The herald., 1895-10-03
WILD GOOSE SHOOTING

A goose is not what most people term
| II 10 be. for you hear it often spoken,
when you doubt fellows wit. "You are
goose" On the contrary. l say that
the goose is one of the sharpest gam
| birds shat ever cut the air. and it must
be thoroughly understood to make the
goose hunt a success. The weather must
also be in your favor. A cloudy and
windy day mot storm or RAINY is general
ly the best day for goose hunting. but in
the rain they do not fly. A good any
hunters will claim rainy day the best,
but those are inexperienced hands, and
only make their statements from hearsay.
In tie fall Of 1898 a friend of mine and
| started about 8 o'clock in the evening
for o goose hunt. We drove from ten to
twelve miles out in the country from
Devils Lake. n. D.. and arrived at Mr..
Flummeriields place at a little after
&C lock p. m E, and put up for the night.
After seeing that our horses had been
properly cared for, we went out in the
fields where the geese had been feeding
ths day before and hunted up the spot
whore they fed the most (this can only
be found oy the most experienced hunt
ers.) After succeeding in finding the
right place, we set to work and dug our
pit by moonlight. A square hole about
three and one.haIf by seven feet. and
about four feet deep is about the right
size for two men to shoot out of. After
all the fresh sand which had bsen thrown
out covered with stubbles, and settinS
our twenty-four decoys. etc.. we wen
back to our boarding place and retired
for the nights rest, dreaming about the
geese. Now and then we were awakened
by the NOISE of some large fiocks OF geese
flying over the house. As soon as day
break showed itself we got up and repair
ed to our pit without even taking break
fast. The morning was very foggy and
calm, and no geese could be Ieen anywhere,
but about o'clock II nice flock came IN
sight and made straight for our pit
where they noticed our decoys.
We kept very low In the pit, and both
of us began to call. This must be prac.
ticed very much in order to initiate a
goose in good shape, for the goose calls
which you buy are not of much use. and
sometimes only drive the geese away.
The flock then spread out their wings,
would have lit right among our decoys.
But when they were within fifteen yards
We both rose and the four barrels were
poured into them with great result. for
five geese were lying dead on the ground,
and another one was wounded. We then
piShCu tHOb UP, anu uoibB OuI WlTcS,
which we had prepared, set up the killed
also for decoys. This is done by using a
common smooth fence wire. Straighten it
out as well as you can and cut it in
lengths from eighteen to twenty inches.
Then, when you kill a goose, open the
bill and run the wire down inside of the
throat, So it cuts through the skin at the
breast, and then into the ground. Then
pull up the head OF the goose so it gets
above the wire. and then press the head
down firm, keeping it in position as if
the goose were alive. In this way we pro-
ceeded with every goose we killed that
morning until we had set out sixty real
decoys.
Then the geese came in SO thick that
we did not get time to do anything else
except load our guns and shoot. When
the fight ceased we picked up 1877 dead
geese. This was the largest number of
geese killed by two men in such short
time that season in this vicinity. AS We
had only horse and buggy, we had to
hire Mr.. Flumm erfeld to haul the geese to
town for us, which he did at an expense
of So. We then sold them at the rate of
from Is cents to so cents apiece. We could
have made more money out of our hunt.
but as our game law prohibited shipping
birds out of the state We bad TO sell them
at any price we could get.-Correspond-
ence Minneapolis Times.