Sponsorship!

So for the past two weeks I have been working on getting sponsors for our team. I have emailed probably 15 different companies to see if they would sponsor us or if they sponsor teams at all. So far I've only gotten a few responses. Cabelas was the first to respond and they said that we can send them a letter and they would be happy to review us for sponsorship. Garrett has been working on typing up the letter so it will be sent in soon. The next to respond was Foiles Migrators Inc. They are a call making company and they said that they do not sponsor teams but if I wanted to apply for a field staff position i could. Field staff requires a lot of work for their company and isn't exactly what I was hoping for. The next to respond was Zink Calls. They are another call making company but they are from Ohio so i thought we might have better luck with them. In their email they asked for my address so that they can send us stickers. This means that we now have our first sponsor. They aren't doing any real sponsoring but for now it's a good start. We get free stickers and can build a relationship with the company while they get some free advertising. I am extremely excited that we now have our first sponsor. I can't wait to get the stickers in the mail and to see if any other companies will respond to my requests. I will keep you updated if we get any more responses.

Big Weekend!

OK. So last weekend was the last weekend for ducks and there is only one more week of goose season so we knew we had to go this weekend and go a lot. Thursday afternoon is usually when I come home from school when I get a ride from Cory, but because goose season will be over soon he decided to skip part of his last class so that we could hunt Thursday afternoon. Cory got out of class at around 2:45 and we got on the road to go home. We had been talking to Garrett and Tim the night before so that they could go set up before we got home so that we wouldn’t have to waste time getting ready. When Cory and I got home Garrett and Tim had most of the decoys set up and we were ready to hunt. Mike couldn’t make it that night because he had to talk to his son. We started hunting at around 3:45 and it did not take long for us to start shooting geese. I had decided that I would record this hunt and not do any shooting. We ended up shooting 8 geese which is our limit and I got some really good video. That night the four of us all went to a house that Garrett was house sitting and he made us steaks. Together we worked on editing the video and putting music in it. At the same time we played a ton of Wii and had a fun night. We made a decision that we would hunt in the morning but when the morning came around it looked like it was going to be sunny so we decided to sleep in. We made the wrong decision, Cory said that on his way to school at around 9:30 geese were flying everywhere but that’s how it goes sometimes. We did decide to try an afternoon hunt though. Garrett, Mike, Cory and I could all go hunting but Tim had to work and Cory had school so he would be a little late. Garrett, Mike and Me got setup by 3:30 and Cory met us at around the same time. I forgot the camera so I didn’t get to do any recording but I was ok with that cause that means I got to shoot. We only ended up shooting 3 geese while I was there but I had to leave early and the guys were able to shoot 1 mallard drake after I left. This was Garrett’s last hunt of the season because he had to go back to Cornell for school. That night Ben Carrocci, who is Mike’s nephew was coming into town to hunt with us this weekend and he was bringing two of his friends, Chris and Josh. The weather was setting up perfect for us to go hunting on Saturday morning. That morning we all woke up and it was still cloudy out so we all got up and got ready. Now this is where the story really starts. We had decided to hunt on Forrest Hale’s field which isn’t too far from my house so we could use the samurai to drive there and use the goose hunting trailer to haul all of our stuff. Cory and Tim met at my house at 6:15 A.M. and Mike, Ben, Josh and Chris were going to meet us at the field at 6:30. The three of us loaded up into the samurai and headed out. We got to the field and we knew it was going to be wet but we were still going to try and drive the samurai on the field to unload everything. This was a bad idea. The field turned out to be extremely wet and we only made it 20 yards into the field before we got stuck. The samurai just couldn’t go anywhere and the tires kept digging further into the mud. We all got out of the samurai and looked around to see how much further we would have to drive into the field to hunt. We still had a long way to go so we decided to not keep driving into the field or even to just carry our stuff out there. We had to get the samurai out of the field because we actually weren’t allowed to drive vehicles on the field because the owner didn’t want ruts. We just didn’t think we would make ruts so we decided to drive on the field anyway. That was our mistake. The field was way too wet and now we had made ruts and got stuck. I got back in the samurai to drive while Tim and Cory were going to push. At first we went backwards to get us unstuck and that worked, next was to get going forward. Cory and Tim got to the back of the trailer and started pushing while I hit the gas and started driving forward. The samurai barely made it out of the ruts and was moving so slow through all the mud I didn’t think we would make back out to the road. Cory and Tim kept pushing and the samurai eventually got a little speed going so I just kept it going all the way to the road and then waited for the guys to catch up to me. If we had gotten completely stuck in the field we would have gotten caught and been in big trouble and it would have ruined our hunt. Lucky for us we made it out of there. We made a quick decision to hunt where we had hunted Thursday and Friday and we took off. We got to the field and drove the samurai back to where we hunted. We knew this field would be wet too but we still decide to drive on it, another bad decision. We on a path to the bottom of the field and then turned into the field. This time we only made it 10 yards into the field before we got stuck. We weren’t exactly allowed to drive on this field