The Good Ol Days...LEAD SHOT!!

[HONKSRWORKN]

Our reloads were the best thing ever till heavy shot came around …. Lead #4 11/4 oz 1330 fps .. killed **** dead way out there .. used to re load a ton back then .. nothing beats lead for the cost ..

 

[Soggy Socks]

I had never really hunted ducks much back then but usually killed a few incidentally every year with my Auto 5 16. A friend invited my out to western NY to hunt with him. I was shooting a lot of pigeons in the 80's and using 1 1/4 ounces of 6's in my Ruger O/U. I thought I needed magnum 4's to kill ducks and went the first time with those, my Ruger was 2 3/4 inch chambered, thank god . I believe it was before the first time I ever really patterned a shotgun but thought man were these mallards hard to kill. I patterned the gun spotty pattern so I tried my pigeon load it was okay but switched to another wad Rem Sp12 and 6's and wow the pattern was evenly spread terrific! I shot pigeons with it and crushed them, maybe the books were all wrong you don't need 4's to kill mallards Next time out in NY it did the same on mallards. When I started actually hunting ducks later on steel was in and it wasn't the same but that was old slow steel. Newer loads are good but not like lead. I've shot Bismuth a few times and it reminded me of the old days, of course I'm more picky about my shots now too. Would I go back... don't really know like I said I pick my shots better now and I don't have to kill or shoot at every bird I see.

 

[California Flyway]

In Ohio I lived near Mosquito Lake. The north end of the lake was a fish and wildlife reserve. That was chosen as one of the places to rear and reintroduce Giant Canada Geese. I used to go there on wildlife reserve tour days the staff would demonstrate how they used corn bait and a mortar on each end of a net that would launch big weights that carried the net over the Geese. During Goose season at one point in time they allowed folks to pass shoot Canada's as they flew in and out of the refuge. There were some very high shots made with what might have been #4 buckshot that may not have been legal, but #2 lead was the common load used. I was real young and seeing one of those Giant Canada's come down from 70+ yards was like a bomber falling from the sky.

 

[Rick Hall]

During Goose season at one point in time they allowed folks to pass shoot Canada's as they flew in and out of the refuge. There were some very high shots made with what might have been #4 buckshot that may not have been legal, but #2 lead was the common load used. I was real young and seeing one of those Giant Canada's come down from 70+ yards was like a bomber falling from the sky.

I don't recall if #4 buck was legal in Ohio but do recall that it was in Illinois, which did a crippling study on its use at their "firing lines". Put 30-some observers with guys shooting it for two days, so 60-some "hunter efforts". Have long forgotten the crippled vs killed figures, but have it in my head that they asked participants to call their shots, and no on hit the bird they were shooting at.