I'm for sure a fan of the Browning A5, anything FN Belgium is a quality piece of hardware. A bit leery of putting steel shot through the old girl but so far so good. The one pictured has a full choke barrel. I picked up another that had a faulty variable choke. I had the choke cut off & it's a handy slug gun now.
I had success with ducks last year too on one of my other favourite alpine lakes. 3 Gadwalls in one shot with the vintage A5 as they flushed in tight formation.
There are lots of ways to prepare them for sure. I guess I"m old fashion for the most part, got it from my Dad I guess and pluck a good portion of my birds be it ducks or Geese. Roasting a bird whole with mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing and gravy smattered over everything is my go to meal.
Things can get fluffy in the process lol. Old photo from many moons ago but still the same process and mess hahaha
Building it was on the bucket list for a while. Got it done in 2005 a year after I moved to Vernon. Over a decade later I made another for daughter & son in law. This spring I finished my 3rd & most likely last, a little solo canoe. Lighter & easier to lift as I get old & weak. Fast & fun, but the bigger tandem is the go to for comfort & carrying capacity.
There are lots of ways to prepare them for sure. I guess I"m old fashion for the most part, got it from my Dad I guess and pluck a good portion of my birds be it ducks or Geese. Roasting a bird whole with mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing and gravy smattered over everything is my go to meal.
Things can get fluffy in the process lol. Old photo from many moons ago but still the same process and mess hahaha
Very nice haha! Some time ago I did a small turkey on the rotisserie of the BBQ. Didn't have to pluck it though, it came ready to go out of the freezer. Turned out so tasty I considered doing at least one of the geese that way but once I got going on the prep I decided to just breast them. Even doing that created a minor feather storm lol.
There are times when we have to much fun and end up with limits and plucking full birds gets to tedious. Even then it can take a good 6-8 hours to process 40 geese between 3-4 people plucking the breast, breasting the birds and taking the thighs off, while others do other chores like cook breakfast and putting gear away etc.
When things get crazy we usually breast skin on or skin off depending on what you want to do with it. If I'm smoking the breast I like skin on, if I'm making up burgers or sausage we don't bother keeping the skin on. the thighs I make a lot of stews but some braze them for hours in a slow cooker and make a like a BBQ pulled pork recipe with them. We have ample limits in BC, no shortage of birds in certain areas and tonnes of options for preparing them.
Enjoy your birds, some don't like the taste of waterfowl. To me it brings back so many found memories of me of past hunts with my father. I've always enjoyed the eating it, and just the smell & taste of it brings back so many good memories spent with my Dad.
There are times when we have to much fun and end up with limits and plucking full birds gets to tedious. Even then it can take a good 6-8 hours to process 40 geese between 3-4 people plucking the breast, breasting the birds and taking the thighs off, while others do other chores like cook breakfast and putting gear away etc.
When things get crazy we usually breast skin on or skin off depending on what you want to do with it. If I'm smoking the breast I like skin on, if I'm making up burgers or sausage we don't bother keeping the skin on. the thighs I make a lot of stews but some braze them for hours in a slow cooker and make a like a BBQ pulled pork recipe with them. We have ample limits in BC, no shortage of birds in certain areas and tonnes of options for preparing them.
Enjoy your birds, some don't like the taste of waterfowl. To me it brings back so many found memories of me of past hunts with my father. I've always enjoyed the eating it, and just the smell & taste of it brings back so many good memories spent with my Dad.
40 geese holy honkers Batman! I won't ever have that problem around here. Big flocks & migrations near the coast as I understand. A little bit of gamey taste I actually like, as long as it's not too overpowering. I've kept hearts & gizzards in the past, like them fried up in the pan for a quick bite! Dad wasn't a hunter, we did go fishing a lot when I was younger.
Canoe build is on my bucket list to, but my bucket has a hole in it.
Ya it's not cheap but there are ways to cut down on the cost. I ordered all the strips pre-milled, bead & cove ready to build for the 1st 2. One of the big ticket items aside from clear cedar is epoxy & fibreglass. Then you need plywood to build a strong back to set up the molds. Molds are best made of plywood too, but mdf will work. Other than that, if you have lots of clamps & some basic wood working tools you're good to go. A lot of manhours required too.
For the last build I sourced the cedar at a local sawmill. Being a much shorter boat that made finding clear boards of the proper length easier. I had him cut the strips & I milled the bead & cove into the strips myself as I had the router bits. Didn't do the greatest job as the strips were a bit too thick & I didn't take enough time to set up finger boards to hold them as I ran them along.
I purchased the book Canoecraft decades ago. It has tables for lofting mold stations but I purchased the plans for the Bob's Special from Bear Mountain Boats. Lofted the drawings for the Rob Roy out of the book.