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How fast are geese moving?


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Hi guys,

 

Given the size, it is tough for me to figure out just how fast geese are moving. Crows are slow gliders. Pheasants and lightly looping pigeons are skimming along, but not terribly fast. A pigeon with a tailwind is cranking pretty quickly. What about geese? I missed a chip shot Canada the other day and I can't decide if I was in front of it or just missed. Earlier in the evening i shot a crow that was a loooong way up (more than 50 yards as it was well above the tallest trees) so I don't think I am in a slump. I have always just had a thing for missing geese.

 

Rick

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How long is a piece of string? I have shot geese flying very fast and I have shot geese flying slowly. As with any other shot, lead must be judged on an individual basis.

I used to have a problem where I would miss pinks in front. I was always conscious of giving them plenty of lead. When I eventually trusted my instincts more, I found I started hitting them regularly.

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I don't think there are any right or wrong rules to say how much lead to give a goose , if there was just one I would say better to give em to much than not enough .

 

As Motty says ( it judged on a individual basis ) . I have shot then when they have been battling against a gale and when the shot was taking they were only just making any headway , then it was a matter of holding the gun straight with a small amount of lead .

 

On the other end of the scale they can fly as fast as any bird you are likely to put your gun up to .

 

We haven't got what you would call hills round our way , but I was waiting for a flock of Greylags to lift of a high bit of ground one night while I was down the bottom end of the field in what you would call a valley . Anyhow just before it got dark they lifted off and then followed the contour of the land until they came over me at no more than 20yds up , and believe you me they were as fast as any driven Partridge or Pheasant I have been lucky enough to shoot at , and in a way it was my own fault by letting them get to close before I put my gun up and under estimating the speed they were going , resulting in hitting the same goose well behind twice , and then having to walk across two fields to pick it up .

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Geese can fly fast , very fast if need be. A cruising goose can easily manage 50 MPH , but given a wind up the tail they can do a hell of a lot more than than. I once clocked a skein of greylags flying above the road I was on at 70 MPH and there have been times when I have seen pinks appear around a mile inland with a gale in their tails, come high out over the marsh curve around and land on the sands in little more than a minuet. I recon those birds were doing close on 100MPH with the following wind.

 

On the other hand I have seen pinks bore into a storm force wind hardly making any headway. On one occasion a mate and I were waiting in the dunes behind some pines for a big skein of 500 pinks that were battling into a very strong gale. They stretched out several hundred yards each side of us. A shot seemed certain , but every time the geese tried to cross the pines a hundred yards in front of us the wind took hold of them and whirled them backwards. Three times they tried it , before finally admitting defeat they landed on an inland field. A blank flight for us , but perhaps the best part of the flight came when we were back at the car park. The wind dropped a little and little parties kept slipping past 10-20 feet up and headed between a gap in the pines to make their way out to the roost. I guess they thought it too dangerous to fly through such a narrow gap in the trees in daylight , but now under the light of the stars they thought it worth the risk. But the sounds and half seen visions of faint dark shadows just about our heads were one of the most magicical flights I have had. There is a lot more to wildfowling than just killing stuff.

 

 

Low greylags flying towards you I have always found the most difficult of shots , simple enough when they are 40 yards up , but a problem for me when they are only ten. My best answer has to be to take the shot as soon as they come into range and hope they flare for a second shot well infront of you. Let them come to within 25 yards and by the time I get my gun on them and they are over head and too close.

Edited by anser2
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I've known a few that are very good game shots who at the start could not hit geese, I've also known a few excellent shots who couldn't hit a pig up an entry with steel!.............Once tuned in it will come good! Perseverance is the answer! Geese can be deceptively fast however.........

 

When you have late September Grouse come over your butt at 8/10ft high.....now that is fast!

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I have seen Bewick's tumbled head over tail in the Jan. 90 storm as they tried to fly over the poplars that line Cochrane's wash on the Ouse washes.

 

Geese can fly fast , very fast if need be. A cruising goose can easily manage 50 MPH , but given a wind up the tail they can do a hell of a lot more than than. I once clocked a skein of greylags flying above the road I was on at 70 MPH and there have been times when I have seen pinks appear around a mile inland with a gale in their tails, come high out over the marsh curve around and land on the sands in little more than a minuet. I recon those birds were doing close on 100MPH with the following wind.

 

On the other hand I have seen pinks bore into a storm force wind hardly making any headway. On one occasion a mate and I were waiting in the dunes behind some pines for a big skein of 500 pinks that were battling into a very strong gale. They stretched out several hundred yards each side of us. A shot seemed certain , but every time the geese tried to cross the pines a hundred yards in front of us the wind took hold of them and whirled them backwards. Three times they tried it , before finally admitting defeat they landed on an inland field. A blank flight for us , but perhaps the best part of the flight came when we were back at the car park. The wind dropped a little and little parties kept slipping past 10-20 feet up and headed between a gap in the pines to make their way out to the roost. I guess they thought it too dangerous to fly through such a narrow gap in the trees in daylight , but now under the light of the stars they thought it worth the risk. But the sounds and half seen visions of faint dark shadows just about our heads were one of the most magicical flights I have had. There is a lot more to wildfowling than just killing stuff.

 

 

Low greylags flying towards you I have always found the most difficult of shots , simple enough when they are 40 yards up , but a problem for me when they are only ten. My best answer has to be to take the shot as soon as they come into range and hope they flare for a second shot well infront of you. Let them come to within 25 yards and by the time I get my gun on them and they are over head and too close.

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Basc have a chart on how much lead to give different game Rick and I'm sure for geese it says at forty yards up at 40 miles an hour 14 feet of lead !!! Maybe be wrong but worth a check !! Also depends on speed of carts your using?? Basically all I do is whip through them pretty fast when coming over the hedge and hope for best ! Worked ok upto now

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I was recently under a skein of Canada on the motorway for 1/2 a mile. I slowed to keep under them. They were doing 55 - 60mph with a slight tail wind.

Guy at my clay shoot reckoned in Scotland with a massive tail wind they could have been doing 100mph. Considering your experience I would have thought 75 to 80mph possible with a decent tail wind.

 

Cheers,

 

Mick

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