Goose Hunting 101 Part 2: Guns and Shells - Outdoors - Hunting

In part one of this series you learned a little bit about geese and flyways. Now that you have some basic background information, its time to add to it so your tall goose hunting tales, that is to say the lies you decide to tell, will have an air of credibility to them. Nothing is more obvious to someone who is familiar with firearms than the babbling nonsense of someone who has actually never touched a Gun but speaks as though they single handedly tamed the frontier with one. You do not need to be an expert on nomenclature or ballistics, but you must know some basic differences.

In general there are two types of long guns, the rifle and the shotgun. A rifle shoots bullets that vary in size or caliber. Caliber is a measure of the diameter or the bullet, the larger the caliber of Gun, the larger the bullet diameter that is fired from the Gun. In addition, some cartridges are longer or larger then others and basically house more Gun powder which correlates to the speed at which the bullet leaves the barrel of the rifle after the trigger is pulled. If you regale your audience with tales about your goose hunting trip and the rifle that you used, you run a real risk of being exposed as a blow-hard as goose hunting is done with a shotgun. A shotgun fires shells that vary in size or gauge. The smaller the number associated with the gauge, the larger the diameter of the shotgun shell. By far the most popular size shotgun is the twelve gau ge, its shells are smaller than a ten or eight gauge, but larger than a sixteen or four-ten.

Shotgun shells are loaded with several small metal balls referred to as shot. If you have not heard of birdshot or buckshot, be assured you will at some point on your goose hunting adventure. There are numerous types of shells, some with larger shot some with smaller shot. It stands to reason, there is less shot in a shell if the shot is larger, and more if it is smaller. Shotgun shells also vary in their overall length. Similar to bullets, a longer shell allows for essentially more powder, which translates to the ability to fire the shot faster and achieve a higher distance. This is particularly relevant when goose hunting as geese will be flying overhead. A shorter shell with a smaller load will not do as good of a job as a longer shell with a larger load with respect assisting your goose dinner in falling from the sky.

When spinning your yarns about goose hunting, or preparing for your first goose hunting adventure. Do not get too carried away with the overall fanciness of the shotgun you use, or claim to have used. There are many very nice guns on the market, but try to keep things simple. A semi-automatic or gas Gun is nice, but a regular pump action works fine too. There are great side-by-side or over-under guns, but reloading these in a blind can be a bit difficult, particularly if you are not experienced with these types of guns. If you do not know what reloading in a blind means fear not, it will be covered later in this series. Whatever type of Gun you decide to use, make sure it will hold longer shells and that you are all allowed to use the Gun in its configuration under the state laws where you are hunting.

You can find private land to hunt at IronAim, or thousands of products for your hunting, fishing, camping, shooting, and outdoor adventures at The IronAim Store.

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