Early goose season

[guywhofishes]

white combine went through south of washburn-Wilton area…..

North of Hazen looked like nuclear winter - creepy

 

[7mmMag]

In 1998 we were building green willow blinds up in Canada for waterfowl hunting. 3 or 4 yrs later everyone was in layout blinds. Now everyone is going with the the panel blinds again.

I remember laying under a white bedsheet the first years that the spring snow goose season opened

 

[FightingSioux]

Friends and I are ready, new grass etc... on blinds guns shined up and plenty of Ammo. Don't know what to think but it is always great to be outdoors. Dogs seem like they know what is going on too.
Down fall good shells $35 to $55 damn box asshole government.

Blue box is all you need for early season! Scheels had a 4 pack of them for $60 last weekend.

 

[shorthairsrus]

pellet gun sit on my porch. #get rid of the cunuks ---- all they do is shit

 

[870XPRS]

I remember laying under a white bedsheet the first years that the spring snow goose season opened

Those were the days.....

 

[NDbowman]

I remember laying under a white bedsheet the first years that the spring snow goose season opened

I remember doing that also about the same time frame. Also used a sheet of burlap that had a straw pattern on it for canada's. Still think that was one of the best blinds. Extra shells and drinks went under a shell decoy beside me and covered up with the burlap.

 

[jdinny]

Saw birds in pea field and a solid 100+ in a wheat field as well on the drive up to van hook last evening

 

[jdinny]

It coulda been barley I didn’t look real close

 

[Kurtr]

We got them pretty good this weekend. 27 on saturday and 10 on sunday. Got two bands on saturday. If there would have been a breath of wind that day would have been double easy as the geese just came in every witch way they wanted to.

 

[bigv]

Goose numbers are down considerably in my area. They have been for several years. Gfp drills the eggs and then have early season to point where numbers aren't great for a hunter. Too much competition here as well. I suppose farmers are happy though. Seems to be less and less small grain fields each year too. I did see ton of groups or flocks of geese heading north in early/mid july. I was told by a bird bio that geese that don't pair up will eventually group up and head N to cn.
Ive only killed 20 so far I think. Not too bad for solo though. I remember 10-12 years ago there was wheat everywhere and geese in every field. Used to shoot so many birds we didn't know what to do with them. Gfp has hard time finding happy mediums....with all game.

 

[espringers]

"GFP drills the eggs"?? what does that mean?

 

[1lessdog]

"GFP drills the eggs"?? what does that mean?

I have never heard of it either.

 

[Rowdie]

HOLY F! it was hot those 2 days. Hope your dog is ok and that you were done EARLY. I hope you got those titties on ice ASAP.

 

[Kurtr]

HOLY F! it was hot those 2 days. Hope your dog is ok and that you were done EARLY. I hope you got those titties on ice ASAP.

We were done by 9 both days and I had plenty of water and dog was in the ac in the pick up while we picked up. If I thought for a second he was getting to hot I would be done well before we got to a point of over heating. Had them cleaned and in the jerky bucket by 10.

 

[Kurtr]

Goose numbers are down considerably in my area. They have been for several years. Gfp drills the eggs and then have early season to point where numbers aren't great for a hunter. Too much competition here as well. I suppose farmers are happy though. Seems to be less and less small grain fields each year too. I did see ton of groups or flocks of geese heading north in early/mid july. I was told by a bird bio that geese that don't pair up will eventually group up and head N to cn.
Ive only killed 20 so far I think. Not too bad for solo though. I remember 10-12 years ago there was wheat everywhere and geese in every field. Used to shoot so many birds we didn't know what to do with them. Gfp has hard time finding happy mediums....with all game.

We had ducks coming in like mid October. I can’t say I ever remember seeing this many around this early some light green even starting to show up.

 

[jdinny]

Drilling eggs is a way to kill eggs with out a mother goose re hatching. If her nest is destroyed she will depending on time of year Re lay more eggs. If you drill a hole I beleive not exactly sure the mother will think there viable won’t re nest and all the eggs die

 

[FightingSioux]

"GFP drills the eggs"?? what does that mean?

Jdinny covered it, the geese are really hard on beans and destroy a lot of acreage , they also gave landowners spring depredation permits too to kill them with rifles.

Early season used to be the best but only gets worse with less birds and accessible fields. Add in the messed up migration and electronic posting and the whole season gets much more difficult. I really haven’t seen any posts that I normally see this time of year

 

[Kentucky Windage]

When I was a kid, my dad told me stories about WT deer being extremely scarce, being able to count on one hand the number of greater Canadian geese he had ever laid eyes on, massive flocks of sandhill cranes, and more. Everything cycles. Our ability to relay information is off the charts these days. Some of these examples may have been the norm back in the day, but shifted location wise without the ability to report the findings territory wide. I’m not not acknowledging that our agricultural practices aren’t shaping and shifting things, but it’s hard ignore the fact that information travels so easily these days.

So after centuries of existence, what’s the norm?

 

[zoops]

When I was a kid, my dad told me stories about WT deer being extremely scarce, being able to count on one hand the number of greater Canadian geese he had ever laid eyes on, massive flocks of sandhill cranes, and more. Everything cycles. Our ability to relay information is off the charts these days. Some of these examples may have been the norm back in the day, but shifted location wise without the ability to report the findings territory wide. I’m not not acknowledging that our agricultural practices aren’t shaping and shifting things, but it’s hard ignore the fact that information travels so easily these days.

So after centuries of existence, what’s the norm?

Even growing up in the mid-90s there were closed areas of the state where you couldn't hunt honkers, then the limit was one or two for some years. Remember shooting my first one in HS and thinking it was quite a deal. The norm got shifted a lot in the 2000s.

 

[Kurtr]

Even growing up in the mid-90s there were closed areas of the state where you couldn't hunt honkers, then the limit was one or two for some years. Remember shooting my first one in HS and thinking it was quite a deal. The norm got shifted a lot in the 2000s.

Shot my first goose in 91. Was one goose a day and it was a big deal back then. I remember when my dad used to get a tag to shoot one a year. After that winter of 97 and all the new water is when I remember them just exploding in population