{"id":58072,"date":"2024-09-30T10:23:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T15:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisducks.org\/?p=56938"},"modified":"2024-11-19T06:53:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T12:53:43","slug":"midland-wings-chapter-hosts-inaugural-learn-to-hunt-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/midland-wings-chapter-hosts-inaugural-learn-to-hunt-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Midland Wings Chapter Hosts Inaugural Learn to Hunt Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dave Elwing, Secretary and Development Committee Chair<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s October, 2024 Newsletter<\/a>\u00a0edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

Based upon the successes of other chapters like Waukesha, Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, the Midland Wings Chapter made plans to help further WWA\u2019s education mission this year. Four first-time goose hunters met through WWA\u2019s newest Learn-to-Hunt session over the last weekend of this year\u2019s early goose season.<\/p>\n

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Saturday’s “classroom” session<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Planning got started early in April when WWA\u2019s Waterfowlers Academy leader, Todd Schaller, met with the chapter\u2019s planning committee to discuss the process of putting on a WDNR-sanctioned Learn-to-Hunt (LTH) program. Perspective mentors submitted volunteer mentor requests to the WDNR for a basic background check. The Ozaukee County Fish & Game Club and The Fowl Drake Guide Service of Kewaskum volunteered to sponsor the venture.<\/p>\n

Once approved, the mentors did some recon on potential public and private hunt locations and quickly decided upon conducting an early goose season hunt on private lands, thus minimizing the chance of being crowded out and maximizing chances for success. Fortunately, three of the committee\u2019s mentors are part of The Fowl Drake Team and they readily offered a historically productive early goose field for the hunt. Not only did they make the field available, but they ensured that it wasn\u2019t hunted before the day of the hunt.<\/p>\n

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Setting up early Sunday morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chapter selected September 14th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup> as dates for their two-day LTH session. Saturday would be \u201cthe classroom\u201d day, while Sunday would be \u201chunt day.\u201d Following Todd Schaller\u2019s advice to \u201cstart small and then grow the event, two father-son teams were selected as the inaugural mentees. None had previous waterfowl experience, and really only one of the four had much experience bird hunting for pheasants. One father-son team only took up hunting during the 2023 season when they started archery hunting for deer and turkey. All were eager to experience how to hunt waterfowl. From an organizer\u2019s perspective, they were perfect candidates as we introduced new hunters to waterfowling and, by having adult mentees, we could feel relatively well assured that the dads could enable the necessary post-LTH access to mobility and resources to continue their newfound addiction.<\/p>\n

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One of the father-son duos with their first geese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturday\u2019s events included an introduction to the various ways and gear available to conduct a hunt, ranging from the simple to the extravagant (\u201cWaterfowling 101\u201d<\/em>), \u201cThe Warden\u2019s Talk,\u201d followed by a Hunter Safety refresher period, range time, and lunch. Jacob Buck, The Fowl Drake\u2019s owner and head guide, presented the introduction to waterfowling session, during which each of the four participants asked many great questions. Steve Swiertz, Washington and Ozaukee County\u2019s designated game warden led an informative and engaging discussion that nicely tied in Wisconsin\u2019s game laws with safety highlights that were reinforced by a WDNR-certified Hunter Safety Instructor, during the hunter safety refresher. Next came the fun part of the morning, when the participants got a chance to try their hand at breaking some clays. Ozaukee County Fish & Game\u2019s Doug Klinski set up a trap field with two sporting clay throwers set to mimic the shots that everybody hoped for on Sunday. The first was a head-on bird dropping into the decoys and the second was a crossing shot. Each shooter had a mentor working with him to help understand proper shouldering, swing, and follow-through, while always emphasizing safe firearm handling. Each shooter\u2019s abilities developed quickly and in short order hits were far more common than misses. In no time, dads and sons were shooting \u201chunt & cover\u201d and really enjoying themselves. Saturday wrapped up with a crockpot of goose casserole being completely emptied, before everyone headed home to get ready for Sunday\u2019s adventure.<\/p>\n

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The hunters and their first geese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mentors met at the goose field at 4:00 AM the next morning and started strategizing where to set the decoys and A-frame blind based upon two weeks\u2019 worth of observations versus the historical spots that the geese use (of course they were different). Hunters arrived on schedule at 5:00 AM to help put decoys together and set them. We wrestled with what time everybody should get there because we wanted the mentees to understand the difference between a mentored hunt where they participated and learned \u201cwhy\u201d things are done the way they are versus a guided hunt where they simply show up, but we also know that 12-year old boys enjoy their sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cShowing up\u201d was the responsibility of the geese, and they cooperated nicely. Shooting time was 6:01 that morning. A heavy lowland ground fog slowed the geese\u2019s normal arrival, but the first birds broke through the haze at 6:40. We talked about \u201cfinding the X\u201d throughout Saturday\u2019s discussions and the first bird in missed the X\u2026 or we did… either way the bird landed about 200 yards away. As the morning progressed we learned that some birds read the same script that we did, while others followed the first bird\u2019s route. Our mentees harvested their first goose at 7:10 when a small flight came in to take a look. A number of other flocks worked the field over the next several hours, but most of them looked but wouldn\u2019t commit. The mentees harvested two more birds around 8:50 and then somebody turned the \u201cgoose switch\u201d off. ENDEX was called at 10:00. Once decoys were picked up and moved to the edge of the field everyone came over to the trucks for a bird cleaning session and a chance to enjoy some marinated goose breast slices on Sheboygan hard rolls with good old Wisconsin cheese.<\/p>\n

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Mentors showed participants how to clean their waterfowl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lessons learned on Saturday, like safe firearms handling, zones of fire, concealment, remaining stationary when birds are working, watching morning come to life, and just enjoying each other\u2019s company while making new memories were the order of the day. Mentees and mentors alike enjoyed the morning, shared experiences, and talked about future hunts.<\/p>\n

We all know that the number of hunters is dropping and is likely to continue to drop as Baby Boomers age out. We are extremely fortunate to live is a state with the wide variety and abundance of natural resources that we do. The Waterfowlers Academy was created to provide a structured introduction to waterfowl hunting. We encourage you, as readers and members, to consider doing something similar through your local WWA chapter. Contact the Waterfowlers Academy\u2019s Todd Schaller at [email]c217tazman@gmail.com[\/email].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dave Elwing, Secretary and Development Committee Chair This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s October, 2024 Newsletter\u00a0edition. Based upon the successes of other chapters like Waukesha, Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, the Midland Wings Chapter made plans to help further WWA\u2019s education mission this year. Four first-time goose hunters met through WWA\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,37],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-58072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-waterfowlers-academy","tag-current"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58159,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58072\/revisions\/58159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}