yotebuster

This stuff is great in the .300 RUM!!!

Black cloud is good stuff. Wish they made the flight control wad without the flight stopper pellets though. Those things rip the heck out of the meat. Unnecessary in my opinion since most all waterfowl dies from a broken wing or a head or neck shot. If they’re close you can body kill them, but if they’re close you don’t need the fancy pellets either.

One more tip, especially for sub guages. Watch Roger’s and Midway in February and march. They will have some fantastic closeouts on 20 and 28ga bismuth (steel as well if that’s your go to). I have never paid more then $1.10-1.25 a shell for my bismuth and most of it has been less then $1 a shell. If you buy steel at retail you will be right in the same price range.

Boss bismuth is what I shoot for 95% of what I do. #6 out of my 28ga with an extra full choke. Patterns extremely well and will absolutely crush anything you put the pattern on out to 50 yards. I have never understood stacked loads. I think they’re mostly a sales gimmick. If you ever watch ultra slow footage of a shot column, it strings due to weight and aerodynamic differences in pellets. Everyone wants a short shot string, even to the point where guys somehow thing a 3.5” vs 2.75” shell will string more or less. The truth is, that doesn’t matter (well it makes 3/4” difference I guess) what does matter is misshapen pellets or miss sized pellets. They will string your shot out 15 feet plus at distance. When you do a stacked load, you’re guaranteeing a long strung out shot string, and costing yourself a lot of pellets with having the larger pellets in there, if the smaller ones will do the job at given distance.

This is an awesome post! Glad to see he’s getting after it. If you’re really wanting to get technical, pattern those 4’s and see what’s up. A 4 shot steel has more than enough energy to break a wing or neck or skull on any duck out there to 50 yards. Most guys switch to bigger pellets when they really need to go the other directions. I shoot 6 and 7 shot steel and bismuth most of the season here in ND. I’ll drop to 5’s if the wind is really blowing. Use 3’s and 4’s for geese. I never go bigger than 3’s for anything. I’ve watched a 3 shot steel pellet break a wing on a goose at 75+ yards many many times. Wingshooting is all about one pellet doing the work, if that one pellet has the energy at a given range, then don’t go any bigger as all that does is cut your odds of a pellet finding a home. You don’t kill ducks and geese with body shots, unless they’re real close, in that case any pellet will work. If you take some BB’s and 4’s to a patterning board at 40 yards it’ll open your eyes as to how important pattern density is. I have far far fewer cripples since ive moved to smaller shot. If i were to offer one piece of advice to him, it would be to take that big fiber bead off the gun. I take all the beads off all my guns, you need to be looking at the bird not the bead and that big bead will completely block it out. The old saying is “if you’re seeing the bead you’re aren’t seeing the bird” and I cant agree with that more.

long range hunting.com forums classifieds have some great deals on really nice custom rifles occasionally. Whenever a buddy of mine is looking to get in the LR game I just watch on there for a bit and find them a $5-6k build for $2500-3k. Miles better then the so called “custom” rifles that Fierce, Seekins, or god forbid Christenson offer for the same price.

You took your 1/4 measurements way too far up. I would say G&F are about right on with this one. 34” divided by 4 is 8.5”.

PM’d ya. I’ll take it

This HiLo guy looks like a real world class a55hat too. I think I’d rather go with Wards and not kill a crane then promote this d!ckwad.

heck, I’ll throw $4k toward someone with 23 or 24 points to hold my hand through the elk lottery this year.

I’m wondering if that’s private that Wards has leased? If that’s public ground, then yes I agree. Driving around for one morning would tell you exactly what you needed to know, and then just go get hid in the desert and wait for a flock to come over if you’re pass shooting.

The cranes he has on video are about 70-90 yards high. They can be killed at that distance if they’re straight above you, but there’s no way in heck they would ever fly over anyone that was hiding as poorly as he was.

Cranes can see better than a turkey or coues deer any day.

The decoys I have are $120 apiece. If someone shoots them their invite goes away in a hurry 😂. Short of juvenile birds, or an occasional day where the sun is just right, they’re smart enough where they don’t usually land in the decoys too often. It’s insane how good they can see. Even up here in ND they are so smart and wary. I guess that’s why I love hunting them so much.

Homeboy had sights on his shotgun. I knew he wasn’t gonna get one the second I saw that.

Usually steel 2 or 3 shot. We have to use steel here in ND. If I could shoot lead I’d shoot 4’s. If they’re real high pass shooting like in the video, lead BB’s would probably be pretty wicked but overkill. I’ve been on a 28ga kick the last 4-5 years and use #4 bismuth for them now. It’ll fold em up like a cheap suit to 50 yards. If it’s long pass shooting I’ll break out the #7 shot TSS and that’ll smash them way further then I wanna even say on here. The take home is cranes are really easy to kill. If you are struggling it’s because they’re too far or you’re missing, likely the latter.

God that’s hard to watch. I’m not sure if their guide didn’t tell them or if they chose not to listen, but they weren’t even in the ballpark of being hid well enough. I’ve killed hundreds of cranes, and you need some type of barrier between you and them, rock pile, fence line, or a blind of some sort. I got a kick out of him saying how they were coming right at them and then decided to turn at 500 yards. They were 100% flaring off them, and will easily do it at 500 yards. Pass shooting isn’t a bad way to go, but you need to hide, and let them get to you. Those first cranes they were shooting at were honestly probably low enough to kill if they came directly over the top of you, but those never made it even close to their line as they saw them way before they were close enough. Cranes are super easy to kill. They have thin feathers compared to ducks and geese and are all head, neck and wing so there’s a big target. I could see where there’d be frustration with the guide if it was sold as a decoy hunt, but ended up being a pass shoot. That being said, despite having $4000 worth of full body crane decoys in my trailer, I pass shooting them a fair bit, it can be an extremely effective way to kill them. You aren’t going to get cranes to commit right into a spread of silhouette decoys, they will as a rule flair about 100-120 yards out, even if you’re hid well, so I don’t think it’s even a real great option unless you’ve got great decoys.

You really gotta get something more substantial to protect that scope bro.

What’s the twist on this thing?

The problem is a VX6 is like a $2k+ scope now, and it won’t track. No excuse for that.

Aging sheep off of their horn annuli is much much more accurate then cementum annuli.

Agreed. I’ve had 3 different vx6’s and none would track. For what they cost, you’re a few hundred bucks off from a good used or demo S&B, TT, or a new swaro.

I feel like the trade offs for FFP are much too great unless you are using subtensions for your shots. I won’t own a FFP scope. I don’t do competitions or games, just hunt. Here is my list of pros for a FFP 1: subtensions are the same at all powers here is my list of cons 1: reticle is way too small at low power and hard to see in low light (hence why almost all FFP are illuminated) 2: reticle is way too thick at high power (when you need it fine). 3: subtensions make a reticle “busy”. People that don’t shoot a lot (often my guns are used by friends and family) get distracted by them, heck even I do when I get really excited. I personally look for SFP scopes with a “clean” reticle. I prefer Schmidt and benders D4 reticle or a plain duplex. I dial every shot. If there isn’t time then I don’t shoot. If it’s under 300 yards my turret is set to 2 MOA so I can hold right on and shoot like any other rifle. SFP isn’t tactiCOOL, but I would argue a majority of guys that own FFP bought them because it’s just what the world told them was best and have no idea how to use the subtensions nor the skill to do it quickly if needed. There are certainly plenty of guys out there that understand them and use them but I would be it’s a minority.

What bottom metal is that and what diameter are the rings?

Whatdya gotta have for it without the scope?