The Baron of Bufflehead
11-13-2005, 06:52 AM
Well, yesterday afternoon was a big day for me. My 9 year old neice had expressed quite an interest in going goose hunting with Uncle Rob a few weeks back. She and her little sister both had a lot of fun playing with goose/duck calls on a visit in October and then out of the blue one phone call, Reilly asked if I would take her goose hunting. I was pretty excited! We talked about it a couple of times and I sorta held back to see how eager she really was. So, when she kept asking all kinds of questions and never forgot to mention in a call or visit that she wanted to go, we set a date. It was a big family outing - my wife, brother-in law, my neice and my pal Bear Caller (he's like family).
I'll tell you fellas, I don't know how many scouting trips I've made or how many times we've planned a hunt, but I was really nervous about this one. This was a first outing not only for a youngster, but also for my wife and brother-in law who were both very eager to see what it was all about. We agreed to make it an afternoon hunt, which I have only ever done twice before and never lined up myself, so that added to my stress. I scouted a few afternoons and had a field with a bit of traffic, but that was it. We had some great fields, but to keep it fun I didn't want to make it a butt-dragging walk into a muddy field. I decided on a winter wheat field, bordered by disced corn. The farm is not far from Lake Ontario, so I decided to do it there and hope for the best. All I wanted out of this was one or two birds. Most importantly, I wanted stone dead, clean killed birds.
So, we set up around 2:30pm. We put only about 6 dozen FB's out and set out blinds in the grassy border between the wheat/disced corn. It was a south wind, so we set to have birds fly over out blinds on approach into the spread. All the decoys were behind us in the wheat, for maximum visibility.
We saw a few distant flocks early. It was a positive sign to have birds moving around. At about 4pm we had 3 birds coming, but a flock of about 75 showed up on the scene and stole them away. I was pretty happy that we had some work and circle, almost in range. Our guests thought that was cool and I was happy we had at least had some entertainment. Not long after, we had more birds in our area. We called and flagged and finally worked hard on 4 we caught moving alone. They made an almost in range pass, swing downwind and then did it nice. I called it and there werer 2 very dead geese down in short order. My wife actually let out a whoop when the birds hit, becasue she was so excited!! BC and I had talked strategy and he was on board to make sure in such a situation that we went for 1-2 dead in the air birds (we took the gimme's instead of working at killing all 4 as we would if we were going for a limit).
So, we got 2 geese. I was ecstatic that I got my wish! All of our guests thought it was very cool.:Rich: We actually saw several flocks after and worked one bird right to the ground. But, we had got what we came for and just enjoyed seeing the other flocks work as we stood around the blinds reliving the success of the hunt.
Sorry for the long text guys - this was my first experience in taking a young family member of my own out and I looved it! Both Reilly and her Dad said they would like to go again, so I will make sure that happens.
On to the pics. To make the experience more fun, we painted up Reilly's face. I gave her an Olt 77 goose call and a few lessons. She did fine with it and she was honking the whole time the geese came in and got shot.
I'll tell you fellas, I don't know how many scouting trips I've made or how many times we've planned a hunt, but I was really nervous about this one. This was a first outing not only for a youngster, but also for my wife and brother-in law who were both very eager to see what it was all about. We agreed to make it an afternoon hunt, which I have only ever done twice before and never lined up myself, so that added to my stress. I scouted a few afternoons and had a field with a bit of traffic, but that was it. We had some great fields, but to keep it fun I didn't want to make it a butt-dragging walk into a muddy field. I decided on a winter wheat field, bordered by disced corn. The farm is not far from Lake Ontario, so I decided to do it there and hope for the best. All I wanted out of this was one or two birds. Most importantly, I wanted stone dead, clean killed birds.
So, we set up around 2:30pm. We put only about 6 dozen FB's out and set out blinds in the grassy border between the wheat/disced corn. It was a south wind, so we set to have birds fly over out blinds on approach into the spread. All the decoys were behind us in the wheat, for maximum visibility.
We saw a few distant flocks early. It was a positive sign to have birds moving around. At about 4pm we had 3 birds coming, but a flock of about 75 showed up on the scene and stole them away. I was pretty happy that we had some work and circle, almost in range. Our guests thought that was cool and I was happy we had at least had some entertainment. Not long after, we had more birds in our area. We called and flagged and finally worked hard on 4 we caught moving alone. They made an almost in range pass, swing downwind and then did it nice. I called it and there werer 2 very dead geese down in short order. My wife actually let out a whoop when the birds hit, becasue she was so excited!! BC and I had talked strategy and he was on board to make sure in such a situation that we went for 1-2 dead in the air birds (we took the gimme's instead of working at killing all 4 as we would if we were going for a limit).
So, we got 2 geese. I was ecstatic that I got my wish! All of our guests thought it was very cool.:Rich: We actually saw several flocks after and worked one bird right to the ground. But, we had got what we came for and just enjoyed seeing the other flocks work as we stood around the blinds reliving the success of the hunt.
Sorry for the long text guys - this was my first experience in taking a young family member of my own out and I looved it! Both Reilly and her Dad said they would like to go again, so I will make sure that happens.
On to the pics. To make the experience more fun, we painted up Reilly's face. I gave her an Olt 77 goose call and a few lessons. She did fine with it and she was honking the whole time the geese came in and got shot.