Thread: Canadian Geese on public land

Big learning curve hunting geese, but they are so much fun and well worth the effort. You can get a Game Bird permit from your local DoC office which kinda covers geese depending on whether you actually bump in to a DoC staff member thats interested in checking you out. The chances of actually being approached by a DoC staff member are zero to nil, particularly if you're hunting outside of office hours, or weekends, or across a small waterway etc etc. Some DoC offices issue a small game permit to cover geese, pretty easy to obtain over the phone, and gives you free rein to go shoot some "small game". Dont bother explaining anything to them, just ask for a small game permit for the district you wish to hunt.

There are plenty of geese on public land and "hydro" areas, as shown in the WAMS maps. Do lots of scouting, sit on some remote roads in the general area both night and morning and look for flying mobs of geese. Check out where they go to. In the evenings it is usually to some cockies paddock so they can chow down all night. In the mornings its back to their roosting areas out on the riverbeds and tarns and lakes etc. Once you have a mob's position locked in, spend some time watching what they do. This may be over a few days. Try and make your scouting trips with a different wind direction each time, so that you can see how they set in to their "safe" place.

Once you've done a good lot of scouting and happy that you have some idea of their habits, set yourself up to catch them coming in. We've had plenty of geese coming in to the paddocks after the harvest. But hunter pressure, sprouting crops and cultivation have changed their habits so now we have geese over several paddocks, and it aint consistent, making for very difficult success. But only this morning I went out on to the riverbed where they roost up each day and pulled a whole heap of flood debris in to a makeshift blind so we can have another crack tomorrow morning.......and then the wind changes! So will be some early morning changes before we hide up.

A layout blind is a definite bonus, so many options for differing terrain etc. But they are expensive. I hunted for years using only a large sheet of scrim I salvaged off a roll of carpet. Slapped some greenish paint on one side to camo it up. The advantage with this is one side was more tussock coloured with a bit of green showing through, and the other was more grass coloured with lots of green. Lie on half of it, with something to prop your head up, and cover yourself with the other half. Cut slits in it to poke some grass and vegetation so you blend in.

Geese have amazing eyesight so your camo needs to be better than ok, needs to be excellent. Cover your face, dont move. Dont leave bright coloured cartridges lying around. Learn some basic calls on a goose call. Make yourself a "flag" so you can add some movement to your decoy spread.

Decoys, absolutely necessary if you want birds to come right in to you. For years I used up to 100 silhouettes, larger than std size. Still use them if I'm heading out for a quick walk in hunt. Now I mostly use 3 dozen shell decoys, but you'll need to take out a mortgage if you want a decent amount of good quality decoys. A good start is a doz mixed ones from Hardcore Outdoors, delivered to your door, not too big, easy to set up, and realistic. Same as ducks, your decoys need to face in to the wind! You dont need a lot, they just need to look good, and face the right direction.

Despite what some people say, geese are not difficult to drop. Shoot within your distance limits, usually 40 metres. I use 4's, whether Im shooting lead or steel. I prefer lead and do nearly all of my shooting over paddocks, so lead is ok, Rio Mini Mag 4's. It is important to actually check your choking and make sure you have plenty of pellets with in your pattern at whatever distance you find comfortable. Problem with 2's and 3's is there is often not enough pellets within your spread to ensure you hit the neck or head. And most important - dont shoot for the goose, shot for the head! Birds are really easy to kill if you hit them in the neck or head. And shoot 'em when you can see their eyeballs. And dont bother to shoot at them as they're departing, too bloody difficult to get enough shot in to a vital area.

Do some scouting, camo yourself up real well, shoot some geese and we look forward to some updates. Goose breast is beautiful, treated as steak, or roasted with skin on, or made in to pastrami. If you want to make up some silhouettes, let me know and I can send some pic's of the ones that work for me.

Originally Posted by Husky1600

Big learning curve hunting geese, but they are so much fun and well worth the effort. You can get a Game Bird permit from your local DoC office which kinda covers geese depending on whether you actually bump in to a DoC staff member thats interested in checking you out. The chances of actually being approached by a DoC staff member are zero to nil, particularly if you're hunting outside of office hours, or weekends, or across a small waterway etc etc. Some DoC offices issue a small game permit to cover geese, pretty easy to obtain over the phone, and gives you free rein to go shoot some "small game". Dont bother explaining anything to them, just ask for a small game permit for the district you wish to hunt.

