kitchrat

Hi Folks, another report from Kitchrat in Canada!! After my week with the outfitters on the prairies, it is time to go solo. The Creston Wildlife Management Area, strangely, allows hunting for $10/year. It includes Leach Lake, Duck Lake and borders the huge Kooteney Lake. The birds fly out each morning to the fields in the south, I hope to ambush a few from a dyke crossing the area, with farmland behind so I can retrieve anything I hit rather than lose it in the marshes. Alarm goes off at 4.00am, coffee, porridge and a quick check with the BC Highways webcam to make sure Kootenay Pass is clear of snow, then the 90-minute drive to Creston. I stumble my way along the dyke, through frosty grass and reeds to a likely spot, guided only by the faint lights of dawn showing behind the foothills of the Rockies (I've forgotten my head torch!) The ducks start to fly 1st but they are too high, one group is lower and I think I can drop a bird but the Laws of Physics prove me wrong!! Then, groups of geese start to take off. You can hear them getting ready, honking builds up, then they fly. I'm in the wrong place, the dyke is 2 miles long, it's guesswork where to set up. I do get one group to head my way with the goose call but they are still a bit high and a bit out from me so any bird I might hit would fall in the marsh. I'll wait for a better chance. I don't really know what I'm doing with the call, just try to make the noise our guides made last week, but that was calling birds to feed, not just calling passing flocks. I don't use my black flag, that is to attract the attention of distant skeins, by pretending to be a bird landing. Do you real wildfowlers use flags in the UK? THEN, the fog rolls in!! I can hear geese overhead but I can't see them. Surely the sun will burn the fog off soon........ WRONG!! I sit for another hour, hearing geese but seeing nothing. However, I do get to watch a beaver doing a roof repair to his lodge with mud, so that's nice. Eventually, the sun wins it's battle with the fog, revealing the Rockies with the 1st snow of winter and also the fact that all birds have now gone! I decide to spend the rest of the day planning my next attack, looking for better places to shoot from etc. Most of the birds seem to have come from Six Mile Slough, but the layout of marshes, river channels and so on make it inaccessible without a boat and a dog to retrieve - I have neither, so keep looking around. I do find a very professional-looking hunter's camp, really nice tent with stove and chimney etc. Talking to the chap there I learn that his team have a cow elk tag and are out in boats in Six Mile. He also tells me that he had spoken to the Conservation Officer, who warned that there were 2 young grizzly bears in the area and also that wolves had killed an elk there last week. Not like the Wash.....? We hear a heavy rifle shot, maybe they have filled the tag?? Finally, I try to find where the geese are feeding. Eventually I track them down about 10 miles south, just near the US border. They are feeding on canola (rape to us) stubble. This would NEVER happen on the prairies, so I was told, because the stalks, which are left long, stop them landing and the seed must be too small. Down at Creston, however, the field had been cultivated, which got rid of the stalks, and the lost seed had re-germinated, giving the birds a table of new growth. Goes to show how farming practise can change the feeding patterns, in the prairies they do minimal cultivation then direct drill, because of soil erosion worries. Well, I found my geese, but also found lots of "No Hunting" signs. My day is done, just the ride home. After the prairies trip,the expedition was no help in filling the freezer but a most interesting day none the less. I saw the beaver, 2 coyotes and 3 whitetail deer and learned a few more things, I hope!!

Hides mid-field rarely work for me in Essex but the "Boys From Norfolk" say it's no problem up there, so you may be OK.All I can suggest is small is beautiful!

You could have just been in the wrong field or at the wrong time. You need to get those two points right to stand much chance. Had pigeons been feeding in that field? Were you well hidden? A magnet helps draw the attention of birds passing nearby, otherwise they will go to where they expect to see birds feeding. Finally, there might have been a better option a few fields away, pigeons have super eyesight and from a few 100's feet can see a long way. So, if they remembered feeding in field X and could see several 100 birds happily feeding in field X, where do you think they will go?? It's OK to be under a "flightline", if such things still exist in your part of the country, but if it's a flightline to somewhere else, you stand no chance. Reccy, reccy and reccy again, then I hope you will have better luck next time.

