"Big Honkin Deal" - 9.06.07 Goose Hunt

Last September and October the geese had used this field heavily. Like clockwork they'd fly in at daylight and gorge themselves on the cut corn. There must have been a couple hundred Canadas in there each day. Finally, by mid-October, a group of us were able to get permission to hunt the field. (Thank God for farmers that value the depredation and wildlife management tool called "hunters".) We'd set up prior to sunup, putting out silhouette and full body decoys and three layout blinds. Just like clockwork a flock of geese flew into the decoys and the three of us limited out ending the hunt as quickly as it started.

The North Carolina Wildlife Commission estimates the population of resident Canada geese at well over 100,000. To keep this population in check NC has established a special hunt throughout the month of September with a liberal bag limit of 8 geese per hunter per day.

With that in mind we set up a couple dozen silhouettes and a handfull of shell decoys in the predawn darkness and then Ken, Mark and I crawled into our layouts. There is something to be said about sitting next to friends, watching the sun rise over Carolina farmland.
I heard the first honks when they were a long ways off. At least I hoped it was honking. Ears and eyes strained, looking toward the horizon trying to hear another one over the sounds of travelling cars and trucks on a nearby road. There, directly in front of us I heard it again. "Here they come," I said yet doubt lingered in the back of my mind. "There they are!" Mark hissed, "Coming right at us!" I still couldn't see anything. A fabric seam in the blind was constricting my vision. Finally I spotted them. An elongated V of Canadas stretched across in front of the rising sun and they were in fact coming right at us. Waterfowlers use the phrase "being on the X" to describe a hunt where your location is in the exact location that ducks or geese want to be, so much so that they will fly into your range without the use of calls or sometimes even decoys. It became apparent very quickly that we were on the X. With reckless abandon a dozen Canada geese were locked up, landing gear out, and coming straight into our set. "Take 'em" boomed from my right as Mark loosened three shots from his Super Black Eagle. Ken's Extrema barked almost simulatneously. My Supernova remained mute as the barrel and sling had gotten tangled in the blind. Hoorahs and high fives were cut short by the appearance of another group of geese. These too seemed intent upon landing in our midst. When they were a hundred yards out my blind, the same one that had failed to open properly just minutes before, popped open. I gritted my teeth, grabbed both sides and pulled it back closed only to have it pop open again. DOH! I frantically pulled it back together and held it with my left hand, checking to see if the geese had flared. Nothingn doing, they were coming and had been unalarmed by my clumsiness. When Mark yelled "Take 'em!" this time I was ready. The SuperNova shouldered effortlessly and two geese dropped to the earth following three pulls of the trigger. Mark and Ken had shot as well leaving several geese dead on the ground. Ike, Mark's lab had remained in the kennel this morning so Mark and Ken chased down a couple cripples while I rounded up dead birds.

This scene repeated itself several times until we had all limited out. By eight o'clock the gear was stowed and the back of my pickup loaded with twenty-four Canada geese. But, the work had only just begun. Do you have any idea how long it takes to clean twenty-four geese?