either so we had to get unstuck and out of it. We unloaded everything that was in the trailer and in the back of the samurai to help us get out. I got in the samurai put it in reverse and gunned it while Cory pushed. I made it back to the trail in reverse and we were safe again. We were still going to hunt this field so I drove up the trail to the top of the field where it would be dryer and I could drive into the field from there. This strategy worked very well and I was able to make it to where we wanted to setup in the middle of the field. Since we were hunting a different field we had Mike and the other guys meet us at this field with all of their stuff. Once Cory, Tim, and I got our stuff all unloaded I drove the samurai to where the other guys were parked so that we could pick them up and haul all of their stuff into the field. Ben and Josh had brought a couple dozen decoys of their own so we loaded everything up and drove back to the field. By the time we got everything into the field and unloaded it was really close to time to hunt. I drove the samurai out of the field and parked it in a nearby forest so that it wouldn’t be seen. When I got back to the set up most of the decoys had been set up and were just doing the finishing touches on our set up. It was at this time that Cory realized his gun was missing. His gun had fallen out of the gun rack and had been lost somewhere. A couple of us walked around the field to see if it fell out in the field but we couldn’t find it. Cory’s gun is worth a lot of money so we had to find it. Cory went to the samurai and drove it back to the first field and checked there but it wasn’t there so then he drove to my house to grab a few stakes for the decoys and then returned to the field. He told my dad that he lost his gun while he was at my house so now my dad was also searching for the gun. It was completely light out by now and the geese had started flying so as Cory was searching for his gun in the field he had to get on the ground when some geese would fly close. Josh and I knew that the gun had been on the trailer when we got to the new field so it had to be in this field somewhere and not on the road or somewhere like that. We had one flock come in close enough for Tim to shoot one goose while Cory was still out in the field. Finally Cory found his gun. It was in the field straight out from our setup. Now we could start doing some real hunting now that Cory had his gun and everyone was ready. I was going to record this hunt and not shoot so that we could have some more video to post online. I don’t know when any of these flocks flew in relative to time so I’m just going to say them in order. The first flock we got to come in came right at us but didn’t want to land and they just flew right over us so everyone started shooting but we only killed 2 geese from this flock. The next flock came straight at us but they didn’t want to land or even fly over us so we didn’t shoot but the flock was still interested in our set up. The flock circled around us probably 3 or 4 times, a couple of those times we could have shot but we waited for them to get closer. Eventually they came in close and flew right over the setup. There were 7 geese in this flock, 2 of them got shot to the right of me and 1 goose flew right over me and Mike shot it and as soon as he pulled the trigger he started yelling “neck band, neck band”. He was yelling neck band before the goose even hit the ground. He jumped up and ran straight to the goose to get it. This was the fastest I have ever seen Mike move. He grabbed the goose and it had an orange neck band on it. This is Mike’s second goose with a neck band on it this year and it’s his 3rd neck band total but when he shot this goose he was just as excited as he’s ever been. It was a great moment but we weren’t even done hunting for the day. Once we got all of the other geese picked up we had a total of 6 geese shot but our limit was 14 so we kept hunting. The next flock that came in was just a pair of geese but 1 one of the geese wanted to land and the other didn’t. We managed to get the one goose to come in and land in our flock. Tim sat up to shoot the goose and as it began to fly away he dropped it in 1 shot. Now were up to 7 geese on the ground and were still going. After all of this shooting I decide to put down the camera and shoot at the next ones that come in. another pair comes in and gets really close to our decoys but they don’t want to land so Ben and I jump up and blast them both. After that flock nothing else really flew so we decided to end the hunt and go to Mike’s to eat lunch. After lunch we went back out in the afternoon and shot 8 more geese and Ben shot a duck. This brought the total for the day to 17 geese and 1 duck. This was the most geese we’ve ever shot in 1 day. It was an amazing day of hunting but it was only Saturday and we had still had to hunt on Sunday. Sunday Morning it was me, Tim, Cory, Ben and Josh hunting. We had left everything out all night so we wouldn’t have to set up in the morning because it was supposed to be raining pretty hard. When Tim and Cory met at my house it was raining pretty hard so we decided to sit in the barn until the geese started flying. As soon as we saw one flock we drove to the field and met Ben and Josh out there and started hunting. As soon as we got in our blinds we had geese flying all around us. We got one of them to come in pretty close so we all got up and started shooting. 5 geese dropped from the sky out of the one flock. As I got up and ran to pick up the first goose Tim got there at the same time and we both saw that it had a leg band on it. Tim picked up that bird so I went to grab the next one but Josh had already gotten it and it had a leg band on it too. None of the other birds had any bands. The goose that Tim grabbed had been shot by Tim and Cory but since Cory already has 3 bands he let Tim have it since Tim doesn’t have any bands yet. The other goose with a band was shot by Josh, Ben and me but since Ben and I both have two bands we let Josh have it since he only has one snow goose band. We ended up shooting 3 more geese that day to end the weekend. I would have to say that this past weekend has been the best weekend of hunting we have ever had. We shot 38 geese, two ducks, 1 neck band and 3 leg bands.

I Got Me A Goose BAND!

Last Saturday we decided to go goose hunting on a field on state route 37 and this field has worked pretty well on past hunts. We had been hunting this field almost every weekend for the past month and we killed a lot of geese out of it. This made the decision easy when we were deciding where to hunt. Saturday morning we had everything in the truck and we were ready to roll. I had made the decision that we would get up early and try to shoot some of the ducks that fly right at shooting time. Once we got into the field around 7 A.M. we got everything set up and ready to start hunting. We got the truck out of the field and it was time to hunt. Right at the beginning a few flocks of ducks were flying but none of them gave us a look even though it was very foggy and the weather seemed perfect for killing some ducks. At about 8 we had some geese start flying. Geese usually don’t fly until later but they were flying all morning in the fog we had. We had geese flying all over us from 8 until 9 but we couldn’t get any to land. They had it set in their minds where they were going and they weren’t going to stop for us. At about 10 A.M. we had a flock come in to our left and I was on the left side of our setup so I got up to shoot but my gun caught the side of my blind and cocked it back. I was able to load a shell and get one shot off and kill one goose before they flew away, Cory also shot one of the geese in that flock. A little later we got a flock to come in on the right side and Tim and Mike were able to shoot two of them. Tim got up to go get the geese and once he got out to them and grabbed them a flock of geese came up on the right side. We yelled at Tim to get down on the ground and we started calling in these geese. The geese gave us a look but I had heard a different flock coming up from behind me so I looked to see where they were. I watched this flock as it came up to my left and when they got next to me about 20 yards straight to my left I saw on the second goose in the flock there was a neck band. All I saw was a silver collar around its neck and I knew it was a band. At that moment I knew I had to shoot it. My heart started pounding like crazy, I had more adrenaline pumping in me than I had ever had. Tim was still lying in the field so I knew I wouldn’t get a better shot. I was thinking I better not let my gun catch on my blind again like earlier, so I moved my gun around and then jumped up to shoot. Before I knew it I had shot 3 times and the goose was on the ground. I put my gun down and the only thing I could manage to say was “neck band, neck band” the words kind of just blurted out but they weren’t very comprehensible. I ran to the goose as fast as I could and grabbed it by the neck. It was still alive so I spun its neck and broke it to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere. At that moment Cory and everyone had made it out of their blinds and were wondering what the heck happened. Cory told them he thought I shot a neck band, but when I grabbed the bird and held it up they knew I did. I brought it back and everyone was excited. My body was still shaking from all the adrenaline but I didn’t care, I was so excited. Cory took some pictures of it but we had to get back to hunting. I put the bird down and got back in my blind. Every time I got a chance to poke my head out of my blind I would look around and check to make sure the goose was still there, and when I saw it I had a huge smile on my face. I was like a little kid on Christmas who got the gift he’d been wanting forever. I couldn't stop smiling or being happy. It’s hard to explain the feeling of happiness that I had. All of the work I had put in this goose season finally paid off when I got that band. Now that I got my band this year I’m going to try and get some good video the rest of the year and maybe shoot some more geese. Who knows maybe I’ll get me another band.