A Morning On The River
 

Had a good morning with my dad going after some ducks. Had a bonus goose cup in from a long ways away right into the spread.

1911 GH 28” barrels and an 1894 DH 30” barrels, Both #2 frame 12 gauges. Shooting 2 1/2” 3/4oz #4 bismuth.

Austin, it looks like you got your Christmas dinner. Well done!

nice pictures with some great guns and loads....charlie

Good for you guys to get some late season action in. Great pictures and awesome guns to boot. That looks like a pintail in the bag between those two green heads. Did it have much of a tail?

could you tell us about your duck loads....charlie

Thank you Garry!

Thank you, Matt! That’s actually a juvenile drake Goldeneye. Seems to be quite a few of them this year compared to the mature drakes. We have almost a 50/50 split between Mallards and Goldeneyes this time of year on the Gallatin River in Montana.

Great eye for artistic composition on those pics especially that last one. Gorgeous goose and driftwood. Well done! Cover worthy.

Of course, Charlie! I’m loading Cheddite Hulls I cut down to 2 1/2” with 18 grains of American Select powder with a Trap Commander Z21 wad with 3/4 oz of #4 Bismuth crimped with a 6 point star crimp.

From Tom Armbrust’s expertise, these rounds average 4850 PSI and a velocity of 1217 FPS. A real pleasure to shoot and seem to be very sufficient, even on some far shots. I have some Bs loaded up in the event I target geese and when I search for a turkey this spring, but the 4s seem to have handled that goose very well.

I really appreciate that, Breck!

Very nice, Austin. Were those Cheddite hulls already stamped with the "Bismuth" name and the goose in flight? They look good!

Thank you, Stan! I made the stamps on Rubbertamps.com and they are stamped with “Stazon” ink. The ink dries pretty fast and seems to hold up pretty well on the plastic of the hulls. A little bit of acetone on a paper towel and it comes off easy to re-stamp if necessary.

That is so cool. Thank you for sharing that with us!

After looking at the picture closer I didn't see the white stripe up the head like a drake pintail would have and got to thinking that could be a goldeneye since this is late season duck hunting. Well done.

I appreciate that, Stan. You’re very welcome!

No worries, Matt! Thank you!

Austin, this is a great post and picture! I appreciate the info on the loads you’re using. I’ve got a 1901 DH 30” 12ga and I was shooting 2.75” loads out of it this past duck season. Do you have a 2.75” recipe for those Damascus barrels you would recommend?

Thank you William!

I don’t have any loads for 2 3/4 specifically. I just put a short kit on my Mec and cut everything down to 2.5”. I have an original 3” chambered damascus gun and it eats up the 2.5” all the same. I would assume that with the Z21 wads would work with the same powder amounts in a 2.75” hull versus a 2.5” hull as the wad compresses a bit once crimped. And in theory, with slightly less pressure on the powder from the wad being compressed down 1/4” less in a 2 3/4 hull, I would assume pressure would remain around the same or even a little less. But I could be wrong, maybe someone on here has some experience with loading multiple length shells?

Austin, havent loaded any Bismuth yet, but certainly going to file that recipie in my reloading notebook. Have to shoot non-tox on most of my late season SoDok pheasant areas(WMA's).