Feral Geese

[zobster]

IMG_20170308_194725.jpg (1.18 MiB) Viewed 3740 times

Last evening's efforts.

I was supposed to meet the farmer just to catch up on whats happening with the geese as my efforts in Nov seemed to put them on edge and made them near impossible to shoot.

Just before leaving the house I thought, "better bring the gun just in case", grabbed the 17 and 50 rounds and off I went. Got there, as we were driving around, there they are!! You know the saying "lining up your ducks", well them geese were all lined up!! Hands trembling with excitement, out came the rifle, in went the cartridges, out the barrel the projectiles went and straight into center mass. Immediate thoughts were, WTF, why are you still moving? Reloaded and sent another round straight into the neck, that stopped it.

Ended up using 35 cartridges for 16 confirmed and 2 unconfirmed kills. Only took 4 home though as I only had one box and it only fitted 4.

Moral of the story, overkill is underrated. I know that shot placement is everything, and I suck at it. Therefore, it's back to the 223 loaded with 55g blitzkings! They don't seem to want to move after a center mass introduction to one of those things.

[Wylie27]

Love the the dog in the corner waiting for a feed!

Nice haul too.

As much as we all want that perfect shot placement it just doesn't always happen. You followed up and made sure the suffering was minimal..

Nice work

[Gwion]

Well done! The dog will eat well for a while. Looks like he's in a pretty good paddock anyway.

[GLS_1956]

Feral geese, huh. We don't have feral geese, well there are some domestic geese, but our problem geese are what are called "Resident Geese". Twentyish or more years back the State Wildlife Department got the bright idea of clipping the wings of Greater Canadian Geese so that those birds would nest and raise young here in Oklahoma, but with the thought that the young would join up with the migratory birds in the winter and head south. Well like the old adage says: "The best laid plans of mice and men, often go asunder." With the parent geese unable to migrate and Oklahoma winters generally mild enough, the geese never left. Neither do they head north to breed so now two decades later we have thousands of geese living in Oklahoma year round, taking over parks and defecating everywhere.

In an attempt to correct this problem we have a "Resident Goose" season that takes place a few weeks before migratory bird season. But it ain't really helping the situation, what is needed is having a spring/summer/fall season that would allow greater harvesting of the birds and allow for the use of guns other than shotguns.

[duncan61]

Is the breast meat to tough to use.I would aim for where the neck starts to taper in to the body its where all the vital organs are and the breast meat would be intact as it is lower down

[bigpete]

Oh man I could have really used the wing feathers from all those geese !

[Gwion]

Is the breast meat to tough to use.I would aim for where the neck starts to taper in to the body its where all the vital organs are and the breast meat would be intact as it is lower down

Last time i cooked goose it was so tough i fed it to the dogs, even after an 8hr slow cook with plenty of wine, etc. to help it along. If you are going to eat goose, it is best to get them before they fledge.

[duncan61]

I thought this might be the case

[duncan61]

ducks in order of preference
.maned geese
.teal
.pacific black
.mountain duck

[zobster]

I'm pretty sure these are feral, the only native geese are the cape barron geese which these none in the farm.

I saved their breast and legs, everything else goes in the bin. I'm planning to save up enough breast meat to bring to the butcher to make sausages. The legs are even easier, wine, stock, veg, seasoning, slow cooker on low for 12h. Super tender, tastes a little like pulled pork. In this instance, I'm the "dog"! LOL

Getting them before they fledged is good idea! The farmer managed to grab a couple that way and according to him it's the way to go.

BigPete: PM me your address, I'll mail you some the next time I go get them.

[wrenchman]

they kind of look like snow geese

[zobster]

This evening's efforts. 5 in total.
223 55gr blitzkings does the job really well!

Lesson for the day:

Keep rifle loaded, 5+1, till the very last moment, do not unload and pack up the rifle because geese will come out in groups and give you the finger!

[bigpete]

Cheers for the offer zobster,I pmed you

[BBJ]

Hoooonk. Dinner