Seventh annual goosefest three hunts

[BilletHead]

      Thursday morning our friends from Arnold, MO. arrived. Brad has been down to hunt for seven years, his wife Pam four of those years. We have had some real good hunts on both ducks and geese but Brad prefers geese and that was the target and if a duck happened buy it would be taken out too is possible.  Good food, good friends and three hunts this visit. Started off with an evening hunt. From doing this before we all knew if it was going to happen it would be just before legal shooting time ends. Packed up the trucks with assorted decoys we headed out to where Micah and I had our hunt the morning before. Got set up and settled down,

Eighty four decoys. Hard to see all of them but they are there floaters and a bunch of big foot full bodies,

Then the hides,

    Five minutes before LST ended a pair followed by two flocks came in. Pair first let them land then maybe twenty five behind them pitched in ans we let it rip. Seven down with five minutes to spare. Picked them up and time to quit as more wanted in. I will spare you the fuzzy in the dark photo. I really prefer morning hunts and sunrises but sunsets with friends work too.

  Next morning up and at it again. Took all floaters two dozen mallards and approx four dozen geese. Running a bit late as we were sitting decoys had eight mallards and one speckelbelly try to come in. After we were ready of and on shooting but the "X" was farther East of us. Did not matter we ended up with eight canadas and if we would of shot better we could of had our four person limit!

  The last hunt we decided to hunt on the "X" we watched the day before. That Place we had seen at least two hundred drop in. Loafing area and as we got there no birds to scare off. Good deal I thought. Got there earlier too so as to not miss early flyers. All floating geese this time. The girls grassed up the layout blinds and guys set the decoys. Pretty steep drop off and could not get decoys out too far. The BilletHead almost went down even with his wading stick. We were hid better than the previous hunts and I felt real good about this one from what we seen the day before. Well one mallard drake started the morning. Then nothing, nadda for a long time. A trio flew buy and we were ignored. Later on in the distance we started seeing mombo wads of geese going who knows where and it wasn't to us. Funny how they decide where they are going. We broke out a few and managed six more birds all geese,

 Isn't all about killing it is about the process I keep saying and with close friends to boot makes it a hunt. Back at the house we had fun with Brad and Pam's new chocolate lab pups with the duck. Here is Gus at three and a half months,

 Then Maddie at five and a half months with an assist from Gus,

  Ate like kings . Stuffed mushrooms , rack of lamb, enchiladas . Smoked duck and goose. Early to bed on new years eve with company leaving early this morning. House is quiet now, too quiet. Missing our friends and the pups,

BilletHead

[JohnP]

Sounds like a awsome way to finish of 2016 and welcome in 2017 to me Marty.  Beats the way i did it by sleeping and working  midnight shift.  First time in 15 years that I haven't hunted something on the last day and first day of year :(.

[Nitro 750]

Good report, sounds like good hunts with friends!!!

[ness]

Great report. Love the young lab!!

[Terrierman]

That was quite a report!

[Johnsfolly]

Great post Marty! Love the photos and the obvious friendships detailed by the pictures and the post. Sounds like a great time!