Can you remember your first goose?

[cumbrian top shot]

Just reading a post before about someone not being a goose virgin anymore which brought back some cracking memories of my first goose.

Well it was about 18 years ago while still at college with a good friend of mine and the weather turned for the worse in the afternoon, we new my friends dad was up on the scotch side of the solway that night so we both decided to drive up to meet him we arrived in the car park on the chosen farm and walked out to the foreshore, the wind by now was howling and the rain was lashing down, we eventually chose our places and waited after a short wait what seemed like ages the geese started to come my friends dad dropped a couple first then my friend but these were seasoned wildfowlers, I was just beginning I'll never forget seeing so many geese pouring over us when I did finally stop shaking I put my gun up picked a bird from the skein which was fighting the winds and pulled the trigger and down it came I was overjoyed, for the rest of the flight I put my gun down sent the dog for the pink, I was so chuffed with myself I just watched the remainder of the flight and came off the marsh with my first pink something I will never forget.

something else I will never forget is what my friend's dad told me " he said you'll prob go on a few outings and it might take you a bit to get your first goose but when you do you'll remember that one for as long as you live".

Well he was right and to me goose shooting is at the top of the list and I have been hooked ever since.

[fenntay]

1983 again on the solway under moon as14 year first ever goose flight, 29 years as gone since and I've shot quite few geese since then but I can still remember that goose coming out of the gloom

[ayano3]

My first goose was a Pinkfoot shot on Shep Whites after Christmas 1981. My second season of Wildfowling. I had been out on Winkle Run and was walking off as we thought the flight was over. We had watched the geese all come back to roost and thought that was it for the night. It was quite dark and a bit tricky getting off the edge of the green but half way back I heard the 'wink wink' of geese. Thoose days we didnt have to have guns in slips so the faithful aya no3 3" magnum was strapped to my back. I quickly loaded 2 3" Alphamax into the breech and still stood up I picked out a small party of geese almost above my head. I swung on them and managed to drop one with my first barrel, i was more interested and excited about hitting a goose I didnt even think about the second shot. The task was now to find the downed goose in almost complete darkness...but as my dog at the time was a Bu**a for running in and like a rocket (Springer Spaniel called Zet) she was away like a flash and in no time was on her way back with a stone dead Pink.

 

I have shot my share of geese over the years but that one will always stick in my mind. Its possibly one of the most difficult ones I have shot (I think I was just lucky to hit it) and a great pick from my small dog with a big heart. Every goose I shoot is special to me, I have the ultimate respect for my quarry. Once I dont get a buzz about shooting one of those great birds I will think its time to find something else to dedicate my time too.

[scolopax]

About 1988, as a non shooting probationary member of my local club I accompanied a friend for an evening flight on the Humber. On the journey back post flight he commented on the high winds forecast for SW Scotland the next day, the converstaion soon developed into arranging a day trip to The Solway. Borrowed my Dads car and we set off at silly o'clock for Powfoot, about 200 miles each way. The wind was howling but the flight was a big dissappointment and all we saw was one small skein about a mile away. Back to the car for a warm through and a cup of tea but I noticed that the tide was building and a few duck were moving, in particular some small lots of Pintail, a duck I had never even seen before. I left my mate napping in the car and I went back to the ege of the merse to try for one of these beautiful duck, but they all stayed just out of range.

 

After an hour I saw a comorant heading straight for me low over the water and I remember thinking to myself that I wished it was a goose. Another glance and I saw that it was brown and not black, Yes, it was a goose!! It continued on its line and I kept my head down in case it saw me, I waited for it to appear above the rim of my creek but it never appeared when I expected it to, another quick glance above the parapet and there it was, paddles down barely ten yards away trying to land on the merse. I swung onto it but had a missfire first shot!

 

The goose flared off but I composed myself enough to eventually realise after a second or three that I had two barrels and two triggers so I gave it a shot with 1½ oz of three's as it departed away from me. And I dropped my first ever goose! And a Solway Pinkfoot at that! It was a pricked bird, not thin but with a fresh pellet wound to its chest, there was a little bit of feather sticking out and when I puled on it it dragged out a single AAA pellet.

Edited November 18, 2012 by scolopax

[big bad lindz]

My first goose was over decoys on some stubble fields. I do remember it well it was a great moment. (I know that some will say thats not real wildfowling) I know some of you have been shooting for many years but applying for my SGC when I was 49 my wife thought mid life crises. I had my SGC for about 18 months only shooting clays and I was asked if I would like to go out decoying geese. How could I refuse. I had never shot any game or fowl before and I felt that I should give it a go just to see how I felt about shooting game & fowl more to see if I would want to do it again.

As I had only been shooting 28grm No7`s at clays My freind suggested that as my gun was chambered for 3" that I should try a few shots on the clay ground to feel the diffrence, and did I.

I was kind of expecting it but when I pulled the trigger the thump into my shoulder !! well needless to say I missed the clay but I now knew what to expect and after a couple more I managed to hit the clay. But it was now down to the real thing.

