From the Men – Craig’s Epic Goose Story

To further the photos:

It’s 10pm and one of my hunting partners calls me.

“Hey where are you?”

“At work what’s up?”

“Snow Geese in the morning. I have a spot for you, on a 75,000 bird field.”

“I’ll be there”

*click*

I was finishing an evening shift at the firehall, and still had to go home, packup, and be on the road for 3 hours. (What was I doing to myself?)

My partner, is an animal when it comes to waterfowl, so of course we had to be in the field by 3am , with a two hour setup, and literally a dead sprint back to our blinds to beat the first birds, it’s safe to say I was exhausted. 600 decoys for an early spring season hunt, a duffel bag of camera gear to setup, we almost need a “That was Easy” button and have it setup itself.

The first snow came into sight as the seconds of legal light were clicking closer. We were literally watching the clock and the single goose simultaneously at this point.

“Gittem” my partner said.

BOOM! My Franchi semiauto cut through the cold crisp air and the single goose folded up and soared to the ground. “Deke!”

My partner hollered at his golden lab Deke to fetch ‘Em up for the first bird of the day. The morning continued, flawless bird after bird, shot after shot. We even managed to squeeze a third hunter into the equation halfway into the shoot without spooking any incoming birds.

A lot of running. A lot of shooting. And a LOT of laughing. As tired and as flat out exhausted as we all were, we finished out the morning, happier than school kids, with one of my best goose hunts. With the right friends, perfect weather and birds and dogs that work, it makes up for the lack of sleep and long driving.”