OH Canada....

We decided to get after the geese again Saturday morning. Randy and I met at the field around 7am and had nothing but fog and more fog to greet us. We setup the decoys and waited for the geese to start moving. The fog had the birds grounded right off the bat, but as the morning progressed the action picked up.

Randy and I limited out around 9:30am and my final bird of the day was also my first banded bird ever!!!

Brian met us in the field around 9:40am and he had his limit killed in under 10 minutes. With all the snow melting the birds had spread out some, but we'll still be able to get some more shooting in before the season closes.

MO Canadians

The huge flock of canadian geese that Brian and I hunted earlier in the week, were still using the same roost pond and fields that we have permission to hunt. So we decided to get back after them again Sunday morning, only this time we brought some recruits...

Brian, Randy (Brian's neighbor), and I were at the Cedar Tree with decoys setup by7am. Now all we had to do was wait on the birds to start flying....in record cold temperatures (-14 in the rig when we arrived w/o windchill). Luckly it didn't take long for th eaction to start. Around 7:40am we heard a single honk to the east and the first bird of the day was coming over the far treeline. I had the first shot, but I'd told Brian and Randy to be ready incase my gun didn'y cycle. It was a touch cold for the autoloaders! The single skirted the outside edge of the set and I missed shot #1, and of course  round #2 didn't cycle. Brian and Randy proceeded to each fire off a couple shots without scratching a feather either. Not the start we wanted.

It didn't take ten minutes before we had the next birds spotted on the horizion. The pair of honkers couldn't resist the decoy spread and calling. They came straight into our setup and in quick order I had my limit on the ground. It was the first double I've had on geese in about 5 years. With me limited out we called Linn and he was ready to be picked up. I left to get him while Brian and Randy stayed behind to protect the spread.

As Linn and I pulled back into the field we watched them shoot the last bird for both of their limits, so appearently the action heated up while I was gone. Linn  quickly sorted out his gear and we headed off across the field to the killing spot. Geese started pouring into the field in groups of 2-10 and it only took about 10 minutes for Linn to kill his limit also, I don't even think he had a chance to get cold from the below zero temperautres.

As we were picking up the decoys we literally had birds landing in the spread. It was good that we shot our limits and got out, so the main group of birds could use the field all day undisturbed. We've been checking on them this week and they are still using the field, so hopefully Saturday morning will find Brian and me tucked under the Cedar again, shooting another limit of MO Canadians...  

Canadian....Snow Geese in MO

Brian called me on the evening of January 5th and said that thousands of canadian geese were using a couple of fields north of Independence that we have permission to hunt. Brian shot one of his two MO gobblers off the property this past spring, but we hadn't been back out there since. After checking on the birds yesterday morning and verifying they were still using the fields, we sorted out a plan of attack for the afternoon.

I met Brian at his house around 2pm to load our gear. We pulled up to the property around 2:20pm and I was amazed at the number of geese . It was the single biggest flock of canadians I've ever seen in one place. The flock spread at least a 1/4 mile across the field with thousands of birds packed together. The adjoining property to the east had an unpicked corn field and the geese were just as thick on that side of the fence. The KC area was expecting 3-6"of snow with record cold tempertures overnight and the snow was already starting to come down when we arrived. We pulled the truck in along the north side of the corn and literally had birds within 30yrds of the rig, with the edge of the main flock maybe 100yrds in front of us. Because of the weather conditions and available food source, the birds would not move. As we made our way into the field the flock just stayed 80-100yrds in front of us, but none of the birds were leaving either of the fields. There was one lone cedar tree on the our side of the property line and that was the location we chose for our setup.

The flock knew we were there, but it was only a matter of time before birds moving from the roosting field to the corn to feed, would offer us chip shots.

After about twenty minutes the intensity of the snow had picked up significantly and the leading edge of the roosting flock had worked within 70 yrds of our location. The cedar tree we used as cover couldn't have been planted in a better location. It kept the snow off our backs and the drifts of snow around it's trunk hid us extremely well.

Brian called the first shots as a group of 4 geese cut right into us as they headed for the corn. Brian got hung up in his king sized sheet he was using for cover and missed the first gimmie shot of the afternoon. I followed up with a school girl effort and clean missed my shot....it would help if I put my cheek on the stock while aiming! After the first report thousnads of birds errupted into the air and a small group of 3 birds flew right into us. I stoned the lead bird straight away and Brian followed that up by scratching out one of the other two birds in the group. The big flock circled around the fields but didn't move more than a couple hundred yards, so we just tucked back into our cedar blind. We waited another 30 minutes before birds started working closer and closer to us by the minute. Around 4:30pm we had a coulpe birds break off and cut toward us and Brian smashed the lead bird. After picking his bird up we were contemplating leaving when a group of 12 geese got up out of the corn field. They flew right over our cedar and I finished our hunt off by crushing our 4th goose of the evening.

The birds were still in the fields this moring, so with any luck we'll be back after them this weekend!