Firearm Newbie....

[True Blue Aggie]

Father in Law (FIL) is looking to get back into hunting again, and asked if I would be interested. Wants to start shooting, and has already booked a goose hunt for the two of us. Fun part is he has been out of it for so long, that his shotguns can no longer be fired. The guns are set up for lead shot, and he was telling me that is no longer allowed, and I guess the guns cannot be modified to shoot steel shot. FIL and I will be looking for new shotguns for Christmas.....

I'm interested, and have been looking for a while now for a reason to get into it. Looking at shotguns now, along with any and all information on hunter safety courses. Since it seems everyone on this board owns a small arsenal, I figured I would post up and ask for any advice that could be given....

Checking out the TPWD website, and it looks like I'm required to take the hunter safety course (born in 76). Is there anything tricky about this? Any place I should go, or should not go?

Looking at shotguns, looks like from what I have been told, that I should go with a Benilli Nova Pump or Remington 870 model. Figured at the moment, that I would get a reliable pump action, to figure out how much I like it, and to learn the hard way (as my buddy at work put it)......

So am I on the right track? :tu:

[L8 APEX]

I would either use a semi or an over under. Gentelmen use over unders, aggressive hunters use semis. Beretta, Browning, Benelli are nice brands. The Nova is fugly. Geese are hard to bring down they make 3.5" shells for them. Steel shot sucks balls I quit hunting fowl when it came out.
I Would look at the Benelli M2 Field or SBE if you plan on Geese as it holds 3.5" magnum rds others are only 3".
http://www.benelliusa.com/

[bluesvt]

870 is a reliable affordable gun especially if you are not sure if your going to hunt all the time of find out it's not for you. Then once you decide if you like it I would go out and buy a Benelli or whatever you find suites you. I have had a Rem 870 exp 12 ga for about 4 years and still works as good as it did when I first got it.

[03LightningRocks]

I went Goose hunting once. The shot gun I owned at the time was a simple Mossberg pump in 12 gage. It held the 3.5 inch shells Terry spoke of. I had used the gun for hunting all types of winged creatures and thought I would be fine using it for Geese. I was wrong. I played hell getting the range I needed. The gun would have worked better if the barrel length was about 4 inches longer(please, no penis jokes at this point:rolleyes:). If memory serves, it was a 28" barrel and 32" is what most of the die hard Goose hunters where using.

I'm not the authority on fowl hunting, but that was one of my limited experiences with it.


:santa2:santa

[True Blue Aggie]

I'm pretty certain that the goose hunting trip will be a one time, or a one time a year trip. More than likely, I'll be shooting clays and dove more often than not. I've been offered to go goose hunting once, but get offered to go dove hunting several times a season.....so.....

[03LightningRocks]

I'm pretty certain that the goose hunting trip will be a one time, or a one time a year trip. More than likely, I'll be shooting clays and dove more often than not. I've been offered to go goose hunting once, but get offered to go dove hunting several times a season.....so.....

Some pump shot gun manufacturers offer interchangeable barrels. Mossberg does. The extra barrels where not that expensive, at least not back in the day. You could buy an inexpensive Mossberg and buy a 32" extra barrel.

[L8 APEX]

The moral is goose hunting requires a lot more shotgun than theything else that flys.

[BC Lightning]

.........over under. Gentelmen use over unders.......

I took the Hunter safety course roughly 7 or 8 years ago, if you have had the smallest amount of gun use and safety, and have common knowledge then you will ace the test, i didnt go the first day, and took the test the next and made a 96, the 2 questions I missed were about black powder rifles :rolleyes:

I know Wes and I have talked about taking the CHL course, my license is about to expire and needs to be renewed, if you want/eed to do that as well


.........over under. Gentelmen use over unders.......

That is all my dad and I own now, we have sold off all our pumps and semi auto shotguns, I cant stand dove hunting and have never hunted goose, all we do now is Quail hunting and would never consider using anything besides a .410, maybe on a really cold windy day a 28 guage, but nothing more, takes the sport out of it, plus for quail you are only allowed to have 3 shells in the gun, so a over under is more ideal IMO

The last time I went dove hunting we ran into a guy using a 10 guage bolt action shotgun, you might want to look into one of those, sounded like the cannon at an A&M game when he would shoot :tu:

[Beaudee]

I love Goose hunting,go every year.I have booked several hunts with Butches guide service of Katy Texas.http://www.texashunting.net/ I use a browning 10Ga. pump.I would reccomend a pump or over+under.The problem with water fowl hunting is your in mudd,water,and all the nastys that will jam your gun.Every hunt i do in the rice fields in Katy someone with an auto has jamming problems.I use 10G. 3 1/2 mag. tripple BBB steel shot loads.I have tried them Bizma loads and i am not impressed with em.Some of the shell manuf. make some nice heavy shot,but cost too much.The BBB 3 1/2 mag. 10G. or 12G. steel shot works just fine.I have killed geese @ 70+ yards with these loads.I highly reccommend the Browning BPS pump for waterfowl.The gun also loads and ejects from the bottom of the breech which helps keep cootys out.Also the same gun is good for L/H or R/H shooters.:tu:Something cool about geese is there poop glows in the dark(green) from the nitrogen in the grass/rice they eat.Truly an amazing bird that flys 20 thousand feet and poops glow in the dark.

[bluesvt]

I believe Federal makes a new water fowl shot that is supposed to have a lot more velocity and a perfect spread.

[Ivanhoe_Farms]

I believe Federal makes a new water fowl shot that is supposed to have a lot more velocity and a perfect spread.

BISMUTH:cool:

[Silver_2000]

one of my customers works for Bismuth :ron:

[bluesvt]

They use bismuth in the shells?

[Wht95Lightning]

Get a Remington 870. It's affordable, reliable, accessories are abundant (extra barrels, choke tubes, etc) and if you don't like it, you can sell it off about as fast as you got it. If you really get into hunting birds then you can make a more serious commitment to a nice Ruger Red label over/under or something even nicer. :cool: