Geese Shooting

Shooting has always been a passion of mine and some of my greatest memories have involved being out in the fields with an air rifle of some sort. In the days before I discovered lasses and ale, me and my mates would spend every spare moment hiding out in hedges and ditches waiting for rabbits or pigeons, or quite frankly, whatever happened our way. With our arsenal limited to air rifles, there wasn’t much scope for dog work. It might have been different if we’d had something that could have retrieved our quarry for us, but in those days we were using barely trained stumpy legged jack russell’s and when I say barely trained, I mean semi-feral! No, in those days our dog work and our shooting were strictly segregated. That’s not to say that the dogs didn’t come with us on the odd occasion, but when they did we would hardly ever get a shot off on a rabbit as these dogs would spend their time rooting around hedge backs and the rabbits that they did find and bolt where off on their toes pretty sharpish and the limits of an air rifle became apparent.

When I say that a shotgun has never really appealed to me, it might strike some of you as odd. I’ve had a fascination for most guns and I suppose that air rifles were readily available to us bairns. I remember the days when you used to be able to buy them out of my mam’s catalogue! Shotguns seemed the preserve of the farmers upon whose land we trespassed or the shots on the local estate and it was with this view that I went through most of adult life so far. It wasn’t until I got some local permission that I even thought of buying one. Shotguns just never entered my head and until my present situation arose, I would have gone through life quite happily without ever owning one.

Things changed when I got a call off a local farmer. This bloke had given me permission to shoot a few rabbits on his land and in passing, over a few jars no doubt, had mentioned me to one of his fellow farmers who just happened to have a problem with Canada geese. The question was posed as to whether I could do a job on them for him and the answer was a simple one as you can well imagine. Of course I could do a job for him. Whether or not I actually could was another question, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. There was only one way to find out and that was to get myself in gear and have a crack at them.

As I mentioned above, I was armed only with air rifles so it was with my trusty TX200HC that one Saturday morning in September found me sitting under a willow waiting for the flights to come in. As I sat there, I got to thinking that not a lot had changed since I’d been in my early teens. I was still kitted out in cheap army surplus and sat freezing and wet under a bloody tree even though 20 years had passed. As I started thinking that I must be mad, I could hear the distant honking of geese on their approach. This wiped my mind clean of all thoughts except those concerned with dropping a goose. Right on cue the geese circled the lake I was sat beside and started their dragging splash into the water. Straight away I realised I had a problem! As well as being dressed the same as I was 20 years ago, I was also in the same problem in regards to dog work. Whereas in the past this wasn’t really an issue, now it meant that short of wading in to pick up the dead birds, I had no way of retrieving the geese if I’d managed to get a shot off anyway. With no boat handy, this restricted my shooting considerably.

A few weeks passed and with the huge number of geese that were usually present, I was generally able to pick off one or two that were feeding on the grass by the edge of the water. This had the effect of really sharpening my stalking skills considerably as these geese were very quick to take to the wing when they felt I was getting too close. Stalking skills aside, I knew that I wasn’t taking that many birds and that sooner or later, someone was going to notice and that would be the end of my permission. This led me to approach the farmer concerning dog work.

I have a little Stafford/Patterdale cross who loves water and I’d seen her retrieve ducks when we’d been on our evening forays on the many local becks. I’ve lost count of the number of waterfowl she’s killed and brought back to me and it was with her in mind that I hatched my plan for eradicating the Canada geese. I needn’t have worried about the farmer’s response as he said that anything which helped me kill more geese was a good thing and off we went. There were still question marks about using the dog to retrieve as all she’d done in the past was rivers and streams and although some rivers were what you would call wide, they were still nothing compared to this lake. Again, I needn’t have worried as she took to it like, well like a duck to water, if you’ll excuse the awful pun.

