Waterfowling Expert Denny Pitman Tells Us Mistakes
Hunters Make
More Mistakes Goose Hunters Make
 Editor’s
Note: Denny Pitman of Old Monroe, Missouri, a professional
waterfowler and videographer for Hunter’s Specialties,
hunts almost every day of duck season for ducks and
geese, as he has for the past 16 years. Pitman enjoys
hunting all across the nation, including Canada to South
Dakota, to Missouri, to Arkansas, to Alabama and all
points in-between. Pitman’s job description means
that he must find ducks and geese and film new and better
techniques for hunting duck, while promoting Hunter’s
Specialties’ duck videos, duck and goose calls
and waterfowling accessories. Although on the spot every
day of waterfowl season to locate and take ducks and
geese, Pitman loves his job.
Question: Denny, will you name five more common mistakes
that goose hunters make each year?
Pitman: Many goose hunters don’t: 1) select the
correct shells and chokes. When I invite people to go
goose hunting with me, I’ll usually have several
people show up with the wrong shells and chokes. Some
people will bring No. 4s or No. 6s because that’s
all the shell s
they have. So, I’ll give them some of my shells.
My rule of thumb is if you’re shooting over decoys,
and the birds are coming into the decoys, then shoot
an improved cylinder choke with BB shot. If you’re
pass shooting, then shoot a full choke or a modified
choke with bigger shot. I think too many hunters don’t
use big-enough shot to take geese. I usually shoot Winchester
Supreme High Velocity BBs in a 3-inch magnum to hunt
geese.
2) remain still in the blind. Don’t try to be
the person who knows where the geese are all the time.
Instead be the guy who’s watching the fellow who’s
calling the geese. Geese are vocal – unlike ducks.
Most of the time they’ll be honking and clucking.
So, use your ears, not your eyes, to tell you where
the geese are. If the geese are on the corners or circling
around behind you, then you can look some. However,
if the geese are looking straight at your blind or your
decoys, don’t move. Don’t stick your head
up to see what your buddies or your dog are doing. If
you have to look at anything, look at the eyes of the
guy doing the calling, because his eyes will tell you
where the geese are.
3) put out good-looking decoys. If you have one-dozen
good-looking decoys and 5  dozen
not-so-good-looking decoys, then you’re better
off to leave the not-so-good-looking decoys at home
and only use the dozen or so decoys that do look good.
To get geese to finish in front of your blind, you must
have really good-looking, clean – no dirt on their
heads or their backs – geese decoys. You’ve
never seen a goose out in a field with dirt on its head
or its back or with its feathers not the appropriate
colors. I use a lot of Bigfoot decoys and many silhouette
decoys. I know many hunters don’t like to use
silhouettes because they say that when geese fly over
the silhouettes, the geese lose sight of them. But you
have to remember that geese can’t count. By the
way time geese fly over silhouettes and lose sight of
them, then as soon as they look back, they can see those
silhouettes. I think silhouettes cause geese flying
over them to think that the decoys are moving, since
they see them at one point, and then don’t see
them. For years, I’ve used only silhouettes in
fields and taken as many if not more geese than hunters
who use full-bodied decoys.
4) match their decoys to the areas they’re hunting.
If you’re hunting a feeding field, you want to
use a lot of decoys that look like they’re feeding,
a few decoys that are upright and looking around and
some active decoys that give the appearance of moving.
If I’m hunting a feeding area, 3/4 of my decoys
will be feeders. However, if I’m hunting a loafing
field where geese are resting, I’ll take the foot
bases off my full-bodied decoys, sit them on their bellies
and attach sleeper, rester, sentry or looker heads to
those decoys to make my decoy spread look relaxed and
resting. If I’m hunting a water hole late in the
season, I try to use as many sleeper heads as I can.
The more sleeper heads you use on your decoys, the more
relaxed and resting your decoy spread will look, and
the less cautiously the geese will come in to your spread.
Also add motion decoys to your spread. There are several
things you can do to add motion to your decoys, including
adding motion stakes to the full-bodied decoys or motion
shells that various manufacturers make. Geese want to
see movement on the ground before they commit to come
in. Movement in your decoy spread tells the geese that
are coming in that they are looking at live birds.
5) remove their decoys and spread after they end their
hunt. If you’re hunting a field or a water area,
and you get your limit, pack up your decoys quickly,
and get them out of the area so the geese will return
to that spot. Then you should be able to get good shoots
on two or three consecutive days in the same area. A
more-productive way may be to hunt a spot for a day,
allow the site to rest for a day or two, and then return
to that place. Many hunters won’t let an area
rest. If they locate a field that the geese are using,
they may hunt that same field for 6 or 7 days, which
may end productive hunting there for geese the rest
of the season. Don’t be lazy, but instead pick
up your decoys after every shoot. The next time you
shoot that field, arrange your decoys differently from
how you’ve arranged them the last time you’ve
shot that field.
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