the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
The second and final morning of our weekend hunt found us back in another field in the pre-dawn darkness setting out the decoy spread along with guides Claude and Steve once again. This time were going to be hunting a green field that in the glow of the flashlights appeared to be some sort of a strain of small clover/alfalfa and grass blend. The day before about 1500 birds had been feeding on the field when we last saw it and another 10,000 or so birds were trading back and forth from the roost to the feeding spot.
Our guides had decided they wanted to try the tactics of the previous day and had us don waders once more to hide in a drainage ditch and pass shoot birds going back and forth from the roost to the feeding field with decoys set about 50+ yards away from us on both sides of the ditch. Upon discovering though that the ditch lacked enough cover to hide us the decision was made to set out the decoys and reclining backboards, don our white cover-ups and lay in the decoys and try to blend in as best we could and work in what birds we could. Claude suspected if nothing else we would work a bunch of singles into the decoys close enough to collect a few of the wild white birds.
The morning was warmer than the previous morning with clear skies and showed promise of what appeared to be a bright warm sunny day, not something we wanted especially since we were dressed in neoprene waders. That sun would betray us to any of the less wary eyes in the flocks for sure if it didnt roast us in our waders first. There was absolutely no wind and I could clearly hear Claude cursing the lack of it while setting up silo socks around the layout backrests.
We got into position once the decoy spread and e-callers were set up and waited for the first birds to appear. Claude expected the birds to appear from the east southeast almost right out of the rising sun but as luck was a bit on our side they started appearing from the north at first light and we started having birds actaully work the decoy spread. What a sight to see the way these great white geese work a decoy spread , starting on high and cycloning their way down in slow wide circles, necks careening to investigate the spread, legs dropped and wings cupped to slow the descent at times. What a sight! Our first opportunity came from a flock of a few hundred geese descending in ever tightening and lowering circles. The main mass wouldnt commit beyond the 100 yard mark but a few brave individuals passed over at about 50 and at Claudes call we opened fire dropping four or five geese in the process. A bunch of shouts and yee-has and and another small group started to work us as quickly as we had reloaded. The birds worked in and Claude called the shot but I never fired as I felt the birds were slightly out of range for my capabilities with the #2's I was shooting. Jamie and Chad cut loose a couple rounds of 3.5" high velocity BB's and 2 more geese fell from the stratosphere. One landed not 15 feet from me and from my vantage point flat on my back I was sure the bird was coming down right on me. I stared in wide eyed wonder watching to see if I had to roll out of harms way but I was spared a 7 pound white lawn dart pounding into me.
At the all clear Belle was released to pick up the 6 or 7 geese we had down and in few minutes she had them all gathered up and was back in her mutt-hut waiting to go again. As the sun came up birds passed over and worked us but wouldnt come into shooting range, the sun was betraying us and the lack of winds had the birds circling to far around behind us for any good shots when the odd one did get into range. We needed a wind at our backs to get the snows to come into us in that slow hover scan mode they are obviously good at when pressured hard. About 35 minutes into the morning a breeze started to come in over our left shoulders(North) and along with that wind came a rolling boiling low cloud that ran from ground level to about 150 yards in height. It seemed to be encircling the field we were in and with came a major drop in temperature and the wind started picking up more and more. The silo-socks were actually starting to wave back and forth continually and the cloud cover was blocking out alot of the sun cutting down on the birds visibility. That cloud rolling in also brought with more and more birds in ever incresing numbers and frequency. Singles, pairs and smaller groups started to work us over much better and for the first time that weekend we had juvies appaering in the sky, lots of juvies. The juvies seemed to be alot easier or more willing to work in closer though they stll held out at max range. I borrowed some BB shot from Chad as all I had was #2's and immediately I had better success. One of the highlights of the morning for me was a flock of three adults that came in wings locked and turning from north to east settling in at the 12 o'clock position off my feet. Nobody heard or saw them coming, the e-callers turned off and the birds never honked once. I just happened to look up and see them 40 yards out and 15 yards up dropping hard to the decoys. Their angle would take them to Claude laying to my right and they would land right on him unless they were shot. I callled them out and raised my maxus, at that instant less than 25 yards out the bird on the left turned right and crossed right across my boots. I left him for Chad, Jamie or Rick to take as the other continued their original path and I fired at the nearest bird to my right folding him in a huge cloud of feathers. I heard Claude and Steves gun bark and the second bird was still airborn. I fired at it and at the same time heard two more shots on the heels of mine from Claude and Steve and watched the bird fold at 20 yards out and to my right in a cloud of white feathers. I know my shot was good and from what I could tell so was theirs. The poor goose never stood a chance! Chad left the single that crossed left for Jamie and Rick and unfortunately Jamie had his head turned to avoid being seen by the three at my call and never saw the single pass 20 yards out in front. It went away unscathed with some wads passing far behind its tail when it was about 60 yards out.
