20 Gauge for Goose Hunting

   I have used a 20 gauge on and off for a few years goose hunting, and finally decided to stick with it since I shot better with it compared to the 12 gauges I have tried. I don't use any fancy chokes or high density loads, just a cylinder or improved cylinder choke with 3" 1500fps #2 steel shot loads. Many geese have fallen victim to this combo. We normally hunt over decoys, and many of our shots are inside 20 yards, at which point the 20 gauge performs just like a 12. I have taken down a few birds at longer ranges too though, and just recently I had an experience that was a real eye opener in terms of the performance of a 20 gauge on geese.
    We hunted a loafing pond on opening day of the Virginia goose season, but didn't have any birds fly by until 11:30 when we packed up! We assume that this was because a BUNCH of corn was recently cut and the birds simply stayed on the fields. About 15 geese did go to a pond we have permission on, so we decided to do a quick jump shoot. My brother Wyatt pushed the birds over a hill to my brother Ewing and I. Unfortunately, the birds didn't fly where we wanted them to, and we ended up shooting about 40 yards at the geese. I dropped 3 on my very first shot, and shot too far in front of the birds on my 2nd and 3rd shots, my brother Ewing missed twice with his o/u 12 gauge. The fact that my gun still had the power to bring down 3 birds at that distance should say a lot to anyone who doesn't believe a 20 gauge is an ethical option for hunting geese!

 Here is my dog, Walt, who actually sat still for a picture with the birds!

New Soon-To-Be Hunter

   This evening, I took my 7 year old cousin Connor on a deer hunt. Connor's only hunting experience prior to this was when I took him with me on a squirrel hunt last year and we walked around with a .22 and brought down a couple bushytails. This morning, my little brother Ewing got his first deer with a bow, and Connor helped him field dress and drag it out. Now Connor wanted to experience the whole hunt! The deer near my house right now have been gathering in huge herds (42 is the biggest we have seen) in the river bottom fields, and there is no way to get within 200 yards of them, so we have been working on figuring out a way to drive the deer up in the woods where it is easier to get a shot. After a few tries in the past couple of weeks, my brother and I figured out a pretty good setup for a 2 man deer drive.
    My cousin and I set up on top of a ridge overlooking about 90-100 yards of woods bordering a field. When the deer get spooked out of the river bottom, some of them come through this funnel, and normally have relaxed enough by then to provide good shooting opportunities. After getting Connor settled in with a nice seat and a blanked to stay warm, I gave my brother Wyatt the okay to start, and he pushed deer from about half a mile away, he counted 25 in total. 3 does came by us first, but they wouldn't stop in a clearing so they walked around for a couple minutes. Connor hadn't seen the deer yet but when he spotted them, he whispered to me "I see one!" and I responded with a very quiet "shhhhh". Luckily the deer were very forgiving today, so we were able to get away with a little whispering and movement, which is exactly what we needed. I finally lined up for a 75 yard shot on the smallest one. When I shot, I dropped the the barrel a little bit and shot under it, resulting in the deer running straight at us and stopping at 25 yards to stare, at this point Connor was giving me a bewildered look as if he was saying "JUST SHOOT IT?" as I scrambled to get powder and a bullet in the gun. Just as I was clicking the safety off after reloading (deer is still standing there!), she snorted and ran off. We stayed put, however, and within 5 minutes, I heard a commotion in the thicket behind us.
     I raised the gun and clicked the safety off, just as a doe stepped out of the thicket at about 45 yards. There was too much brush in the way, so I had to wait for her to walk out and present a shot. Just as I was preparing to stop her and shoot, she stopped to look around. The only problem was the small sapling right in the way of where I wanted to put my bullet. Connor shifted his feet, and the doe immediately decided to have a staring contest with me. Since we had been spotted, I leaned over a little bit and took a shot at her shoulder. When the smoke cleared, I had a deer laying on the ground and Connor said "did you get it this time?". I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the deer. His response was "Woah it's RIGHT THERE!". Hopefully Connor will hit a growth spurt within the next year so he can shoot next time, because right now he just isn't quite big enough to handle a gun well. I think he still had a great time though! Thanks for reading!

 

Looks like I had some serious demon eyes this evening

The Brutal Truth

     As a hunter, I know that I won't always hit my mark, and sometimes I will end up regretting pulling the trigger. This weekend, I had a rough encounter with one of those situations. I muzzleloader hunted on a farm one afternoon in hopes of bringing home a doe or two to make jerky with. I spotted a lone deer feeding on the edge of a field, and was able to stalk to about 80 yards from it because of a hill between myself and the deer. I assumed it was a button buck since it was a small deer by itself, but I had no problem with taking it since there is going to be an attempt at planting corn next year and all hunters have been asked to thin the herd to the best of their abilities. I was shooting a Knight MK-85, with iron sights, the scope mounts for it are a little too much for me to want to spend on a 3 week season. Back to where I was. The deer was still calm, and feeding, so I shouldered the gun, steadied myself, and squeezed the trigger. The deer was hit hard and only made it 50 yards before crashing in the edge of the woods. I walked back to my bag that I set down before I closed the distance, all of my shooting supplies had been rattling around pretty loudly. I reloaded my gun, and walked back to the top of the hill to get my deer. When I got there, 4 more deer were standing where the one I shot had been feeding, so I lined up on one of the does and squeezed off another shot. This deer sped off immediately, but its tail was down so I knew I hit it. I walked over to gut my first deer and upon my arrival, I was puzzled to see that the deer wasn't there. I walked back into the woods 20 yards or so, and looked for blood. Nothing.... By now it was getting dark so my dad came out with two big spotlights to help me get both of the deer. We only found a small spot of thin blood where my first deer hit the ground, and no evidence of the other deer being hit. After covering the woods to the property line, we headed out, with no blood trail whatsoever from either deer to follow. And unfortunately, there was no way for me to go look for them the next day, with the biggest complication being that they could be on any of a half dozen small lots that I didn't have permission to search on.
    Well, one of my deer was found today, a mere 30 yards from where I thought it went down. The deer went in the complete opposite direction from what I predicted. The shot was textbook, right behind the shoulder, exactly where I was aiming. The other deer however, I have no idea about. Ultimately, I am to blame in this situation. I did not study the bullets that were given to me with the gun (I am borrowing it) and if I would have simply googled them, I could have discovered that everyone who had shot them said they expanded and fragmented too quickly to even leave an exit wound, and left little blood trail if any at all. The second mistake I made was to take my eyes off the deer once I saw it go down. If I would have waited another ten seconds after it fell, I could have seen it run off and die in the creek that was within sight of where I was standing. I also don't think I should have taken that second shot. I was overly confident from dropping the first deer, and was pushing my range, the deer was probably 90-100 yards away on the second shot.
     I can add up all of the reasons on why things went wrong, but what it comes down to is that I really screwed up. I feel terrible about what happened. It's bad enough to lose one deer, but I lost two, in one evening. Hopefully I have learned enough from this experience to no duplicate it again, but also, not be too afraid of messing up to take shots that I am comfortable with. I know something will happen again, it is part of hunting, it is just our responsibility as hunters to do our best to learn from mistakes and to do everything in our power to keep the hunt as perfect as possible. I hope someone can learn from my mistake(s), or at least relate to my situation and know that it happens, if anyone claims to have never wounded or lost an animal, he or she is either lying, or has not spent much time in the field. As always, thanks for reading!