YOu can hunt Geese along the Eastern Flyway right there in N. Carolina. Take the Pheasant hunt in Kansas. You are more likely to see birds, and get shots, and you don't find pheasants much in N. Carolina.
Talk to your State Game Department to find guided goose hunts closer to you. Canada geese are huge, and unless you have a very large Labrador Retriever, I would not expect a dog to be retrieving many of them!
Oh, are you hunting wild birds, with the State daily bag limit applying, or will you be on a Hunting Preserve, where you pay for the birds they put out, whether you hit them or not? Hunting preserves sound " tame " but you also can shoot as many birds as you can pay for. In most states, you are allowed to shoot BOTH cocks and hen pheasants on game farms, while you only can shoot Cock Pheasants that are wild. If you are looking to go home with a cooler full of pheasant meat, you might keep this in mind.
We have game preserves( farms) here in Illinois, where you can shoot as many birds in a day as you pay for. Its great training for both man and dog. One local preserve is owned and operated by a fine dog trainer, and her dogs are a beauty to watch, both the pointers and her retriever. I once got so wrapped up watching the dogs hold point, I almost forgot to mount my gun and shoot when the bird flushed! I used my BP, DB shotgun to hunt birds on the Preserve.
The last consideration, but an important one, is that for Waterfowl, you are required to shoot NON-toxic Shot. Unless you have done lots of work to pattern your choice of shot, this can be both an expensive, and limiting range factor. I used Steel shot the last time I went goose hunting, because that is all that was available that was legal. I don't recommend steel shot, as its not a good killer even when the geese are within range.
Today, we have alternatives, but you need a second mortgage on the house to buy the stuff! YOu can use regular lead shot when hunting pheasants. And, Bag limits on Canada geese tend to be pretty small- 1-3 birds a day depending on where you hunt. That makes the cost of travel to hunt geese even more expensive, since most of us have to limit the number of days we can be gone on a hunt, and just can't wait for it to cloud up so we can shoot a few geese!
If you wait and hunt in February and March, for Snow geese, or " Blue " geese, which are smaller birds, the daily bag limit is usually HUGE- 15 birds here in Illinois. The Downside is that the birds are hard to call into range, and many people don't care for the taste of the meat, claiming its " muddy". Apparently they don't know how to soak meat to remove the blood and with it those bad flavors, or how to cook it properly.
Mechanical Callers are allowed now here In Illinois, so calling is a bit easier, but again, if you have a Blue Sky day, you need binoculars to see them, and no BP shotgun is going to reach them at the height they fly over.
I like the idea of finding a place where you can hunt both ducks and geese from the same blind. But, find it closer to home.
Just my thoughts. Have fun no matter what you choose. :hatsoff:
