# Season results.



## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

How did everyone do this spring? My partner and I shot 116 this spring and we only hunted after work and 2 saturdays. I have been keeping a detailed hunting journal for the last 5 years. Does anyone else do this? I like to record the: date, time, weather, setup used, legal land location, and the results. I have a county map that I use for marking the location of the birds. Every spring the geese are further west and the fall route is always the same. I started keeping this journal for fun and now it is a major part of my waterfowling kit. FWIW the price of field peas is going up bigtime and a lot of Sask. farmers will be growing them again. Only 4 months til opening weekend, I can't wait. :beer:


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## gooseman007 (Dec 5, 2005)

My Dad and I shot 405 this spring season, including the 47 this past weekend. Watched 600 or so roost for the past 2 weeks on a small farm pond. Couldn't take it anymore and had to set up and bust them as they came back from a corn field. For once the geese we set up for came into the dekes in small groups. Made for a memorable last hunt for the spring.


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## goose_caller (Jul 5, 2005)

Just didn't get to hunt much this spring....only pulled off two 3-day weekends. Was worth it since we averaged 70-80 per day in the decoys, a couple so so days but I think 3 where right around 100 or over.....can't wait for Canada to hit them again in 5 months.


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## kaiserduckhelm (May 26, 2005)

We averaged right at 30 birds per hunt with only 2.5 shooters per day. Hunted the main migration in the RWB, didn't get a good juvie slaughter in this year because we packed it in way to early. :x


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## drakespanker12 (Aug 28, 2006)

shot 550 in one week between 3 guys, only had one week to chase the damn things otherwise it would have been more haha, best day was a wed. chased em all day and shot about 250....too much money went down the drain on those bastards....but the jerky sure will taste good!!


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

> shot 550 in one week


Believe me if we could unplug the gun and shoot Ross' geese here the results would have been a lot higher. It is hard when you keep getting "dive-bombed" by them and have to watch the collars fly away. :eyeroll:


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## drakespanker12 (Aug 28, 2006)

where r u from?


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

I had a fun season that just ended yesterday. Hunted with a lot of great people, saw a lot of geese, and sometimes we looked smart and sometimes stupid.

It's time to chase walleyes.


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## Triple B (Mar 9, 2004)

Hustad, how'd you guy's do in that tourney on the river this weekend? I had a buddy in it that said they didn't fair very well.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

I didn't fish it...we hunted snows one last weekend as we didn't want to fish the river with all that traffic. Dollinger took it after taking 2nd last year. He said he caught a lot of fish and they got that kicker 30" to boot so I'm getting out on the river 3 times this week to make up for lost time chasing snows.


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## Ridge Nelson (Jan 19, 2006)

Chris Hustad said:


> I didn't fish it...we hunted snows one last weekend as we didn't want to fish the river with all that traffic. Dollinger took it after taking 2nd last year. He said he caught a lot of fish and they got that kicker 30" to boot so I'm getting out on the river 3 times this week to make up for lost time chasing snows.


What was your total snow count for the whole season?


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

Well......I made one trip to SD and two of us shot 10 snows.

We hit the very front edge of the geese. We saw many birds but could only get permission on a couple of fields where the combined corn was about waste high.....the birds were very skittish. Plus we had a few missed shots :wink:

But lesson learned.

Chuck


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## Guest (May 1, 2007)

Chuck, you are the only one I could relate to in this post! But it was still fun even if you shot more than me!


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## krsportsman (Feb 1, 2006)

Me and my dad ended up with 250 for the season! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait for next year already!


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## Mr. Lee (Oct 12, 2002)

Hunted 27 days this spring. Average of 2.07 hunters per day. Killed an average of 41.4 geese per hunter per day.

Shot about a dz cases of shells. Spent thousands on gas.

Lost my job!

But...worth every penny!


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

> 2.07 hunters per day. Killed an average of 41.4 geese per hunter per day.


Wow, I wish our spring hunt had the same regs as yours. How many of those geese were Ross'?


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## goose_caller (Jul 5, 2005)

Why the hang up on ross? Yep some really get smacked, but I would say on average they only account for 10% of all birds taken....maybe less since I usually pass on them singles/pairs. Unplugged guns make very little difference in my mind also on an average day.....I would say 95% of my birds are killed on my first 3 pulls.


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

> Why the hang up on ross?


I am not hung up on Ross'. I am just curious because we can't shoot Ross' geese here in the spring.



> I would say 95% of my birds are killed on my first 3 pulls.


But at least you have the option of using an unplugged gun.


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

How come you guys get to shoot 8 Canadas in the fall and we only get to shoot 3? How come you get to shoot 8 ducks in the fall and we only get to shoot 5? How come you get to use ecallers in the fall?

