Well this was a first

[BilletHead]

      Well I have taken women and children goose hunting but it was a first taking a pregnant lady for goose hunting,

     On one of the farms I am fortunate to have permission to hunt the land owner told me his nephews were coming up to hunt. They are from Texas and hunt ducks down there but have limited knowledge about geese. There was only one stipulation. I was to tell them where to hunt and where not to hunt? Huh I thought? Landowner said he did not want them to mess up my hunting? Again Huh? Really he said you work too hard and they should not mess that up for you. I said how about I give them some guidance and if they want me to take them out I will. So three weeks ago I get a call from Texas and we chatted. They said we will be there the sixteenth. I said just call when you get here and I will tell you what I have been seeing, will make a plan and if you want we will hunt together. Yep he said. I had forgotten until Monday morning when I sen a call from a Texas number. Oops We chatted and he asked if I still wanted to take them out. Sure do and we made a plan for the next morning. Then he asked you have an extra layout blind? Yes, well my wife wants to go with. Sure. So we met at the location picked. Out comes this little gal with a big round baby bump and she is packing her own shotgun. Shuttled two loads of junk with the ATV and trailer and set up. Two dozen goose floaters and two dozen duck floaters. Dozen full body geese on shore. They all worked hard saying yes sir, no sir, what next sir. Not used to hear that out of young folks for the most part nowadays. They have been raised right and I seen that right off the bat. 21,21 and 23 years young they are. I said hey stop that you are making me feel older than I already am. Soon early ducks began to fly and work some but all in mated pairs. They would land wide of decide it was too crowded and leave.  Later around nine to nine thirty geese began to fly. Some would work and some would circle and look hard only to flare seeing something that did not look right. Ruger the two year old chocolate lab was somewhat antsy not wanting to stay in his blind may of played a part of that. Well we finished off the morning with eight geese. One missing from the picture. Crashed closer to the truck than the blinds so it was in the truck photo time,

    So I hear where are we going tomorrow? Ha I laughed. Want to try another place? Yes sir, yep here we go again with the sir thing. I am telling you these boys were workers. We picked up quick and shuttled out. So I told them the place I would try in the AM. Also said no ducks can be shot there it was the closed middle zone. So this morning when I pulled into the driveway where they were staying I was early, They were in their truck lights on and ready to follow me to hunt two. We got there and began to shuttle gear to the pond. A very noisy pond that was full of geese. Crapola I thought. Hope a few decide to trickle back in later. Could of messed this hunt up big time. Set up and still could hear geese that had not left. Thought maybe one or two. Then a single came back to land with the other geese. Then we could see the other geese that numbered like twenty to thirty. This isn't going to work as a mega wad of geese came back and began to land wide in the middle of the big pond, Some swung pretty close and I said might as well try because we need the wad to leave out. Two fell so we were could call it a successful hunt even if we got no more. So foggy and could not see any distance. Could hear geese long before we could actually lay our eyes on them. Some came close and rolled out no doubt part of what we messed with earlier.  Then a single sailed in and I said to pregnant Payton that is your bird and boys back her up. Up sat Payton, boom and bird went down. Nice and Payton had her first confirmed canada goose. Actually this made my day even if another bid did not die .Big grins all the way around. More geese in and out not wanting to play much. Fog starting to lift later on and then the hunt got real good. More geese in and down. We had ten and it got slow. Payton was cold and tucked way into her blanket,

    Decided to give it another fifteen minutes and call it. Time had expired and I said you know what always happens when you begin to pick up. So I tossed the calls to them and said I will walk after the ATV and trailer very slowly and be ready. Sure enough a group came over and gave the guys the stink eyes as they began to call or try to call. They had never had blown a goose call. They sounded funny and the working geese thought so too . Three groups did this before I made it back to them. As I got there more coming and I sped away again. Repeat process no commitment and I drove back down. Hey this will happen again lets get picked up and out of here. Then another pair began a slow decent and right over at maximum range. Guns were still loaded as we crouched. Lets try them, one went right potato sack dead and the other sailed across a fescue field loosing altitude. Two of us went looking, and looking more and more. All over by a creek in the fence row. Nothing. We could see geese again working the big pond. On the way back I took one more long range look way West of where we thought the bird went down. There in the distance I see it's head in the deep grass. What luck I thought and soon we were on it and did the dispatching deed. A four man I mean person limit! What a good day.

  Peyton and a couple of her birds, look at that belly peeking out the bibs,

 Ruger their dog with another retrieve. The two year old had only messed with two geese before. He made eighteen of the twenty retrieves the past two hunts. He did not get two because they hit dry land as he was in the water getting others. He would bring them to shore and drop them in a pile. You could see he was perplexed on how much they weighed compared to the ducks he was used to. By the end of the hunt he was bringing them closer each time.

  The final tally for this morning.

    They are trying a duck hunt in the morning. A pond I suggested. They wanted me to go but I said no go for it. Loaned them a couple more dozen duck decoys and another layout. Wished them luck and to report and if they needed anything give me a ring and I would be there pronto. Final thoughts. Good kids and well mannered, pleasure to hunt with and hope to do again someday. Funny how much they all were connected to media. It is the thing they all do now. Constantly taking and sharing with others as we hunted. Asked if I was on facebook, well no I am not. Oh heck we could stay connected and communicate. Ha I thought I am a phone call away but said nothing. They could not thank me enough but really the pleasure was mine to have. We should all share with the younger ones. Someday they will be taking us hunting and fishing when we cannot do it by ourselves. 

BTW Payton is due in early march.

BilletHead

 

[jdmidwest]

I would have thought fetal hearing loss and recoil jarring would be an issue at that stage in the game.

[JohnP]

That's some good stuff and a great recap of the hunts Marty.  Congrats on a couple awsome hunts that I'm sure they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

[Johnsfolly]

Marty

Great hunt stories. I'm sure that they will remember these hunts. If Payton has a boy, is the name Marty in the mix? Thanks sharing your hunts and your time with the next generation. Pretty certain that they now appreciate the efforts that you put into setting up these hunts and learned a bunch.

[BilletHead]

      Ha Johnsfolly,

Funny I think they have a name figured out and it is going to be a boy.

[Nitro 750]

Great job Mr. Billethead, sounds like you showed them a couple of good goose hunts.

[JestersHK]

Another awesome hunt there BH.  Always love your stories.  Keep killing those geese!