doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com America's Fantasy with Magnums

Huh?

Aren't all regular steel shot shells 'magnum'. On big water, give me a bit more shot and a little higher velocity. Yup, 3/4 oz in a twenty might have done the job, just a few days ago three had enough left to out swim a good lab and a few others needed to be anchored on the water. Maybe I could learn to shoot better, but then again hope I can still get out there in the mean time.

In North America, we're generally slob hunters, power-hungry who've bought the macho bigger is always better.

My guess is those here, using standard or magnum, pick their shots and estimate distances fairly accurately. My guess is they're a tiny minority.

Over many years I've gunned with the best of our Eastern Shore. None were handicapped with standard 12s on wildfowl, including sea ducks and geese.

For small and large game including deer and moose, my old 250-3000 and 7 X 57 are still doing it wonderfully after nearly 65 years for me.

Bigger is not always better. I don't need the recoil and excessive destruction of meat.

There is a Niche for the 10 Gauge Magnum with 2 or 2 1/4 ounces of Lead Shot, a very small niche.

I agree that 95% of those that shoot the 3 1/2 Magnums of 10 or 12 Gauge don't have a clue about what they are doing; I don't have much of a clue about it myself, but I am to the suspicious stage.

I was at a duck camp on the South Platte years ago. Someone went out and put a single 00 shot through the center of a goose at a height no one could estimate. Damn the statistics of a thin pattern, given the evidence at hand most everyone thought that was the load they should be shooting. I've always been bothered by that, the over-reaching, the casual acceptance of a random hit.

Not that I was guilt free. At about that same time I was routinely shooting v speedy 1 3/8 oz loads from my 12s and always stuffed at least an ounce into the 20s.

Decades on, my mindset evolved to where a 12 ga. is supposed to be 1 1/8 oz. and a 20 should have 7/8 oz., and nothing gets pushed faster than 1200 fps. If I want or need more or less payload, that's a different gun. Regardless, I hate to pull the trigger on something that might be out of range.

Your coyote hunting club would be very welcome here in Maine, where they are kicking the business out of the deer herd and have been for years. There are even guides who specialize in coyotes.

And as to range estimation - I find myself in the course of walking the woods with my sxs (what I call "hunting") picking a spot, putting a number on it, and then pacing it off as I hunt. More often than I like to admit, I get a paced distance that winds up being somewhere around twice the distance I thought it was. I'm getting better, if only because I now know I've been way off and adjust my guesstimate in response. I want to know how much acreage I can consider within fair shooting range, which I arbitrarily peg at around 30 yards and actually doing it on the ground and learning is the only way I can think of.

As to estimating ranges for waterfowl, it would seem obvious (to me, anyway) that the way to go is to set the outermost of your decoys at known ranges. It might be hard to pace it off over water (I can't, but maybe one of the guys in your party can), but I can see this being a good place to use that bowhunter's rangefinder or some other measure. Think of it as making a range card - which many of you surely learned when putting on a uniform. But, if you know your outermost decoy is 50 yards away, you both know when birds are in range and, more importantly, what a duck looks like at that range. Of course, the last time I hunted geese, the word was to wait until you could hear the wind between their feathers, and then wait a little more.

Just saying....

My reality is 40 years behind a shotgun. I have patterned many a gun and load and I have shot thousands of crows. I know what 50+ yards is. I know if they are flying slow and in straight line at that range I have a 50/50 chance of a hit.

I think you sir put too much stock in what others have written from the sounds of it and not enough experience or perhaps confidence in your own abilities. As far as classic shooting literature goes, most all of it tells us Twist and Damascus barrels are dangerous. Maybe you still believe that too.

Crowshooter:
While I detest comparing resumes, I'd say mine trumps yours by about 20 years behind a shotgun. And not just shooting rooks. What's more, I'd call a 50/50 chance of a shit a damn lucky gamble.

Nonetheless, there hasn't been more than a 15% improvement in pellet dispersion since Maj. Burrard (a far more experienced shot and ballistics expert than you or I) wrote of it in 1930. A 50-yard+ shot is still a gamble with any reasonablly loaded 2 3/4-inch 12-bore.

Finally, I've always considered a good Damascus gun perfectly safe. Only those who bought into the fluid steel sales pitch thought otherwise.

I think 50% hits on game is pretty good shooting. Fire both barrels and have one bird down, not too shabby over the long run and definitely not a gamble, just hunting and way better than I can honestly do.

I also think historic books are indispensable, but I think many of those authors would be amazed at modern shot, wads and powders. Decoys out at thirty-five yards means a bunch are going to swing past on the far side that are plenty fair game to take a shot at.

Did I say I was shooting 50+ yards at crows with a 12 bore? When I choose to take the tall ones I am generally shooting a short ten.
50/50 chance of a hit on a long range crow is a gamble I'll take any day, it's called fun.

20 years more behind a shotgun, you got me there.

I'll slither back into my hole and enjoy the All-State trap shooting team trophies and the silver stuff that says Champion, Class AA I have in my man cave. I really don't know squat and can't much handle a shotgun I guess.

PS. Thanks for not taking those long shots it leaves more birds for the rest of us

PPS. I really do like 7/8 ounce 8 for 16 yd trap out of a tight Parker DHE. They crush them. I also like to shoot 3/4 ounce 12ga at skeet. They work great but load slower as I have to use a cheerio as a filler in the AA grey wad. LIght loads are great but big loads and magnums have their place, especially with steel shot (for those that have some modest ability).