What Would You Do?
 

Today was the last day of the Ohio goose season. It was bitter cold in the early morning but the scouting report touted hundreds of birds were gathering at a small pond in the middle of a corn field. I met Scott at Big E’s house at 5:30 am for the short drive to the corn field. I try to hunt every last day of a season I can. I have come to expect extraordinary things to happen on the last day. As we approached the pond we could hear the nervous chatter of more than 300 geese! Last night they decided roost on the pond and were keeping the water open. It’s 20 minutes til daylight, crystal clear skies and we’re in the middle of the corn field 150 yards out. The birds are nervous and know we are there. All of our gear is still loaded on the 4 wheeler.
If, you had been there and were calling the shots what strategy would you have employed?

A crawl would have been in order, if there had been any chance of it's success. You give them both barrels, then jam in the shell you're carrying in the corner of your mouth and see if you can't pick up another bird as they fly out. Then you shoot over the cripples, if there are any......

Or just walk up and jump them out with out shooting, like a couple of farmers than set up and hope a few come back in smaller groups. but late season its a gamble they might not return. :) So what did you do??

Had the corn been cut?

its a rare field that is not cut this time of year, the deer and raccoons will be stripping it if not.

i would side with Destry. if they have kept that water open after they fly off - and they will likely go more than 150 yards to feed when driven off. Take you chances on the sneak and then set up by the open water- wind at your back on the off chance that there is no other open water and the may return after feeding

of course this also assume you have a way to recover birds dead in the water

Here's what we did. We circled back around and got behind the dam. We crawled silently up to the top and leveled our guns to spray hot lead ... No, just kidding lol.

It was Big E's call what to do. I was wondering how it was going to go. He decided first, we would wait and see if they flew out on their own. They didn't so we went ahead and set up near the water with the wind at our backs. His reasoning, like Destry and Ricks, was the birds would fly out and hopefully return at some point to the open water. It was really cool seeing all those geese take off in an orderly manner. So we got set up and first thing the wind changed directions. Then the pond skimmed over. The dekes froze in place. Three birds came in and we killed one but it landed on the ice in the "I'm Dead" position. Several more birds veered off after inspecting their downed comrade. Getting it meant hiking to the other side of the pond, wading in to break the heavier ice so Babe could get to the bird through the thinner ice. That's what we did. We hunted the next 4 hours and killed 4 more birds. The old Parker 10 gauge did it's job with the brass shell loads I had worked up. One of the best things we saw was a Drake Mallard plummet straight down, belly first, and break through the ice. Another thing was watching Babe retrieve and bring us the dead. She was like an ice breaking machine. So, all in all, it was a great last day spent with great friends.

If you jumped it your hunt would be over all at once, I would have let the birds leave on their own got set up and waited for their return in small groups ( you hope)

That is what has worked best for me over the years.

We do this a lot even on gigantic water , sometimes we just get in the boat and start crusing the river looking for a big wad of birds, gently let them go from the boat disturbance and then get set up quickly.

Here is a picture from a day when that type of hunting worked well.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps0c2223f3.jpg

Mike sounds like it worked well for you

Fred

It did Fred. We waited awhile for them to leave but they weren't going anywhere. Here's the pic I meant to post

I've played the game of running them off and putting on the sneak too. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I remember the day we waited out 1000 geese on the river, wanting to let them fly out naturally. It took 3 hours but they finally did. We set up and hunted, then finally, they did come back, all in one group, about 30 minutes after shooting hours. Hah!