“Out of nowhere a pair of honkers came in silently and low. They cupped up and came right into the decoys.” Crowson pulled up to shoot and sent one tumbling to the ground. (Photo credit: Austin Crowson.)
February 19, 2025
By Ryan Barnes
If you’ve read The Playbook column by Scott Haugen in WILDFOWL Magazine
Crowson says that it was a Friday where he would usually be planning to hunt geese the next morning, but instead he and his fiancé were leaving town on a five-and-a-half-hour drive to attend a wedding. After doing a little research on the drive, he realized he still had one more day of early goose season. After making a few calls to friends, Crowson figured if he could make it back home in time after the wedding, he and his hunting partners could hunt a field where they had shot an eight-man limit of geese the Sunday prior.
“The wedding we were attending started at 5:00 p.m., and I knew I needed to be home by 4:00 a.m. the next morning to make it work.” Excited about the timing and being able to hunt the last day, Austin said the drive home wasn’t easy. He left the wedding around 9:00 p.m. and arrived back home at 3:45 a.m.. Driving 400 miles through the night.
Crowson says, “After what felt like 20 hours, I finally arrived home with just 15 minutes to spare before my buddy showed up at 4:00 a.m..” They loaded Crowson’s enclosed trailer and headed to the fresh cut wheat field.
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In the first three flocks, eleven birds hit the dirt. Then it went silent for a while. “Out of nowhere a pair of honkers came in silently and low. They cupped up and came right into the decoys.” Crowson pulled up to shoot and sent one tumbling to the ground. He jokingly said to his friends, “I shot the banded one,” then went to retrieve his bird. To his great joy, the bird really was banded!
A banded goose and an arrowhead in the same field. What a day out goose hunting! (Photo credit: Austin Crowson.) “At that moment I knew the dang drive through the night was worth it. It was a brand-new stainless-steel leg band and the first to be shot on the farm we were hunting on.” On top of it all, not too far from where the banded goose fell, Crowson picked up an arrowhead to add to his luck!
An all-time adventure, one that Austin says will go down as one of his most memorable and exciting.
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