Well, another year in the books. Kids had a good time after we found some geese on day 3.
Daughter's first hunting season, but she didn't get one. We are having real trouble finding her a gun that fits...she was running a bantam size Remington pump that we borrowed, but it was actually heavier than one of the Revolution Armory semi automatic 20 ga. that someone else had so she preferred it but the LOP was too long.
I got myself a Field Proven Raptor (poly) call that runs really nice...very goosy call.
BBQ'd some breasts and folks thought it was beef when they tried it.





The chessie belonged to my brother's friend who is a breeder...great doggie.

Chessies are special! Only met a few in my career but definitely awesome dogs!

I can almost " feel" the pride in those pics.

Way to go, slydogs!

Moosetrot

Good job!

Great to be together with family
well done.........!

Congrats on the hunt. Brings back fond memories from past hunts with my boys.

looks good, making merroir's

Very nice.Congrats

Wicked! I’m scouting Friday night and going Saturday morning.

I love shooting honkers
I once got 5 with 3 shots
Once and a while I’ll get 2 with 1 shot
Wish I had a better recipe though…

I'm heading to the office, but I'll share how I cook them when I have a moment

1. (most important step - they will NOT be good if you skip) Trim goose breasts. Remove all silverskin. This includes under the tenders - you can see those cooking separately in the pic above. If there is a seam of silverskin at the top lobe of the breast, it should also be removed.
2. BBQ Rub - this is ratio based, make as much as you think you need. 1 TBSP coarse/kosher salt; 2 TSP curry powder; 1 TSP Onion Powder; 1 TSP garlic powder; cracked black pepper to taste. Apply as you would any BBQ rub.
3. Mop Sauce - this is ratio based also. 1 cup apple cider vinegar + 2 TBSP red wine vinegar; 1/4 cup brown sugar; 1/4 cup ketchup; 2 tbsp yellow mustard; 2 tbsp worchestershire sauce. Whisk until combined, should be very runny.
4. Pre-heat smoker to 250F or (for 3 burner gas grill) turn 2 burners on med-hi and one burner on low. Fill a water pan with 1/2 can of lite beer and a sliced onion.
5. Grill meat on hot section of grill until you get grill marks (about 3-5 minutes); Flip and apply mop sauce; After 3-5 minutes, flip and move to top rack (gas) or cooler section of grill and apply mop sauce. There should be a water pan under them at this point.
6. Flip and rotate 45 degrees (to get grid marks ). The mop sauce on this side should now be gelled - apply more mop sauce. After 3-5 minutes, flip and rotate/apply mop sauce.
7. Cook until desired doneness - I aim for a small amount of pink in the center. I have never temped them but I assume it's probably about 140F in the thickest part.
8. I like to slice them across the grain in 1/8" strips - this helps to find any steel shot that might be hiding inside.

Enjoy...

Thanks for that recipe, I’ll save that

Y’all’s Canadas must taste different than the ones we kill, lol! Ours taste how nitrogen smells!!

LOL you've probably got those "turf eating geese" that eat clover and fescue grass their whole life. They turn up here as well and you know when you get one. The geese we were shooting last week were resident geese, but they have access to lakes, rivers, ponds, corn, wheat and beans so their diet isn't focused on golf course grass.

I shot a banded goose at this same location several years ago, USFWS had banded that bird the previous year in either Iowa or Nebraska (can't remember which). It had been born there and was too young to fly when banded. I guess the point is that because of proximity to the great lakes and the Mississipi river we get birds passing through from all over. I can't imagine most Canada geese from here bothering to fly as far as GA since they can easily overwinter in southern Ontario... I'd be surprised if most birds I see get any farther than northern Kentucky.

Based on my trip through Georgia this summer, I will say that none of the agricultural areas looked like they would appeal to geese when there is green, green grass available in the suburbs and golf courses... but my experience was limited to the I75 corridor and the area on the east side of the Okefenokee WMA. We are still growing sweet corn and feed corn here and the cornfields I did see in GA looked about ready to chop for silage back in early August.

a trick for small kids and shotguns , buy something with a wood stock , before you cut it to fit her you drill 2 holes deep an inch past where you are going to need to cut it make them a common wood dowel size
now cut it where it needs to be and calculate in a recoil pad a nice thick one.

now as you need to add wood back in for each season , you have the wood that matches perfect with the alignment peg holes already in place glue it up and refit the recoil pad

it doesn't look so pretty but it works
if you started with a gun that had common stock availability when she is all grown put a new stock on it and fit a good recoil pad and she is set for decades.

Thanks GCP, good advice. Those Revo shotguns are Turkish made Benelli clones so I'm trying to source a reasonably priced stock, but I have some research to do first