henry d Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 With me being nightshift from tonight and my mate "Lucky" Jim, being on holiday, we decided to have our first and last day decoying inland. We went to a farm that has been having geese in it during the day on grass parks. We set off at around 6am and the full moon was begining to descend, this would most likely mean that the geese wouldn`t leave the roost until much later than usual. We were all set up next to a burn with gorse bushes to hide in so there was no need for us to set up a hide. I used 2 dozen shells to our right and half a dozen to our left and the dawn slowly began to break. A few crows began to move about looking for nest sites and soon we heard the cock pheasants cackling away when all of a sudden 3 greylags, in full stealth mode appeared only 2-300 yds away, so I started to give feed calls. Unfortunately as we were stood out in front of the gorse we were seen and they were having nothing of it The day came in fully and we were watching the large number of woodpigeon that were flighting to the rape field about 1/2 mile away(note to self, have a word with the farmer !) and we saw a small skein of 6 come from our right and head towards us. They kept coming and I gave a few feed calls again and this time they set their wings and slid in as we were well concealed. I picked a bird and let of three rounds into fresh and empty air and Jimmy didn`t get a chance as they were too far out for him. Half and hour or so later, we again saw a skein of about 15-20 and they didn`t need much coaxing and followed the same line as the last lot and this time I hit the first one stone dead in the air and I hit another but it only faltered so I hit it again and it came down around 150yds away over the other burn. Again Jimmy couldn`t get a shot off so I moved him a bit closer to where the birds were flighting into the decoys. I went off with my dog, Anas, to retrieve the goose over the burn, I had just reached the fence by the burn when I was told "Get down !" and from my prone position I was able to see around 30 greylags heading towards Jimmy and the deeks. They had however seen a small skein about 1/2 mile away upwind and passed high over Jim. Anas was put out over the burn and found the goose stone dead and as she is a small springer she grabbed a wing and lifted it up and took a couple of steps and fell on her face as she had trod on the other wing ! She eventually made it back with a few falls and I have to say it was a big and heavy specimen. All these skeins had come in without any calls and it was the same with the single bird that we spotted just a minute after I got back into the gorse bushes. This bird was travelling parallel to us about 400-600 yds away and again a few feed calls and it turned to us nicely, this was going to be Jimmy`s turn. Up went his gun and he punched 2 holes in fresh air After a bit of a swear he was feeling much better, however there was a bit of a lull and we were just discussing going home when we heard a little chatter and this time it was a group of about 40-50 greys and again they slid into the same flight path as the others when I called them and they set their wings and we both stood up and shot, Jimmy`s first shot hit but didn`t stop his, but the second did and I scored 2 hits and decided not to take a third shot as I had enough geese and if I had just pricked a bird I wouldn`t be able to finish it nor would Jim. Normally we would have seen more Pinks in that area and in large skeins of several 100 or 1000 at a time but it wasn`t to be.......until I was half way to get the car ! The air was alive with pinkfoot calls and I legged it back to the gorse and started calling back to them, however the first skein of around 100 were high and intent on going somewhere fast and no amount of calling was going to turn them and it was the same for the next 4 skeins, they all went the same way. So as we hadn`t decoyed this season it was our first and last, and our best this season Small dog with big birds ! . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stirky Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Well done, thats a good photo and write-up, it sounds like a good morning you both had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utectok Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Well done I went out and deeked in two small skiens and only got one shot missed pahh.. Fun though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebarrels Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Good write up mate and well done on the bag BB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted January 30, 2010 Report Share Posted January 30, 2010 Well done Henry. That is a cracking looking springer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaniel Posted January 31, 2010 Report Share Posted January 31, 2010 Looks like you had a top day of shooting there Henry, well done :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomV Posted January 31, 2010 Report Share Posted January 31, 2010 nice shooting :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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