Back in business ?

[fabsroman]

Pretty much what these guys have said.

What you need to do is to get out and start hunting. If you cannot afford top line equipment and ammunition, use whatever you can as long as you are out hunting. Over time, you will learn what the limitations of the guns and shells are.

Me, I just re-learned a lesson I learned several years ago. No long shots with Remington Sportsman Steel. I went hunting last weekend and killed 4 of the 5 geese we downed, and some were pretty long shots. However, none of them came down dead, even a close one, and one of them I hit twice just to see it fly low to the ground with its feet down for well over 500 yards until it fell in a hedge row. Never found that one. Those shells were the only thing I had to use because I hadn't been planning on hunting that day. I got a call from a friend while I was out at dinner Friday night and he wanted to hunt on Saturday. So, who am I to say no.

Regarding the chokes, there is no simple solution other than patterning the gun. I finally did it myself about 3 years ago because I had one heck of a time with a Patternmaster choke tube and some wounded ducks. Found out that steel 4's pattern like crap out of that tube, but hevi-shot 4's pattern extremely tight. Going to the skeet range might be okay, but breaking a clay target with 2 or 3 pellets is a lot different than having multiple strikes on a duck.

Before I got the Patternmaster tube, I used modified for 6 or 7 years in my Benelli for everything that I hunted from doves to geese and from 7 1/2 shot to T shot.

I hope you have a great time this season. We can always use more sportsmen out there even though we sometimes do not act like it when we come across them in our neck of the woods.