Getting the geese back was now not a problem for me. What was still a problem was nailing them in the first place. A neck or head shot on a goose is going to mean a kill but when these birds have a huge expanse of water to play with, a head shot really isn’t that easy. There are people who would say that I had no business to be shooting geese with an air rifle but if I can bring down a rabbit, then I can certainly bring down a goose. Shot selection is all important and if you aren’t as certain as you can be about taking the shot, then don’t take it at all.

The bags we were getting were never what you would call huge, but we were making a dent in the population and the dog was getting some cracking exercise into the bargain. There’s not many ways I can write about a dog retrieving her quarry off a lake, but every time, without fail, the little bitch did her job. I would say though, her one fault in this department is that if she thinks that she is nearer the far bank than the one you are standing on, she occasionally takes the quarry the shorter distance, leaving you either fuming or laughing at her ways. This has never been a problem though and I’ve seen it happen maybe half a dozen times out of hundreds, which I am sure you’ll agree are good odds in anyone’s book.

Curiously enough, the thing that brought me more goose kills than ever before had nothing to do with shooting at all. It was all down to the 2005 Hunting Act and the banning of hunting foxes with dogs. To be on the safe side of the law, I applied for my shotgun certificate when the ridiculous law passed through parliament and it didn’t take me long to have my licence drop through the letterbox. With this in hand, I drove along to my local gun shop and about thirty minutes later I left armed with a 10 year old Beretta 686 Special along with assorted cartridges for all types of quarry.

It took a while to get used to the shotgun as the discipline of rifle shooting is vastly different from using a scattergun. The more practice I got, the better I became and whilst I would never call myself a good shot, I was getting the birds which meant that whilst not being classy, I was getting the only result that really matters. With a water dog in tow and a gun I couldn’t miss with, the numbers of geese were dwindling rapidly. Every weekend found us out on the water and the steel shot flying through the air. They say that swimming is an excellent form of exercise for man and dog, well all I can say is that my dog gets a hell of a lot of very good exercise!

The geese seemed to have disappeared for the time being which is just as well really as I was getting cocky when shooting them. I’d wait for them to settle on the pond and then see how many I could get with one barrel. The most I have got in the few times I had tried this was five, but I’ve no doubt that I could have got more if I’d kept on trying.

The ironic thing about this is that had there not been a hunting ban earlier this year, there would have been a lot more happy geese flying around the skies of Southern England. The shotgun, whilst never holding an interest for me before, has broadened my arsenal and enabled me to take greater numbers of game and vermin than ever before. I still like the air rifle and it will always be my first love when it comes to weapons, but when it’s a number game and you are employed in pest control, the shotgun is a useful tool. I urge anyone who hasn’t got one to consider applying for your license!

By Richard Christian

Safety is Between the Shooter’s Ears

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people get angry with me for liking guns. Apparently guns are too dangerous for any mortal being to have (at least according to them). However, most any object in the world is potentially dangerous; it’s just that guns have the potential for things to go wrong real fast.

However, they’re not inherently going to hurt someone. Many these days would think the primary cause for this is the mechanical safety, which may work in any number of ways, but all go to the same purpose: to keep the gun from firing when it isn’t supposed to.

However, the Boy Scouts has one of the best policies on gun safeties: don’t use them. They feel that using the safety teaches bad habits, such as leaving guns loaded when they shouldn’t be, or other things that can lead to someone being hurt. Because the safety can fail on its own, as it is a mechanical device, or the shooter can fail to put it all the way on.

In reality, safety is between a shooter’s ears. If you aren’t safe with a firearm, you shouldn’t be using one. Same with many other things that can cause things to go real bad real fast, such as automobiles, motorcycles, and airplanes. The only difference is that you don’t need a license to use a gun.

Gun safety is easy to learn. In fact, it’s real easy. And it’s vitally important. People are killed or wounded every year because they weren’t handling a gun safely. In fact, a family member of mine took a rifle bullet to side of his face when he was cleaning it and wasn’t being safe. He survived, but the scar is still there to this day.