I did not sleep to well the night before I went out on my first morning flight aware that I did not want to sleep in. Up at silly o`clock and then out onto the fields. Not wanting to bore you with all the details but it was great and I managed to account for 2 out of a bag of 10 between 3 guns. After this I was hooked and I have now gone onto pigeon & phesant and of course fowling on the shore when I get the chance.

My first shore outings like many I am sure were blanks but I kept at it and I was able to bag my first shore goose on an evening flight. Cold, dry and a stiff breeze at my back and the small groups started to pour in back from the feeding fields all to far away or to high. I was very unsure about ranges. It was now getting realy dusky and not enough shooting light, then a group of about 10 came right at me at about 30feet high. I let off both barrels and I knew I hit one as I saw it fall. It took me nearly 20 minutes to find it but find it I did and now I cant get enough of foreshore shooting and I also still enjoy decoying.

One of the lessons that I learnt that night was always carry a spare torch or at least spare batterys as my torch was fading fast.

 

BBL

 

PS both the decoyed and the shore goose were greylags

Edited November 18, 2012 by big bad lindz

[Reabrook]

It was the Solway for me as well. Brow Well to be precise. I'm less precise about the date except that it was early October in the Mid to late 80's. I'd gone up for the week on my own and barely had a clue about the place. I'd had a few shots on the first day and on the evening of day two I found myself under wave upon wave of geese. I fired an embarrassing amount of cartridges and never touched a feather. Day three saw me back again and determined to get a goose. This time I walked a little further down the marsh and tucked into a small creek covered to the front by a gorse bush. I had two spaniels at the time a big beast of a bitch and her future replacement. Earlier in the day the big bitch had gone lame so I took the young dog who not only lacked the experience of the older one but was tiny by comparison. As evening came so did the geese. I had a left and right from the first skein and a single from the next. Three was the limit I had (in more hope than anything else) set myself so I picked up the dead birds and sat back and watched the rest of what was a spectacular flight. Watching that little spaniel bitch drag a Pinkfoot across that marsh is one of my all time favourite memories. By the time she retrieved the third she had the knack and made it look easy. I had a grainy B&W picture somewhere but it's long been lost. I always think its a shame that digital photography came along so late, it's so much easier now.

 

I've been back to Brow Well several times since but it's not the same now. In that my first time up there I bumped into one other fowler in a week. A local man who very kindly took me duck shooting elsewhere on the Solway. Now there seems to be one in every creek. Despite what the figures say there also seemed to be more geese.

[wildfowler.250]

skien of greylags crossing to my right at 40 yards...one shot and two dropped. Didn't even remember to fire shells two and three

[Pykie]

Left and right at Canada's aged 14 with a 20 bore

[fenboy]

It was Xmas 1975 , I thought it was a bit on the greasy side , we have had turkey every year since

But being serious , my first goose was 12 years ago now , I had not shot for years but moved to a house that had open farm land at the back and is only a mile or so from the wash ,

I reapplied for my SGC when the farmer who's land is around my house gave me permission to shoot it .

 

So being near the wash I do get a lot of pinks inland at times , I shot my first one in november 2000 with a old baikal O/U choked skeet and skeet , I also shot my second one at the same time , a left and right with my first ever shots at pinks !.

 

I still shoot the odd one or two when they show , which is not every year , I could shoot more but I like to watch them and even better listen to them.

 

My first Greylag was shot last year on one of Fennys permissions and again I managed a left and right , It was nice to be able to pay him back this year by getting him his first pink.

[anser2]

My first goose came back in the late 1960s . In those days we did not have the number of geese we have today and the odds of getting to terms with the few that were about were pretty remote. A few greylags had been flighting to a marsh in the Broads under the moon close to where I lived . I waited for several nights in a row for them to come over from the nearby estuary and finally 12 black shadows loomed up out off the darkness. They circled my hiding place alongside a big dyke until finally they came right over head barely seen against he stars. One shot and one of the shadows fell with a thump on the grass . I ran out ( I had no dog in those days ) and soon found it with its snowy white stern shining in the moonlight.

 

 

My first Canada came a few years later. I had been flighting the River Wavenly for duck , but none had appeared at morning flight. I was about to go when I saw 4 huge birds swimming up river. I worked my way upwind of them through the reeds and as they saw me they jumped up into the wind and came very low upriver , a couple of shots dropped one. By now I did have a dog , a large yellow lab , but she struggled to bring it ashore. It weighted 17 1\2 lbs a massive bird.

 

 

By the early 1970s I had started to shoot on the Wash. In those days there were only a thousand or so geese on the marsh I shot and they were very well versed in the ways of wildfowlers. After 3 years of chasing them I had not managed to get a shot. Then one morning I did a morning flight in hopeless conditions, full moon and a fine still day. By rights I should have packed up , it was well after flight when a dozen pink feet came out of the west flighting along the marsh not across it. And they were very low. Onwards they came and as they passed me 40 yards in front I gave them 2 barrels. For a long second I thought I had missed , then one crumpled and fell onto the marsh. In a moment I was out of the creek and running across the marsh after it. This pink meant so much more to me than the previous Canada and greylag. Pinks were real wild geese not half tame feral birds.

