Published: March 07, 2009 09:51 pm      

From honk to gobble in just 45 days

When you aim at the goose in front and kill the trailing bird, it quickly dawns upon you that you were not pointing the shotgun in the proper place.

“Wow,” I remember thinking, “I led the first goose by a couple feet and killed the other goose that was five feet behind it.”

Quickly doing some cornfield math, I realized that the necessary lead with a 3-inch shell of BB pellets turned out to be two to three yards when shooting at a goose in a straight crossing pattern of left to right or right to left. Geese angling a little either away or toward the shooter requires an adjustment, usually a smaller lead. Distance from the end of the barrel to the goose also factors in to the equation, of course. And then there is wind, often a very cold wind.

I know, this is primordial stuff for experienced goose hunters, but I’m a mountain boy more used to hearing a gobble than a honk.

In spite of that, let me express a great amount of gratitude to the Maryland Wildlife Service for extending the season for resident Canada geese this year. It closed Wednesday.

I’m used to poking lead at mourning doves. Unless they have a mighty tailwind, these shimmering, feathered morsels usually do not require the gunner to point great distances ahead of them when firing.

Canada geese, however, have a clever trick. They’re big. Because they are big, I tend to think they are moving slowly, but nothing could be further from the truth. Add in the slow wing beats and there is an illusion of sluggishness that is an aerial fib.

Just like it takes time to master the correct use of a fly rod, apparently it takes time and a lot of shots to master the taking of geese with a scattergun. At least it does for me.

That said, I have bagged a few this year. Most notable was a behemoth of the waterfowl world that amazed me with its heft. The honker was twice the size of all the others I had taken.

I am pretty good at lifting a turkey gobbler and guessing its weight. If I miscalculate, it is usually not by much. So, although I didn’t actually weigh this particular goose, I lifted it, of course, and I am certain is was a bird of 17 or 18 pounds.

The breasts from it, besides being delicious, made the breasts of the other geese appear dove like. OK, monster dove like.

Counting the geese I bagged in September and the late-season geese, I had my best honker year ever. I’m not going to tell you the number, because it is small, but I guess I’ll have to tell the license lady later this year when I get my HIP permit needed to hunt migratory birds.

Preparing geese for the table is a challenge. I have enough frozen goose breasts this year that I can experiment in the kitchen a bit. If I strike upon a skillet approach worth passing on I will do so.

I think the best thing about a Maryland goose season that ends on March 4 is that it is only 45 days until the state’s spring gobbler season opens.

Time to change chokes.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.