Field Goose Hunt Blitz
Mark Fike
New Year’s Day was a memory in the making for me and my youngest daughter. Normally our field goose hunts are scheduled events that involve a generous invite from a friend to go partake in some great shooting somewhere locally. This day was different in that we had just received exclusive permission to hunt some farm fields that had not been hunted in a few years. We were so excited about the prospect of doing it all on our own that we were busy loading up our gear the night before so all we had to do was jump in the truck and drive away in the morning.
The forecast called for cold temperatures. Our hope was that the birds would not take forever to fly. Although I have set up my own tiny spread before, it had been years and I had no idea how this would play out. We did know that the geese tended to fly in that location around 8:30 which gave us time to set things up with some daylight to work with.
When we left the house, the thermometer in the truck was in the single digits. However, our excitement did not allow us to feel that cold. Arriving at the farm I immediately noticed that the standing corn that we planned on hiding in was bare, with only stalks and no leaves on it. Time for plan B! The layout blinds were dragged across the field and backed up to the remains of the standing corn. We needed to blend the blinds in so they did not stick out. The dog’s Switchback already was brushed up good. After putting out goose decoys to the northwest of our position, I quickly drove the truck down over the hill and out of sight, and trekked back to the layouts. Kristy was stuffing her layout and her dog, Baily, was peering out of her Switchback. Baily was probably wondering if this was going to be nap time as our hunts in the duck blind have been this year or was this going to be the real thing. While we laboriously stuffed the layout elastic straps with foliage, we tried to keep watch on the horizon for geese. Once while 35 yards from the layout I turned to see Kristy staring at me with a panicked look in her eyes. She had puffs of steam escaping her coat where her mouth was but no words came out. Then she pointed frantically to the north. There they were; bombers of the black and white kind approaching our position.
“Get in the blinds now!”
I tried to get into mine as she disappeared into hers. My gun was lying on the ground, unloaded, several feet away. My calls were in the blind somewhere, and the door on my blind would not pop up for some reason. I was wedged out of the blind and could not get in. Knowing the birds were very close I dove to the ground next to the blind and lay still. I could hear the wings of the geese as they circled our setup and eyed it curiously. They were probably thinking, “What is that fat dude doing laying on the ground near the corn?”
I hissed at Kristy to get ready to shoot. Imagine the sinking feeling in my gut when she told me her gun was not in her blind with her and it too was unloaded!
Those geese flew away, giving us time to regroup. I hurriedly used the little black leaf rake we had to pull some foliage over the ends of our blinds. Then we got in our blinds. We waited about 20 minutes before one of us noticed more birds coming. I tried desperately to find my calls but could not. I felt like a failure and a rookie. More panic set in. I knew the calls were in the blind with me, but my hands could not find them. Finally I located the lanyard and gave it a yank only to have my camera come flying out of the pocket inside the blind and thump me on the chest. I hurriedly shoved that back into the pocket as the big geese began swinging away from our set up. With no calls to assure them, I had to do something.
The Flapper!
We had a goose flag or flapper to wave to get the birds’ attention. The purpose was to add movement to the setup. I remember telling Kristy to put it near my blind. I searched for the opening slit in the side of my layout, but could not find it. After some squirming around and peering out of the side of my fogged up glasses I noticed a zipper that would allow me to reach out and get it. As I fumbled my arm and hand outside of the blind through the slit, I grabbed what I thought was the flapper. The flapper is just a few feet long, lightweight and much like a kite. In other words, it weighs next to nothing. When I grabbed the flapper it weighed a lot and seemed awful long. Still I went to waving it best I could. It seemed to be very heavy. The geese saw it though and swung back around. I dropped it and heard it “clunk” on the frozen ground. Something was definitely not right.
Peering through the mesh area in front of my face I was locked on to the birds as they set down softly for such large creatures and then they began walking through the decoys. No matter, I forgot to load my gun again!
“Kristy! Shoot!”
I had to hiss at her a few times, but she got the idea and got one immediately. I could not shoot, so I sat up as the birds flew off and was thrilled to see she knocked a bird down. Then I looked over at the flag and realized that the “flag” was the rake! I had been waving the rake the entire time. The flag was lying on the ground just out of reach. What an idiot I was waving a leaf rake high in the sky above the corn field! But, it did work in a pinch and we had one goose down to prove it.
As Kristy cut Baily loose to get the goose, I watched with great pride. Kristy had trained the dog on her own with some tips and assistance from our friend Steve Purks. The dog had come a long way. She never seemed to bark or whine on this trip as the birds came down among us.
In the small confines of the layout I began rifling through my pocket for the long 3 ½ inch shells and shoved them into my gun. I thought I shoved three in my gun but only managed two apparently which became painfully obvious on the next flight when we sat up as the geese were putting down and began firing. I knocked one bird down but ran dry on the last shot when a big goose was just taking off down the end of my gun barrel. Kristy got her second bird to limit out for the day and sent Baily out again. The dog was living it up and happy to retrieve. The look on her face was almost as if she was smiling as she held the birds as high as she could so she did not stumble or trip on them while bringing them back to us. When she got the second bird back, another small flock started our way so Baily was sent to her blind and Kristy shoved the birds in the blind with her. Ah, to be thin again and have room in your blind to hide several geese!
I was able to pick out a particularly fat bird out of the next flock and waited until they began settling in before I popped out and got the bird with one good shot. The birds were still circling and trying to come in on us. Seeing so many birds come in and want to land despite us standing there was amazing. What was more amazing was the hunt we managed to pull off despite so many mistakes. Both of us had taken our birds, the dog got some good work and we had supper to boot. It was only 9AM too!
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