Jump to content

Michigan Goose Hunting


Recommended Posts

I just bought my first firearm, an IZ-433 030-Type from Legion.

 

I was hoping to go Goose Hunting with it [in LP Michigan] but I don't know if that is legal.

 

Also unsure about legality of shooting Geese on the ground.

 

Any help?

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

You need to plug your magazine to hold two rounds. Its also required to shoot steel shot or other non-lead shot.

 

In MI there are set back requirements for hunting, something like 500 feet from residences.. DNR handbook gives most of that info.

 

Not sure about shooting them on the ground. Everyone I ever hunted with would blast them on the ground without hesitation... So I assumed that was legal.

I've never seen someone take one out of the air.. However I'd venture a guess that a 10 gauge with magnum loads would be logical for attempting such a feat.

 

One caution, my fathers neighbor tried to finish a goose with a knife, ended up with a broken nose, smashed fingers and a slashes all over.. The goose had to be shot again since the stabbing went so badly.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

What about if I had a 2-round box mag for my Saiga? Does that count or not? The mag counts as a 922® part so removing it is technically disassembling the weapon.

I tried e-mailing the DNR but I got no good answers.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah the 2 round magazines are fine. I just assumed you had the 5s and wanted to go hunting without buying something more.

 

The DNR are not going to know what a saiga shotgun is. They answer very basic questions about hunting only.

 

Two rounds in the magazine, one in the barrel = legal for hunting migratory birds.. And steel shot for all waterfowl even over land.

 

I'm not sure if this has changed since two years ago, but you need a waterfowl stamp (normally sold at the post office) and I think you also need a MI waterfowl licence in addition to the small game licences.. Unless they changed that. I only mention this because you asked about shooting them on the ground, so you probably have not done it in awhile.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Never done it before actually. I only ever fired a firearm 2 years ago, and only bought my first one [the Saiga] 2 weeks ago.

 

But if the two round mags are legal for waterfowl that saves me a lot of money and also lets me go hunting with my firearm I'm enjoying doting over customizing for comfort and higher performance.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I take my IZ-109 out small game hunting in Cheboygan county MI and have never had a problem with DNR.. My brother wants to take the Vepr-12 for a spin this fall and I may be using a MKA-1919.

 

Technically you can have a 3-0 magazine, which means the the magazine won't seat unless the bolt is open, or must be down loaded to two rounds. With a 3-0 magazine you can reload to full using the LRBHO, your gun may never hold 4 rounds. However if you get someone kinda slow it may be a problem since they are geared toward tube magazine guns. 

 

Overview of Other Regulations

Additional Federal and State regulations apply to waterfowl hunting, including those summarized below.

Illegal hunting methods. You cannot hunt waterfowl:

  • With a trap, snare, net, rifle, pistol, swivel gun, shotgun larger than 10 gauge, punt gun, battery gun, machine gun, fish hook, poison, drug, explosive, or stupefying substance.
  • From a sink box or any other low floating device that conceals you beneath the surface of the water.
  • From a motorboat or sailboat, unless you shut the motor off or furl the sail and the vessel is no longer in motion.
  • Using live birds as decoys.
  • While possessing any shot other than approved nontoxic shot.
  • From or by means, aid, or use of any motor vehicle, motor-driven land conveyance, or aircraft (if you are a paraplegic or are missing one or both legs, you may hunt from a stationary car or other stationary motor-driven land vehicle or conveyance).
  • Using recorded or electrically amplified bird calls or sounds, or imitations of these calls and sounds.
  • With a shotgun that can hold more than three shells, unless you plug it with a one-piece filler that cannot be removed without disassembling the gun.

(The latter two restrictions do not apply during light-goose-only seasons in certain authorized areas of the Central and Mississippi Flyways.)

 

http://www.fws.gov/le/waterfowl-hunting-and-baiting.html

 

There is nothing in the federal regulations about removable magazines, so to my untrained mind it says its fine.

 

Here is the MI DNR waterfowl regs. top of page 18 says pretty much the same thing. Be sure to read the entire set of hunting guides.

 

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/waterfowl_hunting_digest_465544_7.pdf

 

As for needing to "disassemble the gun to remove the plug", on my 870 you spin the magazine cap off, push down on the plug and twist 90 degrees and then let the plug slip out, then twist the cap back on. Total time is maybe 35-40 seconds. Just be sure you don't bring lead shot with you or any magazine that will allow your shotgun to exceed 3 rounds of total capacity. 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...

So now that I'm more or less set up to be able to Goose hunt, could anyone tell me how I know where to go? I've never gone hunting in my life and don't really know anyone offline who has. I live in the Dearborn, MI area, where is the closest place I could go to shoot a Goose?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Y'okay, I guess I'll ask it another way: Where can I hunt? Like is it literally just "500 feet from any building or road" or is there a website I can go to to know where Goose hunting is legal?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Try to find state forest land. Using google maps is useful, then try to find a body of water that is within the state land.

 

There are also state level hunting boards. Its possible to find someone that will let you tag along. However this is somewhat complicated.

Link to post
Share on other sites

new question: do you have to do anything legally after you grab the Goose you shot? I know you have to mark it with your name and license number but an that just be doodling those things on a piece of 8x11 printer paper to shove in the freezer with the dead birds?

Link to post
Share on other sites

new question: do you have to do anything legally after you grab the Goose you shot? I know you have to mark it with your name and license number but an that just be doodling those things on a piece of 8x11 printer paper to shove in the freezer with the dead birds?

You need to go get a hunting proclamation (where you get the license)

 

It has the rules in it 

Link to post
Share on other sites

It seems there's a lot of "maybe" answers.... go straight to the source. Nothing against anyone who has tried to help, but it also seems like there's a lot of non-Michigan people answering. I still have a hard time believing jdecko isn't a shill account, but that's a discussion for another day. 

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/waterfowl_hunting_digest_465544_7.pdf#page=4

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 11 months later...

Welp, I finally found a good place to hunt geese, I usually see a lot there within range [or what I think is range] however I haven't seemed to bring any down [besides one I thought I saw take a nose dive but it wasn't directly after I fired and fell into an off-limits area].

 

Now, I'm fully expecting the reason is because I'm shit at this, but I'm wondering if there is anything besides my being shit that might be the issue. I'm thinking if a couple pellets hit a goose [not enough to insta-kill it but still some hitting] I'd see feathers fly or something. Is that accurate? I'm wondering if special ammo like Winchester Blindside or Hevi Shot is actually worth the extra money but if I'm really not even getting an atom of steel into the geese there's no point in shooting more expensive rounds into the clear blue sky.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Have you patterned the load you are shooting with the choke you are using? You really need to know intimately what the max range you have a dense enough pattern is, and have some reasonable sense of how to lead a shot. Anything less is a sure way to wound animals.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm using my S12 so I'm just dealing with the choke as is. Likewise the geese have been coming at me at every different range so I'm not really sure what ranges I should be practicing at, like I can't really look at a goose flying by and go "that's 12 yards away... 13 yards now."

 

I've pretty much only practiced at self-defense ranges seeing what size hole it makes in paper, and I realized I tried to get up close on some geese flying by which means I was trying to hit them with a golf ball sized wad of steel at times.

 

But I'm glad to get an answer that its possible I'm not putting enough pellets in them to bring them down at the further ranges. How would I know if I'm hitting them, if there is any way to know? Like would there be some down loss, or distress honks?

Link to post
Share on other sites

get some large paper targets and mark off 15,25,35,45 yards and see what the pattern is on you gun.

 

I had to do away with the factory choke to hunt waterfowl with my saiga.

​went with the polychoke...
 

that being said,,,,, I only use the saiga over decoys ... in close...   good luck...

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Generally speaking with a shotgun anything more than 40 yards with a good choke is risky. Without a choke you are limited to more like 20 or 30 yards with the 30 being a little risky with the best shells.

 

It is hard to estimate the range, normally you will see the edges of the body feathers appear inside of 30 yards.

 

http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/hunting/waterfowl-hunting-tip-how-judge-distance

 

My uncle used to hunt geese with some regularity before steel shot, and used a 10 gauge with something like 2 1/2 ounce loads of #4, and said it was tough to take them down.. Many of the shells marketed to duck hunters have really low pellet counts, so the only way to make them work is to get them to pattern really well.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I think my issue might just be wiffing the shots completely since I don't think any of the geese where that far away. Where I'm at there is a lot of waist-deep water and I don't have waders so I don't take that many long shots. I've had geese fly directly over my head so the issue might be either that my cheek riser on my SVD stock makes it hard to see my back iron sight and/or me being bad at leading them. 

 

I mean I could be hitting them a little, a large flock of mallard ducks flew by and i fired right into the center of the flock and a bunch hit the brakes in the air and turned to face me right where I'd shot but none dropped [this was with 3in 1 1/8oz Winchester Super-X BB shot]. I'm starting to think these guys are like little A-10 Thunderbolt IIs...

Link to post
Share on other sites

One of your responsibilities when hunting is to make clean, humane kills. Don't just take potshots and hope you hit something. The idea is to take the game quickly without making it suffer. Sloppy shooting is torture.

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

Every shot i take I fully expect a goose to drop. Ironically its the 20-40 yard shots I haven't taken because I thought I'd just be wasting my dollar worth of steel and plastic, as well as the fact of not knowing where they land if I did hit them at that range. I'm sure if someone else found my place they'd have have their daily limit of two in 15 minutes. Hell, a dog with a good vertical leap could've gotten a few. I had some where I could see the definition of their chest feathers.

 

One of my coworkers said to think of them like tanks and not to shoot them head-on if they are heading right at me, but wait until they pass by so the shot can more easily get into them by going under their down.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Chatbox

    Load More
    You don't have permission to chat.
×
×
  • Create New...