I glanced over at Big Jim McConville and thought he looked like a coiled spring. (Albeit a really big, coiled spring.) We were both crouched in a brushy ditch with water above our ankles. (This level changed later) Jim had a M3500 Stoeger shotgun clamped in his big mitts, and he was working his goose call profusely. E-yonk! E-Yonk! Yonk Yonk Yonk!! His plaintive calls must have sounded good to the gang of Canada geese about 400 yards out, because they turned slightly and came in our direction. “They turned! Get down!” Somebody to my left hissed. It seemed a given that we all should do that, but we obeyed.
Now the geese were close, and you could hear the soft goose chatter in the flock. The tension of the eight or so gunners in our waterlogged blind was palpable, and you could almost hear it crackle like static electricity up and down the ditch. Hold, hold, I told myself, wait for the call from the guide to stand and shoot. “Take ‘em!” Brayden Cole yelled. We rose as one, the Stoeger shotguns roared, and geese fell from the heavy Ohio sky. This, I mumbled to no one particular, is goose huntin’!
This little party all started with a call asking if I would like to join an early season goose expedition to northern Ohio, right on Lake Erie. Keith Heinleine, Product Manager with Stoeger Industries, and Christian Hogg, Director of Marketing and New Product Development at Fiocchi Ammunition were our hosts, along with Jim McConville who is a National Sales Manager for the Outdoor Sportsman Group. which comprises many outdoor and shooting related publications. Jim has lived in this area all of his life and is an avid sportsman, pursuing waterfowl, hunting those big Ohio deer, and fishing on Lake Erie. Jim played college football at Ohio State and is big enough to eat hay with a personality to match, everyone had a good time around Big Jim McConville. He was perfect for showing our little band around the farms and fields near Avon Lake. (I’m not sure but I think he knows everyone in the state of Ohio, if not the entire country.)
The Canada goose population in Ohio, and specifically around the shores of Lake Erie, has been an increasing problem since the 1960’s. The sudden increase in their population has led to such problems as degraded water quality, agricultural damage, and property damage. According to the Ohio State University College of Agriculture, hunting is the single best strategy for eliminating the problems caused by these geese while still having a healthy, controlled population. Resident geese, that is geese that seems to stay in the same area and don’t migrate can really add to the problem. If these geese (we are talking about Canada geese here) find enough food and water and roosting places in the area they are likely to never leave. These resident geese will nest and raise new geese every year and the population continues to grow. Where possible, sport hunting for the surplus geese is the best method to deal with the surplus population. That is what we were here for, experience the early season goose hunt and maybe whittle down the numbers of geese.
Waterfowl hunting (we had a little dove shooting on this trip as well) requires a good shotgun and we were well equipped with the Stoeger scatterguns. The M3500 Stoeger shotgun has been around a few years and has a well established reputation as a work horse. The M3500 is an inertia powered semiautomatic shotgun which means it can go a long time without cleaning (unlike a gas gun) and will stand up to the abuse a duck and goose hunter will dish out. The Stoeger M3500 Waterfowl model has a 28” barrel, the receiver and barrel are finished in Cerakote Flat Earth (practically indestructible) and the stock and forearm are Realtree Max-5 camo. This shotgun shoots 2 ¾”, 3”, and 3 ½” shells. Maybe best of all the M3500 won’t break your bank. MSRP is $849.00 www.stoegerindustries.com
You duck and goose hunters know that the ammo you use is as important as the shotgun. Fiocchi ammunition makes a wide array of shotgun shells (as well as pistol, centerfire, and rimfire ammo) and on this trip we used the Fiocchi Golden Waterfowl Bismuth shotshells. Waterfowl hunters out there know that bismuth shot is much more dense than steel, about 24% more, and is also non-toxic so it meets the federal requirements for shot used for waterfowl. In a nutshell bismuth has better terminal performance (it kills cleaner) and is not as expensive as the next step up the pellet material ladder which would be tungsten. The Fiocchi Golden Waterfowl Bismuth loads we used were 12 gauge, 3”, 1 3/8 oz. of #4 shot. With a muzzle velocity of 1450 feet per second, that is a screamer and these shells performed well. I watched other members of the party crumple geese at the outer limits of shotgun range. If you are unfamiliar with Fiocchi ammo you may want to check up on them a bit. You may be surprised to learn that Fiocchi has been making ammunition right here in America, at Ozark, Missouri, since the 1980’s, and now have an additional plant in Little Rock, Arkansas. www.fiocchiusa.com
You can bet your boots I will be back to the northern part of the Buckeye state on the trail of the wild goose. All of that flat ground seems to appeal to me more these days, and I wouldn’t mind a bit to watch Big Jim call in some more Canada honkers.