Hunting Report - 11/10/09

Another week has gone by and we have finally had an extended period of dry weather. The crops are drying and the farmers have started to get more picking done, although not as quick as we would hope. We are very excited that during the past week, two of our prime fields did get picked and they are finally open for business.

There hasn’t been any noticeable increase in the number of geese in the Rochester area this week, but there are still more than enough geese to shoot. Right now, we are experiencing some warm days, so the hunting is a little more difficult because we are hunting the same birds day after day. With that said, we are still having great success and having some quality shoots. Over the past week, we have had several days with the number of geese killed was in the teens. If the weather cools down some, we should really start to see some good action.

On a side note, Run-N-Gun Outfitters would like to offer to all the military veterans a heartfelt THANK YOU for your service. You are truly admired and appreciated. Adding to that, we would also like to wish all the former and current US Marines out there a very Happy 234th Birthday.

Shoot straight and stay safe.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Hunting Report - 11/04/09

If you've been reading our updates every week, then you know how we’ve been complaining about all the rain/snow we’ve been getting. Well, the National Weather Service records show this was the second wettest October on record with 7.49 inches of precipitation total and the added distinction of the second snowiest October with 7.9 inches of snow. So far in November, it has been dry....let’s hope it continues.

Also, we have started to see some migrators move through the area. Along with the scouting we’ve been doing, it’s easy to see there are more birds in the Rochester area. Although, with warmer temps during the day, the birds like to stay in the refuge.

As far as the hunting, a few of the boys hunted last Wednesday and shot a couple birds. We didn’t see a lot of movement, but the fog was pretty thick, so it’s anybodys guess to what was going on. It was raining all day Thursday, so nobody went out hunting and Friday was spent as a day of scouting. We saw movement mainly on the north and south sides of Rochester. We decided to hunt the south side on Saturday and ended the morning hunt with a dozen downed birds. The birds really worked the decoys well. On Sunday morning, we managed to coax some more birds into the decoys. We didn’t see as much movement, but the birds we did see got hammered. We are still consistently shooting birds, but we really expect the action to start getting more intense within the next couple of weeks.

Until next time...

Shoot straight and stay safe.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Hunting Report - 10/28/09

Well, the weather hasn't been to kind to the farmers (and us) as we had more rain late in the week and even received 4 inches of wet snow on Friday. With all the precipitation lately, we haven't been doing a lot of hunting. The wet conditions really limit us because so few fields are picked right now. The weather finally did take a turn for the better on Sunday. We have been having some warm days with a little wind to help dry out the fields. Hopefully the farmers will be able to get back to picking their crops.

Saturday morning, we hunted a field on the south side of Rochester. We thought with the snow cover, the action would be pretty good. We didn't see near as many birds as we had been seeing in previous days. We ended up shooting 6 birds that morning. Later on Saturday, the temps reached the mid 50's and all the snow melted.

We took some clients out on Monday morning. The weather was nice and it was an enjoyable hunt. The clients shot a few birds and everyone was happy. We had a couple of guys hunting on Tuesday, but they didn't see hardly any movement of the birds. They ended up shooting a couple of honkers.

Until next time...

Shoot straight and stay safe.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Hunting Report - 10/21/09

The goose hunting in the Rochester area is still slow, but consistent. We have seen more and more birds move in to the area, but not the full migration with the large numbers of birds. Over the past week, we had different small groups shoot 4 birds, 8 birds, and 10 birds. We have also had hunt club members take a couple of birds. So, there is some shooting happening, but we have to work for it. A lot of the birds in the area are already well educated because of the pressure they’ve received as a result of the limited places to hunt. The few fields that have been picked has allowed the birds to congregate in those places and ignore everywhere else. In our last update, we were hoping for some cooperation from the weather so more fields would get picked. It can be reported that the weather DOES NOT want to cooperate with us. To quote the USDA/University of Minnesota Extension Service Crop Report: "soybeans were 34 percent harvested, compared with 81 percent at this time last year and an 83-percent average. Only 3 percent of the corn crop has been harvested, compared with 17 percent at this time last year and a five-year average of 31 percent." Right now, we need some warm, sunny, and dry weather to allow these farmers to get their crops picked. The forecast for the next few days doesn’t look good either....more rain with light snow possible. Saturday and beyond looks like we may get the weather we are hoping for. Keep your fingers crossed.

