# Once in a Lifetime!



## mntwinsfan (Oct 8, 2010)

Days come along that are instant lifelong memories. April 2nd, 2012 will be a lifetime memory for me and 7 others. In the course of a few days, we scouted and stimulated the local economy... Especially the gas stations. A lot of petro was spent but the goose gods rewarded us with a hunt to remember. We waited for the right wind and it was delivered on Monday. A good north wind allowed us to hunt the birds on a roost that were feeding very close to the south.

A quick setup of around 400 sillosocks and we were waiting for the short flight. The feeding flights started early and often. We had big groups work us and go back to the roost. Soon, we were cleaning out the kill hole as birds were flaring over the checkerboard of dead birds. The main feeding flight ended around noon, but we could still hear all the birds on the roost. At this point, birds were piled in back of us and we had no clue how many we had.

The wind increased along with a steady mist and birds started trickling off the roost. Singles, pairs, and small groups would leave the roost and decoy nicely. This happened for around 4 more hours. Everytime we looked behind us we had birds coming to us. It was hard to imagine the thought of that many birds on the ground. We obviously had a ton of birds that came to our spread numerous times. Conservative estimates judged the roost at around 3000 birds.

We had numerous runs back to the truck to get more shells. Numerous cases were used and the gun barrels were constantly hot. Its hard to imagine that we had constant shooting for 6 hrs but thats the flat out truth. After the bird numbers were tallied we landed on 393. Thanks to the crew and the hard work it took to put this thing together!


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

Pile'em up! A day for the record books. Glad to be part of it.


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## EllendaleND (Dec 25, 2011)

Oh my!! about where was this in SD??


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## TheAnimalSlayer (Feb 2, 2010)

This is definitely an amazing hunt ill never forget! Hard to beat making memories with a great crew of guys! Yup jpallen14 we did pile 'em up!


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## SD-fowler (Jan 19, 2012)

EllendaleND said:


> Oh my!! about where was this in SD??


West of aberdeen.


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## EllendaleND (Dec 25, 2011)

SD-fowler said:


> EllendaleND said:
> 
> 
> > Oh my!! about where was this in SD??
> ...


K. I live 40 miles north of Aber and there is not much action left.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

EllendaleND said:


> Oh my!! about where was this in SD??


East of Huron actually.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

Pilin em up for sure! Epic hunt, will be a life long memory no one will forget. Be lucky to come even come close to that again. Between all the joking around and bird action it was one awesome hunt. Glad we had multiple extra guns in the spread, and multiple extra cases.



EllendaleND said:


> Oh my!! about where was this in SD??


North Yale and South of Carpenter.


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## SD-fowler (Jan 19, 2012)

jpallen14 said:


> EllendaleND said:
> 
> 
> > Oh my!! about where was this in SD??
> ...


West of aberdeen. Im not protecting any birds Im giving others a chance to kill a few themselves! Why lie aboit location, the birds dont belong to anyone.


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## brobones (Mar 10, 2004)

Great hunt do you have a idea of how many shotgun shells you went through? I wonder how many trips were made back to the truck to get more shells while the hunt was on??? Looks like a lot of fun cheers :beer:


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## TheAnimalSlayer (Feb 2, 2010)

I think we figured that we went through about 7 cases..Had to run back to the truck twice to get cases of shells


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## 9manfan (Oct 22, 2008)

Very nice hunt, congrats......


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## bodawg (Feb 4, 2012)

Juvie to adult ratio? Any hardware ?


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## BigT (Feb 19, 2008)

Prob 80/20 Juvies to adults and one band, 2 the day before. It is nice when it all comes together and you have guys that can shoot. Definately have our work cut out for next year! It was a good 4 days to be in the spreads, and a bad April fools joke for 225 snow geese on the first also. Thanks to all of you for the great hunt and piling em up, alot of work went into them and it paid well. Between the weasel, lifting, pumping, cherries, dirty holes, getting skinny and the M.o.M it was epic! :beer:


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## BigT (Feb 19, 2008)

SD-fowler said:


> jpallen14 said:
> 
> 
> > EllendaleND said:
> ...


