Took my little brother out

[royalwolf]

He's never been hunting for anything but grouse, and was just dying to go waterfowling. So I took him out to a secret spot on my grandpa's farm where my friends and I slaughtered the Canadas during the early season.

We hunted a baled oats field, with 10 smallish decoys out (all I have) and we hid amongst the bales. We got there early and were set up by 6:15. Napped until 6:45. First geese came in at 7:30 or so, a flock of big Canadas. I realized then that I'd set the decoys up in the wrong spot for where we were hiding and so the geese tried to land into the wind at a very bad angle for shooting (towards barn and livestock). The flared as they saw us trying to reposition and my little bro shot and missed. Geese were gone.

About 20 minutes or so later we were watching a coyote trot along the woodline (wish I'd had a rifle) when my brother says, "Hey, is that a goose?"

Sure enough, it was, and it landed in the deeks before we knew what was going on. It was a small one, not a young goose but some other variant that Giant Canada Goose (Richardson? Lesser?). I would have let it go, but I wanted my bro to get some shooting! So he walked towards it, and of course the dumb thing wouldn't fly, but finally it did. It gained a little altitude and then he dropped it, stone dead, with one shot. It was perfect!

Soon another flock of 6 of these smaller geese came in (they make a different honk than others do, too, but they came right into my calling/decoys). The came right over us, presenting a perfect passing shot before they even locked their wings. I shot twice and killed one and he shot once and killed one. No crippling at all! They were all dead when they hit the ground. I like these small geese!

The remaining geese circled around for a while, tempting me to shoot again, but I didn't. Decided we had enough in the freezer already. Two more (still these small ones!) came in as we were picking up, and I almost shot one of those, too, but decided not to. But then about 3 minutes later they came flying back over, but REALLY flapping, so fast that they looked like a couple of big mallards! Then I noticed the GIANT Bald Eagle that was right on their *** ! He was so close to catching one that I fully expected to see it, but they went behind the trees. THAT was cool.

As we were getting into the truck to leave, a flock of about 30 BIG Canadas went right where we'd been, circled, and then left. We could have sat there all day and kept on shooting.

It was a great morning and I can't wait to grill up these nice, little goose breast fillets. Couldn't have asked for more.

Sorry this is long!

royalwolf

[Seabass77]

Good Story Royal. Where were you hunting?

[Farley]

Maybee those small geese were specklebellys?? I know they are smaller and make a slightly different honk. Nice work.

[Dean Schellinger]

Thats awesome. Those little guys are something else, they cackle and are just a sweet change from the big ones. My bro and I were hunting last year on the day after duck opener and 4 of those came by and we called my in with our voices cause we were duck huntin and didnt expect geese. Well I managed to knock one down and was really suprised when I picked it up out of the water. It wasnt much bigger than my mallard. We slaughtered the Giants this early season. I would be the last person to complain if for the rest of the season those were the only kind of geese I shot the rest of the year. Hopefully I will be able have some opportunities for them this year or sometime soon. Where were you hunting about? What part of the state?

[royalwolf]

I'm up just north of Duluth. Weather has been great lately, so bad for hunting, but I haven't been skunked yet (other than on opener) and I hope my luck holds. I still have a dozed duck decoys that have never been wet!!

[big drift]

Without seeing the birds I would suspect what you were getting were Cacklers. they do have a different pitch to the vocalizations and are about 4-6 lbs. They are easy to decoy and respond well to calling.

big drift