Can you actually see them feeding? I know you have bad weather in the UK, (I'm in Canda right now) sometimes they just rest up in, say, a ploughed field when the wind would make it difficult to sit in the trees??

I did get a couple of snows that were just passing too close, just odd 3s and 4s around plus the odd 20-strong flock. They never decoyed, I just got lucky. You are right, it could be too comfortable, at least with my "outfitter" we helped put out/take in the hides and decoys. When it DID work on the ducks it was too easy, otherwise quite frustrating, like wildfolwing seems to be... So can pigeon shooting be too!!

No Marsh Man, the geese were not really fooled. They have been shot at before. Those "blinds" stand out in the middle of a 1 mile x 1/2 mile stubble field and although they look like a bunch of willows the geese circle at about 200ft and try to look into the hide. Only about 10% of the flocks we attracted, by waving the black flag pretend to be a landing bird, then by skilled calling (the calls change as they get nearer) would actually give us a shot. That's part of the excitement as an encounter with a flock can last for several minutes, as you attract their attention, call them in and they circle, lower and lower (you hope!) before you get a chance to shoot (or not). There are other (natural) bunches of willows but the geese don't like to land near them either. They will land short and walk into a bunch of birds feeding near willows, but not straight in. In the decoy pattern you have a pair of walking birds in the landing/killing zone to give that impression. The other way is "coffin" blinds, where you lie on your back, covered with camo sacking but the guides said the geese are wise to them and won't come near.

Sorry, not many more photos (it's just one more thing to carry/lose in the dark), but this is one from my 2012, unguided attempt at gooose shooting (Very unsuccessfull!) It is of about 10% of a flock of snow geese, I'd have needed one of those cameras for school photos to catch them all!! As to value for money, not really good, partly because weather conditions meant there were not a lot of birds (by prairie standards) about. It's more of an experience thing. For the whole week, inc gourmet food and lodging, bird cleaning etc, hotels travelling there and fuel, it must have cost me about $5000 CAD, say £2750. For that we went on 10 "hunts" and had a real learning curve. £275/ hunt. I guess that's a bit less than a 100-bird pheasant shoot and way less than a day on grouse - when you might shoot almost nothing. All food and lodging included so not so bad. I doubt I'll do it again but do still want to get into the snow goose "vortex"!!

Mainly greater and lesser Canadas, a few Snows and 1 speckled. That's a rough parallel to the numbers of each species in the area. We didn't hit "rush hour" but it was quite OK!! Loads of ducks about though, daily bag limit of 8, possesion limit 24. Mainly mallard, a few pintails.

Sorry, there were paragraphs when I wrote it in Word, they got lost in translation. Kitchrat

Anybody been using these extra large decoys, as seen on ; http://www.fieldsportschannel.tv/index.php , from A1 Decoys at £6 each?? If so, were they any good, any better than normal size??? On my prairie trip they used some super-big canada decoys, mixed with normal sized. (full hunt report on the wildfowling section of PW, if anyone is interested)

Funny you should say that, if you go to http://www.fieldsportschannel.tv/index.php this week there's a film with oversized pigeon decoys. so I might try some. My hides would have to be much smaller and better hidden to have a chance, Essex birds are not as silly as we are led to believe!!!

