A Nice Way To Finish 2016

[marsh man]

I don't know about you but all these dull , foggy and raw days we have been having lately have been during my head in a bit and this morning was no exception , when I was out it was fairly thick fog , a touch of frost and feeling raw ,

 

I could hear a few shots going off on the distant marshes and I was keeping my fingers crossed that whoever it was he was doing a bit of good , at least he deserve to put something in the bag after getting up early and sitting about in that weather , and lets hope he did have a bit of luck.

 

Having read the paper and a bite to eat my thoughts were already thinking about where I am going later in the day , with still having two geese hanging up in the shed , there was no need for another trip up the A47 , my other options were , a couple of hours in the wood then finish up the top end of my marshes I go on , or a walk down the bottom end to try and get a Pheasant and end up on a bit of flood where I got some Mallard the other week .

 

With the wood being a bit quite lately as far as the pigeons go I decided to hunt the reed beds out down towards the town and finish up on a decent size splash . having walked the margins around three fields I didn't see any signs of a Pheasant or any thing else come to that apart from a few pigeons making there way back to the wood so when I got to the gate where one or two crossed it wasn't to long before I had my first shot of the day , resulting in my first , and as it turned out my only pigeon after missing the next two.

 

Time to move on now as I still had two more fields to cross and the town lights were already switched on , walking down the next strip of reeds my young dog started to get excited with his nose working overtime and his tail going hell for leather , what I done wrong was telling him to put it out because being a young dog he don't know yet how far my gun will reach and time he put the Pheasant up it was a good 100 yds away and as it turned out it was a hen bird so it would have been safe anyway .

 

With Bobbie getting excited it was time to give the Pheasants a miss and cross the marsh to see what the evening flight bring as the light is beginning to go now and the town lights are getting brighter , one bonus is down this end of the marsh is with a light westerly wind and light cloud like tonight is looking towards the town in the dark make the sky above it look White and you can see the duck coming in even when it is pitch dark .

 

Sitting on my stool with the water in front of me and a breeze on my back I was fully expecting any duck to come in would be Mallard , wrong again , as five came in lovely out the dark , my first shot took one in front and the second shot took out another when the rest were climbing , time the second one had hit the water Bobbie was rubbing my leg with the first one which turned out to be a drake Widgeon and not a Mallard , then after a bit of running about ( more play than hunting ) he came across the other duck which was another drake Widgeon .

 

After congratulating myself on a right and left I was soon brought back to earth by missing what looked a pair of dead certs hovering above the water in front , never mind you cant hit em all and when a Teal dropped in unnoticed and I dropped him when he took off I soon forgot the bit of dismal shooting .

 

Time was now 10 to 5 and with the sky still light I was going to give till five , just then I caught sight of another pair that were going to cross to my left and after another successful shot number four was in the bag bringing the shooting in 2016 to close.

 

So after starting the afternoon off expecting Pheasant and Mallard , I got neither , in fact I never saw any Mallard but I did end up with 3 drake Widgeon , I hen Teal and a pigeon , not a big bag , but a bag I was more than happy with , so my last shot in 2016 put a Widgeon in the bag , now I am wondering what my first bird in the bag will be in 2017 , we will soon find out

 

So with only about three hours of this year left I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and good shooting for the next one.

 

 

[JDog]

Another great post Marshman. Yours are amongst the most readable on the forum.

 

Happy new year to you.

Edited January 1, 2017 by JDog

[6.5x55SE]

Well done John 👍 all though Conor shot his First Teal last week along with several more his last shots of 2016 was a double at Widgeon i have to say his/our Christmas/New Year opportunities was blown by let's be polite Persistence Bird Watchers/ Photographers who managed to clear 10 thousand Pink's along with FORTY Whitefronts because of 2 odd Geese 😤😤 I'm truly gutted not for myself but Conor and a couple of others who I'd planned to get them there first Whitefront.

Sorry for side tracking your thread John well done again I wish yourself along with other PW members a Happy New Year 🍷🍺👍👍

[marsh man]

Another great post Marsh many. Yours are amongst the most readable on the forum.

 

Happy new year to you.

Thanks Mr JDog , I wrote out the report before I put the zim card from my camera into the computer so apart from wiping it off and starting again I will put it on now.

If you ask me to get you a couple of duck in the pitch dark , I could most probably do it , but if you ask me anything apart from the basics on the computer than I haven't got a clue Enjoy the rest of your evening.

 

 

[aga man]

Great read mm, Happy new year to you sir.

[motty]

Well done, MM. A good finish to the year. I had a similar bag this morning to finish off my sporting year. Still a few weeks left until the end of the season - still plenty of chance for a few more memorable flights.

[marsh man]

Well done John all though Conor shot his First Teal last week along with several more his last shots of 2016 was a double at Widgeon i have to say his/our Christmas/New Year opportunities was blown by let's be polite Persistence Bird Watchers/ Photographers who managed to clear 10 thousand Pink's along with FORTY Whitefronts because of 2 odd Geese I'm truly gutted not for myself but Conor and a couple of others who I'd planned to get them there first Whitefront.

