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My youngest daughter bagged a magpie goose on the wing with a CBC .410 I had cut down to fit her at age 12. Her "job" at that time was to tidy up the occasional "walking wounded" by putting a pattern of lead fours on the head and neck, a responsibility that taught careful assessment of the surrounding area for possible other hunters, good timing, and accurate pattern placement. On that particular day, we were standing in tall bull-rushes and the birds were flying low and slow directly over us, fighting a headwind. I allowed her a shot, with instruction on swinging the muzzle through the bird from behind, and getting at least a gun-length in front before firing, on the contention that a miss in front was preferably to a late body strike with fours. The bird threw its head back and divotted-in breast-first right at our feet! Proud dad moment! Not long after that, minimum calibre rules prohibited the .410 for waterfowl in the NT, something the mandating of steel shot a couple of years later would have accomplished just as surely. By this time my girl had graduated to the 12-bore anyway! |