Omer and I had a memorable goose hunt the Thursday before Thanksgiving weekend in October 2003. I had been scouting the cornfields to which I have access for Canada goose hunting since the 2003 Autumn hunting season opened in the last week of September. By the end of September, the corn was harvested and the stubble remained. I took Maggie hunting for woodcock and grouse in a few of the afternoons following work. I took her to a patch of cover in the Marlborough Forest not far from the cornfields. This way I could drive by and watch for signs that migrating Canada geese were dropping in. The Tuesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving weekend I went afield with Maggie and the sky was filled with migrating Canada geese on their way south for the winter. As I drove home from the afternoon hunt with Maggie and the sun was setting, I passed by one of the cornfields to which I have access to hunt Canada geese. With some excitement, I noticed a sizable flock of Canada geese sitting on the cornfield. I made a quick mental note of the approximate location of the flock and began making plans to come back as soon as possible in hopes bagging a few of these migrating Canada geese on the cornfield.
After getting I home, I quickly contacted Omer and told him of finding Canada geese on the cornfield. He was free the following Thursday, as he did not have classes that morning, so we formed a plan to go goose hunting that morning. I arranged to have the day off that Thursday, and Wednesday night gathered together the equipment we would need for Thursday morning's hunt. This included three dozen goose decoys, twenty-four Canada goose shell decoys and twelve full bodied Canada goose decoys. I packed my Browning BPS shotgun, one hundred shotgun shells, an assortment of bismuth and tungsten loads, a camouflage net, camouflage gloves, jacket, cap and face mask. I brought my P.S. Olt flute style goose cal, flashlightl and camera too. I instructed Omer to dress accordingly and be ready for me to pick him up at 3:30 AM.
We drove out to the cornfield from Ottawa in the wee hours of Thursday morning with mounting excitement. I cautioned Omer that there was no guarantee that any Canada geese would come our way, but I was cautiously optimistic. We arrived at our destination in plenty of time and set to work lugging the equipment out onto the cornfield in the dark. With Canada goose decoys, guns, shells, camouflage net, camera out on the field, we set to work setting the decoys. I am careful to arrange the decoys so they look like a typical flock of Canada geese feeding on a harvested cornfield. I use and assortment of sentry and feeding decoys arranged as family groups. The decoy spread is set up around the blind site. The blind site is in a furrow. We simply lay flat on our backs underneath a camouflage net and cover the net and ourselves with leftover corn stalks. We prop our heads up on our ammunition boxes, and use empty decoy bags as cushioning. We lay side-by-side with Omer on my left as I am a left-handed gunner. This way we lay flat on the cornfield with our shotguns across our chests and the barrels safely pointing away from each other. We were set up in the approximate location where I had seen the flock of Canada geese on Tuesday evening. We were situated so that we had a good view of the southerly direction from which the geese were likely to approach the field. We were set up and in position well before the morning flight began. We had time to drink coffee and get comfortably into position.
As daylight set in, the Canada geese started their morning flight. We watched as some high flying flocks passed by in the distance. Finally, a flock appeared flying low enough toward the field that I could begin working my goose call. I got to work letting go with a stream of excited honks and clucks. The birds approached and flew past well out of range, but I watched out of the corner of my eye as they hooked back toward the decoy spread and began losing altitude. I kept up the excited honking and clucking, and as I paused briefly to draw a breath said to Omer, "wait for it." I watched, taking care not to make any sudden movements as the flock of Canada geese, whose honking was getting louder and louder, came closer until they were gliding over the decoy spread no more than fifteen to twenty yards in front of Omer and me. When the whole flock was passing directly in front of us, I said to Omer, "take them." We sat up, bringing our shotguns up, and I selected a goose from the flock directly in front of me. I slapped the trigger and the goose fell dead into the decoy spread. I missed with my second shot.
I discovered when the shooting stopped that Omer had succumbed to buck fever. This was his first Canada goose hunt and in the excitement, he missed cleanly. I got up and quickly propped up the dead goose among the decoys. We got back in position and before long another flock of Canada geese was working its way into our decoy spread. Omer got back in form and succeeded in doubling, something I have yet to do. The action was pretty fast and furious, with several flocks and a few singles working into the decoy spread. Most of the birds were killed cleanly, but we did have to run down a couple of crippled birds. These birds were finished off as quickly and humanely as possible. As birds were taken, they were propped up and added to the decoy spread. By mid-morning we thought we had limited out with ten birds so we concluded the hunt. However, the final count was nine birds. In the excitement of the hunt, we had miscounted. This was fine as nine Canada geese in the bag is quite an accomplishment. We skinned and dressed the birds right there in the cornfield, taking care not to leave any waste behind. Spent shell casings were retrieved too. On the way out, we stopped to say thank you to our host, and give him one of the birds. In all, it was a very successful hunt.
