Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Do you want to come goose hunting ---- Giving something back

Do you want to come goose hunting one of the guys (MH) I work with asks me. He knows I am an avid water fowler and he asks if I would like to join him and a buddy (MK) for a weekend at their cabin to go goose hunting in a new area to me. With driving directions in hand I meet up with them on Friday evening for a shoot they had spotted for Saturday.

Now comes the part where I find out that MH wants me to teach MK how to hunt geese. They had no decoys, no blinds, only one guy that wanted to shoot geese (MK)that had a license and a field spotted but no idea which way the geese came from or how long they had been using the field.

I decided it was time to give something back to the sport.

Saturday morning out come the decoys, blinds and I sit back and do the calling. There were quite a few missed chances with no shots fired and finally one shot and a goose fell, I said nice shot and MK said thanks but it was not the bird he was shooting at. The bird that fell was about three back of the one he shot at. The ribbing is good natured and lot's of explanation on shot gunning and the lead required for a goose.

We head back out to another field for Saturday afternoon and I give him my laydown blind set in the spread. I sit back about 40 yds in a ground blind and do the calling. Got quite a few birds coming in feet down and tight. This time MK was not shy on using the shells he brought but no feathers on the ground.

At the end he said he could not believe how hard his heart was pounding when I turned the flocks and had them coming in right at him. He was really bummed on his shooting but was totally hooked. We now have another goose hunter joining the ranks.

Really a great weekend to see the excitement on a total newbie that will really enjoy the sport. Also letting him try a variety of blinds and seeing different set ups will give him a great start for the future.

I remember taking a friends brother in law a few years ago. He was 16 y.o.. I had scouted out a pasture field that they were coming to first thing in the morning. At 7:00 they started coming in, at 7:30 we were picking up empties and a 5 man 5 bird limit. I told him don't get used to this cause this isn't the way goose hunting goes every time. He was hooked AND spoiled on his first goose hunt.

I was invited to join two guys on a goose hunt yesterday. One of the guys has been hunting waterfowl for 2-3 years, the other was on his first hunt, but had gotten the permission for us to hunt the field. I asked him what I thought were the basics. Where i. The field the birds had been, how many birds has he been seeing, how many decoys did he own. He gave me enough of an idea that when I drove by the field I could get a layout of the terrain and an idea of where the birds were, so I was able to pick a good spot with some cover to set up the blinds.

As for decoys, he told me he had 2 dozen shells and a dozen full body feeders- enough to hunt that field. I asked him how many birds he was seeing and he said between 200-300 birds. I told him to bring his dekes and I woukd bring mine also. This was when things started to get frustrating. When I was invited on this hunt I was told it was because this new guy wanted to hunt with someone with some experience, which is fine. Hebwas reluctant to put more decoys out than the ones he owned, but I finally convinced him to put a big spread out, by explaining to him that this was a big field in a high traffic area and we would be better off with a bigger spread to catch the sight of passing flocks.

The next setback happened when I tried to explain that we should set the spread upwind of the blinds in groups of 8-20 birds leaving a slight pocket in front of the blinds. He argued that it wouldn't work because everything he read and all the videos he saw had the spread right in front of the blinds. Which would work, had the wind been coming directly from our backs and not at an angke from over our left shoulder. I let him have his way figuring it would be a lesson for him. Birds started working but kept skirting and landing down wind just out of range.

After a while I got up and rearanged the decoys like I had originally wanted and birds started landing in our lap. By the end of the day we limited on geese and had killed a few bonus mallards. And the new hunter, well he still believes the hunting videos are gospel and we just got lucky

Safe to say, my last hunt with him

Ignorance is not the bad thing; it's not wanting to learn that is the bad thing.