How to Shoot Geese

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mitch Sanchotena of Middleton, Idaho, a longtime goose hunter and a pro staffer for Knight and Hale Game Calls, enjoys hunting geese in the Snake River valley in southern Idaho.

Question: Mitch, what's the biggest mistake most people make when geese are coming in, as far as taking the geese?
Answer: The goose is a really big bird. When you've got a bird with a 4-1/2- to 5-foot wingspan, and it's all stretched out in that cupped-up position coming in against nothing but open sky, it's a pretty good-looking critter. When he's at 60 yards, it looks like he's almost on top of you. One of the sins we all make in our excitement is jumping up a little early and trying to shoot the bird at 50 or 60 yards.

Question: Where do you like your geese?
Answer: I like my geese at 35 to 40 yards before I shoot.

Question: What shot are you shooting?
Answer: I'm shooting my Ithaca Mag 10 with 1-5/8 ounce of Ts.

Question: Why do you like the 10-gauge?
Answer: Well, if they made an 8-gauge, I'd like that, too. I read someplace years ago -- maybe it's applicable to steel shot and maybe it isn't -- that the ideal shotgun shell will allow you to take a 1-5/8-ounce load and set every pellet side to side so you never have to stack pellets on top of each other. When it left the barrel, it all left as one even column. I like the 10-gauge because it's the largest-diameter shell I can get, and I believe there's less squeezing, fewer pellets bouncing around and fewer problems. I've got a 3-1/2-inch 12-gauge. Personally, I think it's effective as a 3-inch gun but is totally ineffective as a 3-1/2-inch gun. I think you're trying to put a 10-gauge load down a 12-gauge barrel.

Question: Why do you like Ts instead of BBs?
Answer: If I was hunting over open water, I'd probably use BBs or, at the very most, triple-B. Crippled birds over big water are a nightmare for the hunter. Yesterday, the crippled birds we had down in swift water and couldn't kill were virtually impossible for the dogs to retrieve. When I'm hunting over fields, I like Ts. I said I like to have my birds at 35 yards, but if they're only going to come to 60 yards, I'm not opposed to shooting them at that distance. If we break a wing on a bird in a field, we're not going to walk out and pick it up. It's not like yesterday on the water when we broke a wing and we couldn't get to the bird. So even though we give up a lot of pattern density with the larger shot, we increase our down-range energy of that larger pellet. Bringing down a bird at 60 yards with a broken wing is still a bird in the hand in the field.

Question: You brought your dog, Char, today. Why do you like a dog in a goose field?
Answer: We don't use a dog in most fields. Today we're hunting on a big farm that contains fence rows, ditch banks and canals. When they hit the ground, they take off on a low crawl and always seem to crawl into some cover. I hope my dog is well behaved enough that she's not going to mess us up today and actually will be an asset. If we have to walk a quarter of a mile to retrieve a goose that has tucked itself into a bunch of cover, then we're not going to be able to find it. But my dog will be able to find it.

Question: You bought your dog at what age?
Answer: I bought her when she was 7 weeks old.

Question: Why did you decide to have her trained instead of training her yourself?
Answer: That's what a pro trainer does. It's kind of like working on your own car: You may keep it running, but it's a miserable devil to put up with most of the time. Dog training is a matter of consistency and patience. You can bring that animal along in 15 or 20 minutes a day, but it has to be every day. In our diverse lifestyles as outdoorsmen and family folks, sometimes giving your dog 15 minutes every day. What you did yesterday needs to be repeated today, and what you do today needs to be repeated tomorrow. Pretty quick, your buddies want you to go on a fishing trip, so Rover doesn't get 15 minutes today. Tomorrow, your wife has something for you to do, and Rover doesn't get 15 minutes tomorrow, either. The training falls off because you're off doing something else. Then hunting season comes, and we go out and holler, kick and scream at the dog because we think it's the dog's fault. But it's really our fault because we didn't make the three- or four-month commitment that was necessary to bring that animal along.

To have the best-trained animal you can is fair to the dog, and definitely fair to your hunting buddies. In my case, sending a dog to a professional trainer so he can dedicate that 15 minutes a day and get a finished product is best. Then all I have to do is some maintenance.