the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
Another opening day has come and gone here in the central district and it turned out to be a heck of an opener. This year saw our regular crew joining up with Devon and a new guest, the landowner's brother-in-law. Chad and I spent the long weekend scouting out birds and trying to pattern those we had found and planned to hunt on Tuesday. We arrived at 5:30 am in the small harvested oat field and met up with our guest, Dave. As Chad, Devon and I set the spread out, Paul took Dave under wing and showed him how to assemble and stubble the blinds and by the time we had set out the small spread of 3 dozen dekes there was only a little stubbling to help with on a couple of blinds. Dave had never goose hunted before so we gave him a quick but meaningful lesson on layout hunting safety, zone of fire and how the shot would be called out by one person deemed so. We settled in and loaded up at shooting time. A single wood duck came by and pitched in to the bush lot just in front of us, obviously there was a watering hole nearby and he was heading to his morning spot. A few minutes later the first flock of geese appeared from the northeast and headed our way. As they got to within a couple hundred yards and were making lots of noise Devon opened up first on his 187 call followed by myself, then Chad as we tried our best to team call with Devon to sound as much as possible like a small group of excited birds. They bought it and locked up hard at 80 yards out and sailed on in. As they approached the NE corner of the bush lot they pushed out behind us a bit wide. The majority settled into the decoys behind us not 5 to 15 feet away while 5 continued to sail over us and land 10 feet out front of our boots. We quickly decided that Paul and Devon were in the best position to roll around and jump the birds behind us while Chad, Dave and I would jump the 5 out front. At Devons call doors flew open, guns were mounted and shots rang out as the geese climbed clear of the decoys. Seven stayed behind. Chad put Reed to work quickly and he did a good job on his first ever hunting experience. We realised that we needed to tweek the decoys some if we were going to get the next flocks to commit to the spread out front in the kill hole. Devon grabbed three decoys and placed them out front about 35 yards away so as to appear like a small flock had landed and was walking in on the feeding area. Well......it worked too well! Flock after flock committed itself to that spot whether approaching from left or right, they all just slid into place in the way we all dream of how it will be. At one point we had a flock of 11 come in left to right and we opened up at birds backpedaling over the decoys not 10-15 yards out, like most had, and we cut down 10 of the flock killing them all cleanly. The 11th bird slipped away and after some excited pleads it came around, approached from the right, came sailing in over the treetops at front/right and someone smacked him hard 15 yards out and 10 yards up killing all 11 in the flock and with only 15 shots fired for all 11! Chad put Reed to work once more while a couple of the guys picked up a few of the closer fallen birds. After settling in once more another flock approached from the opposite side and when they dropped into the kill hole 7 more stayed behind bringing our count to 49. We decided that Dave, our guest should get the last bird and within 10-15 mins he got his chance. Two high flying migrators dropped down from way up as Devon, Chad and I opened up on the calls. A single appeared at the same height from dead ahead, joined the other two and all three made descending passes dropping lower and lower each pass until at about 40 yards up they all decided this was the place to be and dropped in as if on a parachute. Devon called to Dave to take them with the instruction to shoot only 1 and Dave came up out of the blind, picked a bird and fired killing it stone dead with only one shot. That was it, we were done, limited out with our 50 birds for the 5 of us. It had been a great morning, we shared a lot of laughs, Devon is truly an all around great guy with a terrific sense of humor. After a few years of trying to get together on a hunt and plans never seeming to work out we finally made it and it went off without a hitch. Devon presented Chad and I with a pair of brand new 187 calls as thanks for inviting him along though it sure was never expected of him. We both had wanted to hunt with him and being able to do so was enough reward. Having Dave join us proved to be a great asset. He was a real nice fellow who could really grind them up and couldnt stop smiling and thanking us. He was definitely spoiled for his first ever goose hunt and got to see all the elements at work from scouting, setting up, shooting, calling and dogwork. He was grinning from ear to ear and when he left said I am going over to my other sisters place and kick her a _ _ for not allowing you guys to hunt there. She will let us in when I get done with her.
Right on Dave, get us another spot, we wont argue it with you.... In closing I want to give a warm thanks to my good friend and hunting partner Chad, it was a pleasure to once again share a hunt with him and see his dog go into action after all the work they did together training all summer. Congrats Chad, Reed is going to be an awesome dog. I would also like to say thanks to the rest of the crew for the great memories of the hunt we shared on this 2011 season opener and I'd like to say what a pleasure it was to finally get to share a field of mine with Devon. He is truly an awesome hunter and caller, an all around gentlemen and a real funny guy. He had us laughing all morning. After the conclusion of the hunt and the bird cleaning which Chad, Devon, myself and Paul shared in at Chad's place we set out scouting to see if we could find birds for Wednesday morning before Devon returned home to scout for his Sept 8th opener. We located a good field holding a few hundred birds, secured permission and set after them this morning. I will post our day 2 two-man hunt after I receive a few pics from Devon. The two of us were done at 7:21 am with our 20 birds on the ground! 
As a note to all you guys down south, get ready. The birds have been migrating through for three days now, flight after flight. Your fields are going to fill up fast!!!!
Devon scans the sky for geese....................
Chad works Reed on some downed birds.........
Chad, Dave and Reed watching a flock of migrators headed south...........
Dave was so excited about his first experience with goose hunting he couldn't wait for the dog to pick up bird # 50 so he went after it himself. We weren't sure just what he was doing out there but when we cropped the picture we were relived to see he wasn't as excited as it appeared at a glance............
A great start to the 2011 season......L to R, Myself, Paul, Devon and Chad with Reed. Dave was behind the camera.
Right on Dave, get us another spot, we wont argue it with you.... In closing I want to give a warm thanks to my good friend and hunting partner Chad, it was a pleasure to once again share a hunt with him and see his dog go into action after all the work they did together training all summer. Congrats Chad, Reed is going to be an awesome dog. I would also like to say thanks to the rest of the crew for the great memories of the hunt we shared on this 2011 season opener and I'd like to say what a pleasure it was to finally get to share a field of mine with Devon. He is truly an awesome hunter and caller, an all around gentlemen and a real funny guy. He had us laughing all morning. After the conclusion of the hunt and the bird cleaning which Chad, Devon, myself and Paul shared in at Chad's place we set out scouting to see if we could find birds for Wednesday morning before Devon returned home to scout for his Sept 8th opener. We located a good field holding a few hundred birds, secured permission and set after them this morning. I will post our day 2 two-man hunt after I receive a few pics from Devon. The two of us were done at 7:21 am with our 20 birds on the ground! As a note to all you guys down south, get ready. The birds have been migrating through for three days now, flight after flight. Your fields are going to fill up fast!!!!
Devon scans the sky for geese....................
Chad works Reed on some downed birds.........
Chad, Dave and Reed watching a flock of migrators headed south...........
Dave was so excited about his first experience with goose hunting he couldn't wait for the dog to pick up bird # 50 so he went after it himself. We weren't sure just what he was doing out there but when we cropped the picture we were relived to see he wasn't as excited as it appeared at a glance............
A great start to the 2011 season......L to R, Myself, Paul, Devon and Chad with Reed. Dave was behind the camera.
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