How to Trick Out Your Shotgun for Snow Goose Hunting
Trick out your 12-gauge to drop more white geese.
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When there are 300 snow geese settling into your spread and 2,000 more circling above, it’s great that extended magazines are legal during the spring conservation order. But only if your gun has one. Here’s how to choose it and make several other easy tweaks to transform your standard 12-gauge into the ultimate snow goose gun—for less than $300.
1) Tube Top-Off
For every shotgun make and model there are several options, but I went with a plus-six-round Briley shotgun magazine extension ($95; briley.com) for my Franchi Affinity because it’s made well and reasonably priced. The 6061 aluminum is rigid and sturdy but doesn’t weigh a ton. You may not always connect on that 10th shot, but you’ll feel like a Terminator when you’re swinging nearly half a box of shells.
2) Long Game
Snow geese are wary, so plan on long shots. For $85, Custom Gun Works Inc. will fit your barrel with a Drakekiller choke (drakekiller.com) custom-made to match your gun’s exact bore diameter and designed for denser, far-out patterns with waterfowl loads like No. 2s and BBs that will help you drop geese at 50 yards or more. To keep those patterns on target, I topped off my barrel with an extra-bright HiViz CompSight ($42; hivizsights.com).
3) White Out
To take the glare off a blued or polished gun, try Gun Skins from Mossy Oak. These precut vinyl camo kits with matte finishes don’t cost much. For snow geese, I recommend the Winter Brush pattern ($30; mossyoakgraphics.com). To apply it, you’ll need an X‑Acto knife for trimming, a heat gun or hair dryer for forming the material in recessed areas, and a free afternoon.
4) Get The Hang
Don’t mount a sling stud at the end of a magazine extension unless you want your 12-gauge to carry like a longbow. Instead, get a Choate Magazine Tube Extension Sling Swivel Base Clamp ($10; midwayusa.com), which connects barrel to tube above the fore-end, providing a reasonable attachment point and more rigidity to the extended mag. Finish with a quality sling, like the Avery Power Hunter ($20; averyoutdoors.com), and you’re ready to tote your tricked-out snow slayer.
