USA: Conservation Goose Hunt NY 2024

[HankBuck]

Gear breakdown.
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Dive Bomb Blind Bag and the Sims Gore-Tex waders kept things dry, provided I did my part. Even when the boat flipped all my stuff inside the bag was left dry. This included my phone, wallet, licenses, ammo, calls…etc BTW – If you are in a boat with even a chance of flipping, roll the top of the bag down and secure it. Also want to make sure anything else is properly tied down that you don’t want to lose.

Gloves – Some people like wearing them and some not so much. I like it for the added grip in the wet conditions and have gone to wearing a synthetic glove that has either a Nitrile or Latex coating on the palm and front of the fingers. They offer a great grip, pack small and dry out quickly. They are also great when processing the geese and cleanup is easy. If it was colder, I’d opt for something with more insulation, but it would need to be near freezing before I would consider making a switch. Keep in mind that both my arms were soaked with river water and I had no problems standing in the river (low activity level) without my hands getting cold.

Korker wader boots (or just about any wader boot) and a wader staff are critical pieces of kit for anyone looking to do hunting in a flowing body of water. Make sure the boots don’t have a felt sole, they need to be hard rubber. The felt ones are not legal for use in many areas because they can transport disease in their porous material from one body of water to another. The staff I’m using is nothing special, I believe it’s an old walking stick that my wife bought years ago. I’ve pressed into service for this purpose, and it works great. Plus, it saved me about $150 on a “real” wader staff. You could make your own from a piece of cedar and finish it with some Australian timber oil, but the pricey ones have the advantage of collapsing down for easy transport and are much lighter.

I used an Alps Outdoors Legend Layout Blind for the first time this year and it was really good. Easy to set up and grass in. Kept me off the ground, sitting in a suspended chair. I was able to have my shotgun at the ready with my blind bag between my feet. It would be an ideal cold weather option for a layout blind. One caveat is that I did use and extra pillow to prop my head up and stowed it on the seat when packing up for the day, so I don’t forget it next time. Sorry, no picture of that.

Muck boots – I need new ones badly and the guys hunting the farm field have recommended the Dive Bomb version with 400-gram insulation. I’m comparing those to a few others right now like the KUIU, LaCrosse, Bog and Muck.

Do I need to mention the Benelli SBE3 and Federal Black Cloud TSS BB/7? The SBE3 took an underwater journey for about 30 seconds when I flipped the kayak. I did nothing more than dump the water from the barrel, cycle the action a few times and it was working perfectly. And TSS…I think you all know where I stand on this, but if you have questions…feel free to ask.

Knifes, knives and more knives. How many knives to bring on a trip? For this one it was only two, plus a Leatherman. The Havalon Piranta with a couple of spare blades tucked in the same pouch as the Leatherman makes for a compact kill kit. Add in some plastic zip top bags and it’s done. The other knife is just a little folder with a 2.5” blade that I keep in my pocket when I’m not hunting it gets used for complex tasks like opening boxes and cutting para cord.

Packing…I overpacked. Always do, although I did better this time. Hard to predict what weather conditions may come about so it was mostly extra clothes, the gear was just about right. That will wrap up this past week of hunting along with all the gear I saw fit to highlight. I don’t recall any gear or clothing item not performing up to expectations, but if I think of something I’ll add it in.

Thanks again to everyone for following along. BeeMaa

@BeeMaa: Did you see more geese this year than last? Also did you shoot more out of the field or set up in the river? I assume in the River it was pass shooting only and getting them to decoy would be difficult in the current and also those geese seemed to be heading to a feeding area —-hopefully the field you were able to set up in? Sounds like a nice trip with some action everyday and good weather.
Will you be eating “goose” for the next few months??

 

[BeeMaa]

@BeeMaa: Did you see more geese this year than last? Also did you shoot more out of the field or set up in the river? I assume in the River it was pass shooting only and getting them to decoy would be difficult in the current and also those geese seemed to be heading to a feeding area —-hopefully the field you were able to set up in? Sounds like a nice trip with some action everyday and good weather.
Will you be eating “goose” for the next few months??

