- Details
- Category: Waterfowl
- Published: Tuesday, 12 January 2016 21:37
- Written by Greg
Goose Hunting Tips and Techniques
I'd say the most important aspect of hunting geese is scouting. Obviously, if you aren't seeing geese, you can't shoot them. Finding a field where the geese are actively feeding (that you have permission to hunt) is probably the best case scenario. However, if that isn't possible you can try hunting a field adjacent to an active feeding field, but be warned that taking this approach is risky. Once a live bird lands in a field next to you, it's likely that every other bird will do the same. Like the old saying goes, you can't compete with live birds!
Feet down, wings cupped All three committed, all three in the bag
In addition, knowing the flight pattern of geese is also an important facet of hunting them. One common approach is "running traffic" by means of calling and flagging them to your location. By hunting near or below their flight path, it is possible to coerce geese right into your decoy spread.
Might be a little difficult to see, but our decoy spread worked perfectly Geese stayed right, my son was the only one to shoot, got 4 geese with 3 shots
Another significant factor when hunting geese is decoy placement. Placing active decoys further from your blind, with feeder decoys closer to the shooter's location provides an opportunity for closer shots. Why? Because the thought is that geese will want to land closer to the feeder decoys due to the perceived existence of food. And don't forget the importance of leaving ample distance between decoys so that approaching geese have enough room to land, an unfortunate mistake made too often.
Anticipation builds as geese approach A few seconds later, feet down wings cupped
Now let's say that you have successfully employed one of the above techniques. You must have carefully considered concealment and factored it into your plan or else everything will have been for naught. The threat of predation for geese is constant, so it's no wonder that they are adept at detecting movement or anything else perceived as unnatural within their environment. That's why brushing in your ground blind sufficiently can mean the difference between feet down with wings cupped or flaring birds. The goal is to make your spread look as realistic and natural as possible and to adequately conceal your blind, so spend the extra time necessary to accomplish this goal and go bag some geese!
