The record-union., 1891-10-24
A TENDERFOOTiS EXPERIENCE.
Wild Goose Shooting in the Sacra-
mento Valley.
''Parson'' Tells the Readers of "Out
ing'' How It Is Done-Dakota
Shooting Not In 1t.

Commencing life in my youth in a
game country, and having an indulgent
father, who early placed in my hands a
good gun, / soon learned to despise all
other boyish pursuits and pastimes in
comparison with roaming the prairies OF
Illinois and the wooded hills of Wiscon-
sin with gun and dog. The passion for
shooting has therefore never deserted
me, and to-day, in middle-life the tule
marshes or stubble-field, the mountain
stream or brushy point, where lurk the
trout or deer, the tangled gulch or canyon
Iesounding with the call OF the jaunty
California quail, or the ground lining the
banks Of some slow-moving stream,
where squat and hide the English snipe,
have many times more charm and fasci-
nation for me than the crowded routes OF
some fashionable seaside resort or the
roar and hustle of city's street
After years spent in the most favored
localities of those States which form on
their edges the basin for the Father OF
Waters; having shot successively over
large portions OF Dakota, Mime
sofa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and
Arkansas; having killed deer and bear in
the pine woods of the y Northern Peninsula
of Michigan and the cane brakes of East
ern Arkansas; having seen the prairie
grouse disappear from Illinois and grow
scarce on the great upIands OF Minnesota
and the DakotaS; having Whiled away
many an autumnal day on the lagoons of
the lower Mississippi and the marshes OF
Central Wisconsin, Turing with decoy and
seductive caller to their fate mallard and
1eal / find myself at last in the Golden
State, with different surroundings it is
true, but with the same old passion for
gun and dog.
well remember the impressions Great
ed upon my sporting instincts when, on a
day some three years since, made my
first entrance into the beautiful Sacra-
Inento Valley.
The horizon all around save just ahead,
was set with snowy peaks-to the right
the Sierras, to the left the more rugged
Coast Range, while at intervals as the
train swung round a curve, hanging low
down like a teecy summer cloud more
than hundred miles away, great Shasta
lifted his hoary head. But what set every
nerve in my body tingling with excite
-nent was the geese. The majority of the
passengers paid no attention whatever to
this, to them, common spectacle, but
during that whole days ride geese in
countless numbers were never out OF
sight of our train.
brant in Dakota, but, like Uncle Toby's
"reminiscences, they were nothing to
this.' Snow geese, in white and glisten-
ing ranks on the edges Of the
green grain; gray geese, wavering
mp and down in slowly moving
liocks against the horizon; delib-
crate geese, only getting up as the train
was just upon them; frightened geese
rising on nervous pinions from some
sedgy pool by the roadbed. Geese, geese
geese while here and there over the
green fields moved men and boys
mounted and armed with Winchesters
actually herding the geese off of the
sprouting grain, as a rancher informed
me while complacently splitting out
through the window.
Good many geese long here" I re-
marked to him as we whirled along,
Yes, tolerable," he replied, "but
Bcarcer than they were! !"
PLENTY enough for me, however" !
remarked TO myself But 1t was not until
the following fall that l made my first
acquaintance with the goose of the Sacra-
mentO Valley over the rib of my Parker.
The absorbing nature of my calling,
among a new people and amidst new sur
rOundings, prevented an early interview,
and that spring l witnessed their count
less hoeks streaming northward over
head during the day, and listened to THEN
unceasing clangOr at night, with the men
tai determination that on their return
southwark l would know tenn better.
In the meantime, however, l was not
idle. In June following 1 was initiated
into dove shooting, which, while furnish
ing poor sport as compared with nobleI
game, still served as a pastime not to be
despised-jumping doyes in the grain
fields and flight shooting on the passes
requiring considerable deXterity in the
handling of q shotgun.
The latter part Of September found me
waiting for the geese, with a goodly store
of cartridges loaded with Nos. 1 and
shot. / know that this win seem like the
rankest heresy to the advocates OF large
shot, but | long ago discarded both big
guns and big shot in decoy shooting al
geese, being entirely satisfied with the
performance Of light ten gauge and the
smaller pellets.
I had discovered on inquiry that little
real scientific goose shooting was INDUCED
IN along the Sacramento Valley, partly
because of the abundance Of the birds
and partly because plenty could be OBJ
tanned ordinarily by employing the sim
pie principles of driving on the birds
with a fast horse and light wagon: shoot
ing them from hedges and bitches, when
on toggy morning. they passed, flying
low, from field to field; or else approach
ing the birds circuitously behind the
shelter of a steer or COW trained for the
purpose.
had made my own preparations, how
ever, 10 shoot this game in the way that
I had been most successful in their pur-
suit years ago on the stubbles of Dakota
Having placed my order early with an
Eastern firm for a mixed flock of profile
aecoyS, ] spent several mornings after
The first flight began in locating the birds
and in finding where the geese used" in
the neighboring grain fields. / located
several feeding places, as reward for my
TNnfInnpn he
stubbles from the plains or sand bars OF
The river early in the morning and to-
ward evening of each day
1T was, then, with no slight degree oi
satisfaction, that on the morning of the
'ourth day, while the stars were still
shining put my horse into a light road
wagon, into the rear of which were
backed a lunch, a dozen and a halfdecoys
and some hay. / had on the day before
with the aid Of light spade and few
barley sacks for the removal of earth
dug two shallow pits something like 8
mile apart, in Which i proposed to take
the morning and the evening fight
Very soon my little wagon was bowling
over the hard ground, and with a fresi
easterly wind in my face l left the town
behind.
Crossing several fields I drew near
low-lying swaie distant from the river
balf-inile, and on which the wheat that
year had grown rank and tall. With the
not unusual prOdlEahty and carelesSnesS
Of the California rancher the wheat here
had not been well CLEANED with the header
and not a little remained in patches here
and there uncut or lodged And here
had been the geese for number OF morn
3ngs, as was plain to the most casual OBJ.
server of sign"
Hastily hitcbing the horse ia grove oi
live oaks, and gathering up my gun and
"A mart of tho decOVs I indulped in a SharT