well how is the hunting ?

[dan z]

good luck to all Hopefully we shoot half as many geese last year we shot 51 the first three days thats going to be tough I will post my results save some for sunday and kill everyone in a small flock we need no tatel tales

[Andy Loos1431189100]

Opening morning was good for us in Wisconsin. We shot 35 geese in 3 hours. 3 bands

If you can find the field they want, you are set!

Good luck everyone!

[Gordie]

Good luck to you guys. my sons are so fired up they are 9 and 12yrs old. I dont even care if I shoot a goose just as long as the boys get some shooting. I will also post results and pics.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

im packin 3 boxes of steel 6's along for doves and pigeons. our field will probably be a 1 flock and done deal so gotta get my shooting where i can! 4 hours to go!

[riversmallmouth35]

I had the worst opening day of goose hunting I have ever had. We saw some geese but they did not want anything to do with our spread and no one elses in our area either. I heard of one goose being killed where normally there is six hundred geese on the opening morning. It should get better when all the geese get shot other places but for right now I need to find a new field.

[dan z]

heard alot when we headed out at o dark 30 waited till twelve and shot a a group of five dropped three out and one loner five guys four geese nothing compaired last year openening day with 18 but atleast we still shot something givin it a go ta mara to

[Waters]

Hunted a farm pond with 4 buddies we ended up with 13

[Rainman]

Ended up with 33 birds for 8 of us. 5 were banded. Have pictures but forgot how to post!

[Sifty]

I was ouside all day today and hear very little shooting if the Farmington area.

Sifty

[ChuckN]

It was poor in the area I hunted (central OT County). Very quiet morning, few birds flying, very little shooting and the most hunters I've seen.

It's important to get the "hot" field I guess and it wasn't hot today.

Not a lot of birds in the area like there was just a month ago. This has been the story the past 5 years...

[mnhunter79]

killed one. should've had 6. did a shot comparison with winchester, federal, and kent fast steel after hunting today, will never buy the win. expert hi velocity again, The shot has divets all over each BB, where the kent and federal is round and smooth. (2 people, 6 shots with winchester 3.5" BB ammo, 4 geese flyin 25 yards max, pulled a few feathers, something is definatley wrong. buying new ammo for tommorow!!!!!!!!

[dan z]

really slow this morning only one loner in the bag seen more geeses leave the lake ta de but very few came back pulled at 1130, not a very good start to the year could be a tough year on the water.

[123fish]

mnhunter79 are you sure you just didn't plain miss? I have shot several honkers with No.2 Xpert steel at twenty five yards or more. Did you actually try patterning your different loads? You might be surprised.

[Quackaddict9]

It went pretty well for us of 6 guys, 50 birds, 1 band.

6 man 30 bird limit

6 guys 20 birds, 1 band

[dan z]

mnhunter79 are you sure you just didn't plain miss? I have shot several honkers with No.2 Xpert steel at twenty five yards or more. Did you actually try patterning your different loads? You might be surprised.

I have the same problem ben I have patterned it with cardboard @ 25 yards wholes all over the pattern (as is gaps between BB's ) but every gun differs try it sometime.

[dan z]

i got say i will never use expect ever again i went out 30 yards shot a card board box used a number two expect fed and kent the expect does not hold as tight as a pattern compared to the fed or the kent i you do not believe me try it. and the other is the speed on the expect does hold compared to kent in fact kents 1560 go faster then that i heard they go between 1560 and 1600. i always have taken the shells apart expect bbs are not round lots of flats spots on them compared to feds and kents.

[Eric Wolf]

We ended up with 24 birds on opener.

[Bryce]

i got say i will never use expect ever again i went out 30 yards shot a card board box used a number two expect fed and kent the expect does not hold as tight as a pattern compared to the fed or the kent i you do not believe me try it. and the other is the speed on the expect does hold compared to kent in fact kents 1560 go faster then that i heard they go between 1560 and 1600. i always have taken the shells apart expect bbs are not round lots of flats spots on them compared to feds and kents.

mmm.... beer.

[chub]

Originally Posted By: dan z

i got say i will never use expect ever again i went out 30 yards shot a card board box used a number two expect fed and kent the expect does not hold as tight as a pattern compared to the fed or the kent i you do not believe me try it. and the other is the speed on the expect does hold compared to kent in fact kents 1560 go faster then that i heard they go between 1560 and 1600. i always have taken the shells apart expect bbs are not round lots of flats spots on them compared to feds and kents.

mmm.... beer.

You been out yet Spank?

Wacked a bunch up by Fergus on Sat.