There are plenty of geese on public land and "hydro" areas, as shown in the WAMS maps. Do lots of scouting, sit on some remote roads in the general area both night and morning and look for flying mobs of geese. Check out where they go to. In the evenings it is usually to some cockies paddock so they can chow down all night. In the mornings its back to their roosting areas out on the riverbeds and tarns and lakes etc. Once you have a mob's position locked in, spend some time watching what they do. This may be over a few days. Try and make your scouting trips with a different wind direction each time, so that you can see how they set in to their "safe" place.

Once you've done a good lot of scouting and happy that you have some idea of their habits, set yourself up to catch them coming in. We've had plenty of geese coming in to the paddocks after the harvest. But hunter pressure, sprouting crops and cultivation have changed their habits so now we have geese over several paddocks, and it aint consistent, making for very difficult success. But only this morning I went out on to the riverbed where they roost up each day and pulled a whole heap of flood debris in to a makeshift blind so we can have another crack tomorrow morning.......and then the wind changes! So will be some early morning changes before we hide up.

A layout blind is a definite bonus, so many options for differing terrain etc. But they are expensive. I hunted for years using only a large sheet of scrim I salvaged off a roll of carpet. Slapped some greenish paint on one side to camo it up. The advantage with this is one side was more tussock coloured with a bit of green showing through, and the other was more grass coloured with lots of green. Lie on half of it, with something to prop your head up, and cover yourself with the other half. Cut slits in it to poke some grass and vegetation so you blend in.

Geese have amazing eyesight so your camo needs to be better than ok, needs to be excellent. Cover your face, dont move. Dont leave bright coloured cartridges lying around. Learn some basic calls on a goose call. Make yourself a "flag" so you can add some movement to your decoy spread.

Decoys, absolutely necessary if you want birds to come right in to you. For years I used up to 100 silhouettes, larger than std size. Still use them if I'm heading out for a quick walk in hunt. Now I mostly use 3 dozen shell decoys, but you'll need to take out a mortgage if you want a decent amount of good quality decoys. A good start is a doz mixed ones from Hardcore Outdoors, delivered to your door, not too big, easy to set up, and realistic. Same as ducks, your decoys need to face in to the wind! You dont need a lot, they just need to look good, and face the right direction.

Despite what some people say, geese are not difficult to drop. Shoot within your distance limits, usually 40 metres. I use 4's, whether Im shooting lead or steel. I prefer lead and do nearly all of my shooting over paddocks, so lead is ok, Rio Mini Mag 4's. It is important to actually check your choking and make sure you have plenty of pellets with in your pattern at whatever distance you find comfortable. Problem with 2's and 3's is there is often not enough pellets within your spread to ensure you hit the neck or head. And most important - dont shoot for the goose, shot for the head! Birds are really easy to kill if you hit them in the neck or head. And shoot 'em when you can see their eyeballs. And dont bother to shoot at them as they're departing, too bloody difficult to get enough shot in to a vital area.

Do some scouting, camo yourself up real well, shoot some geese and we look forward to some updates. Goose breast is beautiful, treated as steak, or roasted with skin on, or made in to pastrami. If you want to make up some silhouettes, let me know and I can send some pic's of the ones that work for me.

Gidday Al

I hope that 8x57 is going well.

Thanks for the detailed info on the hunting of Geese, its as shame they have been put on the pest list as from what ive read/researched they seem to be a great challenge to hunt. at this point in time i am probably unable to spend mornings and evenings scouting them out but as they are regarded a "pest" i have all year to hassle them and put some more time into chasing them, not just the duck season. I have taken the wife out last weekend to have a go on some clays to make sure she is comfortable with a shotgun, after a few clays and some below average coaching she was shooting really well. and id be happy to put her onto some birds within range.

I have my permit in hand and have seen a couple of small mobs in the local doc block, if i do get some time after work i will try get a bit of a look at there movements etc and hopefully find somewhere to setup a temp blind and try my luck on a couple. ill do what i can with the time available. I would be keen to see some pics of your silhouettes, i have some ply floating around at work and might be worth cutting a few out to take up the local doc block once ive studied them a bit more.

cheers again for all the helpful info, hopefully manage a couple of gamebirds this season

There are a few here.

I just found this pdf on my phone I had forgotten about regarding hunting Canada geese . Info released early last year ( or maybe year before - time flies nowadays )
Might be worth a read....

Canada-Geese-status.pdf

If it won't download let me know and I will try again....