Sgt_Scarecrow:1, Canada Geese: 0

sgt_scarecrow

sgt_scarecrow

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Today my day started at 5am when I woke up to prepare to go hunting for goose and/or duck. One of the members of the club I joined has a sweet spot just outside Alliston on a sod farm. The geese and ducks frequently pass over the hedgerows over this area making it ideal for hunting in the mornings and evenings as the animals move to and from their feeding and night time sleep areas. About 7:45am a V-shaped flock flew 35 yards directly over my hedgerow and three shots later and a little bit of a ground chase (and some additional shots, but we won't go there), I had my first goose.

Having cleaned fish, I felt that I was up to the mechanical task, which was surprisingly easy. I am not the squeamish type and after about 15 minutes I had the bird stripped down to its edible essentials. The only thing I found a little disturbing was during the removal of the innards - the body warmth of the animal, unlike fish, makes you realize you're working on what was shortly before a living, breathing creature. That gave me something to think about, but I carried on with a deeper respect for the sacrifice this bird made. I can see why native Indians have such a strong hunting ethic and respect for prey. Taking a life, even an animal life is no small matter.

The plucking process has convinced me to seek out a wild game processor next time. It was a long, arduous and incomplete process - I won't be eating the skin, that's for sure.

Next was figuring out how to prepare it so a trip to the internet quickly established that one good way to prepare the bird was to marinade it in buttermilk for 24 hours. This apparently reduces the gaminess of the meat and imparts a nice flavor to the bird. So, that's sitting in the garage fridge right now. We'll see how it goes when we cook it for dinner tomorrow night.

One little insensitivity on my part - I had the bird in the kitchen sink and was plucking it - it was still quite evident it was a bird. Feathers flying everywhere and a tearing sound was in the air as I did this and I hear a guttural moan come from across the room. I found myself being stared at by my parrot who had for the last 30 minutes watched me work on this bird. Parrots are pretty smart animals and he was distinctly upset. He spent the balance of the morning muttering to himself. Please be reminded that this is also the same parrot who likes chicken wings. So I won't pluck a bird in front of him again, but he's also a certified cannibal, so my sympathies stop at a certain point.
 
That's a pretty small catch you got there :lol:

Just kidding, I hope I can find the time to get out and shoot me some.

Congrats.

BT
 
EXCELLENT. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'VE EVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY OF CLEANING A DEER, BUT IT WILL DEFINETLY BEAT YOU GOOSE EXPERIENCE. MY FIRST WAS LAST YEAR. I DROPPED IT WITH ONE SHOT JUST AS IT WAS GETTING DARK (ALMOST TIME TO PUT THE GUN AWAY) SO I CLEANED IT APPROXIMATELY 10MINS AFTER IT WAS SHOT. I HEAR WHAT YOU SAY WHEN YOU MENTION THE WARMTH AND REALIZING THAT IT WAS JUST A LIVING ANIMAL. BUT ANYWAYS IT MADE ME WANT MORE AND I'M HEADING TO THE HUNT CAMP IN 30DAYS TO HOPEFULLY EXPERIENCE THIS AGAIN. TAKE CARE.
 
BJMAC, Caps on means your screaming... heh heh heh...

sgt_scarecrow, Nice to see the pic and congrats on the hunt! I wish we had more opportunity for geese here in NB, but that's few and far between...

Cheers
Jay
 
Good work, Sarge, your first bird! That's a great feeling, watching them drop out of the sky, the deader the better. And I know what you mean about the respect for the living animal; I feel it every time after 25 years or so.

Forget about this plucking nonsense, it's not worth it. Take the breast and legs, giblets if you're English, and that's 99% of the edible bird anyway. Simply pluck the feathers over the breasts, peel back the skin to expose the meat, and then scoop them out. Chop off the legs where feathers meet skin, and then just peel back the skin to expose the legs, carve them out as well. You never get into the guts.

And now is getting to be good temperatures to age the birds. Lay them on their backs in a nice cool area (no freezing, but below 5-8C) for at least a couple of days. I'll go a week when it's just around freezing. On the concrete floor in the garage works great for me. Then clean as above.

What are you using for shot/choke?

Grouse Man
 
BJMAC said:
EXCELLENT. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'VE EVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY OF CLEANING A DEER, BUT IT WILL DEFINETLY BEAT YOU GOOSE EXPERIENCE. MY FIRST WAS LAST YEAR. I DROPPED IT WITH ONE SHOT JUST AS IT WAS GETTING DARK (ALMOST TIME TO PUT THE GUN AWAY) SO I CLEANED IT APPROXIMATELY 10MINS AFTER IT WAS SHOT. I HEAR WHAT YOU SAY WHEN YOU MENTION THE WARMTH AND REALIZING THAT IT WAS JUST A LIVING ANIMAL. BUT ANYWAYS IT MADE ME WANT MORE AND I'M HEADING TO THE HUNT CAMP IN 30DAYS TO HOPEFULLY EXPERIENCE THIS AGAIN. TAKE CARE.
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Come November and -20 weather, that warm carcass and lanolin from the fat sure feels nice though, I have grown to enjoy it.
 
I am using a Mossberg 500 with the screw in chokes - the shot was Challenger 12GA #1 Steel 2 3/4, and I had the modified choke in.