OK Guys, here's my report on the prairie hunt.... My mate Brian and I drove the 1050kms from BC to Viking, Alberta, super drive through the Rockies, with the 1st snow of winter on them, stopping overnight in Camrose. The weather on the prairies was too good, warm and sunny, no wind. Many wildfowl had not bothered to leave "up North" yet, many of those who had left had moved on further south. There were lots of ducks, mainly mallard and pintail as there are hundreds and hundreds of little ponds out there, each pond has a dozen or two ducks on it. It turned out there were quite a few Canadas, in big flocks, both great and lesser but only a few small flocks of Snow geese, not the 1000's I had seen in 2012. Very few Speckled. Arrived at hunt camp 3.00pm Wednesday and met our 2 fellow hunters, a typical pair of "Good Ole Farm Boys" from Winsconsin, USA. They wore denim bib & brace overalls, and were straight out of a cartoon. Really unfit, drank a lot of beer, didn't care if they shot much etc. At this time, the guides are out "spotting" for the am shoot. It seems the geese overnight on a roost lake, and come into the fields to eat soon after dawn, eat for a few hours then back to the lake to rest/digest breakfast, before repeating the cycle late afternoon. They can be expected to return to the field they just used, and in the same part of the field. So the guides drive 100's of kms until they find a decent flock feeding, wait until they leave at dark (if you scare them off they don't come back), then go out to where the flock was feeding and place a reflector on a pole at that location. Then they have to check with the farmer is it's OK. The reflector marks the part of the field, it's worth noting that the fields are HUGE, typically 1 mile x 1/2 mile. All rectangular with N-S roads at 1 mile intervals, E-W at 2 miles. You can get a range map, which shows each field and who owns it, so you can contact them. Back at camp (a luxury mobile home), it's a superb dinner, beers and off to bed. Up at 5.00am, cornflakes and coffee, then off with one guide and dog at 5.30. Arrive at the chosen field, find the reflector, the guide checks it's OK by looking for fresh droppings, ie still moist. When he's happy we're in the rights spot, we build the fold-up hides (blinds), cover them with willows, put out about 140 decoys of various sorts in the dark and wait. We get some decent shooting, ducks and geese but they are very wary, circling and circling, most groups seeing the blinds and fading off. Some give us a shot but no "gimmies" like you see on the DVDs!! We are still settling down but get a decent mixed bag, about 18. All action stops so we clear the kit up into the trailer. Back to camp, huge breakfast and a kip. Meantime, the other guide is spotting for the pm hunt. He finds a flock, waits till they leave, gets permission etc (no need for a reflector). We leave with him about 6.00pm, out to the field, he feels the droppings, we set up the stuff and shoot another OK bag. Pack up in the dark, back to camp for a huge dinner and a few beers. Meantime, the other guide is spotting for the next am hunt. The boss is out cutting new willows. Day 2, much the same as day 1, smaller bags. Day 3, Good Old Boys leave early on their 1700-mile drive home, Brian and I have a reasonable am hunt, no pm hunt. Next day, day off. There is a large, (40 acre?) piece of grassy waste ground next door with a pond, so we head out hoping for a bonus duck. No luck, but I do spot the roots of an old stump deep in the grass, about 25 yards away . The roots move and are in fact attached to a young (3 1/2 yr old?) bull moose, just the age when they act like ruffian teenagers and we are in the middle of the rut.... Moose wakes up when he hears us whispering and spots us. He starts to get up and up and up, he's quite a big chap! He doesn't know whether he should mate with us or charge us. We are loaded for ducks but you could hear click-click as the safety catches came off!! Moosey decides he doesn't fancy us and he can't be bothered to stomp on us so he wanders off. We leave in the opposite direction!! Meantime, the other guide is spotting for the next am hunt Later our new shooting companions arrive and again they are straight out of the cliché box - this time loud, brash, over confident young Americans. Always on the iPad6. Day 4 starts much as the other day, but this time we are in the right place for ducks (on a huge pea field 2 miles x 1 mile) and they come flooding in, just like the DVD. We shoot our limit (8 each) in 14 minutes. Actually no real fun, too easy, then spend some time on geese but most of them know the game too well. We only got a few. So the afternoon is geese only, the guide spots for geese and we shoot, maybe a 18 between us. Some of these were really high and I was pleased to knock down a couple of really high doubles, using "Hypersonic" ammo - 3 1/2 inch, 1 3/8oz of BB steel at 1700 fps. Kick like a mule but they dropped them. The Yanks were blazing away with their 3-shot semi autos and were heard to say "I can't believe how well we are shooting". Well Boys, you weren't, a little later the guide was out of the hide, so I unloaded. 3 snows came over, quite high, 6 shots ring out from the Yanks and the geese don't even swerve - "can't believe we missed them, we were nailing them before" Meantime, the other guide is spotting for the next am hunt. The boss is out cutting new willows. Day 5, am, off to a nice little duck pond in a huge field, many signs of ducks but no ducks come and we blank!! No matter, pm hunt, another pea field, ducks abound!! This time they were much less easy and we take 2 hours to "Limit out", good sporting shooting, and also get a few geese. After a particularly large bunch of ducks came in, 1 of the Yanks called over to us asking if we picked on a particular duck in the mix. We said Yes. His reply was, " Oh well, I just shot into the flock at random and 2 dropped" , he couldn't conceive that those were the 2 Brian and I had picked out.......!! Day 6, am hunt only, another pea field, reasonable mixed bag, say 15 between us, them off homeward bound. A great week, much learnt! Big black flags to attract goose flocks from far away, all sorts of calls, the dogs won't retrieve magpies.. etc etc They say the "coffin-type" lie-down blinds are no good because the geese know what they are, well, they also know the sit-up, willow camouflaged blind too, they circle and circle and can look in from 60 yds up. So, it's just like pigeon shooting on a bigger scale, larger birds, larger flocks, larger fields, same problems, but with bag limits when you do get it right. (Snows are 50/day but we only saw a few small flocks) Sorry it's such a long posting but lots to say. It's POSSIBLE there are some pictures to see by following the links below. Kitchrat