Trust me that last one would be much greater than unplugged guns in the spring.


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## Goose Guy350 (Nov 29, 2004)

Everyone in my crew only ran 3-4 shots in their guns, I can see where you can get 4 shots off at birds possibly a shady 5th but how are guys getting off 7 and 8 shots, I don't understand it


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

The 7 and 8 shot guys are the guys that are sneaking up to the roost in the dark, whistling when the sun comes up, all the heads go up and they start mowing them down. I put 6 in mine and honestly anything past 4 is just a waisted shot or a wish for the golden BB. However it can be good if you have a cripple that loops back around. Of course this is just my opinion!


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

Goose Guy350 said:


> Everyone in my crew only ran 3-4 shots in their guns, I can see where you can get 4 shots off at birds possibly a shady 5th but how are guys getting off 7 and 8 shots, I don't understand it


Just because guys are putting 8 shells or more in there guns doesnt mean all 8 shots are being shot at one time. I cant count have many times when Im sitting in the decoys where you have little to no time to reload before the next flock is on top of you.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Killed two geese all season. It was the best season yet!!


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

> How come you guys get to shoot 8 Canadas in the fall and we only get to shoot 3? How come you get to shoot 8 ducks in the fall and we only get to shoot 5? How come you get to use ecallers in the fall?


I think you may have interpreted my post wrong. I was wondering what percentage of the birds were Ross'. Why are your bag limits so low? Has it always been like that?


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

I would say on average we usually shoot between 25%-33% ross' this may seem kinda high, but the majority of the birds we shot this year were late in the season and the ross' hang out real late. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to try and pick out snows and blues, I know a lot of guys who have difficulty telling the difference from a blue juvie and a speck juvie. I don't think we went out one day without shooting at least one ross'


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

I never pulled my plug this spring. In my opinion after 3 shots you're spraying and praying and that's usually when you have cripples. There are exceptions when the birds are working REALLY close though.


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## mallardhunter (May 15, 2004)

did ok this season nothing too great, since the birds were spread out. i had my plug out, but didn't empty it that much, just when the birds got really low. :sniper:


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

> There are exceptions when the birds are working REALLY close though.


I had 2 of those chances this year. We were set up in a field when a huge flock(5k+) came in. We didn't call or anything and they landed all around us. We both unloaded on them and before we had a chance to reload the flock was forced to fly right over us due to high wind. I managed to get 2 more in the gun. The 4th shot was a clean kill and the fifth shot was a waste of money.



> I know a lot of guys who have difficulty telling the difference from a blue juvie and a speck juvie.


The way the regs are here I won't even point the gun at a juvy blue. We had a lot of oppurtunities to kill a lot of snow geese this spring but I would rather err on the side of caution then get caught shooting a Ross' or Spec in the spring. Ross' geese do make excellent decoys when you allow them to keep landing in the spread.


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## Goose Guy350 (Nov 29, 2004)

I heard some massive volleys from some small groups of hunters this spring, there is no way that all those shots would even have a chance at being lethal, in some ways I don't think plugged shotguns would be that bad in the spring.

When we get to the field in the morning I always tell everyone to keep a box of shells by their hip, soon as we shoot I tell them to lay back down and close the doors and reload while they are covered up, its worked pretty well so far.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Id say most birds are killed on the first two shots. After that, ranges get pretty long, (especially if they have a good wind to get ahold of) and its a spray, pray, cripple more of than that on numbers three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Only once have I had need for an extended magazine, and that was in my younger days when I was known to jump geese on occasion  .


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

http://www.winchesterguns.com/support/video/1442sx3.wmv

You might get a few rounds off with this shotgun. I would like to see it done with 3.5" BBB.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

barebackjack said:


> I was known to jump geese on occasion  .


SINNER!!!!

Hahaha Just kidding! I did it as well and I think most of us have. Sometimes it can be tempting to do it again but I guess the "older wiser" thing comes into play.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Crawling just isn't as easy as it used to be. :lol:


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

You aint a kidding.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Chris Hustad said:


> Crawling just isn't as easy as it used to be. :lol:


So true!

Ten years ago id be out cruising and looking for birds id find a group and immediately my mind will go, "oooohhhhh, quick little jaunt down that treerow, easy little bellycrawl down that fenceline, and blamo!"......now its more like..."baton death march jaunt through six inches of mud down treerow, bone chilling wallow in muck down fencerow, and oh crap!, they spotted us!"


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## IOWAFOWLER (Nov 30, 2006)

LOL So true!!!!!!!

We had a flock of a few thousand this year sitting in our field when we arrived.(late morning) Instead of sneaking we just headed straight for them and flushed them out. 30 minutes later when we where all settled in. They came back from the direction they left and didn't even hit the brakes. Dropped in like hey brother where you been!


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