Goose shooting in Scotland

[Foxyboy43]

For some reason obviously well buried deep inside of me I have agreed to accompany my pals on their annual trip to shoot geese in Scotland; why exactly I know not but the deed is done and more likely I am undone! As a side note the one and only time I have ever done it was 40-odd years ago and obviously enjoyed it so much that I have never done it since!
Now that might have something to do with my experience wrestling trying to wring the neck of a moderately annoyed wing-shot Canada (?) goose - all the while being ridiculed cheered on by my soon-to-be ex-pal and the guide, who in the spirit of helpfulness - common currency only in the shooting community, were each lying in the hedge hugging each other, paralysed with laughter - bastards! Mrs Beaton’s advice of “first catch your hare” springs to mind with me circling said leviathan or more likely it circling me until I was dizzy. Just typing this I can still hear that bloody thing and even worse their laughter as I did a pretty good impression of Mick McManus (younger members ask your grandad) doing his Icarus turn! As an historic note it was also when you could get on the Irish Sea ferry as a “footie”, carrying your shotgun which you simply handed to the Purser for the duration of the crossing; sadly those days are gone - forever.
Now who was I? Ah yes, to be candid I do feel a bit of a novice here so a bit of advice lads please? My pals are seasoned goose-shooters and all subscribe to using magnum shotguns and the “putting as much lead in the air at the same time as possible theory” - shooting shot volumes which would have rivalled the payload of a Lancaster bomber en route to Berlin, so will I be disadvantaged with a standard game over and under shooting much lighter charges (32gms) and indeed what load/shot size would you recommend? As a possible saviour I have an elderly Browning semi-auto which is my pigeon basher, would I be better placed to take it instead? And finally, the geese will be shot (or more likely in my case “shot at”) over stubble - is steel shot required in Kim Jung’s Peoples Republic and if so a recommendation please?
OR - should I just take the .308 and shoot them when they land?
Much obliged for the anticipated tirade/avalanche of sage-like abuse advice chaps……

 

[Basil H]

You are planning to shoot geese over stubble in February ? O.K.

 

[Foxyboy43]

You are planning to shoot geese over stubble in February ? O.K.

Err nope - October - ta.

 

[Basil H]

Inland in Scotland you don't need to use non-toxic (yet). So threes or thereabouts will serve and "shoot the pilot not the passengers".

 

[VSS]

OR - should I just take the .308 and shoot them when they land?

I should say so!

 

[Foxyboy43]

Inland in Scotland you don't need to use non-toxic (yet). So threes or thereabouts will serve and "shoot the pilot not the passengers".

Thank you sir, wilco but the speed of my swing now I will be lucky to even hit the tail-gunner!

 

[Foxyboy43]

I should say so!

Attaboy!

 

[Heym SR20]

Geese over stubbles on decoys - use you shoot best. A normal game gun but with an Alphamax - 1 1/4oz in old money has shot an awful lot of geese over the years.

Geese are large birds. But their head is the size of a clay pigeon and very susceptible to shotgun pellets. I prefer a slightly smaller shot size so that you keep a dense pattern.

Last year on our walked up shoot a pink foot got up and it dropped dead to a 21g load of 6’s out of my daughters 20 bore.

Trick with shooting over stubbles is to let them come right in close and let the first ones land and pick your shots.

My experience of those with heavy magnums and big cartridges is that the make a lot of noise blazing away at geese a long way out - mostly well out of range. Your biggest challenge is keeping them quiet until the birds have got in really close.

 

[Foxyboy43]

T

Geese over stubbles on decoys - use you shoot best. A normal game gun but with an Alphamax - 1 1/4oz in old money has shot an awful lot of geese over the years.

Geese are large birds. But their head is the size of a clay pigeon and very susceptible to shotgun pellets. I prefer a slightly smaller shot size so that you keep a dense pattern.

Last year on our walked up shoot a pink foot got up and it dropped dead to a 21g load of 6’s out of my daughters 20 bore.

Trick with shooting over stubbles is to let them come right in close and let the first ones land and pick your shots.

My experience of those with heavy magnums and big cartridges is that the make a lot of noise blazing away at geese a long way out - mostly well out of range. Your biggest challenge is keeping them quiet until the birds have got in really close.

Thank you H - kinda looking forward to it - in a mildly apprehensive kinda way…..
One of the lads is known as “bangbang” - guess you can work out why!l

 

[Heym SR20]

I must admit not being a great fan of decoyed goose shooting, nor for that matter shooting ducks on a flight pond.

