2018 Waterfowl thread

First ever attempt at waterfowl this year.

Set up at the field where we have permission to hunt turkeysm My buddy and i borrowed 2 dozen shells from a friend and bought a call on wednesday. Saturday morning arrives and we put the decoys out in a rough U pattern. The field is all grass, no corn or mud or anything yellow, green the entire way. We take cover in a bit of an island with a tree and some tall grass. It was nice because it was crazy windy that morning.

We see a few flocks come in but they are going with the wind so by the time we spot them they are way across the higheway and my calling falls on deaf ears. But before long a group comes in on our left and heading to the neighbours fields above the trees. I call to them and they head over to our set up. They come in and hover just out of range (or we think, we couldnt gauge how far for sure) and take a good look down at the spread. The wind is so strong that they dont even have to flap and they stay exactly in place.

I call a bit more and they call back but dont come in closer. So we take a chance and try for a shot.

Nothing drops. In fact, they dont even flinch. They get bored and fly off. Obviously too far away. Now we know lol

A few more groups come along and im 6 for 9 for calling them over but again they all kinda hover above just out of range. We have no movement in our setup because we figured we couldnt use flags while hiding in tall grass next to a tree (geese dont normally land near trees right?). So i can tell the spread might not look great to them. And im new to calling so i cant get my call to do lower tones when im honking or clucking or whatever noise im making. I get them over from far away but they dont try to land lol

Anywho, after an hour and a half and 9 groups gone by, the 10th group comes over (group of 6 or 7) and they hover again above us, but this time they are much closer than the other were.

So knowing this may be our last group before going home, i call it and we open fire. I miss on all 3 shots (using number 2s) and my buddy wings one but then short strokes so he has to eject and chamber another. By then they are flying away and too far for him to try his last round.

The one he hit drops in to the field and we chase it down and i finish it from about 15 yrds away clean to the head.

9pqt00.jpg


So i am going to switch to 3inch BBs and see how far out that gets me when patterning. My 2 3/4 number 2s didnt seem to do well at that distance and in that kind of heavy wind. But at 15 yrds on the ground it was like a turkey load lol

Here is what our spot looked like

2pyol21.jpg


Heres the start of breasting/legging it before calling it a day.

5xud02.jpg


It was lots of fun and we plan on trying to get out at least one more time. I will work on my calling and im building a pulley/arm rig to hook up a flagthat can be worked from a distance to try to get them to commit lol
 
53Izzy744 said:
First ever attempt at waterfowl this year.

Set up at the field where we have permission to hunt turkeysm My buddy and i borrowed 2 dozen shells from a friend and bought a call on wednesday. Saturday morning arrives and we put the decoys out in a rough U pattern. The field is all grass, no corn or mud or anything yellow, green the entire way. We take cover in a bit of an island with a tree and some tall grass. It was nice because it was crazy windy that morning.

We see a few flocks come in but they are going with the wind so by the time we spot them they are way across the higheway and my calling falls on deaf ears. But before long a group comes in on our left and heading to the neighbours fields above the trees. I call to them and they head over to our set up. They come in and hover just out of range (or we think, we couldnt gauge how far for sure) and take a good look down at the spread. The wind is so strong that they dont even have to flap and they stay exactly in place.

I call a bit more and they call back but dont come in closer. So we take a chance and try for a shot.

Nothing drops. In fact, they dont even flinch. They get bored and fly off. Obviously too far away. Now we know lol

A few more groups come along and im 6 for 9 for calling them over but again they all kinda hover above just out of range. We have no movement in our setup because we figured we couldnt use flags while hiding in tall grass next to a tree (geese dont normally land near trees right?). So i can tell the spread might not look great to them. And im new to calling so i cant get my call to do lower tones when im honking or clucking or whatever noise im making. I get them over from far away but they dont try to land lol

Anywho, after an hour and a half and 9 groups gone by, the 10th group comes over (group of 6 or 7) and they hover again above us, but this time they are much closer than the other were.

So knowing this may be our last group before going home, i call it and we open fire. I miss on all 3 shots (using number 2s) and my buddy wings one but then short strokes so he has to eject and chamber another. By then they are flying away and too far for him to try his last round.

The one he hit drops in to the field and we chase it down and i finish it from about 15 yrds away clean to the head.

9pqt00.jpg


So i am going to switch to 3inch BBs and see how far out that gets me when patterning. My 2 3/4 number 2s didnt seem to do well at that distance and in that kind of heavy wind. But at 15 yrds on the ground it was like a turkey load lol

Here is what our spot looked like

2pyol21.jpg


Heres the start of breasting/legging it before calling it a day.

5xud02.jpg


It was lots of fun and we plan on trying to get out at least one more time. I will work on my calling and im building a pulley/arm rig to hook up a flag that can be worked from a distance to try to get them to commit lol
Click to expand...

Sounds like a fun first time out... That there is what hunting is all about... :) Enjoy it while you can
 
Nice work Izzy. The flag can work from that spot, it’s the movement that catches their eye so you don’t necessarily need to rig up a pulley system to work it at a distance - the ones with the telescopic poles would work nicely from your position. The thing you should realize is the flag isn’t going to get them to “commit”. It can help pull them your way but once they are coming your way (which your calling seemed to achieve nicely) and are on their final approach, in my experience it is best to stop the flagging. I will let those more experienced guide you as to how to get them to commit but by what you describe I’m guessing your first step is to figure out what they didn’t like about your setup....decoy positioning, concealment (you weren’t wearing those blue gloves at the time were you ;) ), wind, something. Solve that and it sounds like you’ve got a great little spot for geese!
 
the spank said:
Ummm, no!! We’re not that stupid!! :)

Back at it this morning........my doctor recommended more greens in my diet......:p
Click to expand...


Some nice stud lards there Spank! Super jealous, I haven’t even made it out for a shoot this fall. Thanks for sharing for those of us with too many kids and commitments and not enough time at the moment.
 
Thanks guys for the tips! I agree with stretching the range, we were both happy that after shooting there were no birds that looked injured or reacted strangely when flying away. We definitely will be letting them come very close from now on until we figure out range better.

As for the flagging and trying to commit i see what you are saying RF! Maybe i was overcalling with them being so close that was making them hang up. At least they didnt flare and bolt away so we must not be doing anything really bad lol (and no we only had the gloves when we were cleaning the bird lol)

I can see why this is an addictive sport! Now if only deer were like this lol
 
leveractionjunkie said:
Some nice stud lards there Spank! Super jealous, I haven’t even made it out for a shoot this fall. Thanks for sharing for those of us with too many kids and commitments and not enough time at the moment.
Click to expand...
one thing I learned wth my kids and grand kids
was if you take yer kids hunting and teach them to hunt you wont have to hunt for yer kids, they are never to young to take them hunting
 
cant_rope_the_wind01 said:
one thing I learned wth my kids and grand kids
was if you take yer kids hunting and teach them to hunt you wont have to hunt for yer kids, they are never to young to take them hunting
Click to expand...

Agreed! My 4 year old daughter has all ready learned how to be safe with her little nerf crossbow and had fun playing goose hunter at the dinner table (she would blow the call and when i approached flapping my wings she puts the call down and says "pew pew pew" and of course i fall down lol). Over and over and what i noticed most about that was that she always said "pew pew pew" in 3s. Haha its like ive been reading her the hunting regs at bedtime!
 
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