Heritage days 3rd & 4th of October 2009

[Marc]

Marshall (dog) and I hooked up with Field Marshal and three local youth hunters. We set up the decoys and got the boys together and went over the ground rules of keeping the guns pointed in a safe direction and not shooting when the dog was retrieving or in the event that he broke from the blind.

Daylight comes and we had 3 geese flair over the decoys and land behind us about 100 yards out. After a few more flocks coming from the direction directly behind us we figured we'd move some of the decoys in the back hoping the geese would see them easier. We relocate the guns on the other side of the ditch as well hoping to increase their odds of knocking something down. Guess what the next flock decides to do. They fly right down the spot we had previously set up no more the 20 yards away with no shots fired. The boys managed to to take a few shots of geese over the decoys but unfortunately nothing hit the ground this morning.

Marshall (dog) was getting a bit stir crazy with birds in close, the youths blowing on the goose calls, shooting, but nothing falling to retrieve.

The plan is to regroup tomorrow now we have a better understanding of what the geese are doing and will adjust the spread / blind accordingly.

The standing corn was maybe 30 yards away from us to give you a depth perception. This was the first time using the new goose call on birds since I got it this spring, the majority of the time I only had one hand on it as I had the other on the dog to prevent any chance of the dog breaking that could have possibly messed up a chance for the boys. The dog stood pretty solid watching the birds as they circled the blind with little to know pressure from me on the collar.

Here is a short clip from the blind.

Marc.

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/th_HeritageHunt3October2009.jpg (http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/?action=view&current=HeritageHunt3October2009.flv)

[mattchu_19]

Just wondering If you guys thought of hiding in the standing corn. early in the season geese are not scared to fly over it or near it.

[field marshal]

RE ---- hiding in standing corn. We've hidden in it many times before with
good success. They only started harvesting this field the night before we
set up. I didn't want to have to move if they started cutting again while
we were there. The blind we were in is natural cover we use all season long. The geese were used to using a field about 300yds to the south of
us. We had to try to suck birds in crossing the fringes of our spread heading to the glory hole.------UPDATE---IT worked today!!! Marc will post!!
Cheers , Field Marshal.

[303Brit]

Thanks for sharing guys, thats awesome. Hope the kids had a good time, as that what its all about.

course bagging a few is nice too

303

[Marc]

OK lets try this again, I had typed up the story earlier today but accidentally erased it all and was to frustrated to do it all over again.

It was a bitter cold morning, the youngins were snuggling together to keep warm as it must have dipped down to just below zero the night before.:lol: Field Marshal and I set up the decoys. This time we put out two spreads with a pocket in the middle, we were competing with another adjacent field that held 500+ geese the day before.

We kept the decoys in tight to the blind with the farthest one being maybe 25 yards out. Field Marshal had checked on the field just before dark and the corn was still standing at 7:00pm, the farmer must have cut the corn in the dark as there was no standing corn in the morning. So now we have a freshly cut corn field with a good amount of spoilage corn on the ground for the birds to feed on.

We get the young guns set up, hot chocolate in hand, loaded up and ready to go. The first flock to enter the decoys must have been around 20-30 birds. Yesterday the boys had missed opportunities at birds for either waiting to long to shoot or not shooting at all. So this time Filed Marshal and I gave them some words of encouragement:biggrin:.

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/th_HeritageDayshunt4thOctober2009.jpg (http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/?action=view&current=HeritageDayshunt4thOctober2009.flv)

Well that didn't work as not a goose was hurt in making of this video.:lol: Just to keep it into perspective the geese were only 20-25 yards out, the new camera doesn't give a very good depth perception

I think it was enough to get their blood pumping as the next flock wasn't so lucky and now are short one. Marshall is off like a flash and easily makes the retrieve and brings the goose back to the blind. He was sooo happy to finally get to retrieve something.

The next flock that comes in circles behind the blind from left to right and pitches right in to the pocket where we again use some words of encouragement and they manage to scratch 3 geese this time. One for one guy and a double for the other. One of the birds wasn't hit solid and flew 75-100 yards away before touching down, I send Marshall off to retrieve that one first as the other two aren't going anywhere.

The last goose of the morning was looking for love in all the wrong places, it circles a couple of times before making the fatal mistake of doing a fly past right in front of the blind about 10 yards off the ground. The young shooter shouldered the gun, followed through the bird and pulled the trigger. The goose just crumpled and hit the ground. What a beautiful shot he made.

We only had two gunners this morning as the third had to go camping with his parents (Man is he going to be pissed when he sees that these two got into the birds.)

Here are some pretty proud youngsters. James on the left wasn't old enough to shoot this time but made his presence with his calling. He's going to be one hell of a duck and goose hunter when he's old enough.

Had a great time, even though it was a wee bit frustrating seeing the birds come in and leave but we've all been there and it was great to have these young hunters out there having a good time and bagging some birds. I think that this is a great program for recruiting young hunters and thank everyone that was involved to put it together.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Heritage_days_4th_October_2009.jpg

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/the_gang.jpg

[field marshal]

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Marc for sharing my grandsons and their friend Austin's Heritage day shoot. Today was the capper. Of course I can't forget Marshal the wonder dog. He just keeps
getting better and better. It was a great weekend. I hope more guys like
Marc consider mentoring juniors, these kids are hunting's future.
Wish everybody a safe and productive season.
Cheers, Field Marshal.

[303Brit]

AWESOME!!!! glad to see the lads getting it done, it's great that you guys have the time to take them out. I gotta wait like 10yrs before my gurls can get into the birding.

303

[Marsh Hawk Jr.]

nice birds,all i manage to get this year was a wigon and a hen pintail while my sis got her first snow goose. how can i upload my pics on here cuz im having trouble finding where to upload them on here?

[duckkiller]

Good job boys, hats off to all the mentors.

Killer

[shotgunjohn]

Your Saturday experience sounds a lot like ours Marc. We took two young fellows out, one of which was goose hunting for the first time. The first flock turned into the pocket perfectly, much shooting ensued, unfortunately no birds hit the ground. Needless to say my dog was pretty disgusted. After that the birds didn't co-operate as well and it would have been tough shooting for anyone. Oh well, the boys got to shoot their guns. Hopefully the dog won't be too traumatized and we can give him a chance to get some feathers in his mouth next weekend.

[Duck Buster]

Great job you guys, Sorry that it took so long to respond to your post. It is times like that which make lifelong hunters. Keep up the good work, and get those boys out all season.