I grew up wildfowling and wild geese really deserve to be hunted out in the wilds of the foreshore. Getting out on the marshes in the pre dawn, or at last light and be alone with your dog and your thoughts sitting in the side a creek with the redshanks and other birds calling. All your senses alert to widgeon and teal whistling through, and the inevitable do I take one or will they disturb the geese?

Then a faint honk of a greylag, or the higher putched wink of a pink being carried on the wind. Open the gun and switch cartridges for goose.

In the dawn you get just the one chance as the flight out to feed, in the evening there may be more.

The odd goose starts moving. Keep quiet and still. You daren’t spook them - they are the scouting birds. Secret of goose shooting is patience. And only shoot when you are certain of killing. Half dozen make a real racket as they come up river, you keep low but they swing by 100 plus yards to one side - no shot offered.

You decide to move quickly - no lying flat on the slope of the river bank. The rest of flats are just sand and mud banks. You have followed the tide out, its getting dark (I never good at getting out of a warm bed). A small pack of widgeon come down the remains of the old wall built by prisoners of the Napaleonic wall, but long ago the sea reclaimed the marsh. Coming straight, you move onto your knees, pick out the cock bird and it tumbles, they explode upwards and you reach upwards for another and it too falls. Dog picks the easy bird, and then suggests that you should do some work and wade out into the river to pick the other.

Geese are really starting to call on the wind. A big skein comes over really high. They go in down on the rocks at the mouth of the river. They like to to wash up before coming to roost. The wind is picking up and the tide has turned. They will be pushed of by the surf as the tide comes in. Moon is rising and low whispy cloud comes over.

It’s a waiting game. Your warmth from chasing the ducks is gone. The cold is seeping through the neoprene waders - you will give it another ten. More geese come over - still too high. Water is lapping at your feet, but still needs to come another 3 or 4 feet before the river channel is covered. We get 5m tides in the Forth and you know on this side you cannot get cut off. Not like the time when you got stuck on a salt marsh down by Lymington all those years ago when the big creek filled up behind you.

Your mind goes into the happy place, you are a bit cold and damp, and salty and muddy, but who cares.

And then - what’s that. Hairs on your neck go up and then you make a large skein coming across the marsh low and into wind directly at you. Keep low, keep still, thumb on the safety - push it forward and back - and they keep coming. Pick a bird - you can’t really see them, wait till they are against that white cloud, you can hear the wings, are they coming into land - they back peddle and pitch into the river 50 yards away. The hound is quivering. Another little gaggle just come past from the otherside - you sit up and one falls to the gun.

There is almighty racket as 200 plus geese rise up and get out of the marsh.

The hound has got the goose and dragging it back. You pick the empty cartridge case and the widgeon. Take goose and trudge back to the care. Its a good mile across the sand and the saltings. The geese keep tempting you, but so does a warm bath for you. You drive back. Hound in her towling bag to warm up and dry off on the drive home happy.

 

[Stalker-of-the-deer]

If it's inland 36 gram 3 or 2 lead shot will do it. Your auto will handle them no problem I would think being in a 2 3/4" case

 

[foxhunter]

As Heym says be patient ,pick your shots and let them get close.
My pet hate is people shooting at long range , just a waste of cartridges. The problem being in a party of guns once one shoots the others follow , a volley of 8 shots and no geese.
I decoy on my own , keep still and low in hide , let them get as close as possible and job done.

 

[Pedro]

So, although I have since acquired a semi that can handle 3.5" cartridges, before that, on my occasional forays I pressed my Beretta Silver Pigeon into service to shoot geese quite successfully. But the idea that propelling big and numerous lumps of lead into the air has some merit. Yes, aim for the head (giving that some lead, so that if you are behind the head, you should still hit it). And remember, despite them looking as though they are slow, that can be misleading! Think of a road that goes past an airport, where you look up and see passenger planes having just taken off. They seem to be hanging almost motionless in the sky, but they aren't!

As above, when not over water, lead is fine in Scotland and whatever gun you take, ensure the ammo you buy fits it. The semi, of course will be lighter on the shoulder.

 

[Foxyboy43]

If it's inland 36 gram 3 or 2 lead shot will do it. Your auto will handle them no problem I would think being in a 2 3/4" case

Thank you sir. Fingers crossed.

 

[muddy42]

30 grams of number 3 lead is very effective at sensible ranges (in older guns that cannot take more) but do check if lead is allowed as the shot cannot land on wetland.

 

[Foxyboy43]

G

I must admit not being a great fan of decoyed goose shooting, nor for that matter shooting ducks on a flight pond.