Sorry for side tracking your thread John well done again I wish yourself along with other PW members a Happy New Year

Evening Boyd and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and your family.

 

We have now got as many Pinks down here now as ever , Yesterday there were several thousand on a large beet top field and stubble field up in the Yare valley , cars were pulling up in the layby to watch them as they nearly covered both fields , we had a lot on our game shooting grounds but they moved them on once they left the beet tops and moved on the drillings . one person lost is another persons gain

 

Talking to a farm manager who was having trouble with the geese on the winter wheat was saying he bought a laser beam to keep them off , looking at it , it looked like a long torch and he was saying they lift off when he point it towards them , although he said it don't make any difference to Swans on the Rape.

 

Have you come across this before and is he doing anything wrong ?

[marsh man]

Great read mm, Happy new year to you sir.

Thanks aga man , and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your family.

 

Well done, MM. A good finish to the year. I had a similar bag this morning to finish off my sporting year. Still a few weeks left until the end of the season - still plenty of chance for a few more memorable flights.

Thanks Motty , HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and your family , and I am glad your getting your share of duck in the North of the county , as you say there are still a few weeks before the inland fowling season finish, although all the Saturdays left are booked up for game shooting , having said that , with the nights pulling out I will still get the odd flight in when the days shooting is over . Good luck on the Pigeons.

[6.5x55SE]

Evening Boyd and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and your family.

 

We have now got as many Pinks down here now as ever , Yesterday there were several thousand on a large beet top field and stubble field up in the Yare valley , cars were pulling up in the layby to watch them as they nearly covered both fields , we had a lot on our game shooting grounds but they moved them on once they left the beet tops and moved on the drillings . one person lost is another persons gain

 

Talking to a farm manager who was having trouble with the geese on the winter wheat was saying he bought a laser beam to keep them off , looking at it , it looked like a long torch and he was saying they lift off when he point it towards them , although he said it don't make any difference to Swans on the Rape.

 

Have you come across this before and is he doing anything wrong ?

Sorry John i can't help with the Laser. I use a IR laser with my NV for Foxing animals and birds can see the beam where us Humans can't.

I personally like the old fashion way use Morgan's walk them off with Dogs and shoot a few when they become a right pain.

But with modern technology estates are being run by fewer people and contractors so Bird Scarring has become Fire Rockets at the Geese grounded or flying then imho worst of all empty a full magazine of Rimfire Rounds into them. How long will it be before they are flying Drones to scare them !!!!!!!!

[anser2]

Well done marshman, you saw the season out in style.

 

Its been a funny christmas for shooting for me. Started wit a bumper bag of duck on the Washes then from Boxing day and the next 2 days i chased the geese in the Broads and never had a fair chance. One bunch of greylag came into a flash when it was quite dark and landed about 10 feet away. Of course as soon as they took off they were invisable in the darkness. Next morning I shot with a friend who had a few whitefronts and pinks , but i never had a shot. That evening again flighted another flash , but the pinks came late and passed unseen in the darkness and the only duck caught me by surprise coming over from behind and did not offer a safe shot. Then on the final morning I was in the right place with thousands of pinks landing all around me , but not one came any closer than 60 yards though my friends had 5 pinks and a whitefront. There have been a few pinks on my bit of coast, but so far this week the fog has cleared before first light every morning and the geese have been too high. O well my luck has to change soon. So far its been one of those years for the geese as I have yet to bag my first goose of the season.

 

Happy New Year Everyone !

Edited December 31, 2016 by anser2

[marsh man]

Morning Robert ( answer2 ) and a very Happy and Healthy New Year to you , glad you had a good bag of duck from the Washes and I am sure there will be more to come.

 

Strange how the geese have been absent in your game bag this season , if anyone can get one or two then you would be getting near the top of the list .

 

We have more geese in the area than we really need at the present time and it would be nice if they moved in to other counties to give fowlers from that neck of the woods a chance to bag one now and again. although they are now going out further afield to look for feed that could well happen .

 

With the numbers of geese growing most years more and more fowlers are just interested in shooting geese and haven't got any interest in duck what so ever , and if things continue as they are I can see duck shooting slowly becoming a thing of the past , maybe not everywhere but certainly around these parts , having said that , I will be sitting around some isolated field tomorrow night to see if I can get my first duck in 2017 .

 

GOOD LUCK with your first goose of the season and I am sure we will be hearing about it in the not to distant future

[Royboy]

Great read, I wish I could do I good write up like that but mine would go along the lines of

"Missed again" !

Happy new year 👍

[marsh man]

Great read, I wish I could do I good write up like that but mine would go along the lines of

"Missed again" !

Happy new year

Thanks Royboy , and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you as well .

