Goose Hunting

Lengthy and boring read and no birds killed
Well, Vincenzia, Natalina, Reaper and I did our first goose hunt of the season.
Been watching a field for about two weeks with round bales in it. Didn’t know what the crop was until I walked out there a couple days ago. It is oats, so today was the first time we have ever hunted in an oat field.
This field is a half mile long and about a quarter mile wide. Right below here I’ll kind of give the pattern of how I saw the birds each day I looked at it:
Day one birds were on the far north edge of the field, and I guesstimated about 50 birds
Day two they were in the same spot, and I was able to count them and I counted 47
Day three the same amount of birds, but this time they were on the far south side of the field right next to a rock pile with a lot of vegetation around it. This got me pretty excited as it was a good place in the field to hunt.
Day 4 birds were in the middle of the field. Also, there was only about 22 birds out there.
Day 5 was a foggy day and that was the first day I set foot out in the field. I got there about 45 minutes earlier than I had been getting there, which was about 6:30 in the morning. Start walking across the field to look for blind material and thought I spotted something so I eased out of the field and walked back to the truck to get my binoculars. Walked slowly again into the field and sure enough they were geese. Once again in the middle of the field and once again, only about 22 birds. As I stated it was pretty foggy so there may have been more birds, but I couldn’t see them.
DAY6, which was this past Sunday morning there was only six birds in the field. We had originally planned to hunt this Monday morning, but after only seeing six birds in the field, I decided not to.
Day seven drove by the field and there was over 70 birds in it. So of course I was kicking myself for not hunting.
Yesterday there was 30 something birds, so we decided to hunt this morning.
Woke up at 0355 so Sarah and I could go do our morning workout. Got home right about five and the girls were pretty much ready to go. I had to drink some coffee first and lighten my load. I always prefer that at home instead of in the field somewhere. I’m not as manly as 5-stand! My goose trailer needs to be resealed as it’s letting a ton of dust in so we just took the truck. Didn’t really like how all the decoys and blinds were fitting in there so we never got over 50 mph. Still had plenty of time to get set up and park the truck.
The SX decoys look beautiful! That being said, I absolutely despise ring bases. I think I hate just about everything about them! Thankfully, the SX decoys come with both stakes and ring bases. I brought the ring bases just because the ground is so dry and hard. I did bring a few stakes to try out and they went in the ground pretty easily so from now on, we will keep on using the stakes.
The latest I have driven by that field each day was 8 AM. Every day there has been birds there. 8 o’clock came and went and no birds. About 830. I said we would stay till 9 o’clock. Then I fell asleep and I guess so did the girls. Woke up a little bit after nine and asked if there was any birds in the decoys and they said no. Then I told them how I’ve woken up before with birds in the decoys. I get out of my blind and start walking around and sure enough there is two geese on the north end of the field. We make a plan that Reaper and I will walk along the edge and see if I could get them to flush and maybe come their way. Sure enough did that and the birds got up and when they spotted the decoys, they went right over there . Vincenzia was a little too excited and called the shot too early (looked like they were gonna land right in.) I could tell she was pretty bummed but this hunt (and I am sure several more) was mostly about getting back in the groove and figuring out all the stuff we forget over winter and summer.
I was dragging my feet, as I wasn’t ready to go. Then we spot a single, and it flies by like we were not even there. Lands into another roost. It stays there for about 15 minutes and flies back to the north east where I spot two bigger flocks. They come, and they land in the roost that that single just went into. Then I spot a couple more flocks and then they land in a different little roost. We wait about another 20 minutes and then I send Vincenzia to get the truck. Of course just as she’s turning to get into the field. Some of those other birds get off the roost and start coming our way. I would say about 30 birds. At this point most of the decoys are in bags. I think only about three or four still on the stands. They’re coming right for us, and I am waving my hands trying to signal her to stop, but she keeps coming. She finally sees the birds and stops . Birds are coming right at us dumping down and then they flared about 35 yards. I almost called the shot, but I decided it was best to just let them go and not educate that many with a crappy shot opportunity. Our early Season Honkers are getting pretty smart. Definitely not as easy to hunt like 20 years ago.
Reaper was very excited this morning. He was going nuts once he saw us in camo. Pretty positive he woke up the rest of the family with all his barking. Now he’s passed out next to me.
Truth be told I’m pretty happy that I’m not cleaning early season lol birds right now. Some of them suckers can be about as hard as cleaning a goldeneye.
