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Keys to succeed on Canada Geese Hunting
On this regard it's important to masterize the art of calling. A wrong call, calling so much or using an inappropriate call sign will alert geese about your presence and once they know you are there, take for sure birds won´t land near such a
suspicious call.
Learning to choose the right call and how to use it adequately will take time, for this reason novice hunters must learn from an experienced hunter on a tailored fashion, that means, one to one teaching until the rookie hunter achieves the necessary knowledge.
Easier to learn but not less important is how to deploy your decoys. Decoys are the soul of waterfowling and learning how to deploy them remains a cornerstone for success.
Even when there are different setting options, overall a decoy deployment should contain around 80% of feeding decoys and 20% of active ones. It's also important to use the same type of decoys.
Geese are different from ducks where shells and full body decoys may be mixed; in fact it's a good strategy, but for geese this won't work good enough.
Risks you take when hunting. Part II
That's doesn't mean you ate or drank contaminated edibles, only the environmental changes, stress and changes on food habits are enough to trigger a diarrhea.
To avoid such situation try to carry with you all the supplies you will need, wash
your hands as much as possible before eating, try to keep your food as much health as possible and try to avoid consumption from natural water sources.
3. Cold and Flu
When you are hunting your body is under stress. No matter if you are enjoying the trip, your body is still stressed because the extra physical activity, changes on food habits and sleep patterns as well for environmental factors such as cold or hot weather.
Under such circumstances your immune system becomes weak making easier for virus and other pathogens to attack you; especially on winter season. That's why is so usual to find hunters who caught a flu by the middle and late season.
Risks you take when hunting. Part I
1. Sunburns
No matter if you hunt during winter or summer, you are at risk of sunburns. Ultraviolet rays are always there during daylight even on cloudy days, so outdoors exposure during long hikes and scouting put you on risk of sunburns.
To avoid it wear proper clothing and use sunscreen on exposed skin.
2. Frostbite
This is a real risk for northern hunters during winter season. If a sudden temperature drop catch hunters in the middle of a raid without proper boots and insulation there's a real risk to suffer from frostbite.
The best way to avoid this risk is to be aware of weather forecast and have an emergency clothing adapted to extreme cold in case a storm catches you suddenly.
3. Insect bites
Perhaps this is not considered a severe risk, but when you are hunting on southern swamps, especially with hot weather, a myriad of insect bites may render your life miserable.
How to feed your hounds while hunting
On this regard, the day before hunting, the day or days you are out as well a couple of days after hunting, your dogs will need an energy rich diet, very different from the everyday feeding.
The best choice to feed your hounds the day before hunting is a combination of regular diet (probably consisting of dried food) with fresh proteins and fats. Fresh,
raw, fatty meat cuts will be appropriate, especially during the winter season because of the high energy amount on them. Additionally extra water must be supplied in order not only to provide hydration but also to facilitate proteins digestion.
During the hunting raid the best option is to begin the day with a high protein diet and a lot of water in order to provide a good energetic starting point to your dogs, afterwards and depending of weather, temperature and terrain characteristics, probably it will be necessary to include a few snacks every 3 or 4 hours to keep your dogs stamina high.
What to eat when hunting
However and in order to provide a quick guide about the most important nutrition facts while hunting every hunter may follow the next guidelines:
Hunters' food must be easy to carry on and eat. It would not be convenient to
walk around on the mountains with a backpack full of fresh food requiring to be cooked before eating while you are on a hunting trail; instead high calories, processed foods may be an option, especially for day snacks which need to be quick but providing good nutritional support.
But a hunter can't live only of granola bars, so canned food is also a good option if you know what to include on your pack.
Keep in mind that carbs are brain fuel and the main source of energy for your body, thus you need to count with enough bread, crackers or cookies to face a hunting trail, however carbs provide a fast-burning caloric load and you will need to include additional nutrients to achieve a good, healthy nutrition when hunting.