When the birds came in over the hedgerow they were in the V formation, but there was a tight group of 3 closest to me so I did the tail, tip and one length lead forward and let one go. At first I didn't think I hit, so as they passed over me I swept and let another one go. Then I saw one begin to drop into a shaky glide and I knew I had it. It landed in the field about 150 yards away still alive, so I had to walk up to it.

As I approached it leaped into the air and I thought it was just shocked so I let another go, but I am sure I missed. At that point my biggest concern was a wounded animal getting away from me which would be really upsetting. It settled down another 20 yards away and so I took my time and lined up on it and I am sure I hit it at that point.

It didn't try to fly away this time, but it looked very calm - its head slowly tipped back, it did what looked like a death rattle and just flopped down. I have to be honest it was upsetting for me not to have killed it out of the sky, the last thing I wanted was that bird to experience what I am sure was that horrible fear in its last moments.

In looking the bird over, I think my first shot broke its leading elbow on its right wing, and thats why it came down. I recovered one pellet from the breast (first shot) and two from the rump (which would have been the second in flight shot). There were several from the final shot that penetrated the back and I think collapsed the lungs. Had it been lead, the one pellet in the breast from my first shot probably would not have lodged in the breast but would have gone on to do internal damage, and most likely, would have killed the bird on the first shot.

The steel shot sucks ass. I understand the need for avoiding evironmental poisoning, etc, but I am not entirely sure its worth a suffering animal - I understand if you're shooting waterfowl over water, but I was entirely on land. Lead shot would have been fine for that in my opinion.

I've picked up a box of Remington Hevi-Shot Nitro Magnum's in the hopes that the next one isn't such a long drawn out affair. I also got some Kent 3" #1 Steel BB Fasteel. I figure the one in the chamber go with the Hevi-Shot and for the two followups go with the Fasteel.

Feel free to advise, I am a total n00b to this...
 
Heh - well congrats, it's meat on the table bud :)

BTW - two bits of advice on cleaning .. 1) buy a propane torch, and 2) have kids. :)
 
I'd say move to bigger steel shot, BB or BBB at least. The rest of the combo sounds good. Take speed over payload when you choose shotshells.

Grouse Man
 
I feel for ya with the cleaning, but if you have 60 to do in one shot, the empathy leaves pretty quickly.

There has been about 170 geese throught my knives this year. Picked a few and breasted the rest.

A bit of advice on the picking is to do it outside or in the garage with a cardboard box to keep the feathers in.

Only had a few ducks but they are much easier to take care of than the geese.

We have a flock of 5 to 8 thousand that lands acroos the road from my house to a mile away. Holy #### its cool in early September.

I lost count of the birds taken out (over 500) by hunters over the last few weeks don't need an alarm clock, just leave the window open. :wink:
 
Mumptia said:
We have a flock of 5 to 8 thousand that lands acroos the road from my house to a mile away. Holy #### its cool in early September.
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Too bad I live in Ontario, sounds like you can bag your limit in just a half hour. I have to connect up with some more landowners around here.

Foxer said:
Heh - well congrats, it's meat on the table bud :)

BTW - two bits of advice on cleaning .. 1) buy a propane torch, and 2) have kids. :)
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Got both... guess I gotta get organized now...

The bird is on the BBQ as we speak. I marinaded it in buttermilk for 24 hours, as one internet goose hunter recommented, and since I did the worst job since Job plucking it, I put 2 onions in the body cavity, pulled the skin lose but not off, and put one of my favorite dry rubs on, then tied the whole thing back together, and put it on a spit.

... I'm shooting in the dark here folks, report on dinner at 11!
 
The problem with staggering loads is that the leads can change. What was too much lead withe the steel shot might not be enough with the heavy shot and vice versa. I do stagger my loads but I do it with the same manufacturer and length (Remington 3") I just stagger the shot size. My recipe is 1 3" #2 in the pipe, another #2 as a follow up and then a 3" BB as the final shot for the birds that are starting to get out there. I do this because generally the first shots you let go will be the closest so you can get away with a smaller shot size because the energy will be there, as the birds travel further away from you it's nice to have the downrange energy of the larger shot. the manufacturers loads seem to have the same feet per second travel regardless of shot size as long as you keep the payload consistent (1 1/8 oz. of shot) Remington sportsman 3" are putting out 1550 FPS w/ #2 and BB size shot.

813
 
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Well, she turned out mighty tasty.

I just have to convince my wife that game animals aren't all diseased and need to be cooked to death. It was a little dryer than necessary. I had to go to Scouts tonight and it stayed on the Q a little longer than I wanted. But, it still good tasting and I am surprised at how tender it is for a game bird. Definitely want to do this again, but I think I will take it to someone professional to have a few properly dressed and plucked. I am doing soup out of the carcass.

Thanks for all the advice folks! I love this board, so much experience and everyone goes out of their way to help and answer questions.
 
Good stuff all around, Sarge! Damn, you sound like a chef the way you prepared that gander. And soup from the carcass! Let me re-phrase: Nice shootin', Emeril! :lol:
 
1450 is okay, 1550 is better. Yes the 1450 will kill birds, but you want every advantage you can get. I've shot geese overhead and heard the #2 pellets hit the feathers, but the birds didn't even flinch. I switched to F (or T, I forget now, but BIG shot) and they started dropping like sacks of potatoes. It was like they were hit with buckshot, or a .22.

Last tip: don't shoot that big tough old bird in the lead; get the small ones on the side. MUCH more tender.

Grouse Man
 
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