Planning a hunting trip can be difficult. Bringing the right gear, going to the right place and having the right people along are all key elements of any trip. Toss a wrench in the middle and it might be the last trip you all take together. Fortunately for us, that didn’t happen during our trip to Saskatchewan last fall.
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In fact, some of us might even feel as though divine intervention played a role in our success. Count me in as one of those that do. I will say that it feels weird saying that God lent a helping hand in our snow goose hunt. It would seem like a strange thing for us to ask for and expect results.
But, things happened that are hard to explain. Before I get too into the weeds about it, I should probably clarify my thoughts. It could be more about helping our family than helping us make a pile, if that makes sense?
Saskatchewan
My nephew Dan Amundson and I have been taking a waterfowl trip to Saskatchewan for a few years now. Sometimes we’ve had friends and family join us. In 2022, we recreated a legendary picture that has hung on my Dad’s wall for years. We created a Film called “1956” to document that trip. You can watch it here:
If you’ve watched or listen to any of our work in recent years, you’ll know that we have family history in the province. Each year we learn a little more about where our ancestors were born, farmed and buried. But, each year we learn a little more that we didn’t know.
In 2018, we traveled there and searched a number of cemeteries for my great-great grandfather, Amund Jonson. He immigrated from Sweden with my great grandfather Andrew. His son Helmer, was born in Saskatchewan and the group of brothers farmed and hunted, living off the land. They also farmed near Warren, Minnesota, with family members bouncing back and forth.
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We found Amund’s grave, with a few empty spots near it. Did the rest of the family expect to be buried there? His son Andrew and his wife Christine were eventually laid to rest in a small cemetery along the Snake River in northwestern Minnesota. The rest of the family scattered across western Canada and the upper midwest.
When families move and separate, history gets lost. Over the years we’ve spent hours on gravel roads retracing the steps of our relatives, learning about their lives. In our latest film, we went out in search of our family farm in Saskatchewan. We knew it was near Norquay, but that was about it.
Tourism Regina
Just a couple of weeks before our trip, I got an email asking if we’d like to work with Tourism Regina. We’ve been a partner with Tourism Saskatchewan for a number of years, so this request wasn’t out of the ordinary. They wanted someone to promote the direct flights from Minneapolis to Regina. We just happened to be coming up to that area anyway, so it worked out great. If you want to know why you might want to visit, read this travel blog and watch this video:
My brother, Wade, did some digging and found a book called “Norquay Nostalgia.” That gave us some insight about where the farm might be. While that intel was instrumental in our search, the biggest help may have come from Regina. One of the people we worked with had a relative named Brandon Letain that knew people from Norquay. He put us in touch with locals whose family was friends with our family…100 years ago!
What. Are. The. Odds.
Incredibly, he also invited us to hunt with him for a few days around Regina. He seemed like a nice guy, but we were bringing my 84-year-old dad Ron, my brother Wade and his son-in-law, Mitch. They only had a few days to hunt so we wanted to make sure it was going to be good. It was almost too good to be true.
The Geese
I’m a snow goose freak. I love ’em. I also hate ’em. I’ve picked up many white decoys while muttering, “This is the last time I do this.” They can be the hardest bird to hunt. Yet, when they do it right, there is nothing else like it.
As I say in the new film, “Once you get on a good snow goose hunt, you want to go on another one.” It’s true. Once you have a front row seat to a big spin, you want to do it again. So my goal on these trips to Saskatchewan, is to hunt snow geese. Most of the time, not everyone shares the same goal, haha.
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Before we met up with Brandon, he said, “We don’t get snow geese around here.” He talked about finding mallards and Canada geese, but snows will be hard to come by. Well, I had a trailer full of Hardcore snow goose decoys, just hoping he’d be wrong.
As we were driving up, I called Brandon and he said that there “were snow geese everywhere.” Mentioning something like “I’ve never seen it like this before.”
Could this be a coincidence?
The Hunts
The hunting was perfect. Our first morning had big flocks of snows landing in the decoys at first light. It was almost too good. We had kinks to work out and there were no practice flocks. It was game on from the start. The guys started to realize what it was that I liked about snows. We did shoot a few mallards and darks, so they got a little of the expected action as well. Here’s the video from that day:
Our second day was much the same. Birds in the spread right at legal shooting time. The crew was settling into the groove and shooting was good. The weather was warm with light winds. Comfortable for the hunters, but not always great for a goose hunt. But the birds were working and we were having a blast.
My Dad was struggling a bit with the chair and the a-frame blind however. We were getting to the point where we would just let him shoot at flocks to make sure he was getting a chance. Then, the craziest moment happened. I was out of the blind, talking to the camera. I recapped our morning so far and was just about to say, “We’re going to let my Dad do some shooting,” when a single rossie bombed in behind me. Ron did not miss. His WS1 Model 12 rang out and that 2 shot, funneled through a full choke, smacked that goose with 68 years of waterfowl experience. It didn’t know what hit it. Here’s the video:
Everything Falls Into Place
So here we are, having the trip of a lifetime. Shooting ducks and geese, covered in snows and checking every goal off the list. We even found the old farmstead where our family first broke ground.
Dan and I were relaxed, knowing the guys would go home happy with the hunting so far. We’ve made a new friend in Brandon, who went out of his way to make sure we had a good time. We had a blast in Regina working with Tourism and even saw crazy displays of northern lights. During one of those displays, we met people who had stories of our relatives from back in the day. How could this trip get any better?
The Best Hunt Of Our Lives
We found a huge feed of snows. Brandon secured permission for the field, but there was one caveat: There would be another group hunting the same birds about a mile away….and they wanted to hunt them in the afternoon.
Everything I’ve learned about snow goose hunting caused me to lower my expectations of this situation. Afternoon hunts aren’t always great. Having a spread within a mile can produce a few hours of watching instead of shooting. Snow geese could be snow geese and just decide to leave the area.
But, what did we have to lose at that point? The trip was going amazing and this was a HUGE group of snows.
I literally drove by snows sitting in the field as we arrived. If they knew what I had in the enclosed trailer behind me, they would have flown to North Dakota. The little rise shielded their view from our set up. We picked a field edge that dipped so we could hide while putting decoys out. The aframe disappeared into the tall grass and the white decoys popped hard against the gold stubble. We parked the trucks not sure what to expect. It was hot.
Not long after we sat down, a big group of snows came towards us. Could it be this easy? They did it perfect and as the shots rang out, I wondered what the heck we did to get this lucky.
Then they kept coming and coming. Barrels were hot. Dogs were panting. Smiles were plastered across the hunters, including my Dad, who was crushing. I’ll leave some of the details out so you can watch it for yourself. There is one moment near the end that caps off the trip perfectly. I’ve joked many times that we’ve filmed things that you “can’t script” and this was one of them.
Here’s a podcast from that trip:
Trip of a lifetime
It truly was the trip of a lifetime. Don’t get me wrong, people have shot more birds. The amount of snow geese we shot is definitely part of the story, but not the whole story. Wade summed it up best when he said:
“God doesn’t make mistakes. He opens doors where you least expect them.”
A fitting way to describe how our trip went, even if creating successful snow goose hunts wasn’t something I’ve ever heard about in church.