You've shot hundreds of birds over ten years
My guys shot 328 just this season.
Htl loads are prohibitively expensive. I buy steel by the case.
Hesse aren't harder to kill, but they are much more call any and decoy wary. And recoil in modern autos is zilch. My Gold ten is like a 20 gauge
The group I hunt with is headed up by my buddy who owns three farms on the Eastern Shore, bought mainly for goose hunting. We have 11 pits and and a half dozen permanent blinds set up, not to mention the portable blinds. The group (including guests) passed the 500 mark a couple weeks before season's end but I don't know the final tally. My personal score is lower than some because my arthritis started to dictate my times in pits starting about ten years ago.
Out of the eight "regulars", one insists on using a Mag10 and steel mainly because he's one of those guys that has to be bigger than life in everything: an F350, 5000sq.ft. house, .300 Weatherby for deer, etc.- you know the type- and coincidentally he's about the worst shot I ever knew. An other guy uses a Benelli 3 1/2" because all the magazines tell him it's the best tool for the job. His kills are in the basement too. The rest of the guys woke up to reality and pile up the birds.
Most of us reload, and load stuff like ITX #2's by the case. Cheaper than steel? No, but not as crazy expensive as factory loads and just as effective. I stand by my statement that a couple bucks per shot per bird is still not worth talking about when considering the godawful costs a dedicated hunter can rack up in a season- even in a honey hole like ours.
Birds are warier now? Maybe so. Fewer birds? Definitely. But immaterial to the discussion when the hunter is skilled at calling, the blinds are skilfully built, and the adjoining river is black with geese as dawn breaks.