[anser2]

John where ever you get pinks in any numbers a band of dedicated goose shooters soon gathers. I know of some marshes where its frowned upon to shoot at a duck if the geese are about I always think of wildfowling as a mix of both duck and goose shooting , along with golden plover snipe and woodcock and perhaps streching the point a little walked up wild marsh pheasants. That's the mixture of game I used to expect as a teenager on a days Broadland foray , though in those days a goose , were often seen, but would rarely feature in the bag. I must confess I caught goose fever back in the 1980s and if ever there was a chance of a goose all other forms of wildfowling were put aside and geese became my focus. The trouble with goose shooting is once you understand it its not very hard ( not that its seeming easy this season). I learnt my goose shooting on the Wash and after many years discovered the tricks of the trade and in a good year I could shoot enough for a roast goose for Sunday lunch several times a month for the whole year. Then in the mid 1980s the pinks returned to my local marsh after 60 years absence. They came back in huge numbers and my marsh became one of the best, if not the best goose shooting marshes in the country. Disposing of the bag became a problem and though I never wasted a bird it got harder and harder to find new friends who would eat geese. I often just what does happen to the birds you so often seen on some web pages wher a couple of guns shoot 40-50 geese over decoys. Nothing wrong about shooting over decoys , but its a sport that needs to be done in moderation. I turned aside from goose shooting and started to do a lot more duck shooting. Ducks being smaller are easy to freeze and can be kept for eating through the season. Just try and store 40 or more geese without having to buy a bigger freezer. I mastered the skills of daytime duck decoying and this has become my favoured branch of wildfowling. There is something quite addictive about watching a bunch of ducks slow their wing beats 400 yards away and turn on arowed wings to curve into your decoys on a big saltmarsh creek. As n they come in on cupped wings you can see the birds feather perfect in the crisp morning light and pick the attractive drakes or single out the only drake pintail in a pack of wigeon as you take your shot.

on.

But time moves on, the geese have left my local marsh in the big numbers that used to be there and I am a bit too old to risk going out onto the far marsh , the best place for a chance of a shot. Most years I still manage a goose or two from the saltmarsh , but most of my geese are shot inland these days. Perhaps because I shoot far fewer these days geese have once again become a treasured quarry and while given the choice I still would rather shoot duck, goose shooting has regained its attraction for me as long as its not over done. A handfull of birds is quite enough these days for me or in the case of this season just one bird will do.

Edited January 1, 2017 by anser2

[motty]

I get why the geese are such an attraction, and I know some 'fowlers are interested in chasing only them.

The marshes that I shoot have had plenty of geese at various times, but they have not stayed in one place for too long. This has meant that I have really had chance to get stuck into the ducks, and as they have been around in abundance this season, I have shot more than ever.

Some 'fowlers I know rarely shoot geese, and just focus on shooting ducks. Each to their own, I suppose.

[Bell]

Don't come on here often but great read......really enjoy reading about your exploits....gives us all hope !

[marsh man]

I get why the geese are such an attraction, and I know some 'fowlers are interested in chasing only them.

The marshes that I shoot have had plenty of geese at various times, but they have not stayed in one place for too long. This has meant that I have really had chance to get stuck into the ducks, and as they have been around in abundance this season, I have shot more than ever.

Some 'fowlers I know rarely shoot geese, and just focus on shooting ducks. Each to their own, I suppose.

 

 

 

Before the large numbers came down here in the 80s and early 90s shooting a Grey goose was the holy grail in wildfowling and a box of Alphamax goose cartridges would last you a few seasons , keeping 5 or 6 in your inside pocket would be more than enough for the rare event when a wild goose would be your target , some seasons you would always be in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting a chance at one just didn't happen , then after a lot of ifs and buts you would finally be in the right place at the right time and one would end up in your bag which was mainly a Whitefront as Pinks were still a rare goose down these parts

 

Then when the R S P B bought the marshes around the Berney Arms area they designed the land to encourage wildfowl , so it is these people and there hindsight we can thank for the numbers of geese coming down here at the present time , so any member who have joined the local clubs in the last 20 years have mainly relied on geese being there main quarry rather than duck , even more so over the last year or two when the wildfowl counts have made the Pinkfoot Goose the most numerous species of wildfowl around the local area and when you consider on a good year numbers can top well over 15,000.

 

So with a wild goose having a status symbol put on his head , you can understand why some fowlers concentrate on them and leaving the duck alone , and nowadays there pockets might be full of goose cartridges with 4 or 5 duck cartridges in there inside pockets , and even most of them would be used as cripple stoppers on the geese rather being used against duck

 

When the Sugar Beet campaign start coming to a close around about now, the geese start spending more time on the grazing marshes and by during a bit of homework and using todays modern decoys it is not the hardest thing in the world to bring a few geese into your decoys when there are the big numbers using the marshes day after day , whereas with duck , unless you have got some flooded splashes or the weather is hard enough to keep them on tidal rivers then you are really up against it .

 

Each area is different , and I can only refer to the area where I spend most , if not all my time wildfowling and I can fully understand it might well be the other way round in your neck of the woods .