We would also like to welcome our newest guide, Josh Peterson.

Until next time....Shoot straight and stay safe.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Trying to get caught up!!!!

Its been a while since I've posted any updates. I'll try to point out a few of the happenings from the past month.

About 30 days ago, Run-N-Gun had a booth at the Sportsman's Fair in Racine, WI. The fair wasn't as big as we had hoped, but we did get a few serious inquires. It's always fun to talk hunting with alot of different people. The same weekend, Trevor guided a client on an early season goose hunt. With the 80 degree temps, the hunting wasn't all that good. The client still had a great time and will be coming back to hunt with us in the regular season.

Oct 3rd was the opener for waterfowl. Several of the Run-N-Gun staff went duck hunting for the weekend at a spot a couple hours away from Rochester. The cold front that moved in just days before the opener didn't help us much as it pushed most of the teal out of the area. We did some shooting and got some ducks, but it was difficult hunting.

On Saturday, Oct 3rd, Spike hunted geese in Rochester with a friend. They had ducks buzzing and geese landing in the decoys...unfortunately, that all happened before the 9:00am opener. They did manage to shoot 3 geese that morning. They would have had their limit if they wouldn't have had gun malfunctions.

Sunday, Oct 4th, Spike and a few friends hunted geese again. They saw a lot of birds and worked quite a few flocks. In the end, they shot 7 geese...1 had a leg band (Spike loves that jewelry). So, for the opening weekend, Spike and his friends were 2 birds short of a limit by shooting 10 geese and getting 1 band.

On Saturday, Oct 10th, Mike hunted with a couple of clients. They saw a little action in the morning. The clients ended up shooting 5 birds, just short of their limit. Tim and Trevor hunted the same day at a different location. Tim and Trev saw a lot more birds than Mike did. In the end, they shot 5 birds with 1 having a leg band. Spike hunted on Saturday too. He and a friend were south of Rochester and finished the morning with 4 birds in hand.


All in all, the early part of the regular season hasn't been too bad. We haven't really seen a large influx of new birds in the area. The colder temps should push more birds into the Rochester area soon. The hunting is a little spotty right now, but we are still consistently shooting birds. As new birds move into the area, the hunting will only get better with every passing day. We really need the weather to cooperate with us so the farmers will get their crops picked, which will allow us to open up more of our pitted fields.

Now that the regular hunting season is upon us and we will be hunting several times a week, we will get updates posted more often.

Stay safe and shoot straight.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Heading to Wisconsin

Mike and Tony will be heading over to Racine, WI on Friday morning to man a Run-N-Gun booth at the Sportsman's Fair. We will be in the booth from 12pm - 8pm on Friday, 9am - 8pm on Saturday, 9am - 5pm on Sunday. It will definitely be a long weekend. If you have nothing to do, come on over to the show and be sure to stop by and talk for a bit.

Trevor will staying in Rochester this weekend so he can take some clients out hunting. Once I return from WI, I hope to post an update on how they did and even post some pictures.

Until next time...

Shoot straight and be safe.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Hunting Report 09-05-09

We had a great start to the 2009 Fall Canada Goose season.

Four of us went out on opening morning without any real expectations of seeing many birds, let alone having a good shoot. Since we didn't have any clients booked for opening weekend, we hadn't done any scouting whatsoever. We figured we would just go to a local field that we've hunted for years, and use the hunt as an opportunity to do some scouting because that field has great visibility.


Well, we were more than surprised by the number of birds we saw moving around the area. From about 7:00am until we picked up at 9:15am, we never went more than 15 minutes without seeing birds and actually getting most of them to work our decoys. We were able to work several flocks within 30 yards, but most of the flocks would flare some because we were sitting in lawn chairs. I know some of you are thinking that we're just a bunch of schmucks to be sitting in chairs, but several times in the past few years, we have done just the same during the early season and get birds to land. Also, I do have to admit that we went out this morning with the intentions of "not trying to hard." We wanted to be out there just to be out hunting again. We can get serious in a day or two. We didn't care if we got our limit or not, we were just trying to have fun....and WE DID!!!!


After all was said and done, we had shot 11 birds and got 3 leg bands. Not to shabby for going out without scouting, not using layout blinds and sitting in lawn chairs, and just trying to have a little fun.


We look forward to hunting with you this coming season.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters