A hunt that you make it back to the truck is always a success. X10 to the guys that fight rattlers, copperhead, and cotton mouth for the best tree to lean against.
Everyday Hunter, I respect your limits on shooting both near and far. Nobody believes that the can miss at 5 yards until they do it twice.
tzone, I'm with you to. I burnt a lot of Federal HW #7 on paper this year. There was 3 birds killed with my little 20ga this year. Mine was at 58 yards and folded without a flop. Skinning showed the neck bones busted in 3 places and 38 holes in the head and neck. And even at that range that little #7 had enough energy to bust the larger wing bone. Second bird, the one that took 3 years and 19 hunts was hammered at 18yards and damn near took out 3" of neck. Last bird was a spot and stalk. I thought they were within 30 yards of the old pond bank. I told my buddy who was on his second hunt for anything to walk up over the rise and when the head popped up to plant the dot and hit the trigger. He did just that but the toms had made it a little farther out. Results were the same, folded but gave 2 wing flaps and nothing more. That one ended up at 55 yards.
Sense then I've been putting out crow decoys at 50 to 70 yards and it flattens them. This goose season I'll really test them out. When my buddy wings one with his 3 1/2" 10ga and it hits the water swimming at 50 I'll let him waste 3 more of his spendy rounds then calmly pick the 20ga up and kill it at 60+ yards.
Last edited by Les7603006; 06/02/16. Reason: I'm good at math nit speeling
