Good human... Good human! Pat pat pat

"So there I was!" - how all great/hilarious/epic stories begin.

But don't get your hopes up. This story isn't that epic.

Was hunting at Luther in a walkable pond area. Wilbur the toller by my side. NOTHING was really flying that day. Lots of shooting could be heard over in the actual marsh, though.

Watching the skies as usual. Glance over my right should just in time to see a single goose coming in.

Bang! ... splash.

Is there a better combination of sounds? (Yeah probably, but on a slow day...)

I was just about to release Wilbur, and the goose popped his head up and started flapping his wings.

Bang! ... ... ... flap flap flap and up off the water. Are you kidding me?!?!

Bang! ... splash... ... head pops up again.

Guys I'm telling you it's a zombie goose. Wilbur starts growling, and doing that breaking-on-the-spot thing.

The goose starts swimming for the far side of the pond where it's all flooded timber followed by reeds and brush. This is also the first potential real-life retrieve for Wilbur. Probably not a good idea to send him after a wounded zombie goose.

So I took off into the pond to begun my retrieve and started gaining on the goose. Zombies don't swim very quickly obviously. About 100 ft of careful pond walking later I'm able to snatch the goose and dispatch him. No more suffering.

Damn near jumped out of my waders when I heard a growl right behind me. Wilbur came along for the adventure and wanted nothing more than to check out our quarry.

Walked back to shore, and stood around for another couple hours while the skies continued to remain empty.

For all the times I've been out and finally had something coming to my decoy spread, I still haven't been able to give Wilbur his first real-life retrieve of a duck or goose.

But at least for now... **I'm ** the good boy.

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Congratulations. Some birds are like that and just keep going.

Nice one. :)

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Had a very similar experience this past weekend. Except we found a few flocks of Zombie wigeon, believe it or not! We had to dispatch about 5 out of the 10 after being shot down. All were taken as they landed in the decoys too! No shots more then 30yrds. Wouldn't even die after multiple swatter shots on the water. Crazy!

Once we cleaned the ducks we noticed these widgeon all had thick skin and some of there winter fat already coming in....

Had to chase a couple 50yrds out to catch them as they tried to burry themselves in the weeds. What a work out....


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Swatter load of 6’s to the head neck area does the trick for me. Anything else and they just keep swimming.

Swatting ducks and geese is a hard kill. With their wings down, it's like body Armour.

Love the look on Wibur's face!
Simply priceless; given the story behind the successful harvest and all. :)

Good show...

We had a downed ringneck swim across a creek, upside down once. Two guys firing rounds with the belly up did nothing.

Good story. Seems to be the year for tuff birds. Lost 2 last week, took 2 swat shots at one which cut its speed by half. Old boy gave chase, but it dove every time he got close. I had to get in boat to help him out but the bird finally made a last dive and never came back up. Old boy won't leave it. The other dog got about half way to it and it just got up and flew off. Had to get boat to get old boy again as he was way to far out to have him swim back.

Last night I dropped 3 geese, all under 30 yards, Winchester Super X #2, in 3". First one fell in water 20 yrds from me, took 4 extra shots to stop him dead. Second one was wing shot and I chased him in canoe for 60 yards before I could get close enough to dispatch at 10 yrds #2 at head. Third one took me on another jaunt through the weeds and several more shots before he stopped trying to swim away. They are not fast swimming, but holy crap I got an upper arm workout last night, trying to catch the buggers.

In the old days when we could use lead shot, I always carried some #9 lead skeet loads with me for dispatching cripples. Now that we have to use non-toxic shot, I carry #7 steel skeet loads for that purpose. Not the easiest loads to find but I only use a few each season so a box lasts me for a while. Absolutely deadly on head shots!