Gooses

[Kmartinson]

Is everyone ready for early goose? 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Yes what time and where am I meeting you??


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[BigVal]

Count me in too I'll bring my call a layout and gun 

[Robhuntandfish]

for years ive been saying i should do this and dont.  Dont want to get sucked into another expensive hobby.  Between fishing and deer hunting i cant be buying shotguns, decoys and bird dogs!  lol.  

I have gone for early bear but plans for that always GTH.  I plan a weekend to go and its 85-90 degrees.  

[grampy]

Lots and lots of geese flying over the house lately. Seems early? But probably not.

[BigVal]

In all seriousness I wont have much time this year but I have done a little scouting. Found a few fields by my house to be holding geese and numbers of birds moving around to be a bit low. The usual roost spots have birds on them as well. I'll probably hunt a couple times to do some early training with my new pup. 

[Pygmy]

44 minutes ago, grampy said:

Lots and lots of geese flying over the house lately. Seems early? But probably not.

Gotta be local geese, Dave....

[Kmartinson]

I'm ithaca area. Birds all over!!! Little early to be on the x

[Kmartinson]

19 hours ago, Robhuntandfish said:

for years ive been saying i should do this and dont.  Dont want to get sucked into another expensive hobby.  Between fishing and deer hunting i cant be buying shotguns, decoys and bird dogs!  lol.  

I have gone for early bear but plans for that always GTH.  I plan a weekend to go and its 85-90 degrees.  

    I work for it, spending a fall sweating hoping to see a bear,  missing work and spending money is a tough sell for me. I'm sure I'll get it together someday.   Instead i fill the freezer with goose, and ducks later. I think the foul is a better table fare...  early season is great,  lots of ammo, no plug, and dumb birds. Almost as good as turkeys. Did I mention hunting 30 minites after sunset for first season..... 

    So I'm grinding, looking for the x all day when I'm on the road  and smashing beaks on the way to work in the morning,  during lunch,  or evening feeds.

    You can wear your bow gear,  Relatively low investment. Barrel for your deer shotgun or cheap pump with a bird barrel, with some steel. 2 dozen silhouettes. Many land owners seem happy to let you shoot the geese too! Find a field with some birds. Pattern the birds. Get some permission,, throw out your dekes the same way you saw the birds you scouted , hide like a mofo and smash!!!

[Kmartinson]

19 hours ago, grampy said:

Lots and lots of geese flying over the house lately. Seems early? But 

I think pygmy has got it.. Juveniles are flying now. Locals are showing off their new babies. I see feed sizes and roost sizes grow from mid August on!

[Robhuntandfish]

33 minutes ago, Kmartinson said:

    I work for it, spending a fall sweating hoping to see a bear,  missing work and spending money is a tough sell for me. I'm sure I'll get it together someday.   Instead i fill the freezer with goose, and ducks later. I think the foul is a better table fare...  early season is great,  lots of ammo, no plug, and dumb birds. Almost as good as turkeys. Did I mention hunting 30 minites after sunset for first season..... 

    So I'm grinding, looking for the x all day when I'm on the road  and smashing beaks on the way to work in the morning,  during lunch,  or evening feeds.

    You can wear your bow gear,  Relatively low investment. Barrel for your deer shotgun or cheap pump with a bird barrel, with some steel. 2 dozen silhouettes. Many land owners seem happy to let you shoot the geese too! Find a field with some birds. Pattern the birds. Get some permission,, throw out your dekes the same way you saw the birds you scouted , hide like a mofo and smash!!!

Ive got a 12g bird gun cause I wanted to get into it.  I have a lot of waterfowl on our lease but don't want to be in there blazing away before bow season.  I got to get out and look around for a good spot. Sounds awesome. I don't have dekes but could get a set and not be in too deep I'm sure. By Sept I am so ready to hunt this would be a nice start to the season. 

[Kmartinson]

Sounds like your ready my man. Oats and alfalfa fields til the corn comes down. They are loafing on all kinds of water. What part of the state are you in?

[Robhuntandfish]

9 minutes ago, Kmartinson said:

Sounds like your ready my man. Oats and alfalfa fields til the corn comes down. They are loafing on all kinds of water. What part of the state are you in?

Cny. East of Syracuse by Oneida lake. 

I've eyed a couple of fields but guys are pretty protective of blowing out their deer hunting spots round here.  Got a couple of spots I am eyeing though.  A pond close by on state land for one. 

[Kmartinson]

I'm hunting stateland and some fingerlakes. Spots. Check the laws but its great hunting on the lakes too. Rivers and state parks hold birds. Its pretty productive for my freezer. You would be surprised how many "go aheads" i get in the ag. from farmers that are.sick of the sky carp crapping on everything. The Montezuma state land is really productive but you have to get out deep off the road and some spots you need to sign up with some ny waterfoul agency 

[grampy]

21 hours ago, Pygmy said:

Gotta be local geese, Dave....

Probably so. I have a big reservoir just down the road a little bit. And they are likely resident geese. 

But have been seeing 10 to 20 at a time flying overhead recently. Perhaps getting the young ones stronger for when they do head south?

I never developed a taste for goose. So never really hunted them. Hence, I don't know a lot about them.

[Kmartinson]

Pressure cook.them into pulled meat and do tacos and sliders!!! Marinaded in speedie sauce and grill medium rare 

[Bolt action]

Goose hunting can be a lot of fun and doesn't have to be a huge investment. I've used camo that I already have and would hide in the cat tails up in Braddock Bay. I put out a few dekes, but usually just got lucky on flyby's. With the lower bag limits during parts of the season, it's become a lot of work getting in and out and setup when you can only shoot 2 birds. 

[Kmartinson]

True that. Southern zone was staying at 5 not sure about this year, was getting duck and rabbits at the same time.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Kmartinson

[Bolt action]

I think I saw that, for parts of the season, it's down to 2 birds. If I'm not mistaken, it was 3 last year for the same time frames. I read an article awhile back that contributed this to a decreased migratory population. Resident birds are everywhere, but the migratory ones have had a few rough years. Based on that, the DEC is lowering bag limits to help the population a bit. Don't ask me how they determine residency status v. migratory though. 

[Pygmy]

There are few things more satisfying than the THUMP  of a 10 pound goose hitting the ground after you fold him at about 30 yards up.....

[silent death]

On 8/11/2020 at 3:23 PM, grampy said:

Lots and lots of geese flying over the house lately. Seems early? But probably not.

Wont be long before we are complaining about snow lol

Edited August 12, 2020 by silent death

[covert]

First time I went, those things looked like B-52s coming straight in at my layout blind.  I still can't figure out how I could've possibly missed... 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Sounds like your ready my man. Oats and alfalfa fields til the corn comes down. They are loafing on all kinds of water. What part of the state are you in?

Around here they're all on lawns all September ; library, soccer fields etc. I swear these resident geese know where not to land


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[The_Real_TCIII]

There are few things more satisfying than the THUMP  of a 10 pound goose hitting the ground after you fold him at about 30 yards up.....

Don't you know, They're all 18+lbs!


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[Nytracker]

On 8/12/2020 at 7:28 PM, Pygmy said:

There are few things more satisfying than the THUMP  of a 10 pound goose hitting the ground after you fold him at about 30 yards up.....

Dont know it was pretty funny when I folded a bird and it crashed into my brother law.. we never laughed  so hard.  He didn't think it was so funny.