Favorite duck and goose loads

[wyatt20019]

Going to try and get into some duck and goose hunting up here around Lubbock. What are yalls favorite loads in 12GA 3" shells?

[Tspurgin26]

BB for me and 3 and a half inch never know when some cranes or high flying geese will fly over

[trophy8]

any #2 or #4 shot steel for normal ducks. it doesnt take huge shells to kill ducks....

for cranes and geese i will step it up to #2 or bigger 3" or 3.5" and a full choke for high flyers

usually just buy winchester

[westtexducks]

Killed a lot of ducks with the winchester xpert steel 3" #2 shot. For cranes, 3.5" T shot will smokem. Have also heard of people shooting the cranes with #4 buck.

[chase15]

Killed a lot of birds with Kent 3" #4.

[Matthew]

3.5" #3's

[Statton48]

Why does a lot of people shoot 3.5's? I would buy a few boxes of shells and see what patterns best at different distances with different chokes. As far as ducks and geese go, I knock them both dead with 3" #2's. and honestly like the Winchester experts over a lot of the high dollar brands. Only expensive shell I like is rem. hypersonic steel.

[iamntxhunter]

Hunting over small stock tanks I will use Remington Sportsman 2 3/4" in a #4 they are usually so close I don't need a really good gun/choke combo however they shoot pretty good out of my gun.
Larger bodies of water where my shots may be another 10-15 yards I will usually use Federal or Dry Lok in a 3" #2 as they seem to hold a better pattern with my gun/choke combo.
I would buy a couple of different boxes at a time as you use them up and see which ones seem to pattern better out of your gun/choke.

[BBReezen]

Killed a lot of ducks with the winchester xpert steel 3" #2 shot. For cranes, 3.5" T shot will smokem. Have also heard of people shooting the cranes with #4 buck.

That's what I always used for the ducks. Good loads. Would use BB or BBB for geese if I could find the latter. Yep, buckshot works great for cranes because it's lead and it's legal

Just don't be a macho man and shoot 3.5" 2 oz loads. OUCH!

[dclifton]

Killed a lot of birds with Kent 3" #4.

^^^^ this

Kent fasteel is the best steel shot for the money IMO. In fact it's about the best steel shot period. 2s and 4s are good.

Rio royal blue steel is also good when ur shooting snows and stuff and need a cheaper shell

And if it strictly cranes in a field then buckshot or prairie storm works really good!!

[trophy8]

oh i forgot about kent. good shells the few times i used them!!

[bboswell]

Wife and I both shoot 3-1/2" guns but we both kill more geese with 3" BBB's than anything in 3-1/2".

Teal season we shoot 3" #4's, rest of the season we shoot mostly " #2's or #4's if they are decoding good.

[wyatt20019]

Thanks guys. The Browning A500 gold il be using will only take up to a 3" so the 3.5"s won't do. But il be sure to try out the others mentioned. shot dove all my life so duck and geese are a new thing to me, can't wait till season gets closer! Buddies went out last weekend and limited out on teal.

[panhandlehunter]

I shoot 3 1/2 BB during big duck season and 3 1/2 #3 during early teal in Kent Fasteel. During big duck season we shoot geese regularly so I just shoot BB for everything.

[talltexasshoote]

Winchester xpert 3" no 2 is my go to shell for almolst everything. Through my IM I get 92 percent of the pellets in a 30 inch circle at 30 yards. I have killed hogs, turkeys, pheasant, cranes, geese, ducks, and one coyote who believed the decoys were real with this load. They are affordable and work great.