I grew up wildfowling and wild geese really deserve to be hunted out in the wilds of the foreshore. Getting out on the marshes in the pre dawn, or at last light and be alone with your dog and your thoughts sitting in the side a creek with the redshanks and other birds calling. All your senses alert to widgeon and teal whistling through, and the inevitable do I take one or will they disturb the geese?

Then a faint honk of a greylag, or the higher putched wink of a pink being carried on the wind. Open the gun and switch cartridges for goose.

In the dawn you get just the one chance as the flight out to feed, in the evening there may be more.

The odd goose starts moving. Keep quiet and still. You daren’t spook them - they are the scouting birds. Secret of goose shooting is patience. And only shoot when you are certain of killing. Half dozen make a real racket as they come up river, you keep low but they swing by 100 plus yards to one side - no shot offered.

You decide to move quickly - no lying flat on the slope of the river bank. The rest of flats are just sand and mud banks. You have followed the tide out, its getting dark (I never good at getting out of a warm bed). A small pack of widgeon come down the remains of the old wall built by prisoners of the Napaleonic wall, but long ago the sea reclaimed the marsh. Coming straight, you move onto your knees, pick out the cock bird and it tumbles, they explode upwards and you reach upwards for another and it too falls. Dog picks the easy bird, and then suggests that you should do some work and wade out into the river to pick the other.

Geese are really starting to call on the wind. A big skein comes over really high. They go in down on the rocks at the mouth of the river. They like to to wash up before coming to roost. The wind is picking up and the tide has turned. They will be pushed of by the surf as the tide comes in. Moon is rising and low whispy cloud comes over.

It’s a waiting game. Your warmth from chasing the ducks is gone. The cold is seeping through the neoprene waders - you will give it another ten. More geese come over - still too high. Water is lapping at your feet, but still needs to come another 3 or 4 feet before the river channel is covered. We get 5m tides in the Forth and you know on this side you cannot get cut off. Not like the time when you got stuck on a salt marsh down by Lymington all those years ago when the big creek filled up behind you.

Your mind goes into the happy place, you are a bit cold and damp, and salty and muddy, but who cares.

And then - what’s that. Hairs on your neck go up and then you make a large skein coming across the marsh low and into wind directly at you. Keep low, keep still, thumb on the safety - push it forward and back - and they keep coming. Pick a bird - you can’t really see them, wait till they are against that white cloud, you can hear the wings, are they coming into land - they back peddle and pitch into the river 50 yards away. The hound is quivering. Another little gaggle just come past from the otherside - you sit up and one falls to the gun.

There is almighty racket as 200 plus geese rise up and get out of the marsh.

The hound has got the goose and dragging it back. You pick the empty cartridge case and the widgeon. Take goose and trudge back to the care. Its a good mile across the sand and the saltings. The geese keep tempting you, but so does a warm bath for you. You drive back. Hound in her towling bag to warm up and dry off on the drive home happy.

Gosh I could nearly smell the spartina and feel my wellies filling up!
I too am no big fan of inland decoying as can be evidenced by the 4 decades interval but it is a real chance to have some quality time with old eejits who like me share a passion for quarry shooting, albeit the feathered variety. My abiding memory of that time so many years ago is lying on my back in the early dawn just watching 20,000 or so greys flying over me a couple of shots up.
I suspect that just like last time a singleton or a pair will do me just fine.

 

[Foxyboy43]

As Heym says be patient ,pick your shots and let them get close.
My pet hate is people shooting at long range , just a waste of cartridges. The problem being View attachment 293905in a party of guns once one shoots the others follow , a volley of 8 shots and no geese.
I decoy on my own , keep still and low in hide , let them get as close as possible and job done.
View attachment 293905

Nice and a lovely bag of tasty meat too. Thanks for posting.

 

[muddy42]

Yes even in a hide with four sides, geese have a habit of flying high directly over the top, you must resist the urge to look up at them. Exciting stuff.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Yes even in a hide with four sides, geese have a habit of flying high directly over the top, you must resist the urge to look up at them. Exciting stuff.

Ooooooh! Excitement is building…..

 

[Island]

I've done a bit of decoying around the Angus region in past years and as others have noted above there is no need for shoulder-punishing loads when shooting geese over stubbles.

My personal preference is for no more than 36g loads in 3 / 4 / 5, whatever patterns best through your gun, and (again through preference) using a semi-auto. The key to it all, I believe, is to pattern your choice of gun / cartridge and pick what is best for YOU. It really makes my teeth itch when people tell me that "such and such is the best cartridge for pheasant" or "ABC is the best for grouse" or "XYZ is the only cartridge for geese"; it is the shotgun equivalent of saying "Federal Powershok is the best cartridge for deer" and every bit as meaningless...