11/29 rice field
 

J Lincecum and I took a little time out from moving him out of his house this morning and went to "the farm". I can't tell you exactly where we were, because I don't know. I think we were NW of Lake Arthur.

Anyways, got to the blind about 0730. Tons of geese in the area. SHOULD have limited on specks and had 2 more blues, but no go. Seen feathers fly and so did the birds. Did I mention I hate steel shot?

Had one speck come in at about 30 yards, we all emptied our guns and he kept flying. I know that bird was hit at least 4 times. Did I mention I hate steel shot???

Great trip.

Forgot to mention, Belle's first time in a field hunting. She loved being able to run to the birds. One of the specks went to fly off as she got to it, it tried to fly off, did I mention I hate steel shot, and she jumped and grabbed it by the azz.

Nice pics of dog. Why you hate steel shot so much?

Have you ever shot lead?? I shot steel on a squirrel hunt and there was a huge difference. Night and day

Great hunt

This. I promise, with lead shot we did not have birds flying away after you hit them 3 or 4 times.

I wonder if there are more birds dying from being mortally wounded by steel than were dying from lead poising from eating lead?

All the specks were young birds with no bars.

Yea I've shot lead and it kills. But there is no reason birds can't be killed with steel. Maybe let them make another pass???

Yup. Good point. Alot of birds not being recovered because steel shot being so light. Like shooting a 50 grain bullet vs 150 grain bullet for deer. 3x heavier.

UMMMM, birds were well within range.

To me steel now days has been perfected to where it's very effective on water fowl. I mean decoying birds steel will pile em up to the sky. But the guy who mentioned squirrels. That's some tough bass turds. You can't hardly kill a squirrel with steel. But as far as waterfowl steel keels.

Lmao at the UMMM. But that really is a cool pic of the hound bringing back that bird. I've seen them fly off after I shot them and feathers flew. I chalked it up to shooting them in the azz and I'm sure they flew off and died

Hate to say it but it's not the steel. It's the poor shooting. Get em closer or shoot em up front. 30 yards should be graveyard dead whether you are shooting steel or lead. They have done studies on the effects of steel shot by the way. They don't cripple no more than lead did. I am not going to dig up the study as I am sure ya'll can search it out. If I remember correctly lead actually crippled more. Lead has a much longer shot string than steel does. So steel has a denser pattern than lead does.

Great pics and nice hunt

Nice pics . Opinions on steel vs lead are like a@&holes, everyone has one. Thanks for the report.

That water level is perfect

that's what i was thinking them ducks and geese love that.

Put them in range and steel does it's job. Most people do not have the restraint to pass on the marginal shot, I like to shoot as much as anyone, however I hate to lose a bird. Since I have learned restraint and taking only shots that are in range I lose very few birds, I do not shoot as much but it is a worth while trade off. P.S. - Awsome pictures of your dogs....

Get'em in close shoot'em in the lips and cripples will be a thing of the past steel lead plastic salt rocks if you shoot when your supposed to they won't get away

Didn't say they could not be killed with steel. I don't like it and feel there are far more cripples with it than when we were shooting lead shot.

This is a hunting report, if you want to debate the steel/lead issue, start a thread on it.

Just for a frame of reference though, between the three of us in the blind, we probably had over 100 years of waterfowl hunting experience.