A year in the making

We'd been planning a March assault on the Raglan geese for almost a year.. at first we talked about it, then socialised it with other boys, then began to plan dates around the moon phase. There's a stack of geese in Raglan harbour, and that's sort of the issue, the reason for so many is that there's a zillion loafing and roosting spots, and normally there's an abundance of green herbage for them to feed on. Getting shots on a good number of birds consistently requires some planning, some local knowledge and a tad of luck. With property Manager Eddie aboard, we had the eyes and ears on the ground and between the rest of us the gear and logistics were sorted.

As the day drew nearer the hunt zone was changed as the geese began to mob up in different spots each day.. suddenly things were looking tricky. The call was made to hunt a cut-over maize crop; with the drought that's gripping the country there's absolutely no grass to be found anywhere and Eddie had dumped a half ton of rotten maize silage back into the field. Friday night saw Eddie, Andy and I surveying the paddock and pushing out the geese that were on the paddock. Although not fully black, the moon was a mere sliver so we hoped they'd not be able to return and feed all night. Back to Andy's place where I hit the hay, had gotten only 4 hour's sleep the previous night so I was pretty knackered. And damn, I was bolt awake at 3am, 90 minutes before I needed to be, but there was no chance of getting more shut-eye so I lay and waited as time ticked by. At 4.15 I got up and kicked Andy's door and he dragged his sleepy ass out of bed  having thought he'd overslept and that the alarm hadn't gone off. Muesli and coffee for breakfast, then guns into the truck and off to Eddie's place. Matt & Chewie, Rick, Beno and Eddie were there when we arrived, so we drove to the shed and parked up. Eddie grabbed the tractor and we threw our gear aboard and headed off to the chosen spot. We got the blinds and 60 odd decoys arranged in reasonable fashion, had a final safety and expectation briefing and then sat and waited.

And waited... and waited. The predicted sw wind was coming from the east, so I wondered if we'd set in the right spot. Always some nervous jitters when you've set the spot up. The sun arose and birds began to come to life, first magpies, then ducks, gulls, minahs...

The spread looked pretty good, and despite the lack of cover we blended in well enough. Finally, from over our right shoulders came the first geese. We mowed the first mob down and then it all got a bit interesting, as it seemed that the birds had a preferred landing zone about 100m away. Matt and chewie had to walk off a couple of large flocks that piled in over there. Even so, we certainly had our chances and between 8 - 10 am knocked down 30 odd geese.

The wind really freshened later in the morning and we could hear geese moving up and down the harbour. We managed to pull birds in from quite some distance on occasion, the highlight being a mob of 5 that beat their way towards us low and flat into the teeth of the wind. We took them all in a short barrage. By 10.15 it was all quiet, so we made the call to pick up at 10.30. No sooner had we started stacking decoys than more birds were in the air, and we managed to bring in a pair despite having our gear piled all over the ground around us.

Matt made a good clip of the proceedings - note the geese landing further back than our spread at times.

By 11 we had taken a few shots, then Eddie brought the tractor over to collect our gear.

Back to the shed where we dressed the birds, had a cold beer and shot the breeze for a while. Then the boys hit the road and I went back to Andy's to collect my stuff. By the time I got home I was dog tired, but determined not to show weakness in front of swmbo so cooked dinner, got the Justin Bieber Fan Club ready for bed and sat and watched recorded TV shows until 10pm.

Man I slept well.