This week I had a chance to try out one of those AGoose Chair@ TM goose blinds. You lay down on your back on a frame supported heavy fabric. A large size spring loaded decoy flips over your head and body. The decoy has slots to see through. Your legs stick out and you have to cover them with straw or weeds. Your gun is on your left with room for your left hand to push your self up and over to grab the gun with your right hand and start doing your thing.

I didn't try having the gun on my right, because the muzzle was too close to my toe and it would point in the direction of the other shooter. I had never hunted with this hunter and his Goose Chairs before, and considered myself an observer. Our meeting came about from the farmer's mix up of who was supposed to be in the field that morning.

My verdict is, if you are athletic and young, with fast and precise body movements, and can shoot fast and accurate from bad shooting positions, you can bag geese with the Goose-chair.

The geese come in on these rigs OK. I had a chance to shoot at 50 or more geese but only shot at three. Here is the problem. A goose flies 40 to 50 mph (58 feet to 74 feet per second) Or 20 to 25 yards per second. If you can get into shooting position in less then one second you are at a good shooting range. Providing you are not further then 25 yards away from the goose when you flip your lid.

Sitting and kneeling greatly reduce your body rotation. I found a shot to the right to be nearly impossible. Unless you come to a full standing position, which takes at least two seconds. During this time the goose has covered 150 feet. To add more difficulty, your feet have to be in the perfect swing-through position. That is--your left foot should be pointed where you intend to drop the goose, (right handed shooter) all in less then one second.

One way to eliminate some time loss, is to shoot at AIn-comers" only. Perhaps the easiest shot in waterfowl shooting. Place the Goose-chair up wind of the decoys and to the right like station #2 and #3 in skeet shooting. Two shooters are by far the best for safety reasons. Stumbling could be injurious to another shooter. I think the best shooting position is at the rear of a U-shaped decoy layout.

I also observed that this rig works best in a strong wind, which forces the birds to fly straight against the wind when coming in, rather then circling and coming in sideways. Again the birds I shot came in straight and to the right of the other hunter, and he could not shoot on his right side without getting up.

I was positioned about 20 yards behind and to the right of the other shooter. He was at the front of the decoys and liked to shoot the geese going away. He said Ayou can't kill geese from the front, because the feathers are too thick@. I don't know where he got that idea from? Perhaps he never learnt how to shoot at in-coming birds. So I had to wait until the geese got past his station, they would invariably flare when he fired at them. In almost all instances I did not even shoot for obvious reasons.

For me, I am not sure if I would use this rig again, it gave me a sore neck and backache. A pillow tied to the Goose Chair for your head would provide more comfort. Although I did not waste any shells, with great difficulties I got three geese with three shots.

The three geese I shot were coming straight in and to the right of the other shooter. Also the geese flared when I pointed my gun, very little body movement was required to make the shot. The other shooter got five geese. One limit for two shooters is not too bad. Also he shot at a lot more geese but many were simply out of range and under poor shooting positions.

I also think that a short barreled double gun with modified and improved cylinder chokes would be most ideal for this application. An agile shooter could set this rig up at home and practice with somebody using a stopwatch, to determine his time and handicap distance of 20 yards per second plus the initial starting distance with his favorite fowling piece and hunting clothing. The hunter would also be required to swing through the posted spots and pull the trigger. All angles could be covered with posted spots on walls and ceiling or other places.

A friend of mine who has a Goose Chair tells me that he digs a small pit two feet in diameter and a foot or so deep for his feet to go in. This makes standing up fast. The feet and the hole are covered with a piece of camouflage burlap. I would like to hear from other Goose Chair users of how best to use this rig.

My friend and I have build two Straw-bale Blinds from 10 m rebar bent to a 5-0 ft radius, covered with 6x6 9/9 wire mesh 5-0 ft wide. Two hinged doors open on the top with an entrance flap door on one end. The blind can be covered with corn, hay, or straw. The cover material depends in which field you are shooting. This rig works best with cows in the field, and along the edges of fields with fences. The cost of the material is $100 for two blinds. In the late season when the geese get spooky and decoy shy, these blind don't work to well either. I shot out of a commercial made corn bale blind and the geese did spook away from it, more so than the ones we made. In my opinion they are not worth the money. The best blinds are the ones close to the ground with a small hole dug for your feet surrounded with a low 2 feet chicken wire with natural material like straw, corn or weeds fastened to it and wearing good camo- clothing and face covers. 5 pieces of 3 feet rebar will hold every thing in place.

With this simple and easy to build system, my friend and I shot many limits of geese every year. It works almost as good as a pit with a spring cover. But who likes to dig pits in the middle of the night? Besides the farmers don't like it.

Good shooting.

If you would like to share some goose hunting experiences, please contact me.