The bigger they are...

[Peter Clark]

Here is yet another mega goose of the type we have around here. This AM went to a neighbor's and didn't fire a shot. Came home and sneaked up on our pond and it had plenty of ducks and geese on it. Should have shot ducks but took this monster instead, and with a #6 bismuth duck load! Poor little dog swam out, looked it over and turned around. We talked about it and she went back out and drug it to shore and then managed to pull it up the bank. There is no way she could lift this bird.:crying: It is definitely one of the heavier ones I have killed, even for our big ones! -plc-

[Angel Cruz]

Nice one Peter!! I would have loved to be there just to hear the conversation you had with that pretty girl. What's her name??

[Peter Clark]

Thanks Angel. Her name is Josey and she is a real sweetheart. She is 2 1/2 years old and a great family dog but also loves to hunt. Spoiled rotten in the house, of course.

I took her pheasant hunting recently and she did great even though she had never seen one before.

I didn't scold her on the goose, just encouraged her to try again. She is kind of a sensitive girl yet can be stubborn. She is the only dog I have trained that has never broken shot, knock wood! Too bad I no longer compete because she is really a nice one.

[Dean Romig]

That's a hell of a Canada! Is that one of the sub-species called the "Giant Canada Goose"?

[scott kittredge]

wow, that is a big bird, Bill Janelle and I shot a couple of big ones back in early Dec. one was 13 lbs and the other 12 lbs, but we were shooting BB's and 1's.:rotf: good job !, scott

[Peter Clark]

That's a hell of a Canada! Is that one of the sub-species called the "Giant Canada Goose"?

Yes Dean, they established those around here many years ago and they do not migrate. We have a lot of migratory geese of various sizes, and I prefer those. These big guys are usually only fit for jerky, but this one feels quite fat. We will see when I clean it.

[charlie cleveland]

that is one big goose for sure..did you weigh it or maybe guess at its weight...nice pup for sure ..she done well it would have been a cold swim if she had not of went back and got it for you... charlie

[John Dallas]

My experience with those big guys is that they are so tough you can't cut the gravy with a chain saw

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've probably told this on here before, but I like it so I'll tell it again.

Dad and I doubled up on one years ago that was big as a damn swan. I weighed it on the deer check station legal scale and it tipped them at 19 3/4 pounds. If you don't believe me ask the old man, he couldnt believe it either.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Peter I haven't forgotten you on that large size bismuth, I just have to get around to digging through the 10 gauge horde to see how much I have.

Destry

[Peter Clark]

For those who asked, we weighed the deceased goose this morning on Wyatt's rabbit scale. This is a pretty good scale used for weighing market rabbits for the 4-H fair to ensure they are within weight limitations and for checking uniformity of market pens of 3. It weighs to the ounce.

The goose tipped the scale at 15 pounds even, probably a record for me. If you check the photo I started this thread with, you will notice it is quite broad in the breast.

Here are a couple of photos from last year showing the size variations we see around here. I may have shown these before, but here they are again. For eating, the smaller the better in my book!

[Dennis V. Nix]

Beautiful bird Peter. Congratulations.

Dennis

[Rich Anderson]

Is the smaller bird a lesser Canada? When I hunted them in Canada there were greater and lesser geese mixed together. I always wanted a lesser to have mounted but it never came to pass and I gave up hunting waterfowl.

[Dean Romig]

Scott K., Please show us your mounted Lesser Canadas.

[Peter Clark]

Is the smaller bird a lesser Canada? When I hunted them in Canada there were greater and lesser geese mixed together. I always wanted a lesser to have mounted but it never came to pass and I gave up hunting waterfowl.