Right, we all know we must use non-toxic shot on wildfowl, but what if the landowner also specifies fibre wads. Is there such an animal?? OK I just used my "brain" and looked on the Just cardridges website and you can get such a thing. But didn't we go to plastic "cup" wads to avoid shot/barrel contact? It's OK to say use "Bismuth" but can we afford it??

I'll try....

I'm in Canada right now, going gooseing next week. I have some Hypersonics, in BB and No2 shot, you can get over the counter here from Canadian Tire (pal licence needed) for about $33 canadian a box - say £18. However, you do need a 31/2 inch-chambered gun, and they could exceed tested proof levels on some guns...... I'll let you know what I find, if I don't blow up!! Oh Yes, I bet they kick like hell!! 13/8 ounces of steel sent out at 1700fps??..!!

WOW!! I know he's good but if last year is anything to go by I struggle to SEE triple digits of pigeons let alone shoot them..... Next weekend but one I have a challenge: Four of us are going goose/duck shooting in Alberta. Goose shooting Thursday, Friday and Saturday am, ducks Thursday, Friday pm. Bearing in mind that there is a 50 goose/man/day limit and 5 for duck, who will get the most?? Although we have a professional team working for/with us, I think my money is on PC's team... Last time we went, drove 1000 miles each way, 3 men, 6 shoots, about 11 birds in total (but no professional help that time.)

I've tried to post a short video to show the size of the flocks we saw in 2012. It's pretty poor resolution etc but does show 1000s of geese (if it works) I'll try again this year... http://tinypic.com/r/2bdyfl/8]View My Video JK

Didn't work for me...

All I can say is WOW!! I can't say that could have been much fun, or sport. I would not be a fan of that sort of killing, day after day either. That's about 460/day, 8? guys = 50+each. Not much more than a decent pigeon day, but 28 days!! I wonder what they did with the bodies?? I expect it's very hard to get geese to decoy that well, I'll let you all know in a few weeks

I would if I knew how!! All I know is that a photo has a 300KB limit, the video is 5+MB. I don't do facebook etc. Any advice appreciated!! JK

Yes, there is a spring season for snow geese, at the request of the Environmentalists. As to the unrestricted guns, could be it's in a different province or even the USA. Is the bag of 100 for the group, or each shooter? How many telling shots do you think you could get off??