If you read all this you deserve a cookie!!!!
Well, Vincenzia, Natalina, Reaper and I did our first goose hunt of the season.
Been watching a field for about two weeks with round bales in it. Didn’t know what the crop was until I walked out there a couple days ago. It is oats, so today was the first time we have ever hunted in an oat field.
This field is a half mile long and about a quarter mile wide. Right below here I’ll kind of give the pattern of how I saw the birds each day I looked at it:
Day one birds were on the far north edge of the field, and I guesstimated about 50 birds
Day two they were in the same spot, and I was able to count them and I counted 47
Day three the same amount of birds, but this time they were on the far south side of the field right next to a rock pile with a lot of vegetation around it. This got me pretty excited as it was a good place in the field to hunt.
Day 4 birds were in the middle of the field. Also, there was only about 22 birds out there.
Day 5 was a foggy day and that was the first day I set foot out in the field. I got there about 45 minutes earlier than I had been getting there, which was about 6:30 in the morning. Start walking across the field to look for blind material and thought I spotted something so I eased out of the field and walked back to the truck to get my binoculars. Walked slowly again into the field and sure enough they were geese. Once again in the middle of the field and once again, only about 22 birds. As I stated it was pretty foggy so there may have been more birds, but I couldn’t see them.
DAY6, which was this past Sunday morning there was only six birds in the field. We had originally planned to hunt this Monday morning, but after only seeing six birds in the field, I decided not to.
Day seven drove by the field and there was over 70 birds in it. So of course I was kicking myself for not hunting.
Yesterday there was 30 something birds, so we decided to hunt this morning.
Woke up at 0355 so Sarah and I could go do our morning workout. Got home right about five and the girls were pretty much ready to go. I had to drink some coffee first and lighten my load. I always prefer that at home instead of in the field somewhere. I’m not as manly as 5-stand! My goose trailer needs to be resealed as it’s letting a ton of dust in so we just took the truck. Didn’t really like how all the decoys and blinds were fitting in there so we never got over 50 mph. Still had plenty of time to get set up and park the truck.
The SX decoys look beautiful! That being said, I absolutely despise ring bases. I think I hate just about everything about them! Thankfully, the SX decoys come with both stakes and ring bases. I brought the ring bases just because the ground is so dry and hard. I did bring a few stakes to try out and they went in the ground pretty easily so from now on, we will keep on using the stakes.
The latest I have driven by that field each day was 8 AM. Every day there has been birds there. 8 o’clock came and went and no birds. About 830. I said we would stay till 9 o’clock. Then I fell asleep and I guess so did the girls. Woke up a little bit after nine and asked if there was any birds in the decoys and they said no. Then I told them how I’ve woken up before with birds in the decoys. I get out of my blind and start walking around and sure enough there is two geese on the north end of the field. We make a plan that Reaper and I will walk along the edge and see if I could get them to flush and maybe come their way. Sure enough did that and the birds got up and when they spotted the decoys, they went right over there . Vincenzia was a little too excited and called the shot too early (looked like they were gonna land right in.) I could tell she was pretty bummed but this hunt (and I am sure several more) was mostly about getting back in the groove and figuring out all the stuff we forget over winter and summer.
I was dragging my feet, as I wasn’t ready to go. Then we spot a single, and it flies by like we were not even there. Lands into another roost. It stays there for about 15 minutes and flies back to the north east where I spot two bigger flocks. They come, and they land in the roost that that single just went into. Then I spot a couple more flocks and then they land in a different little roost. We wait about another 20 minutes and then I send Vincenzia to get the truck. Of course just as she’s turning to get into the field. Some of those other birds get off the roost and start coming our way. I would say about 30 birds. At this point most of the decoys are in bags. I think only about three or four still on the stands. They’re coming right for us, and I am waving my hands trying to signal her to stop, but she keeps coming. She finally sees the birds and stops . Birds are coming right at us dumping down and then they flared about 35 yards. I almost called the shot, but I decided it was best to just let them go and not educate that many with a crappy shot opportunity. Our early Season Honkers are getting pretty smart. Definitely not as easy to hunt like 20 years ago.
Reaper was very excited this morning. He was going nuts once he saw us in camo. Pretty positive he woke up the rest of the family with all his barking. Now he’s passed out next to me.
Truth be told I’m pretty happy that I’m not cleaning early season lol birds right now. Some of them suckers can be about as hard as cleaning a goldeneye.
If you read all this you deserve a cookie!!!!