Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Waterfowl => Topic started by: lewy on December 22, 2008, 09:37:01 AM
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Booked a hunt with a couple buddies in Jan. with Burbank.We spend so much time on big game anymore we havent been doin much waterfowl lately and thought we would just book a hunt. My Question is if anybody has been with them and how was it??? Thanks for any input!...Lewy
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Do you enjoy watching the birds work? If you do, cancel and book with someone that hunts out of Eliminator's.
Do you want to shoot big honks or small lessers? If you want Honks, cancel and go with somone else.
Burbank shoots a lot of geese but they're 90% lessers and 100% out of pits where you cannot see the birds working. The guide calls sparingly and peeks out of the pit occasionally and once the correct number of birds are in the decoys, he'll call the shot. No flocks larger than 30 birds get shot at. I've heard stories about guys who pay their $$$ only to shoot half a limit because the birds came in in too large of flocks.
Try Echternkamps, Columbia Basin Waterfowl or possibly Northflight(Ben started guiding for Burbank and uses a lot of the same tactics, but not all the time. Specify you want to hunt out of layouts and the outfitter will do their best to accomodate your group.)
Now if you just want to spend time with some buddies and shoot a few birds to boot, don't cancel and go for it.
:twocents:
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The General is right on...
My experience with Burbank was exactly as he described. Worst of all we hunted a Sunday, which I know wasnt the best but thats all we could spare. We get to the field and all the decoys are wrong...I guess the wind changed. The guide wouldnt take the time to move them. Few birds that did come in got dead quick...mainly because of the 6 guys in the blind PLUS the guide shooting to knock down more birds and make the bag look better. Worst of all, he had that nerve to tell us that we should have been there yesterday (Saturday) cause the field was hot! How are you going to hunt the same field two days in a row and then tell clients about it? Very unimpressive.
Sorry if I sound negative towards them, we were just very let down.
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I have had the same experience with Burbank as stated above. Had good luck with Pacific Wings. Haven't hunted with them in four or five years though. http://www.pacific-wings.net/index2.asp
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GD is right...have you hunted with Paul and company Jon? if you want to kill geese and take a great pic....nothing wrong with Burbank...guides are great guys too.....ask for Abel....if you want to watch geese work into the decoys....Ben Holten at Northflight or get in touch with Mike Schmuck (real name,great guy) him and Chad flat out kill birds 509-754-4546
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bill saunders and big guns waterfowl 509-582-0190 and ive been with several guides in the area and youll be one a first class trip with him... also talked to him last week and he said the numbers were amazing and they were putting a hurtin on a bunch of birds
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If you want to hunt ducks... Hunt Pauls pond...
Geese you need to understand how it works.
1. You never shoot at big flocks because they will never come back. You want to shoot small flocks or singles or pairs. If you do this all his clients will be into geese.
2. That is why it is a rule with Paul. You will always have geese. Now if you have a crap caller when the big flock gets up and leaves a good called will be able to pull back some geese back for you to shoot at. Look at your guides call. If it is a Big River tell him you want a new guide.
3. From what I have heard if you are in a blind that is close to the duck ponds your hunt might have interuptions based on ducks working the pond.
4. He will always be out of the fields by 10 AM. If you shoot the field at all daylight hours the geese will never come in... (e.g. public land)
Pauls brother also guides and is cheaper and gets into ducks and geese. I am pretty sure he is cheaper then Paul. 509 521 4597...
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i hunted with burbank once, pacific wings a couple times and bill saunders once...
i dont think I'd book a flight with any of them again, although one hunt for geese over water with P.W. was a blast, but total cluster.
What G.D. says about burbank is pretty much spot on. We sat in a pit, with the lids closed, were told to not talk, couldnt shoot into the only flock that worked us because it was too big, and in the end we shot 1 bird that was a single that was sitting in the decoys randomly when we opened the pit to leave... not something i ever need to do again.
Pacific wings seems to cater to the big corporate groups, because everytime we have gone with them, we have been an afterthought and once completely forgot about.
The hunt i went on with Bill was a good shoot, but not a great time. We sat in a pit, and bill talked on the phone with his wife.
When you next book a hunt, try to make sure it is going to be out of eliminators or anything but a pit,
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Although... In defense of guides... Your paying them basically to take you on a hunt with the best chances to shoot your limit... Why would you spend that money not to shoot a limit... And hunting out of a pit gives you that best chance... Every time I have been with a guide an hunted a pit we've limited but out of blinds only shot eleven with ten guys kind of a waste of money... As for hospitality give them the benefit of the doubt... That's there job an source of income therefore they need to take necessary measures to assure the quality of your hunt and for shootin at big flocks... Get real I sure hope unless your hunting with 10 plus guys that yall are not shooting into these big groups and educating all of these birds for the rest of us yes I'm sure its reasonable at times but for a guide they need to be sure they can keep birds in there fields and shootin at ridiculous large flocks of birds without enough guys to kill them all is not the best idea... And if your on a guided hunt I'm goin to take a guess that there will be plenty more birds and you can let those flocks die another day...