Birds continued working us and Chad and Jamie continued to pound down singles as though they had howitzers at their disposal. Obviously the Kicks High Flyer choke and Remington 3.5" BB's were working well for Chad as was Jamies newly acquired Wad wizard and Kent 3.5" Faststeel #1's. The rest of us just lay back and took in the show. I had taken enough birds having taken one more high flyer after the pair in tight over the decoys and was more than happy to just watch the others have at them. I had had a good weekend with great company, made some new friends and participated in a hunt I had wanted to do for a decade. I was happy and it was time to go home. Chad and I had an 8 hour drive home from the field and as we had packed the car the night before we left right from the field after picking up the spread and putting the gear and birds away. It was a great two days and it definitely wont be the last time I go for snows. I cant believe with my sister living in prime snow country and in the first migrtation stopover on their way south that I had never thought to go the guided hunt route. Now she is moving fromm there and I definitely missed out. Claude tells me he hunted in that area a few times and it was like walking into a chicken coop and opening up. He said he quit going after a few seasons as there wasnt enough challenge to it for him. I think I would like to experience that kind of goose shooting just once myself though..... Either way I will definitely be going for the experience again and I will definitley be hooking up with Claude( Moyak Guide service) again for a fall hunt this time around. Claude put on alot of miles andd worked hard to put us onto birds. With the pressure of 8 months of continued hunting on them the odds of us getting any shooting at all were very low. Lottery tickets probably have better odds. Thanks to Claude and Steves determination and understanding of their quarry we were able to put down 19 of the white birds(13 juvies and 6 adults icluding two lessers) before packing up early to head home. Claude said our hunt was to date the largest # of birds harvested by any of his clients this past spring. He said the hunting was the hardest he has ever witnessed. We all said our goodbyes and Chad and I headed back to Ontario while Jamie and Rick returned home to the good old USA. All of us were definitely in need of some much needed rest too but the tiredness was that good tired you feel after doing something you have always wanted to do and doing it successfully. Thank you very much Claude(Moyak) for a great hunt and an experience I wont ever forget. Be sure to thank Steve again as well. Merci mon ami.
The 12 o'clock position as viewed from my position, note the speaker next to the decoys.
Classic style snow goose hunting....Chad , Jamie and Rick on my 3 o'clock position..
Moyak ( Claude) on my 9 o'clock position...
Belle
Til next we meet
Our guides had decided they wanted to try the tactics of the previous day and had us don waders once more to hide in a drainage ditch and pass shoot birds going back and forth from the roost to the feeding field with decoys set about 50+ yards away from us on both sides of the ditch. Upon discovering though that the ditch lacked enough cover to hide us the decision was made to set out the decoys and reclining backboards, don our white cover-ups and lay in the decoys and try to blend in as best we could and work in what birds we could. Claude suspected if nothing else we would work a bunch of singles into the decoys close enough to collect a few of the wild white birds.
The morning was warmer than the previous morning with clear skies and showed promise of what appeared to be a bright warm sunny day, not something we wanted especially since we were dressed in neoprene waders. That sun would betray us to any of the less wary eyes in the flocks for sure if it didnt roast us in our waders first. There was absolutely no wind and I could clearly hear Claude cursing the lack of it while setting up silo socks around the layout backrests.
We got into position once the decoy spread and e-callers were set up and waited for the first birds to appear. Claude expected the birds to appear from the east southeast almost right out of the rising sun but as luck was a bit on our side they started appearing from the north at first light and we started having birds actaully work the decoy spread. What a sight to see the way these great white geese work a decoy spread , starting on high and cycloning their way down in slow wide circles, necks careening to investigate the spread, legs dropped and wings cupped to slow the descent at times. What a sight! Our first opportunity came from a flock of a few hundred geese descending in ever tightening and lowering circles. The main mass wouldnt commit beyond the 100 yard mark but a few brave individuals passed over at about 50 and at Claudes call we opened fire dropping four or five geese in the process. A bunch of shouts and yee-has and and another small group started to work us as quickly as we had reloaded. The birds worked in and Claude called the shot but I never fired as I felt the birds were slightly out of range for my capabilities with the #2's I was shooting. Jamie and Chad cut loose a couple rounds of 3.5" high velocity BB's and 2 more geese fell from the stratosphere. One landed not 15 feet from me and from my vantage point flat on my back I was sure the bird was coming down right on me. I stared in wide eyed wonder watching to see if I had to roll out of harms way but I was spared a 7 pound white lawn dart pounding into me.
