Ammo shopping.

[Zazu45]

I've been shopping for some "STEEL" ammo to try out my new 870 .

Then found out that it is not that easy anymore.
-Winchester has three different brands : Expert , Super X and Supremes.
Remington has two : Sportman and Nitro Steel.
Federal has two or three , not quite sure.
And then you have Kent.
Each company offers a range of velocity, from 1300 to almost 1600fps.
Then to make things even worst every time I ask someboby wich one is in their opinion any good, I get some very contradicting opinions. Every body seems to love one and hate everything else.
So here goes, I would to hear what you guys have to say, what is your pick.
Keep in mind that I am looking for goose hunting loads in 3in. mag. or 2 3/4.

Thanks.

Denis

[TreeDoc]

Your dilemma can be solved pretty easily with a little work. First, if your shooting steel, you need velocity to make it work best for you. Be looking in the 1500 fps range. Determine the size of shot you need to get the job done. For decoying Geese I'd think #2-BB would be the ticket...not sure in your specific case. Lastly, set your gun up with the appropriate choke for your hunting conditions and then try a several rounds of each on a pattern board to determine pattern uniformity. Let the gun tell you whic one it wants.

[fabsroman]

What TD said, but I would tend to select from the premium lines between the brands. For instance, I would get Winchester Supreme, or Remington Nitro, or Federal's top line and shoot all three of them to see which patterns best.

With that said, if I could find T shot all the time, that is all I would use for goose hunting. I have read plenty of studies that say it is the best for goose hunting because of penetration and patterning, and it seems to work rather well for me. Of course, I can rarely find the stuff and I have barely had time to hunt this year, much less reload Hevi-Shot in the B loads. Now that is a load that will kill a goose quick. I am way too cheap to pay retail for Hevi-Shot at $2+ per shell, so it has been a couple of boxes of steel this year.

By the way, I was forced to buy Remington Sportsman's steel to hunt with, and now I remember why I used to only use it for cripples. It truly does suck unless you have the birds walking around in the decoys.

[tjwatty]

IMHO, and you know what they say about opinions, I wouldn't buy Remington steel shot if it was free. Ha! Ha! I use Winchester and or Federal, I like Drylock but Expert seems to work as well. Like TD said I like the faster loads, I will give up a few pellets for speed, I also agree with fabs on size except for one exception.
If the geese you are shooting are lessers, and or white geese, instead of giants, #2 shot is guite large enough to get the job done. I kill a lot of mallards with #2 and those little geese are not much different in size. HOWEVER, they also tend to not decoy quite so close, so right back to the big stuff. BB's B's and T shot.
Well that's about as clear as mud, guess that's why I carry so many different boxes in my bag. Waterfowlers are like women and makeup, something different for all occasions.

P.S.
An after market choke tube can make a big difference also. I like Briley, my son and friend use an Undertaker. All are better than the factory tubes, again, in my humble opinion.

[fabsroman]

TJ,

Forgot about the lessers because we don't shoot many of them. We have a bunch of resident B-52 bomber looking geese that you hate shooting far from the blind because it hurts to carry them back. Yep, BB's and 2's will work just fine on the smaller geese.

I use a patternmaster tube and I like it. It patterns Hevi-Shot extremely tight.

[Zazu45]

Thanks for the info guys.
I did get an aftermarket choke tube, an Undertaker, after one fo my friends said factory ones were crap when it comes to handling steel shot. I just did not get to try it yet.
We do get some snows in my area but very early, so it is mostly Canada geese that we hunt.
Funy thing is that I always felt that no2 shot would be better because it would increase head/neck hits and wings break.
Back in the days of lead shot my favourite load used to be Winchester Super double XX 3in. mag. 1 7/8oz of no.4 shot.
So I figured that if no4 shot at 1200fps could do the job, surely no2 steel shot at 1550fps would be fine but then again I could be wrong.
I will soon start experimenting and doing some patterning of my own, since it is the only way to know what is best for my gun.

Thanks again.

Denis

[tjwatty]

One thing I did forget to mention, I use a lot of #2 and the last year or two have even been using some fasteel #4's but... On my trip to Kansas we were shooting in winds 30 to 40 mph and the smaller steel shot does get blown off target more than you can imagine. I think because of that I may start using more of the larger shot and practicing more.