We all know him: the infamous sky-blaster. “I’ve got the extended choke in today;” “I’ve been knocking birds at 70 this season:” or “I thought they were in range.” Sky-blasting is when hunters shoot at birds that are far out of effective killing range—for most this is past 50 yards. Sure, everyone has seen someone drop a bird at head-scratching distances, but how practical is it actually. The truth is, it’s not practical and is bad form, too. Sky-blasting usually happens when birds just don’t want to work the spread, have out-smarted you, or caught you off guard.

Here are some reasons why you shouldn’t be sky-blasting.

1. Wounding Birds: At long ranges, think out past 60 yards, the chances of killing your target bird become very low. Your shot spread has lost a great deal of its killing power and is widely disperse-- that is also assuming you’ve accounted for the drop in elevation of your spread. Even if you do happen to get lucky and connect some bbs to that escaping goose or duck, you’re most likely not going to kill it but even worse, cripple it. Crippled birds can and will continue to fly a decent way, making recovery even less probable. So that hero shot at the goose 70 yards away will most likely result in a goose belly up in the reservoir a mile away.

2. Educating Birds: When you pop out of your hide and unload on a group wayy up overhead—if you don’t get lucky or wound a bird—all you’re doing is educating them. Waterfowl are smarter than we, as hunters, oftentimes give them credit for. So, when birds are working a decoy spread but are shot at out of range, all you’re doing is associating danger with decoys, blinds, human movement, and any other unnatural factor of hunting. Birds will pick up on this and learn from your sky-blasting.

3. Taking Opportunities Away from Other Hunters: most waterfowl hunters are not lucky enough to hunt private land and grind out their season on public hunting areas. Public waterfowl hunters are already competing against each other, which at times can be just a hundred, or so, yards away. Those sky-blasters are spoiling opportunities for other hunters.

4. You’re Wasting Your Shells: if the aforementioned reasons are not enough to dissuade you from sky-blasting, maybe your wallet can. Sure, who doesn’t love unloading their shotgun on a flock of birds. But, when you’re coughing up the extra dough for premium shells, such as Apex’s TSS blends, you expect to knock a bird with each shot—well maybe two out of three. When you sky-blast, you’re wasting several dollars on each shot. Even with more affordable shells, sky-blasting will add up, especially over the course of a season. I for sure can think of some hunting gear I could buy with an extra 20-40 bucks.

Finally, If you sky-blast, you’re most likely to wound birds, educate the local population, take away opportunities from other hunters, waste money, AND take a lot of heat from your buddies. With the current downward trend in hunting participation, we as hunters have to do whatever we can encourage more participation. Sky-blasting will not help that goal. So, as goose seasons are coming to a close, keep some of these reasons not to sky-blast in mind.

*Disclaimer: ignore these thoughts for Spring Conservation Season*

*Click on Will to find him on Instagram*

Sky Blasting

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