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Originally Posted by marky_mark
The 3 1/2 was made to deal with the short comings of the non toxic steel ammo
Ammo has gotten better but its still not as good as lead.
I guarantee you, that if 4 guys go out on a goose hunt
All have the same shooting ability
2 are shooting 2 3/4
2 are shooting 3 1/2
The 3 1/2 guys will get the vast majority of the birds
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Actually, while the first steel shotshells were very poor, recent steel loads are greatly improved. With modern wads and chokes, patterns are now much better, and the velocities have increased, which makes the lighter pellets much more effective than they used to be. While still not as effective as lead, it is adequate if the shooter restricts the shooting ranges to ranges where the steel shot is effective. If you shoot at distances where the steel shot doesn't penetrate to the vitals, then throwing an extra 1/4 ounce of shot , is still going to produce cripples.
As to the four shooters, if they only shoot at reasonable ranges, and they place the pattern on the birds, they will kill birds no matter which load they use. If they are poor shots, placing only the outer fringe of the pattern on the birds , then the extra pellets will result in a few more kills, but it will also result in cripples that would have been clean misses with slightly less shot.
The OP didn't ask which load we prefer, he asked if 3-1/2" loads were required to kill geese, and the vast majority of posters have stated, that they don't require 3-1/2" loads to kill geese.
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all good steel loads are doing 1550 fps , 2 3/4 3 or 3 1/2 , the only difference is shot load . if you need to shoot the same goose 3 times with #2s then its back to the skeet range with you lol.
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If every hunter shot a couple of flats of shells at skeet or sporting clays during the summer, there would be far more geese killed, and far fewer cripples. We have had a few people show up to shoot skeet, because they were doing poorly shooting geese, and after one summer of skeet, they are killing far more geese.