Not quite as epic as you think Terry, I live for part of the year in British Columbia, Canada so it's not so hard. I have a truck here so don't need to fly. You can fly, $50 to have a gun in the hold, 50 rounds ammo limit ($50), no taking dead birds back etc etc. However, I still had to: Go on a course to get a PAL (possession and aquisition license to own a gun and buy ammo) Go on a CORE course to get a Hunter Number. Buy a hunting license each year Buy a federal "Migratory Game Bird" licence each year Buy an Albertan Win card (don't know what it is, $11 for 5 years) Buy an Albertan Non-Resident Game bird license each tear $33) And, finally, But an Albertan Resident Wildlife Certificate Resource Fevelopment Certificate, $29, each year That's to go in Alberta. For Saskatchewan, you would need a couple more.... As to the details, it's a bit like pigeon hunting in the UK but on a huge scale. The birds are bigger, the numbers are astronomical but so are the areas they can feed in. A small field is 1 mile x half a mile, with no cover. The fields stretch from horizon to horizon, hour after hour in the truck. You can lie on your back covered with a camo net, or as you see in the DVD's, dig a trench. The farmers don't let you do that! (except for $$$$'s I expect). They call them snow geese because the fields they ARE in, look as though they are snow covered. I saw a lake, several acres, not a pond with so many ducks on you could hardly see the water. At dawn, they all woke up and stretched their wings, the noise was unreal!! The locals are super friendly, (plus moose, which are NOT friendly) we never got refused permission to shoot, but NO trenches. Didn't have a digger with me but some teams do!!. If you PM me your email, I'll send you a few piccies, a short video etc of my 2012 trip, with 2014 to follow. Cheers, Kanada Kitchrat

Wow Motty, you can even hunt me down and disagree with me on Wildfowling in Canada!! I'm impressed but perhaps we should both get a more varied life!! (Only joking!) As far as I know, working from the hunting regulations of the provinces, the daily bag limits for snow geese are : Alberta, 50, Saskatchewan 20, British Columbia, 5. The possession limit is 3 times the daily limit. They are all firm on the 3 shots limit on semi autos and you cannot have a 2nd gun with you.

No worries, no offence taken. I quite agree that the DVDs you see look a bit like shooting fish in a barrel but I'm sure it's not that easy. Two years ago three of us went with 2 dozen Canada Goose decoys. We drove 1000miles to Saskatchewan then all around looking for where the geese were feeding, then got permission from the farmers. You can get a map which shows you who owns what and where they live. All very friendly, said Yes (but no digging trenches). Then we went out before dawn, set the decoys, took cover as best we could and waited and waited...... A few ducks had a look, one or two got shot, a few speckled geese had a look but with the wrong decoys and no calls they didn't commit. Snow geese kept on going at 100 yds up. In three days the three of us got about 8 birds, mostly single geese that (I'm told) had lost their mates and were searching for them - they would come too near! We had a call but didn't know what to do with it, the lone birds would respond to an "echo" of their call. These things are hard to kill wth steel, you need them to decoy well. That was my "British" attempt - I'm a pigeon shooter really!! This year I'm going the other route. A big outfit has spotters to find the birds and huge areas of permission. We all go out before dawn to set up but with hundreds of decoys, electronic calls etc, I hope we will get to shoot a few dozen. The cost is "huge"! We get 3 morning goose shoots and 2 evening duck flights, 3 nights full food and lodging, birds cleaned etc for about £1400. By the way, semi autos are limited to 3 cartridges. Snow geese the daily bag limit is 50, all others 5 per day, so it isn't quite a massacre!! I'll let you all know what happens... Kanada Kitch aka Pigeon John!!

I agree about the "lack of field craft" but I've tried it the British way, without success! It will be a once-in-a -lifetime thing. The outfit I am going with insist that all birds shot are cleaned, those you can't take home go to the food bank.