276 geese (conservation hunt review w/pix)

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Brent Bryant
Founding Owner ('93 - Present)
Posts: 1133
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:09 am
Location: Jonesboro, AR during season; Springdale, AR the rest of the time

276 geese (conservation hunt review w/pix)

Post by Brent Bryant »

So I spent a couple of days chasing geese around Jonesboro last week. It was a good couple of days. The first day started with a failed coyote set up, followed by an excursion on the creek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULT02OK9 ... e=youtu.be
(or if you’re one of the members who have never gone to see the hole we have hunted most often at bandy, here’s a quick look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyOFd4NWOE)

after a quick creek crossing, I found myself a few feet from these ducks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj376QL_ijc
Great duck calling audio, ain’t it?

Anywho, I moved around the field to the geese where I was able to get a decent set-up seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Du0j_5dM5s

I would have liked to have moved down further, but the geese had already rolled up on me twice due to a crop duster in the area, so I took what I could get when I could get it when I heard the plane coming towards me again. 37 birds wasn’t bad, though.
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The next jump was near Swan Pond. I was actually trying to set my camera up to get another video of the jump when the birds came up on me prematurely. Yep... damn cropduster again. The birds were really spooky because of it, and after rolling up on me once while I was crawling the ditch, I wasn't willing to take a chance on another missed opporunity. It worked out well though as I ended up picking up 58 birds - my second best solo jump ever. I know it's counterintuitive, but I believe I have better results from having geese come up before I take the first shot, and I also don't like them too close. Needless to say, though, that the tighter the birds are packed, the better. Ultimately, that's the most important factor, I think.
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The last jump of the first day came in a field with think standing stubble, which made it real hard to find downed birds. I still managed to pick up 29 though. One of the cripples I chased halfway across the field (in the argo) had a band. Gotta chase the cripples.
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The next days started off with a real easy jump on some scattered birds. I only killed 15, but one of them - again, a cripple I chased with the argo - was banded.
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The next couple of jumps also had poor numbers. Not because the geese were scattered thin, but because I had a disruption on a 5-star attack when one of the farmers who didn't know I had permission managed to force me into a premature jump. Had I not had that farmer standing at the end of the ditch yelling at me, I was about 5 minutes away from stacking 50+ birds. As it turned out, I only killed 12. ARG!!!!

The next jump would have been pretty good except some numb-nutted dipshit forgot to load his gun with Hevi-shot before getting in position. (The geese were close, but thin.) That moron ended up loading steel and only killing 10. I expected 25 - 30. Hevi-shot really does make THAT much difference.

The next jump wasn't too bad. The geese were a little farther than I would have liked, but I still managed 25.
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The next jump was a total bust. 11 shots later, I only killed 4. The birds came up wayyy too early and I just ended up covey shooting birds too far gone. The next jump though was pretty awesome. The greatest thing about it was that I just drove the argo down the ditch, stepped out of the argo, and shot. I picked up 42.
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Speaking of the argo, I was impressed with how well it got me in, down, and out of big, silty drainage ditches. I had been wanting to try to drive into the middle of the geese before, and would have had the opportunity to do it twice earlier that day, but for a row of trees in one case that had the geese to far from the ditch, and a road crossing in another case that prohited me from driving as far as I needed to. After that last jump though, I'm confident that if they can't see you, the sound isn't an issue - at least not in a big ditch anyway. I'm still not sure how it would do in a ditch that is just shallow enough with geese right on the edge, but I'm probably going to try it someday.

So the last jump of the day was awesome, too. Pretty much all of the jumps I did were relatively easy, but this one was about as easy as they come (short of just stepping out of the argo). I picked up 44. I figure there were more in the standing stubble I didn't find, but while chasing one goose, I spun a track off the argo. While chasing another goose, with just one track on the argo, I managed to get it high centered big time. By the time Joe came to jerk me out with his ride, it was dark and raining off and on. Did I mention that the Argo is awesome WITH tracks? Both of them, that is!
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It wasn't a total bust. While fighting mosquitoes waiting on Joe to arrive, as many birds as I've ever been in the middle of started filling the field up at dark. It was too dark to get any good video, but the audio is good to listen to, if you like to listen to that sort of thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd3VGm6ZkZc

I originally planned on hunting three days, but after 10 jumps and 276 geese, I was sore, sore, sore, and out of shells. After figuring up the cost of two days of shooting, I just wasn't interested in buying anymore Hevi. 7 jumps in one day was the most I've ever done, and I just didn't figure it would be too bad of a note to end on. :)
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I'll forget about the $400 worth of shells pretty soon, but the hunt's going to stick with me a while. Wish y'all could have been there.
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Brent Bryant
Founding Owner ('93 - Present)
Posts: 1133
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:09 am
Location: Jonesboro, AR during season; Springdale, AR the rest of the time

Re: 276 geese (conservation hunt review w/pix)

Post by Brent Bryant »

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