duckht183

Scraped a few birds this morning.. Yes that's a Poodle and **** no it's not mine, it's my buddy's.

I'd hate to see what your ammo bill looks like at the end of the season..

Remember we're shooting steel shot here.. I've hammered big geese within 25yrds painting the sides of them with blood just to watch them continue to fly up river and die some 800 yards out. I'd rather put more pellets on a goose with a 3.5 if I have the chance rather than risk the possibility of sailing him with a 3 inch duck load. A good 90% of the birds I shoot are feet down, including geese. I duck hunt for that reason alone right there and because I love working my dog and watching her work. If I could, I would run a 20 gauge for ducks and geese but I'm trying to be realistic here.. Shooting a light steel load like that is just asking to cripple birds I don't care how close they are.

With that said, when I talk about a limit, I mean teal, sprig and divers. The Mallards and Wigeon on the other hand, have been almost non existant even on the river..

Same here, it's been a tough one.. if you make your shots count though, it isn't that hard to pull a limit.

A 3 1/2" shell with a Patternmaster choke puts a hurt on the big geese. Just something to think about.. I have a gun that I duck hunt with and a gun that I use strictly for geese. I'll get some looks from other guys for packing two guns out to the blind with me but that's how I make things happen.

I'd make that trade any day! If you ever get a chance to make it over here to California, let me know. I've pulled more than a few limits of cinnamon's out in years past. I usually let them land though to allow the Mallards to work in but that didn't happen yesterday.. It looks like you really got into the birds this year Randy, nice work. That would be a dream hunt for me right there.

Where are the ducks at this year because they're not here in Cali.. I hunted until noon this morning firing only 3 shots. And with the ten day forecast showing no sign of rain, hunting the grasslands is almost a waste of time.

If the ducks aren't going to fly due to the LACK of weather, we're just going to have to start shooting coyotes..

mudhen, glad to finally see some pictures from you this season. This year I've been invited to hunt a CWA blind that sits in the rice just north of the Sac Airport and now I see why you do so well when it comes to putting birds down.. I called in over 1,500 specks that dropped in feet down right into my spread so let's just say we had a decent shoot. Good luck with the rest of the season.

Randy, nice looking birds you have there..

Up in the rice this afternoon

I'm headed out tomorrow and taking my dad and his friends.. Should of had a limit but my 870 Supermag jammed on me so I had to work these geese in feet down so I could put them down with my Franchi I-12 shooting 3" #3 duck loads.

We finally had some weather roll through Cali this weekend.

So I shot Blind Side this morning and to my surprise, these shells actually performed pretty damn well... Blind Side held a decent pattern through my Franchi I-12 and both the Redhead and the Spoonie that I shot were stone dead when they hit the water. Both shots were between 35 to 45 yrds out with large amounts of blood running from the impact points.

My buddy bought me a box of Blind Side for my 21st yesterday so I'll post up a review after we hunt the river in the morning.

I have an 870 Supermag with a Patternmaster choke that I shoot geese with. It gets beat up pretty good during the season in the boat with the sand and mud getting in the action at times but it'll still shoot every time I pull the trigger. I will say though that my Supermag is picky when it comes to cycling 3.5's.. I have a hard time cycling Kent's and Hevi-Metals but other than that, it'll cycle through anything. I have never been on spring snow goose hunt yet so I can't tell you what its like to shoot through boxes of 3.5's in one day but like I said, you should be fine. Pattern some shells, find out which one you like and then go out and rock some Snows..

I don't see why it wouldn't hold up.. it's a pump gun, you can't go wrong with it either way.

How's everyones season going so far? I haven't hunted my club or the refuges yet this season but I've pulled 13 ducks and 8 geese off of the river. The duck numbers seem to low for the time being but I had more than 15K Aluetians and Cacklers fly just outside of range on me all morning yesterday. Bring on the foggy mornings because those birds going into Mapes Ranch need to be thinned out.

I had a good laugh though watching the old man try and lift his arm..

I'm with you hattles, I've pulled 12 ducks and 7 geese off of the river so far this season all killed with Winchester Xperts. Why shoot anything else when I haven't had to ring out one bird yet...

My dad shot Blind Side on opening weekend through his SBE1 and said it did nothing but pull feathers from birds... So he went back to shooting the Remington Hypersonics. And although his shoulder's all bruised up, it doesn't look that bad after killing a limit of ducks.