Last Hunt of 2011

Last Hero Shot of 2011

The last hunt of 2011 turned out to be a goose hunt with Busch Pilot, Bubba and his son and myself on Saturday December 31st.  We were expecting some light rain early in the AM with fog and clouds the rest of the day so we started out just a little bit later than normal.  There was nothing moving at all until the rained stopped and once it did we started to see and hear some geese.  The geese were quiet for the most part and with the fog it made it difficult to know when there were gesse around. 

Me and Busch Pilot contributing to the Kielbasa fund

We heard the first geese around 8:30am and we would hear a honk or two and that was it.  It took some time before we could see the birds, but they were committed to the field.  As we worked the first flock, a second showed up right behind them as did a couple of stragglers.  We had the first flock on the ground just feet from the blind as we worked the rest of them in and just as the second flock started to touch down I called the shot and in true Team Empty hull fashion, most of the geese left unscathed but two hit the dirt.  Now don't ask me how 10 geese land just feet from the blind and they all fly away to live another day.  Bubba was blaming his cold and the NyQuil he took the previous night, but at least he couldn't blame the sun.

The entire field had signs of traffic

 
We had another flock come in totally quiet and never seen then until they cleared the fog and they were already committed to the field.  As they got close to the blind, they veered a little bit and I didn't call the shot thinking they would swing and commit and they did.  As the first bird touched down I called the shot and two more dropped from the sky.  When Busch Pilot and I went to retrieve the birds we only found one and could not find the other in the field at all.   I looked into the brush on the far side of the field and started to see what looked like small pin feathers on the pricker bushes, so I looked closer and they were feathers and I started into the prickers and found the other goose lying their dead.  That made us half way to a four man limit.

You can barely see the end of the spread

Reminded me of the Chinese restaurant scene in the Christmas Story

The fog had really socked in and we couldn't see more than 35 yards from the blind.  It was so bad we could hear a flock of geese near us and worked them with the calls and they flew straight down the field right over the decoys and we never got a glimpse of them.  We could hear them and their wings, but couldn't see them and they just flew off.   The fog started to clear a bit where we could make out the edge of the field again so we stuck it out for a bit.  For the next 1/2 hour we had ducks darting across the field everywhere but they were not interested in us at all.  We were just getting ready to send Bubba's sone james to the truck for some sodas and as we stood up, Bubba caught  8 geese coming in quiet and everyone got tucked in quickly and once they committed to the spread I called the shot and I couldn't even pick up my gun because I was still too open from the previous shuffle, but the other three let loose and only one goose dropped.  I think the fog was causing havoc with someones shooting because we should have been limited out with the first flock.

Bubba enjoying a piece of Goose Kielbasa

We ended the day with 5 geese, which is just about enough goose to make a batch of Kielbasa which made everyone smile.  We packed it in around 1:30 and headed home.  We may have not ended the year with a limit, but we had plenty of fun and laughs sharing the blind with good friends.  I'd  take that over a limit any day.