At the all clear Belle was released to pick up the 6 or 7 geese we had down and in few minutes she had them all gathered up and was back in her mutt-hut waiting to go again. As the sun came up birds passed over and worked us but wouldnt come into shooting range, the sun was betraying us and the lack of winds had the birds circling to far around behind us for any good shots when the odd one did get into range. We needed a wind at our backs to get the snows to come into us in that slow hover scan mode they are obviously good at when pressured hard. About 35 minutes into the morning a breeze started to come in over our left shoulders(North) and along with that wind came a rolling boiling low cloud that ran from ground level to about 150 yards in height. It seemed to be encircling the field we were in and with came a major drop in temperature and the wind started picking up more and more. The silo-socks were actually starting to wave back and forth continually and the cloud cover was blocking out alot of the sun cutting down on the birds visibility. That cloud rolling in also brought with more and more birds in ever incresing numbers and frequency. Singles, pairs and smaller groups started to work us over much better and for the first time that weekend we had juvies appaering in the sky, lots of juvies. The juvies seemed to be alot easier or more willing to work in closer though they stll held out at max range. I borrowed some BB shot from Chad as all I had was #2's and immediately I had better success. One of the highlights of the morning for me was a flock of three adults that came in wings locked and turning from north to east settling in at the 12 o'clock position off my feet. Nobody heard or saw them coming, the e-callers turned off and the birds never honked once. I just happened to look up and see them 40 yards out and 15 yards up dropping hard to the decoys. Their angle would take them to Claude laying to my right and they would land right on him unless they were shot. I callled them out and raised my maxus, at that instant less than 25 yards out the bird on the left turned right and crossed right across my boots. I left him for Chad, Jamie or Rick to take as the other continued their original path and I fired at the nearest bird to my right folding him in a huge cloud of feathers. I heard Claude and Steves gun bark and the second bird was still airborn. I fired at it and at the same time heard two more shots on the heels of mine from Claude and Steve and watched the bird fold at 20 yards out and to my right in a cloud of white feathers. I know my shot was good and from what I could tell so was theirs. The poor goose never stood a chance! Chad left the single that crossed left for Jamie and Rick and unfortunately Jamie had his head turned to avoid being seen by the three at my call and never saw the single pass 20 yards out in front. It went away unscathed with some wads passing far behind its tail when it was about 60 yards out.Birds continued working us and Chad and Jamie continued to pound down singles as though they had howitzers at their disposal. Obviously the Kicks High Flyer choke and Remington 3.5" BB's were working well for Chad as was Jamies newly acquired Wad wizard and Kent 3.5" Faststeel #1's. The rest of us just lay back and took in the show. I had taken enough birds having taken one more high flyer after the pair in tight over the decoys and was more than happy to just watch the others have at them. I had had a good weekend with great company, made some new friends and participated in a hunt I had wanted to do for a decade. I was happy and it was time to go home. Chad and I had an 8 hour drive home from the field and as we had packed the car the night before we left right from the field after picking up the spread and putting the gear and birds away. It was a great two days and it definitely wont be the last time I go for snows. I cant believe with my sister living in prime snow country and in the first migrtation stopover on their way south that I had never thought to go the guided hunt route. Now she is moving fromm there and I definitely missed out. Claude tells me he hunted in that area a few times and it was like walking into a chicken coop and opening up. He said he quit going after a few seasons as there wasnt enough challenge to it for him. I think I would like to experience that kind of goose shooting just once myself though.....
Either way I will definitely be going for the experience again and I will definitley be hooking up with Claude( Moyak Guide service) again for a fall hunt this time around. Claude put on alot of miles andd worked hard to put us onto birds. With the pressure of 8 months of continued hunting on them the odds of us getting any shooting at all were very low. Lottery tickets probably have better odds. Thanks to Claude and Steves determination and understanding of their quarry we were able to put down 19 of the white birds(13 juvies and 6 adults icluding two lessers) before packing up early to head home. Claude said our hunt was to date the largest # of birds harvested by any of his clients this past spring. He said the hunting was the hardest he has ever witnessed. We all said our goodbyes and Chad and I headed back to Ontario while Jamie and Rick returned home to the good old USA. All of us were definitely in need of some much needed rest too but the tiredness was that good tired you feel after doing something you have always wanted to do and doing it successfully. Thank you very much Claude(Moyak) for a great hunt and an experience I wont ever forget. Be sure to thank Steve again as well. Merci mon ami.The 12 o'clock position as viewed from my position, note the speaker next to the decoys.
Classic style snow goose hunting....Chad , Jamie and Rick on my 3 o'clock position..
Moyak ( Claude) on my 9 o'clock position...
Belle
Til next we meet
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