Anyone want to "mentor" a wanna-be goose hunter?

[Powerstroke]

I'm a longtime hunter who is mostly self-taught. I hunt pheasant, grouse, woodcock, doves, turkeys and deer. I bowhunt and use firearms for the rest. I've always carried a 20 ga until last year when I finally bought a 12ga. Part of the reason for my purchase was to expand into goose hunting.

So, as I said, would anyone be interested in being a "mentor" and share their love for goose hunting? I know absolutely nothing about it, but I want to. Unfortunately, waterfowling is difficult for the average joe to "try out" and somewhat cost prohibitive. If I'm wrong I would love to hear how I can get started without having to invest hundreds of dollars in calls, decoys, blinds etc.

I'm a sound and ethical hunter and have hunted with many people on this site. You don't have to worry about me trying to sneak in on your spots or undercut you. I'm hear to learn and would be happy to do other hunting with people. I'm asking about geese because that is my interest.

PM me, leave a note here or email me at epfd217 at gmail d0t com if you are looking to teach and add a gun to your hunt.

[hunter322]

you dont really need to spend a whole heck of alot to get into it. you have the 12 gauge. you can buy a dozen or two of decoys on a-sales-site or here for somewhat cheap. and as far as a call, i use a $20 wall mart call that puts em feet down a$$ up all the time. id love to take ya out a time or two but for the most part when it comes to goose hunting im usually a guest with my buddies on the fields they have permison for. finding spots to hunt other than public land is the hard part. mainly around the twin cities. if you have any other questions you can e-mail me at clinton DOT lutz AT gmail DOT com or message me back here. good luck to ya!

[TylerS]

Powerstroke,

I hope you find someone to show you the ropes! I definitely know how you're feeling at the moment. When I first tried getting into goose hunting in college, I went out with a dozen sillos, four shells, a POS flute call that sounded like a Model-T honking its horn, and burlap to cover up with. Surprisingly, I called in a par that landed 10 yards outside of the spread, and I got so jacked up I missed with all three shots.

Best thing that ever happened to me was meeting a couple guys through an online forum who went to the same college as me. We went on a hunt together, and eventually became best friends. Had it not been for their last-minute scouting trips and mid-week morning hunts, I would probably have been a straight A student!

I hope someone gives you a shout! There's only so much you can learn by reading and watching videos. I'm a hands-on kind of guy, and it sounds like you are too.

Heck, even scouting is a learning curve! You pound a lot of pointless miles before you realize what kind of areas to key in on (satellite imagery is your friend).

Good luck,

Tyler

[Powerstroke]

Tyler you've hit on something that's very important to me and that is learning how/where to scout. I find that having that small bit of knowledge will shorten the learning curve tremendously.

As a self-taught hunter with no land, I've learned to work hard and seek out quality spots, but the hardest part is to know where to start looking. One of the most frustrating things I've found is that very little public land is actually good for hunting. Most of it seems to be roosting or nesting cover.

[mnhunter79]

I got rid of all my feild goose decoys for the simple fact that finding feilds with birds in gets spendy on gas bill, let alone trying to get permission. with that said, i hunt water only. dont need permission, and dont have to drive all over the country to find feilds to hunt. For me its much easier shootin geese over water. Some might say it pushes geese off their roost, which is somewhat true, but durring hunting season birds are always getting pushed around, so there is always different birds comin in. and ive hunted the same lake/slough for 5 yrs now with decent results. i might not shoot my limit everytime, but thats ok. Now that you have the 12 ga., and if you have a little huntin boat, all you need is a call and a few decoys. just my .02, and maybe an option for you. good luck

[B. Amish]

if you can't find anyone to take you, you could always go with a guide. i know it's not the same, but you could still learn some things.

[TylerS]

mnhunter makes a good point. I forget you guys in Minnesota have it so tough. I shouldn't forget, really; I had to deal with it nearly my whole life until I moved to Nodak for college. The couple of times I tried hunting my grandpa's fields in Fergus Falls, we got skunked. Watched flock after flock after flock fly right over and off to some unknown destination. That's when scouting really sunk in. If you're not in the field they want to be in, 1,000 fullbodies won't be worth a hill of beans.

If you're hunting water, I'd actually scout late morning. Find a field with geese in it, then watch and wait for them to leave for water. Normally, mid-day watering holes are merely transition areas, so you don't really have to worry about busting roosts. Of course, this isn't necessarily a carved-in-stone rule, but you have a better chance of finding transition areas this time of day that in the evening when the birds are leaving the fields and, more than likely, heading back to roost.

[RumRiverRat]

I can say that PowerStroke is a great guy.

Had him in my duck boat a few years ago on opener.

[Powerstroke]

Thanks for the bump RRR. I'm still trying to find my way into waterfowling a bit.

I spent tonight sitting in a cut wheat field, but had no lock. A few flocks flew overheard on their way back to their roost and they weren't interested in my calls.

[RumRiverRat]

Turn on your PMs or send me an email. [email protected]

If you have permission in a wheat field and have birds flying over it, it would be worth "running traffic".

[Powerstroke]

My PM's are on. I'll drop you an email.

[ClownColor]

Good luck to you powerstroke. I love duck and goose hunting and I'd love to help but I'm no wiser then just your average joe on this sport. I hunt public land and have 1 dozen mallards and my buddy has 12 field goose dec's and 8-12 silhouetts (spelling).

By no means are we pros but we have fun and general do what we think is just great. You are obviously an outdoorsmens so you already know the best part is just getting out. what comes next is just a bonus. Find some cheap dec's on the list by criags (dozen is all you need) and just experiment with paterns and calls. Get some basic knowledge like speads and calling advice but leave it at that.

A little secret on land finding...there are certain groups or cultures of people that let you hunt their land. I won't say their a "cult" but they are a certain nationallity and/or religion that farms up the kazzo. They always let people hunt their farms, just ask...and don't ruin their crop!

Good luck and sorry for little help but it can be affordable. Just need to get your foot in the door like other sports and you should be good to go.