When you know you should pull the trigger...

I bought a box of 3" #2 Hevishot this year specifically for shooting at geese. I don't get many chances at geese in a typical year and I want to make the most of the ones I have. It's an insurance policy, not an excuse to shoot past 40 yards. Last week I shot a straight up overhead goose that was right on the edge of 40 yards up, along with being hit in the wing and leg he took 3 pellets in the breast that went completely through the body and exited out the back. I was pretty amazed at the penetrating power of this stuff. I believe that it would probably kill well past 40 but that's my limit for shooting at birds. As I said not an excuse to shoot past 40 but it's comforting to know that if you can hit them it will bring them down. Yesterday I managed to call in a loner goose who was wandering around looking for company, I didn't have any goose decoys out and I could get him down to about 50 yards directly above me but no closer. I didn't shoot. I feel like you've got to have a personal line beyond which you just don't shoot and you'll be OK.
 
There is nothing I hate to see more when I'm goose hunting than a bird fly off that I know is hit but still flying. Its gonna die for sure somewhere but for no good reason.

I seemed to do it once every year when I was younger and I finally just made the decision to not take the shot if that thought goes thru my head.

"Is it too far?"
 
Just remember its more rewarding to see um dump air and lock up.Geese are some pretty tough birds,I prefer at least 3" BB and 30 yards or less when shooting steel.
 
Just remember its more rewarding to see um dump air and lock up.Geese are some pretty tough birds,I prefer at least 3" BB and 30 yards or less when shooting steel.
Click to expand...

....when shooting steel. When don't you shoot steel? I know those 00 buck are great for geese, but you really should stop using them.

Just Kidding!

I'm actually looking at buying a Browning 10 gauge auto for geese.
 
Learn to call and shoot them in the lips with their gear down. It's a lot more fun then chasing cripples
 
We started hunting a place that has other hunters in the area. One particular group would sky blast at about anything that flew over their head. I'm not sure but I believe I saw a couple 747's alter their course to avoid flying over this antiaircraft battery. They missed at least 95% of what they shot at and witnessed several wounded birds get several hundred yards away from these sharp shooters and finally loose altitude and crash. Too far to be retrieved. At heights of around 40yds+, velocity and shot pattern density would surely be compromised. Not to fence stride, but on the other hand we initially had a problem with passing on shots that we could have made but were hoping to see em work on into the decoys. If you hunt in an area with a lot of hunting pressure sometimes you need to get out of the "don't shoot until their in the decoys" mentality. Because your luck may be like ours was where it seemed that nearly every time we had a group of birds about to finish some other hunters would fire shots and flare em making us wish we had taken our shots earlier. Must have happened 15 times! So we changed our timber/up close and personal approach to more distant shots but within reason.
 
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