| In part one of this series you learned a little bit | | | | balls referred to as shot. If you have not heard |
| about geese and flyways. Now that you have | | | | of birdshot or buckshot, be assured you will at |
| some basic background information, its time to | | | | some point on your goose hunting adventure. |
| add to it so your tall goose hunting tales, that is | | | | There are numerous types of shells, some with |
| to say the lies you decide to tell, will have an air | | | | larger shot some with smaller shot. It stands to |
| of credibility to them. Nothing is more obvious to | | | | reason, there is less shot in a shell if the shot is |
| someone who is familiar with firearms than the | | | | larger, and more if it is smaller. Shotgun shells also |
| babbling nonsense of someone who has actually | | | | vary in their overall length. Similar to bullets, a |
| never touched a gun but speaks as though they | | | | longer shell allows for essentially more powder, |
| single handedly tamed the frontier with one. You | | | | which translates to the ability to fire the shot |
| do not need to be an expert on nomenclature or | | | | faster and achieve a higher distance. This is |
| ballistics, but you must know some basic | | | | particularly relevant when goose hunting as geese |
| differences. | | | | will be flying overhead. A shorter shell with a |
| In general there are two types of long guns, the | | | | smaller load will not do as good of a job as a |
| rifle and the shotgun. A rifle shoots bullets that | | | | longer shell with a larger load with respect |
| vary in size or caliber. Caliber is a measure of the | | | | assisting your goose dinner in falling from the sky. |
| diameter or the bullet, the larger the caliber of | | | | When spinning your yarns about goose hunting, or |
| gun, the larger the bullet diameter that is fired | | | | preparing for your first goose hunting adventure. |
| from the gun. In addition, some cartridges are | | | | Do not get too carried away with the overall |
| longer or larger then others and basically house | | | | fanciness of the shotgun you use, or claim to |
| more gun powder which correlates to the speed | | | | have used. There are many very nice guns on |
| at which the bullet leaves the barrel of the rifle | | | | the market, but try to keep things simple. A |
| after the trigger is pulled. If you regale your | | | | semi-automatic or gas gun is nice, but a regular |
| audience with tales about your goose hunting trip | | | | pump action works fine too. There are great |
| and the rifle that you used, you run a real risk of | | | | side-by-side or over-under guns, but reloading |
| being exposed as a blow-hard as goose hunting is | | | | these in a blind can be a bit difficult, particularly if |
| done with a shotgun. A shotgun fires shells that | | | | you are not experienced with these types of |
| vary in size or gauge. The smaller the number | | | | guns. If you do not know what reloading in a blind |
| associated with the gauge, the larger the | | | | means fear not, it will be covered later in this |
| diameter of the shotgun shell. By far the most | | | | series. Whatever type of gun you decide to use, |
| popular size shotgun is the twelve gauge, its shells | | | | make sure it will hold longer shells and that you |
| are smaller than a ten or eight gauge, but larger | | | | are all allowed to use the gun in its configuration |
| than a sixteen or four-ten. | | | | under the state laws where you are hunting. |
| Shotgun shells are loaded with several small metal | | | | |