20 vs waterfowel
 

Went on a duck hunt with Pete Lester sunday. I brought my 32in 20 ga VHE loaded with 7/8 oz of bismuth 6s. No ducks but lots of geese flying. Pete shot one out of the 1st shootable flock. I got to shoot at the next group at 35 to 40 yds over head. Shot once and bird glided down to salt water. We ran it down with the boat and finished it.

Nice going Scott. I just scored today with 1oz. of 5's in a 2 3/4 20ga. Bismuth load. Very impressed with it's performance on Canadas. These 20's are fun.

Man I love Parker 20s!

Daryl ,
you are Wright about what they can do. I have killed 8 to 10 geese with that 7/8 oz load of bismuth 6s and lots of ducks too. I do like the 6s in in the 20 but haven't tried 5s. More to come i hope.
Scott

#5's was all I could find in 2 3/4" 20ga. Scott so I went with them and they did fine. The older I get the smaller the bores get and the outcomes are the same.:bigbye:

Nice. That bird makes the gun look small. My nephew makes jerky out of his geese and it's outstanding.

I had a bad day about 40 years ago shooting a 20 from a blind: hitting but not killing, not even finishing off cripples properly on the water. Discouraged, I blamed the gun, of course, and didn't use a 20 again until 12-15 years ago. I believe discipline counts a lot in picking shots. Reminding that a 20 isn't a 12 made the 20 a pleasure to use.

It seems to me to be asking a lot of a 20ga with at most maybe 7/8 oz of 4s to reliably kill a 10+ pound heavily feathered fat coated big boned bird at 35 plus yards. Yes there is the dramatic head shot but absent that crippled geese is the expected result. Feet down, flaps down, cupped wings in your face at 15 yards-yes; otherwise 35 or more I believe we owe a noble bird a bit more respect. Others may well differ.

When I was introduced to waterfowl hunting some 50 years ago I shot at the bird. It took a while to realize that if I concentrated on the head and thought of it as a dove I would kill cleanly. You can kill a goose with 3/4oz of 8 shot from a 28 gauge at 25 yards if you hit the head. That said, I think the 20 gauge is minimum on decoying ducks and prefer a 12 for passing birds.

All this talk of waterfowling with 20's has me dreaming of getting out there. Unfortunately I just don't see an opportunity to do that anytime in the near future. :-(

I do agree, not my go to goose gun, but i have killed more geese with my 20 ga per shot than my 10 ga or 12ga. So i guess what i am saying is i take high percentage shots at geese when i am duck hunting with my 20 and happen to have geese passing by. I shoot lots of test patterns with my guns and found 7/8ths oz bismuth and lead 6s work the best out of my 20 ga i dont hold geese more noble than an other bird i hunt. I try my best to use the wright gun and shot size needed to do the job. Some time a opertunity happens and you have a choise to shoot or not. We have all lost birds and it sucks to do. I have done this duck hunting thing for a few years now and killed lots of waterfowl with my 20s and will continue to do so until my body tells me i am done
Scott

With all due respect to the naysayers a 20 or even a 28 for waterfowl is not for everyone. But then again I'm not breaking wings or body shooting them. I take pains to have the best decoys spread possible and I consider myself an above average caller. If I can't get them to commit to within 40yds. I won't shoot. But when I do I take head shots. I shoot loads of clay targets to practice for hunting season and with a little bit of practice anyone can learn to focus on the leading edge be it a clay bird or a game bird.

When lead was legal, a 20 was all I shot. Now with the advent of the improved Bismuth and Tungsten Matrix the smallbores are back in business.

Scott, Mark and the rest of you smallbore waterfowlers enjoy your season.:bigbye: