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In my bygone days hunting Southern Oregon, I was a bird hunting fanatic. Being raised just fifteen minutes drive from the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge, of Pacific Flyway fame, I was hooked!
In those days we hunted waterfowl with lead shot, and I quickly became addicted to Lead #2's for pass shooting the abundant geese of the basin. I had a pet load of Winchester 540, a WW12R wad and CCI 157primers (now discontinued), in Remington SP cases (discontinued also), with 1 1/2 oz. #2 shot out of my Remington 1100 and 870 2 3/4" guns (3" 12ga were just being introduced to the public).
One day while sitting in the goose blind when nothing was flying, a coyote put a sneak on my decoys. Letting him get to sixty yards, he figured out that my Johnson Folder's weren't goose dinner. I popped up and let drive with a load of those 2's. To my amazement he just flipped over and twitched once or twice and his account was settled! (I was elated, as at the time coyotes were bringing ๠-๯ for prime fur).
When I skinned, fleshed and stretched that yellow dog, I was pleased that I didn't have any holes that needed sewing up. I also found that the bulk of those 2's PASSED ALL THE WAY THROUGH HIM! This began some rather serious experimentation.
After many coyote harvests using my pet load of 2's, which reliably rolled yotes out to 55 yards, I was hooked, especially when calling in close quarters. Here in the Idaho Panhandle, most of the calling we do is in fairly thick brush and timber... the shotgun with 2's is all you need.
Me, being hooked on the Savage 24's like my .223 Improved over 20ga for this work. With a 1 1/4 oz load of 2's in the 3" 20ga. I get nearly identical performance as that older 12 ga load mentioned, just with a longer shot string, which doesn't hurt on coyotes that are spooked and running. The single shot doesn't render a handicap either, since you only get one shot in our thick cover anyhow.
If you haven't given 2's a try for preditor calling, consider it... it sure beats sewing up bullet holes!
The only down side to this is that factory loaded shecks with #2 shot are getting nearly impossible to find, since waterfowling has all gone to steel shot. For those of us who load our own... good luck finding a bag of 2's! I'm running on my last bag that's nearly 20 years old (coyotes and feral dogs are all I use them on), and haven't been able to locate any for some time.
Well, if you have some 2's, the best use I can think of for them is on yellow dogs!
God Bless,
Marshall
In those days we hunted waterfowl with lead shot, and I quickly became addicted to Lead #2's for pass shooting the abundant geese of the basin. I had a pet load of Winchester 540, a WW12R wad and CCI 157primers (now discontinued), in Remington SP cases (discontinued also), with 1 1/2 oz. #2 shot out of my Remington 1100 and 870 2 3/4" guns (3" 12ga were just being introduced to the public).
One day while sitting in the goose blind when nothing was flying, a coyote put a sneak on my decoys. Letting him get to sixty yards, he figured out that my Johnson Folder's weren't goose dinner. I popped up and let drive with a load of those 2's. To my amazement he just flipped over and twitched once or twice and his account was settled! (I was elated, as at the time coyotes were bringing ๠-๯ for prime fur).
When I skinned, fleshed and stretched that yellow dog, I was pleased that I didn't have any holes that needed sewing up. I also found that the bulk of those 2's PASSED ALL THE WAY THROUGH HIM! This began some rather serious experimentation.
After many coyote harvests using my pet load of 2's, which reliably rolled yotes out to 55 yards, I was hooked, especially when calling in close quarters. Here in the Idaho Panhandle, most of the calling we do is in fairly thick brush and timber... the shotgun with 2's is all you need.
Me, being hooked on the Savage 24's like my .223 Improved over 20ga for this work. With a 1 1/4 oz load of 2's in the 3" 20ga. I get nearly identical performance as that older 12 ga load mentioned, just with a longer shot string, which doesn't hurt on coyotes that are spooked and running. The single shot doesn't render a handicap either, since you only get one shot in our thick cover anyhow.
If you haven't given 2's a try for preditor calling, consider it... it sure beats sewing up bullet holes!
The only down side to this is that factory loaded shecks with #2 shot are getting nearly impossible to find, since waterfowling has all gone to steel shot. For those of us who load our own... good luck finding a bag of 2's! I'm running on my last bag that's nearly 20 years old (coyotes and feral dogs are all I use them on), and haven't been able to locate any for some time.
Well, if you have some 2's, the best use I can think of for them is on yellow dogs!
God Bless,
Marshall