 

 

Then there was a moment in the late 70s when some unusual geese started to use my marsh on the Wash. It was early November , the pinks had only just arrived and again morning flight under a full moon. But it was very gloomy with light drizzle. My mates went out onto the marsh edge , but I deemed there was little chance of a goose so flighted a flash close to the sea wall in the hopes of a few shots at teal. As dawn fought with the moon to bring the light a group of about twenty geese came over the flash only 10 yards up. I managed to change one of the duck shell for a goose load before they were over me. The first shot with a duck cartridge seemed to miss so I shot at the next in line with a Rotwiell wadimishell BB. The goose I picked staggered , but kept on flying towards the seawall. As the skein crossed it all the birds seemed to dive down and I thought the goose had fallen and the remainder of the flock had followed it down. I rushed over , but there was no sign of my goose. Then on the far side of the inland field the skein took off leaving one bird behind. I rushed over and it started to run , and run, and run. By the time I did a rugby tackle on it I was a long way into the Royal estate land , but fortunately I had the presence of mind to leave my gun behind. To my amazement this was not the pink I was expecting , but a bean goose ( this was before they were protected). When I got back to the sea wall my mates came up and one noticed a patch of goose feathers on the bank. And a fowler hurrying away to the car park. The geese had only been on the marsh a day or two and nobody had shot any so far that season here. The guy who hurried off was heard to boast a couple of days later how he had shot a bean goose off the sea wall. When I plucked out the runner goose It had a couple of no 6 pellets in it , but the bird that had staggered to my second shot had been hit with BB. I had heard no other shots and I am sure the guy who hurried off had picked up the other half of my right and left. Anyway bean goose would feature in the game diary from now on.

 

 

My final first was at white fronts. They were a bogy bird for me. I had dropped two losing one in the sea and another in a creek full of tumbling ice flows where I dare not send the dog , knocked down another that appeared dead for about an hour ( I did not retrieve it at once as there were still a lot of geese sitting only a few hundred yards off and I would have spoiled my mates chances ) , but when I went to pick it up it came to life and flew off , of course my gun was propped up on my game bag. Then there was a skein that were feeding on the same marshes where I shot my first greylag. For weeks I tried to get under them. Finally one morning I found them sitting out in the sunshine with the black bars on the adults standing out. They jumped and gave me a long shot. A bird fell , but I could not believe it , the dog retrieved a pink foot. It must have been the only one in the skein . Finally there was a wild and stormy night when I was hiding in the sand hills on the N Norfolk coast. Skein after pinks came over us and between us we managed 7. Finally out of the darkness I heard white fronts calling , a lot of white fronts. They loomed out of the night in a skein they stretched away into the darkness on both sides. For once the gun was held straight and my first white front was in the bag. A youngster true with no bars ( that was to come a few weeks later ) , but still my first white front.

Edited November 19, 2012 by anser2

[cumbrian top shot]

Some cracking reads on here chaps especially yours anser, its good so many still know the exact details of there first geese. keep them coming it's interesting reading all the different post's.

[Reabrook]

Evocative as always Anser 2. If my Old Man had still been shooting when I was a kid my story and my first goose may have been completely different. My Dad had given up all shooting when I was born and though he didn't actively discourage me looking back its clear he wasn't keen that I was so enthralled with it. Where I lived we saw many Whitefronts in the winter as we fished through the late 60's and early 70's. Those skeins of geese using the mosses and meres filled my dreams of a night time and I used to beg him to let me have a shot. It never happened and I contented myself with vermin and the odd duck of the river until I was old enough to drive and find my own sport to fulfil my passion.

 

I don't know if those Whitefronts still visit the area in any number and to this day I haven't put one in the bag though I have had a chance or two. I'll keep trying though and one day it will happen of that I'm sure.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Reabrook

[Zulu]

Solway for me in 72 , it was either Cummertrees or Brow Well cant really remember , it was my 1st time proper wildfowling with a fella called Jack Almond (RAF) who was the guide and did accommodation in Annan .

It was the last morning of a 3 day stay , we had been to the above plus Powfoot and I got in a small creek and a small party of Greys came over and I managed to drop one from my newly acquired Urgartechea , well pleased .

[P~MX]

No to the original question as I've never been lucky enough to get a shot at one but it's been great to read the replies from the others who've shot them, I've a mate who goes over to Scotland every year and he's asked me to go next time and it's beginnin to look like I'm gona book a place for they're next trip. keep up the good stories and maybe before this season done I might be in the elite goose club.

[cumbrian top shot]

No to the original question as I've never been lucky enough to get a shot at one but it's been great to read the replies from the others who've shot them, I've a mate who goes over to Scotland every year and he's asked me to go next time and it's beginnin to look like I'm gona book a place for they're next trip. keep up the good stories and maybe before this season done I might be in the elite goose club.

Get yourself to scotland with your mates and hopefully you will get lucky, isn't it interesting founding out about all the other members and all there stories.