Colorado has an early one week resident goose season in September, and buddy Gerald Blackwelder's son Ryan knows all the good goose fields. He called to say he had located an as yet unhunted field feeding about 600 birds daily and wanted to know if I was up for it. What do you think my answer was????

Here they Come!

A little after 5AM next day I was ready and waiting at Gerald's. Ryan pulled in with his van trailer loaded to the hilt with full body decs and Final Approach ground blinds. Gerald and I loaded our gear, and off we went to the corn field.

Pulling out into the center of the field, Ryan switched on the trailer flood lights and we started unloading. Gerald and I started digging shallow pits for the blinds and then set out the decs, while Ryan hid the truck and trailer.

Didn't take long to get everything set up and by then the eastern sky was graying up. About the time we loaded our smokepoles, a lone early goose winged in to set in the spread. He must have been a tame goose, because he had no inclination of leaving while we finished our final prep.

Birds in Hand

Soon as it got good light , we noted several flocks on a beeline for our field. Ryan wanted to land a few flocks first to search for bands, so we hunkered under cover. Ryan went into his "Come on in" goose calls and a couple flocks whiffled right in to land. He and Gerald spotted one band and sat up to take him on the flush. Thinking the whole ball game was on, I dropped a honker right off and was going for a second, when Ryan called off the shooting, wanting to find more bands,

Full Limit

By this time the sky was full of birds waiting for clearance to land. No more bands were evident, so we commenced to start popping away at hungry honkers approaching at eyeball level with full flaps down. Two more shots and I had my limit! Unloading my Belini gun, I started taking pics of decoying birds so close you could see their eyes.

With Ryan

Gerald and Ryan quickly got their limits and no sooner than it started, it was all over for the day. Birds still circled as we started to pick up. Now we had to clean our 9 birds. Goose season comes in for real September 29, and it looks like this season will be a humdinger! Stay tuned for further action!

Loadin' Up