[mnhunter79]

MISS??? Feathers dont just fall out of a goose when you shoot and miss!! Bought new shells, killed 3 tonight. Once i seen the pellets from the experts i was not even gonna waste my time patterning them.

[dan z]

sorry bout that guys my brother posted that and sometimes he doesnt type the greatest but I think everyone got the point I will just tell him to make sure to read it before he submits!

[Gordie]

opening day we got three ten minuetes after shooting opened it was a picture perfect deal then about twenty mins later another flock of a bout 12 locked up and heading for the decoys and then three otters showed up in the decoys and spooked the flock of geese my boys had a blast watching the otters and my oldest son got his first goose. then it was pretty slow the rest of the day. sunday ended up with one.

[dan z]

keep taken them boys out good job

darn otters ne way

[notsogoodfisherman]

Regarding Shotgun pattern... You should do this BEFORE hunting to improve results and reduce wounded fowl. I recently did this with an 870 Express Super Mag (takes 3.5 inch shells) with a Remington Improved Cylinder choke. Here is the summary of my results with the above set-up.

First off I used a 32-inch square piece of paper and drew a 2x2 black dot in the center to help center my shot. Shots were all taken at 25 yards. I did this somewhat unscientifically but you will get the idea. After each shot I changed the paper and later counted the number of pellet holes in a 10-inch diameter where they visually appeared the most concentrated (center of my shot).

Shells tested were all 3".

Brands tested: Federal, Kent FastSteel, Hevi-Steel, Remington

Each shell was tested twice to produce some level of consistency. Ideally I would have tested each shell three times.

Results Summary in order of best to worse:

1. Federal in both 2 shot and 4 shot loads

2. Remington in 4-shot (never tested 2 shot)

3. Hevi-Steel in 2-shot (never tested 4-shot)

4. Kent-Fast Steel in 2-shot (never tested 4-shot)

The Kent Fast Stell pattern was very uneven and inconsistent. While the more expensive Hevi-Steel appeared to have uneven BB sizes (most likely deformed BB's). Remington in 4-shot was a close second to Federal in 4-shot.

The load I am most confident in for Duck opener is the Federal 4-shot as the pattern was great and the average BB's in a 10-inch circle was 39. Compared to Remington 4-shot which had 33 BB's in a 10-inch diameter at highest concentration.

Now granted this was not scientific but close enough to give me data for choosing a shell I am confident in. I will never buy the Kent or the Hevi-Steel for the 870 and it is now no wonder I didn't bring home any birds the few times I was using Kent or Hevi-Steel in MY gun.

If you have an 870 Express with the IC choke this data is useful for you. If you have any other set-up this data is not useful and you will need to test your specific configuration. I hope this helps someone bag a few more birds this season; including me!

[Farley]

I patterned my SX3 Friday night with Black Cloud 3 1/2 BB ($26.00 per box) and regular Federal Steel BB ($12.99 per box) with a Mod and IMP Cyl chokes at roughly 25 yds.

The BC patterned well with the Mod choke, not so good with the IC choke. Lots of open spots and lines with the IC whereas with the MOD there was a nice even pattern.

So then I shot the Federal through the modified choke and it did about the same as BC through the IC choke but with more strays and bigger gaps.

Maybee we should get a pattern testing thread going here?

Oh, and we shot 3 geese Saturday A.M., after the first hour or two it seemed like the birds were just running scared, not decoying and staying out of range. We saw less in the evening and hardly any the next morning. Hutchinson area

[WallyGader]

Quakaddict your crew looks like there so angry in the second pic. congrats on the band.

[Quackaddict9]

Wally- lol...It may seem that way but I think we were pretty happy with our results!!! We invited 3 guys to hunt with us, we had about a dozen decoys per blind, but birds seem to commit to the spread.

[guppie]

Hunting started out slow for us but we got 17 on sunday.

I did some patterning before season and the hevi shot and hevi steel both use irregular size pellets. they vari in size and shape. most are the same size in #2 and BB but each shell had a couple of pellets that are considerably smaller(similar to 4 or 6 shot) and also pellets that were round with really small pellets melted to them. It was surprising to see, cut one open and see for yourself.

I also had problems with winchester expert but love the supremes.

[dan z]

went out to a little lake this morning south of cleveland and seen a dozen birds and some sand hill cranes, usually shoot atleast one were I went but I blew it this time. had a single locked up clucking and I clucked back and it turned around faster than I can say bang. A friend of mine shot a few in a field and a bonus dove. so thier not to smart yet.

[dan z]

got out this morning and shot a pair so thier not to decoy shy yet 69 decoys 3 hardcores, 2 dozen shells 1 dozen lessers FB and 22 floaters fun hunt just was not on the X seen a bunch of birds!!