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Bill Saunders was our guide for two of our thee hunts with Pacific Wings. I thought Bill was a nice guy and had a good time hunting with them. Like I said though its been a few years back, things can change. Is Bill guiding on his own now? He does make good calls.
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I see no reason what so ever not to shoot at the big flocks, in theory sure you don't want to educate a large amount of birds all at once, but you have absolutely no control over what the next guy does, and I can guarantee you that joe hunter is going to take those shots every time, because it's not a business it's something he does for fun and with the amount of money invested you can't afford not to shoot every time birds decoy big or small flocks, because Joe hunter never knows when the next flock is going to come in they take em when they can get em. Of course this is IMO. By the way I have heard nothing but bad things about Burbank. It's an assembly line hunt get em in, shoot the birds, get em out, get the next group in, over and over. Money, Money, Money!
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Bearmartin he is guiding on his own he left pacific wings last year and now runs big guns waterfowl guidin in Canada Washington and one of the Dakotas for spring snow geese
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Bearmartin he is guiding on his own he left pacific wings last year and now runs big guns waterfowl guidin in Canada Washington and one of the Dakotas for spring snow geese
Thanks, I reread your earlier post and found Gig Guns web site. Like I said I had a good hunt with him.
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Thanks for all the input...Found out my buddy paid in advance so we are kinda locked in. I guess we will just hope for the best, i will post some pics when we get back and let ya know what I thought....Thanks again-Lewy
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I see no reason what so ever not to shoot at the big flocks, in theory sure you don't want to educate a large amount of birds all at once, but you have absolutely no control over what the next guy does, and I can guarantee you that joe hunter is going to take those shots every time, because it's not a business it's something he does for fun and with the amount of money invested you can't afford not to shoot every time birds decoy big or small flocks, because Joe hunter never knows when the next flock is going to come in they take em when they can get em. Of course this is IMO. By the way I have heard nothing but bad things about Burbank. It's an assembly line hunt get em in, shoot the birds, get em out, get the next group in, over and over. Money, Money, Money!
It's not about educating geese in general....it's about educating as few of geese as possible about THAT FIELD especially when you want to hunt the field alot during the year.....Lewy....I'm sure you are going to have a good time.....they are smoking the geese this year at Burbank......
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Thanks for all the input...Found out my buddy paid in advance so we are kinda locked in. I guess we will just hope for the best, i will post some pics when we get back and let ya know what I thought....Thanks again-Lewy
Tell him you are going to write an article for the Hunt Wa website, and that you really want to see the birds work and to help with the calling... Maybe you can get a bit better service with this approach?
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I think ICEMAN has a great idea... I know some of the people who responded to this thread are friends of Paul’s or work for him. I for one would like to read about your experience.
The suicide doors in the pit have cracks in them. You can watch the geese work the decoys from the cracks of the doors. DO NOT WEAR NOISY CLOTHS. The pit blind acts like a speaker box. Gore-Tex rubbing together as you are moving around looking at the geese will be picked up by the geese when they are working the decoys. If you are in a pit with some knuckle heads making noise while birds are working you need to speak up, because they are screwing up your hunt.
For goodness sake have fun… That is what it is all about. There is enought information on this thread to help you pick a guide and a spot. If you feel you did not get the hunt you wanted you do not have to tip. But do NOT base the tip on shooting at huge flocks it is NOT going to happen... Base it on your guides ability to call back a small number of geese on big flocks. His ability to call period and his ability to tactfully tell a client to quit moving, talking or making noise when the geese are working the decoys (you should not have to). Did he have talent enough to work and bring in birds? Base the tip on these things...
One last thing... If you and/or your buddy can call geese bring your calls with you. Call for the guide when you meet up. The idea is more then one person calling the more the geese will commit to the decoys. Work a hand signal with the guide to start and stop calling. You might get some tips from the guide while you are waiting for flocks. And you do not have to hear your wife or girl friend complain. Make sure your guide is giving you an honest opinion of your calling ability.
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The most effective way to kill geese on a consecutive bases is out of a pit hands down. Some guides have smaller holes cut into the lids so you can see (still limitied) the birds working.
Personally I would rahter have a so so hunt and be able to watch the birds out of an eliminator. With that said, you still have to get good and low in the blind and know when to look. I have seen it happen a lot where people stick their heads out of a blind and you get to watch the birds but not shoot.
Think about what you want and remember it is hunting and not killing. Call Paul at Burbank and ASK him if you can hunt the edge of a field out of eliminators. Its your hunt and he should accomodate you.
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:bdid:
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I was at Moses Lake in Oct. with Northern Flight, in a pit. 1st flight of geese came into the decoys, BUT a bunch more were circling and they landed, guess they call their friends, because in 15 minutes we had over 1000 geese in the deeks, even walking on top of the blind...
It took about 30 minutes to get rid of this huge flock....(not a shot was fired).
Boy that was tough, as it was the 1st time I had been duck/goose hunting in almost 5 years, and was also the last time I had fired my 12 GA.
Turned out just fine however, we all got either a limit, or near limit.
I marked it down as a very good hunt. Most importantly I had a really good time.
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We only hunt with Aaron Echternkamps out of moses lake great guy with great lease and land went with him 5 times last year and got limits every trip