The easiest to learn, and which works for most situations (although there is a system which is more detailed) is the NRA Gun Safety Rules. They are verbatim below from the NRA’s web site:

1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
This is the primary rule of gun safety. A safe direction means that the gun is pointed so that even if it were to go off it would not cause injury. The key to this rule is to control where the muzzle or front end of the barrel is pointed at all times. Common sense dictates the safest direction, depending on the circumstance.

2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
When holding a gun, rest your finger on the trigger guard or along the side of the frame. Do not touch the trigger until the gun is pointed down range and you are actually ready to fire.

3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.
Whenever you pick up a gun, immediately engage the safety device if possible and, if the gun has a magazine, remove it before opening the action and looking into the chamber(s) to verify that the gun is unloaded. If you do not know how to open the action or inspect the chamber(s), leave the gun alone and get help from someone who does.

The late Jeff Cooper added this important fourth point:
4. ALWAYS be sure of your target and what’s behind it.
Make sure nothing that you don’t want to shoot is in or behind the line of fire.

If you memorize and practice those four points of firearms safety you are unlikely to go too far wrong. The other school of thought is the Ten Commandments of Firearm Safety, which are more detailed but harder to memorize. Remington’s web site has an interactive of them, but here are short explanations of each.

1. Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

This is the same as for the NRA safety rules. Essentially, if the gun goes off, it won’t hurt anyone if it isn’t pointed at anyone.

2. Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use.

Same for the NRA safety rules. If a gun isn’t loaded, it won’t shoot.

3. Don’t rely on your gun’s safety.

As stated before, a safety is a mechanical device and can fail. You can also forget to put it on. In some cases it engenders bad habits that occasionally result in a tragedy.

4. Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.

In short, watch out for what’s behind what you’re shooting at. People miss, and bullets can over-penetrate. Make sure nothing that you don’t want to shoot is in the line of fire.

5. Use proper ammunition.

You can destroy your firearm or harm yourself or others if you don’t use the ammunition for which your gun was designed. Make sure the gun can stand the pressure of the cartridge you are firing in it. This is incredibly important for handloaders.

6. If your gun fails to fire when the trigger is pulled, handle with care.

If for some reason the cartridge doesn’t fire when you pull the trigger, stop and remember the 1st Commandment of Firearm Safety: always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. Keep your face away from the breech, then put the safety on, carefully open the action, unload the firearm and dispose of the cartridge safely. Remember that anytime there’s a shell in the chamber, your gun is loaded and ready to fire. Even if you tried to shoot and your gun didn’t fire, treat your firearm as if it could still discharge, because it can. (In fact, most mis-fires will go off if the hammer is dropped on them a second time.)

7. Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting.

Ever seen old shooters? Notice how they can’t hear anything your saying? This is because firearms are louder than human ears can handle without protection. Also, a shot can ricochet from downrange and come back and hit you in the eye–I’ve actually had a ricochet hit my shooting glasses! So do yourself a favor and protect your eyes and ears.

8. Be sure the barrel is clear of obstructions before shooting.

An obstruction in the barrel can turn a fun day at the range into a nightmare. It can stop a bullet halfway down the barrel and can cause the barrel or action to literally explode. Make sure you’ve got a clean barrel before you even think about putting a bullet in the chamber. And if you get a squib cartridge, or one that doesn’t feel or sound right, CHECK THE BARREL FOR AN OBSTRUCTION before firing the next round!

9. Don’t alter or modify your gun and have it serviced regularly.

Alterations in this sense don’t mean aesthetics, such as new stock and that sort of stuff. This means changes to the barrel and action. These can result in catastrophic failures. Also, clean your rifle and take it to a gunsmith every now and then to make sure it is still in good shape.

10. Learn the mechanical and handling characteristics of the firearm you are using.

Not all guns are alike. They have different mechanical characteristics that dictate how you should carry and handle them. Anyone who plans to own a firearm should first become totally familiar with the type of firearm it is and the safe handling procedures for loading, unloading, carrying, shooting and storage.

By Schuyler Barnum