Weary-or wary? Try a few of these "zero-call" hunting tricks-- Do you hunt solo, as I do, or in a group? Field or over water, or both. Geese do get call-shy in a hurry, after the sound of gunfire follows the calls often overblown at them. First thing is volume- approaching geese to your spread out of decent killing range hear your calls, but if they hear the same volume from them as they get closer to killing range, somethings spooks them and they fall back and backpedal out of decent range. Why? Many valid reasons-- but we are talking about calls- so, your pal Tom is 100 yards away and you shout at him to come in for coffee- When he gets 30 yards out, if you have the same volume in your shout-- what does he hear then? Right- a louder volume. Try the same with your calling-- distant geese are more often attracted by decoys and flagging, weather conditions pending- my theory-- have plenty of landing room, as geese, unlike mallards, do not like to fly over a large group of decoys below them, they like "lebensraum"-- also, have your sentinel decoys on the outside edges, and facing away from the larger group they are "guarding"-- I use a ratio of 4 feeders/preeners to sentinel dekes, whether land or water spreads. Use some hen mallards in the mix, as often, geese will come in to their feeding chatter, and silently. Mimic the birds, don't try to be a Leopold Stravinski at the Hollywood Bowl- A call is indeed, a form of musical instrument, but not every horn player is a Bix Beiderbeck, or a Louis Armstrong--