You're all wrong, actually 12.3 miles NE of Glendorf. But if you could always post up where you find birds that would really help early season also. Thanks in advance :beer:


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## NC Ducker (Feb 17, 2010)

Congrats boys! I hate i missed it. Left one day too soon! Got the call on my way home!


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Thats awesome


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## possumfoot (Nov 7, 2006)

wow... thats putting it on em!!!


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## Northern_Skies (Aug 28, 2009)

One of the Best hunts I have ever been on !! :beer: :beer: Thought the birds would never stop coming I will post up some video when I get done editing it may take a few weeks.


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## clsposse (Apr 12, 2011)

wow that is an overhaul job !!!! congrats :beer:


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## shotgunner (Oct 15, 2002)

With going through that many rounds during the hunt, what did you find out about the guns? How did they function, did you have to do anything to keep them running? Were there any type of guns that performed better than the others? I'm talking about autos.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

shotgunner said:


> With going through that many rounds during the hunt, what did you find out about the guns? How did they function, did you have to do anything to keep them running? Were there any type of guns that performed better than the others? I'm talking about autos.


We had a Beretta bite the dust due to an extension malfunctioning and shooting off, my SX3 stock became so lose it became unfit to shoot about 1/4th the way through the hunt, but happened two days before also and I forgot to tighten it down again after the previous days shoot. Other than that everyones guns performed well.


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## TheAnimalSlayer (Feb 2, 2010)

Yea my extension on my Extrema 2 sheared my threads off where it screwed on to the magazine tube..No idea why it happend but definitely nothing to do with the gun. Put almost 2 cases of shells through it for the weekend and never jammed once. But yea all the other guns worked well


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## bodawg (Feb 4, 2012)

4.5 shells per bird. Ammo companies love that!

Must have been some bruising on the shoulders. :wink:


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## shotgunner (Oct 15, 2002)

If I may ask, what were the other guns? I'm in the market for a new one and what better testing is this.


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## BigT (Feb 19, 2008)

shotgunner said:


> If I may ask, what were the other guns? I'm in the market for a new one and what better testing is this.


We had a couple Sx3's, benelli, 870, berreta, and a BPS. They all functioned well, as mentioned before there was the freak thing with the Berreta and the stock on 1 sx3 came loose. My Sx3 worked flawless as did most of them. There was even a Nova out there.


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## Northern_Skies (Aug 28, 2009)

I was shooting a benelli Vinci no problems there was also a stoger 2000 worked perfectly .


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## brobones (Mar 10, 2004)

How many of you were seasoned hunters and how many were rookies or sophomore hunters?? For anyone this type of non stop action but for someone newer to the sport it might be a bit tougher to really appreciate what took place??

Did you clean all the birds together in one group or did you separate and clean your share alone?. If you cleaned them in one big group how long did it take?

Bro :beer:


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## Northern_Skies (Aug 28, 2009)

Every one there was a seasoned hunter and had been on some 200+ bird hunts before.


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## BigT (Feb 19, 2008)

brobones said:


> How many of you were seasoned hunters and how many were rookies or sophomore hunters?? For anyone this type of non stop action but for someone newer to the sport it might be a bit tougher to really appreciate what took place??
> 
> Did you clean all the birds together in one group or did you separate and clean your share alone?. If you cleaned them in one big group how long did it take?
> 
> Bro :beer:


Like Mat said, all seasoned hunters. We all appreciate what this hunt was, a newbie would be ruined for life after this...haha. Might as well retire after that 4 days. We cleaned all the birds as a group and it took 45 mins. It will take much longer to make sausage and jerky :beer:


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## J.D. (Oct 14, 2002)

Nice hunt! :beer:


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## goosejerky (Apr 6, 2012)

what ammo do u prefer for those decoying snows (brand, shot size, shell length, fps) man u guys did work no doubt.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

goosejerky said:


> what ammo do u prefer for those decoying snows (brand, shot size, shell length, fps) man u guys did work no doubt.


3'' 1 1/4 oz Federal Blue Box 2's/BB's is what I prefer to shoot at everything and they seemed to work pretty good this year, as did the Experts, the Remington sportsman steel, and whatever else was thrown at them. :wink:


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