We shot more geese on the river, but that was mostly for opening day and the day after. The birds weren't educated and paid the price. By day three it was over for our river location (zero taken) while the fields continued to produce. There is no day like opening day and it CAN NOT BE MISSED whether on the river, in a field or hunting a pond. After that, the geese become much more wary regardless of location.

The most important thing for opening day success is scouting. IGS nailed it on the river. If we had more guns out there, I have no doubt it would have been an even bigger crime scene.

River was all shooting on the wing while the field was a mix of wing and on the ground. We are going to have to work out how to get good video of these hunts without having to sacrifice a guy who could be shooting instead of filming. At the end of the day, the meat is more important than video evidence.

No goose for me, tears up my stomach. Kenny, Nestor & Roro eat goose like it's going out of style so we gave them ours. Kenny said he makes a mean goose stew with veggies and potatoes. It sounded really good. The geese we took on the river were cleaned, vacuum sealed and frozen. IGS is distributing the meat to friends and family. All the guys will continue to hunt (might even be doing it this morning) the rest of conservation season to assist in reducing the resident goose population. I believe they have about three or four places to hunt on private land exclusively. By rotating between these places, it keeps the geese guessing and freezers full.

 

[HankBuck]

We shot more geese on the river, but that was mostly for opening day and the day after. The birds weren't educated and paid the price. By day three it was over for our river location (zero taken) while the fields continued to produce. There is no day like opening day and it CAN NOT BE MISSED whether on the river, in a field or hunting a pond. After that, the geese become much more wary regardless of location.

The most important thing for opening day success is scouting. IGS nailed it on the river. If we had more guns out there, I have no doubt it would have been an even bigger crime scene.

River was all shooting on the wing while the field was a mix of wing and on the ground. We are going to have to work out how to get good video of these hunts without having to sacrifice a guy who could be shooting instead of filming. At the end of the day, the meat is more important than video evidence.

No goose for me, tears up my stomach. Kenny, Nestor & Roro eat goose like it's going out of style so we gave them ours. Kenny said he makes a mean goose stew with veggies and potatoes. It sounded really good. The geese we took on the river were cleaned, vacuum sealed and frozen. IGS is distributing the meat to friends and family. All the guys will continue to hunt (might even be doing it this morning) the rest of conservation season to assist in reducing the resident goose population. I believe they have about three or four places to hunt on private land exclusively. By rotating between these places, it keeps the geese guessing and freezers full.

@BeeMaa - I agree and have the same experiance hunting September geese in NJ, that 1st day is usually the best, just be set up wherever they were feeding the day before…but after that your 2nd days is cut at least in 1/2 or maybe worse. Hunting over water during the regular season, or late Winter season, has been more consistent and we’ve done well 3 days in a row hunting the same spot on a river — but the limit was only 5 so three guys could limit (15 birds) in an hour or two. There’s something more exciting about shooting geese then ducks, seeing the flocks, how long they take to set into your decoys, how easy and responsive they can be to call, and the Big Splash (or thud) when they are dropped….definately the Big Game of Waterfowl hunting. You had a memorable trip and those 5 bands (from 7 dead geese) will be a nice memory and maybe never repeated !!

 

[VertigoBE]

I'm happy you reminded me of reading through this. I only remembered that one awesome picture of you in the kayak with all the gear. Thanks for taking us on this trip, very interesting to read how you cook up some geese paté

Waidmannsheil on an awesome result and hunt my friend!

 

[BeeMaa]

Eric, have you ever studded your wadding boots ?

The soles on these boots are interchangeable so I could switch to studded in about 5 minutes. However I have yet to buy them because the current conditions I use them in are so rocky that I think they would be more slippery than what I already have. I know there are some fishing guides who don't like clients wearing studded boots on their deck. So that's another reason I didn't pick them up.

Maybe if I were using the wader boots in a soft bottom body of water it would be of some use.

Do you use studded wader boots? In what conditions do you find them advantageous?

 

[Altitude sickness]

I’ve only used them once. On a moose hunt in Alaska. I Could have done without them. Not mandatory