Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
Articles
Latest reviews
Author list
Classifieds
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Hunting
Waterfowl Hunting
Sandhill Crane hunting
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="mgood" data-source="post: 1099447" data-attributes="member: 91188"><p>Hunted them with my dad as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s.</p><p></p><p>Up close they're much bigger than they look in the air. I've heard hunters say that if you can't hear their wings flapping, they're out of shotgun range. (May, or may not, be a tall tale. I never noticed the sound of flapping wings in the excitement.) Goose loads are what you want. We used 3" magnums back in the day. I'd never heard of 3.5" magnums back then, but I suppose that would be the thing to use now.</p><p></p><p>They have great eyesight and won't fly near man-made stuff, like your vehicle, unless they're so high you wonder if there's any oxygen up there, except <em>occasionally</em> they'll fly over long-abandoned structures.</p><p></p><p>We'd set up before daylight near a lake where they were and catch a few just as they were taking off first thing in the morning. Never used decoys.</p><p></p><p>Then we'd move to the edge of a field of wheat or whatever that had already been harvested where you'd see jillions of them out there, like a gray blanket over the land. Bury ourselves in the weeds. One person would drive waaaay around to the other side of the field and then drive the pickup across the field, honking and raising hell, to drive them towards us. (I suppose you could do the same on foot or on horseback if you couldn't drive across the field. Farmers considered them pests and were glad to have us shoot them back then and the fields were already harvested so we weren't damaging crops. Only issue was getting stuck.) Sometimes they came over us low enough to shoot if we didn't move until they were <em>right there</em>. Sometimes they were already too high before they got to where we were. (The driving vehicle was still way on the other side of the field, usually a section, so nearly a mile away, as the hunter was shooting up. So no way we're shooting anybody.) Move to another field and repeat.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mgood, post: 1099447, member: 91188"] Hunted them with my dad as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s. Up close they're much bigger than they look in the air. I've heard hunters say that if you can't hear their wings flapping, they're out of shotgun range. (May, or may not, be a tall tale. I never noticed the sound of flapping wings in the excitement.) Goose loads are what you want. We used 3" magnums back in the day. I'd never heard of 3.5" magnums back then, but I suppose that would be the thing to use now. They have great eyesight and won't fly near man-made stuff, like your vehicle, unless they're so high you wonder if there's any oxygen up there, except [I]occasionally[/I] they'll fly over long-abandoned structures. We'd set up before daylight near a lake where they were and catch a few just as they were taking off first thing in the morning. Never used decoys. Then we'd move to the edge of a field of wheat or whatever that had already been harvested where you'd see jillions of them out there, like a gray blanket over the land. Bury ourselves in the weeds. One person would drive waaaay around to the other side of the field and then drive the pickup across the field, honking and raising hell, to drive them towards us. (I suppose you could do the same on foot or on horseback if you couldn't drive across the field. Farmers considered them pests and were glad to have us shoot them back then and the fields were already harvested so we weren't damaging crops. Only issue was getting stuck.) Sometimes they came over us low enough to shoot if we didn't move until they were [I]right there[/I]. Sometimes they were already too high before they got to where we were. (The driving vehicle was still way on the other side of the field, usually a section, so nearly a mile away, as the hunter was shooting up. So no way we're shooting anybody.) Move to another field and repeat. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Hunting
Waterfowl Hunting
Sandhill Crane hunting
Top