Get em in close and 2s are fine, shoot em in the head. BB is good to have on hand as well.

Best I’ve done with goose is breast em out and make pastrami.

Beautiful property you have there! Between crabs, ducks and geese you can put a lot of meals on the table!

Btw since md went to 1 damn goose this year you’re gonna see a lot of decoys on craigslist and the like.

Silly question...How you gonna get the birds you knock down? Wing-tipped geese gliding off to croak can be a downer. -WW

ps...You're right there, in the Mother Land of the Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

Any of us Chicago area guys will gladly send you our geese to up your chances and help our sidewalks and parking lots.

Ha Ha, yes, thanks. My wife grew up in Baltimore but spent lots of time on Eastern Shore crabbing. She lives to catch and eat crab, and we did real well this summer. She makes excellent crab cakes!

OTOH, yours truly has nowhere near the experience for bagging geese and putting them on the table :) But you gotta learn, and best way is to make (non catastrophic) mistakes. You can tell that I've been a bit disorganized about all this, and I really just started to try to get prepared when I found out a couple of days ago my son wanted to hunt when he got home.

Taking a break now (it was low 20's out there this morning!), but my son and I were out there just after daybreak. No wind and a thin layer of ice on parts of the river. LOTS of geese rafting up on far shore and swimming across our view, but very few flying even close to within range. Our challenge seems to be twofold (outside of just lack of experience): a) the one creek runs lateral to our shoreline, and the geese tend to take off and land parallel to us without passing overhead, and b) when they do turn, they head away from us for the farm on the far shore. Our best bet seems to be the odd group that crosses over our property looking to join up with another group. One small group came pretty close while my son had gone back inside to get warmer socks :D

Looks like I misspoke on my gear a bit. Currently working with #1 Steel 2 3/4 12 gauge and #2 3 inch 12 gauge shells. Upon closer inspection, I see a TINY "full" imprinted on the barrel of the Remington 1100's, which I take to mean full choke? They are fixed in any event. I'm gathering that my father-in-law did most of his goose hunting with his 10-gauges and used these 12-gauges for other sport.

Anyway, a pic or two on the river this morning. Lots of them swimming by (unimpressed by my mad "skills" I am sure):

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1576857258.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1576857296.jpg

Maybe a high powered pellet gun and a canoe?

Yes, "Full" stamped in the barrel means full choke. That's really unfortunate, since you say they are fixed. That was, however, the standard for waterfowl in the lead shot days. Some of us used modified chokes over decoys for ducks, which worked well, but full was always the standard for geese.

The more or less standard chokes are known as "improved cylinder", which is the least "choked down" from being just a straight cylinder bore all the way through the barrel. Improved cylinder and cylinder (which is quite uncommon) are used for small upland birds that sit real "tight", i.e. you have to damn near step on them to get them to fly. As a result, they are shot at very close range, very quickly, so lightweight, more openly choked guns are the rule.

Next tighter choke is "modified". With lead shot, we use this on bigger, tougher upland birds that fly farther out, like pheasant. We also use it on close decoying ducks. It keeps the pattern a bit denser at a bit longer range.

Tightest choke is "full". This is meant for "pass shooting" ducks, wherein we don't decoy them, but rather hide near a known flyway and shoot as the "pass" by. This is the longest range shotgunning in which we typically engage. We also use "full" for pretty much all goose shooting, even over decoys, so we can keep the pattern tight and put some shot into them. Like I said, they are tough to kill.

Unfortunately, these traditional chokes and their uses change dramatically when using steel. Modified, and especially full chokes are simply too restrictive. The shot column is unable to conform to this tight of a restriction in the barrel. Think all of the Three Stooges trying to go out the same door at the same time. Everything gets jumbled and stacked up, and the patterns typically get "blown" - there are big holes in the pattern with no shot in them, the pattern spreads far too rapidly, and stuff like that. Larger diameters of steel shot may even damage a full choke barrel.

So, in this modern era of steel shot for all waterfowl, we use improved cylinder to get the equivalent of the old lead shot full choke patterns. Since your chokes are fixed, you really cannot do that. Never fear, however, you can still use your full choked guns - but it is imperative that you not use steel shot in them.

Fortunately, the law does not say "steel", it says "non-toxic". There are a number of non-toxic options specifically made for those old fixed choke, full choke guns. They are relatively "soft", like lead, and will pattern much like lead from the same chokes we use for lead. It's been awhile, and I'm sure there are more options now than when I was into it, but look for "bismuth", or trademarks like "Hevi-Shot", and stuff like that. Maybe a bit of research on the web is in order. Or ask the guy at your sporting good store, although it sounds like he may not be all that knowledgeable. There are viable options, you can use your old guns, but it's not as simple as shooting the right steel loads. You can't do that with your guns.

Jeff, that's very helpful, if not what I was necessarily hoping to hear. But now I'm going to be looking for some of that Hevi-Bismuth or whatever I can find. That's very good info.

And bonus points for using The Three Stooges analogy :cool:

They ain't cheap.

Last summer we had a bear in the neighborhood raiding chicken coops. Three geese got away and set up on our lake. They were fairly traumatized, and had no interest going home.

Their owners, the next door kids, me and my kid got into canoes and had “goose hunt 2019”.

I would not shoot large steel shot >#2 out of a full barrel. At least not long term. It will ruin the barrel. There the #2 may really be in your favor. And Jeff is incorrect, #2 is totally adequate on a Canada goose, especially out of a 3.5" shell. You will have more pellets on target and much higher chance on a head / neck and wing shot. I am in the 90th percentile taking geese in my refuge, even using #4 at times. I hunt both duck and goose at the same time.

If OP continues to try to get a goose, I recommend at least an upgrade to a screw-in choke barrel and then going with a more open choke. Maybe Santa can bring a couple SBE3 from Benelli - that will be a lot more fun to shoot.

Edit: If it is allowed, I would step it up to a small boat with a blind on it and get closer to the geese.

G

Mossberg 500 with an undertaker choke. You're golden for under $500

Ha, my Benneli M2 came with about four chokes but I fitted up the improved cylinder and haven't changed it. It seems the more options you have the less you use them.

Mind you the pattern changes quite a bit as to how hot the load is.

Geese in the one of the fields this morning. Jack has a cover blind he uses in the drainage ditch between the field in the foreground and the field in the background. You can tell there are two fields based on the combine marks:cool:

He is a really good caller.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1576956642.jpg