Tough Going

[flippermaj]

Well it always seems to be hard to get to grip with the geese after Bonfire night, the big moon and poor tides often mean a few blanks.

The poor end to the summer meant that there have been several fields of barley that never got cut so the normal flight lines have become a bit disrupted as all the geese seem to focus on the one field for weeks at a time.

So a plan was hatched to get under them after a few blanks as they had and still are all going to one field a mile from the seawall so I knew the line.

Set out to try Friday morning and get to the seawall and with high tide at 0900 the geese were literally 50 yards the other side of the seawall.   They messed around as they do. I moved up and down the seawall to match them.   I had to make one final move along the seawall to get into "the" spot.  There are several deep and wide drainage ditches that run down the sides of the fields to the seawall.  There are sections of armco barrier laid across the ditches at key spots to allow a precarious crossing, I could have waded this ditch but as it was freezing I thought I would use the armco bridge to keep the dog out of the cold water.   I had already crossed 2  that morning and knew they would be slippey with ice.     However I totally miss judged this crossing and my feet flew away from under me and I slammed into the bridge and then in to the freezing water below, all with waders and back pack on and gun held high out of the water.  Slapped my face good and proper so had to retire asap to the car, watched 1000s flight off nice and low as I walked back!

So back at it again this morning, I knew exactly were to go so set up in a very comfortable position behind the seawall and sat it out.  Had 5 swans fly straight over my head barely 6 ft up, amazing sight and sound.  1000s of geese just 150 yards out from me so let 3 early  easy ones go unsaluted as I thought a better chance would arise and there would be a better chance of a prolonged flight as again it would probably be one shot and they would all be off.   Several skeins lifted and circled around before heading over the seawall, all too high or wide.  Finally a mass lot lifted and although high enough I dropped one nicely with a home load of TSS.  With the shot the rest all lifted and cleared off, end of flight but what a great one and finally back under them.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done, but be careful out there.  

[marsh man]

Nice write up and well done after your nasty fall , it was bad enough but could have been a lot worse , it look like you came off far better than the goose 

[6.5x55SE]

Evening Mark good to see and hear you are okay after your fall 👍 Well done getting a Pink well deserved 🤝 I myself had not one but two incidents (1) Crossing a wooden none sided bridge over a very large creek thankfully only my ego was dented i to was rewarded by shooting a Pink.

(2) cut my middle finger with a Stanley Carpet Blade now that did and still does smart . Shot at a Pink 6 days later hurt like I'd cut it again and started bleeding. 😭 But as us hardened Wildfowler' s do carry on chasing them Geese. Have a good Christmas keep knocking em down 👍

[islandgun]

Enjoyed the read and photos, thanks for posting, interesting to see you using tss in your 12, how does it perform

[scolopax]

Sounds like my favourite estuary up north, where it is often possible to be too close to the geese as like you describe, first short lifts them all en masse.   Fantastic place though and I missed my trip up this year.

[flippermaj]

I have really only been experimenting with the tss duplex loads.  Probably shot more at paper than geese so far!  I ran one shot through a Winchester sxp pump 3.5 inch chambered gun with a kicks extra full choke and at 40 yards it patterned fairly tight see the pic.    I shot a few early season geese with tss and seemed to be fine.  Saturdays was the first really rangy one I have shot at and when I processed it this afternoon I was pleased to see several no 7 tss had hit the target plus a couple of steel pellets.  The tss went straight through the bird.    The limit is really your marksmanship.     
 

Generally I use 36grm steel 1 factory stuff but there are times and particular particular places where I certainly don’t want any birds sailing on so I am hoping the tss will be handy for stopping them good and proper when needed.   I also wanted a decent goose load for a 70mm cart so I could still carry on with an older AYA side by side as well as the 3inch mg Zabala.   Went the duplex route as it’s cheaper and I don’t think you need much more than 16 grm of tss.

 

[edenman]

You got to be in it to win, well done though for persevering!

[Penelope]

Proper gun, nice to see.