 2 3/4 or 3 inch chamber giving a more uniform and less constricted patter comming out of the barrel resembling more what you would see when using lead shot.

All that a 3 1/2 ultimag is doing is getting the pellet count and energy closer to what we were used to when we used lead shot. There are probably a lot of hunters out there who never hunted during the time that lead shot was legal so they wouldn't quite understand the comparison.

Ultimately it comes down to the user, what he likes or doesn't likes. In my personal experience just from hunting the past few months, using the new gun, I'm seing a lot less cripples for the dog to chase and that's reason enough for me to use the heavier loads.










For those of you who are counting not all of these birds were mine. Marshall has a habit of retrieving birds, or stealing them from other boats who are hunting with me.

All the birds in these pictures where taken with 3 inch shells. Not to many mangled birds and all were within 40 yards of the guns. Actually I think the couple that do look rough were more to do with Marshall trying to pull them out of Beaners mouth then shot.

[Crazy_Farmer]

Thats a great looking barrows g/e in that picture, Marc. Looks like a pretty mature bull. And a pinny to boot. Me and Matt are getting sick of all these field mallards, we need some "other" drakes soon. Next weekend we'll hopefully get under some hunting in a different spot.