The Perfect Storm (Part II)

Continuation from Part I...

In all of the excitement that just had taken place, we hadn't noticed exactly how close that storm was getting to us. My first thought was that we need to get out of here, and fast. It was already cold enough without factoring in a winter storm rolling in. 

My dad, in all his wisdom, had other ideas though. When he looked up and saw the storm quickly approaching right about the same time the sun was started to set he said, "you know boys, this storm might be the best thing that could have happened to us today. It might send whatever geese there are to the west of us our way just before it hits, and you never know they may be a little disoriented from the storm and fly closer to the ground than they normally would."

My brother and I looked at each other thinking, "are you kidding me?! We haven't seen a single goose all day and now this guy wants to stay out here in what could be a blizzard because that will magically make the geese appear?! This guy has lost his mind..."

Instead of thinking about all the geese that could be coming our way from this storm I started bundling up even more and finding every blanket and bit of clothing I could muster up to prepare for what was to come. It was already cold but it was about to get a whole lot colder...

Just then, out of no where I heard what sounded like a honk... not a car horn but something else... If you have ever heard the honking sound that Canadian geese make you will know what I am talking about. Once you have heard it, you can't mistake it. There it was again. My dad quickly told us to be quiet as he must have heard it as well. There it was again. It was coming from the same direction as the storm that was quickly approaching. 

The honking started to get louder and more pronounced. By this time we were sure they were geese, but we couldn't see them anywhere. It was getting close to white out conditions as the storm was almost directly upon us, so visibility was limited to only about 10 or 20 feet. We jumped out of the goose blind and ran around on the bank of the river trying to see where these honking sounds were coming from. There were just getting louder and louder but still no sign of the geese. 

Suddenly, out of no where, a flock of geese appeared out of the fog and snow just feet from all of us. They were so close I could have hit them with a snowball. My dad had been right, the snow storm had completely disoriented them and they couldn't really see where they were going. They emerged from the storm right in front of us standing on the river bank. The geese immediately realized their mistake and tried to change course, but it was too late.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shots rang out everywhere. I was so excited that my first couple shots were not even aimed at any particular goose but more just at the entire flock that was merely feet away from me. Geese started dropping out of the sky left and right. One of them nearly landed on me that my brother had shot. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I was running out of ammo as I just kept shooting and new geese just kept appearing out of the fog literally only feet in front of me. I was having the time of my life, laughing as I couldn't believe this was happening. I had never seen anything like this before, heck I had never even heard of anything like this before. I had goose hunted several times in my life and only gotten 2 in my entire life. 

It was so wild and frantic that I couldn't load my gun fast enough, the geese just kept on coming! The dog was running around frantically trying to pick up all the geese we had shot. Before I knew it I had shot all the ammo I had on me as well as the box of ammo I had set in front of me. So I started throwing empty bullet shells at the remaining geese that were flying over me, almost close enough to touch. 

All I could hear around me were the sounds of gun shots and my family members shouting in excitement as they were having the time of their lives as well. All in all, we shot 20 geese that we were able to find and retrieve. Which it turns out was a good thing we ran out of shells because the limit was 5 geese per person and there was only 4 of us, so we were limited out at 20 geese.  

We quickly packed up our stuff and got the heck out of there as the blizzard started really bearing it's fangs. We enjoyed a nice goose dinner that night and then goose jerky for the many weeks to come. All of that activity took place in a span of 5 minutes or less. So after spending 12 hours in the blistering cold, 5 minutes of unbelievable excitement made for the greatest hunting experience of my life and one I will not soon forget.

I'm not sure how m father knew, but it had turned out that he had been exactly right. He knew that storm coming in would be a blessing in disguise. He knew that all the conditions were merging and coming together at the exact right time to create what we now refer to as, "The Perfect Storm".

I hope you have enjoyed reading my story. It was one of my favorite memories of hunting with my father and brother. 

Live well my friends!

Image Sources:

http://www.manuelmarangoni.it/onemind/3957/come-si-formano-i-venti-e-quali-sono-i-tipi-di-vento/ 

https://bybio.wordpress.com/tag/bird-landing/

http://www.birdscalgary.com/tag/gulls/

Follow: @jrcornel

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