OK, the birds in the picture were last year's birds and the large one is a Giant but not as big as the one in my earlier photo. The birds with the mallard are as follows: Giant Canada (biggest), a Western Canada (medium), and a Richardson's Canada (smallest and indeed one that would be a lesser). Richardson's are one of the Cackling or Lesser Canada geese and they are all small. The other variety we get here is the Great Basin Canada Goose about in between the western and giant. Typical weights are Giant 14-15 pounds, Great Basin (Moffit's) 10-12 pounds, Western 7-10 pounds, and Richardson's 3-4 pounds. Somewhere I have a photo of all four varieties together I took years ago up by Fort Collins, but it isn't digital. At that time I hunted with the former head of the Colorado Division of Wildlife waterfowl program and he knew what was what on the geese. There are many subspecies.

[Mills Morrison]

That looks like a lot of fun. What kind of gun were you using? Looks like a Parker from here.

[Peter Clark]

That looks like a lot of fun. What kind of gun were you using? Looks like a Parker from here.
Yes Mills, it is a Parker, a 32" DHE and a favorite duck/goose/trap gun.
Here is another picture of it with my son and a goose he collected with it earlier this year and one from last year that shows it better. There was also better duck hunting last year.

[Mills Morrison]

Very nice. :shock:

When I think of what these big Parker 10 and 12's were doing 100 years ago, I imagine them out hunting ducks

[Jeff Christie]

themDuckman-

Great goose. We get a lot of the big guys around here. Try a Jaccard tool to tenderize the bigger/older geese. Works wonders. You can get them on Amazon or any of the cooking tool websites.

Jeff

[Destry L. Hoffard]

It's like a running joke to me, in all the geese I've killed, I've never shot a small race canada. And I've killed two or three canada geese over the years.....

Jealous!

[Kenneth Andres]

Since we are sharing, here is my Giant Canada Goose that I got last year. When I brought it to the taxidermist, he asked me what the hell I had there. LOL Weighed just under 19 lbs. I've shot turkeys that weighed less. I still want to do this using my Parker like Duckman's original post. Next season I guess.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Nice!

[charlie cleveland]

now thats a big goose..be tobad if that big fellow fell from the sky on a fella..one thing for sure he or she been eating good....charlie

[Peter Clark]

It's like a running joke to me, in all the geese I've killed, I've never shot a small race canada. And I've killed two or three canada geese over the years.....

Jealous!

Destry,
The small race birds, and there are several types, are pretty much a Pacific Flyway or west side of the Central Flyway proposition. Probably uncommon where you are. We are right on the edge of both flyways, hence we see all three teal species. Not sure how the male Cinnamon and Blue Wings tell their ladies apart. I guess the girls know who to wink at.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've been in the field when small race geese were shot here in the Mississippi Flyway, and I've even hunted them in Oregon! Still never killed one.....

My buddy killed a pair of Aleutians in Oregon the day after I left......

DLH

[scott kittredge]

Scott K., Please show us your mounted Lesser Canadas.

so I am slow, these 2 geese weigh about 4 lbs each.

[Rich Anderson]

Is the Ross goose considered a small race bird? I have shot them in Manitoba while hunting Snow's.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

The Ross is pretty well considered a separate goose, though they're related to the Snow Goose obviously. I killed a pair of those out of a huge flock that came over me down in Mississippi. My buddy wanted to surprise me so he didn't tell me that nearly every white goose in that are was a Ross. We'd tried to get a shot on white geese the whole time I was down there but were only getting specklebellies. That was fine with me as I'd never killed one of those either.

Finally he put me on a pond levee next to a field full of them and before he could get driven away nearly the whole field got up and came over me but real high. I poured fire into them as quick as I could, even managing to reload once. When the smoke cleared I had a pair flopping, one was close to the shore of the pond so I waded in to get it. I nearly passed out from excitement when I saw it was a Ross! It was only then that he told me nearly everything down there was, but that he didn't want to make me nervous when he finally got me a shot. Hah!


DLH

[Peter Clark]

I grew up around Ross geese in California and they were protected for years but not any longer. So to were tule geese which is a smaller race of white front or specklebelly. I have killed Ross geese here in Colorado as well as California. Of the white geese, they are the ones I consider edible, much like a good duck. They are distinguished by their small size, 3-4 pounds, and pink feet and bills. -plc-

Nice mount on those cacklers!