Goose massacre (w/pix) (2/27 - 28)

[Brent Bryant]

It appears that I will be at the lodge Friday evening to chase birds Saturday and Sunday, provided the intel is good Thursday.

[Joe Despain]

there are litterly no geese left. we killed the living snot out of em this weekend! between me and brent, we saved the tundra!! hey brent dont be stingy with those pictures!

[Brent Bryant]

It was a good trip. After a pit stop to have a front hub replaced on the way over, I rolled into the area just before dark in time to hit a couple of fields at sunset. I stopped by and got Derrick and tried one field that didn't work so well (4 birds) as he discovered his gun was a single shot and I discovered the only birds left on the ground were out of range. The next field was better. After confirming that Derrick's bird was not the one on the right sporting the $50 reward band, we picked up 21 birds.



The next morning, Joe, Stu, and I met Derrick and a couple of his guests to team up. The first field was a bust when three of us ended up in the right place only to discover a thousand specks between us and the snows. By the time the Specks cleared out of the way, we could only kill 4 snows. It’s a long story, but when it was all said and done, it just sucked. Then Joe, Stu, and I went out on our own after Derrick and them headed south. We found the motherload of geese complete with Lassie, the goose chasing yard dog, and his screaming children. (We only thought about shooting the dog.) When that was said and done, we just killed 20 as they flew over us and a couple of guys from Tennessee that pulled up with us.

The rest of the day sucked until right at dark when Joe and I worked our way onto a 5-star jump only to have some dipshit from Searcy cut across the field and horn in on us halfway into our walk down the ditch so they could spook the geese right before we were ready to shoot. Apparently, someone's momma didn’t raise him any better than to not give a damn about anyone but himself, uh, I mean “getting his boy on some birds”. Damn it. That’s twice in two weeks Joe and I have been screwed up by some guy “trying to get his boy on some birds”. Okay, I’m all about a man taking his boy hunting. I’m thankful my father did. But I raised my kids. If you want someone else get your boy on birds, ASK first! Don’t run across a field, after someone else is already working a field and jump in a ditch just to say, “you’ve got company”. I guess I was just raised differently, but where I'm from you respect the first person on the birds and move on. Even from my soapbox, we killed 58. Joe and I alone would have broke a hundred easy had we got to lay our guns across their heads before the flush. It was too perfect - but for the early head bob on the end.



The next day it was just me and Joe and we had finally patterned the birds. The first jump was in range but thin, so we only killed 29. The next stalk was a bust. The birds just moved before we got to them. Reason unknown. The next stalk was busted by some other guys coming into the field next to it. The next jump caused us to spend two hours picking up 101.





The last jump of the day was right at dark. We picked up 58, with one banded. There were undoubtedly more, but it was getting dark and it was a rice field that hadn’t been rolled, so who know how many we left.





The next morning was me and J.D. His gun went from jamming on the first jump to broke on the second, so he didn’t have a real good day. With that minor detail aside, we killed 16 on the first stalk that busted when the geese decided to leave over our heads. We picked up 58 on the next shoot that was awesome as we laid in the field as the geese landed around us. The next jump is when J.D.’s gun fell apart and mine jammed, both the result of all the mud from the previous jump. We only got three shots off and picked up 7 that fell dead in the unrolled stubble. I then made a jump of 28 and 33 (1 band). That evening I went back out and just managed to shoot 6 and 14 on birds flying over as I had a perfect jump go south after some guys in the next field over shot about 1 minute before I got into position. It happens.



The next a.m. I went out before Richie and I left town to bird hunt with David and Dennis and I killed 27 (1 band).



When it was all said and done 484 geese and 4 bands went in the back of my truck. Counting the weekend before, I saw 726 geese and 5 bands fall. It’s been a good season.

[Stuart MacDiarmid]

The afternoon that Brent was busy with his wheel bearing I hooked up with some guys from East TN and we put the smackdown on 126. No bands believe it or not!!.........or at least none that I was privy to. Unfortunately Sky was the only dog there and he and I spent 1.5 hours picking up cripples while all but one of the other guys picked up the 60 or so that were killed on the initial jump.

[Joe Despain]

that was fun shizitt

[Brent Bryant]

bump

[Stuart MacDiarmid]

Nice bump!