­In the previous post we were talking of spring season duck-hunts with a live call bird.
Now we turn to local ways of goose hunting and another Russian spring hunting sports – woodcock roding [mating display –ed.] hunt. But – I’d start with a goose hunt. 

Duck hunting Russian style

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Well, many people say it’s laborious. And I’d say it’s a “heavy” hunt. I mean equipment and labor. Damn true. But it’s all worth the effort you make and it’s not for the weak and lazy. Fifty decoys, (the more, the better) a gun, ammo, blinds, etc. All in all, the hunting gear weighs something. You might be lucky to have a nice SUV or a tough-looking off-road vehicle, but it won’t help in the spring Russian fields, freezing at nights and turning into a porridge-like substance under the warm sun. 

Duck hunting Russian style

­Just believe me… We have a saying here – “The tougher SUV – the further you go looking for a tractor,” meaning a 2.5 tonne, well-equipped car will definitely add problems if stuck in the mud. It happens. Lighter and smaller vehicles may help, e.g. quads or smaller cars – the size of Suzuki Jimny or Russian made Lada-Niva-4X4. Still, you may not make the final lap to the destination point – so be prepared to carry all your stuff by yourself.

Okay, enough of horrors. Next stage is to set the decoys and blinds. May take time, I guess. There are no significant differences in deploying your “plastic troops” (or whatever they’re made of) in the Moscow Region or somewhere in Oregon or Ontario. Though we don’t have some geese species here (or is it the guys overseas don’t have ours?), so the most common in Central Russia are gray, bean, and white-fronted geese. Make no mistake while purchasing and double-checking the decoys before you’re out in a field, or you may dump the hunt by taking snow or red-breasted goose “simulators” to the south of the Moscow Region. Plus, you’ll probably need some binoculars if you’re not good at ornithology (once I witnessed a 14yo urban boy pointing out lapwings to his father in a field: “Never thought geese were that small. They appear bigger on a table. Is it an optical illusion at that distance?” Poor kid). 

Duck hunting Russian style

­A couple of very important items should be mentioned as well. Calls. “Hard-core traditionalists” or “deep-dyed patriots” would prefer, of course, Russian-made. Dozens of big and small companies here make them to fit your choice. Prices may vary – from US$10 to $50. But the best choice is the custom-made call, preferably from the Siberian city of Tomsk. They’re highly praised for their abilities.

Only once did I see “the ultimate top of the tops”: a goose call made half a century ago, back in Soviet times. But it had a unique feature – it was a self-made item. Originally, it had been a simple 8 gram CO2 non-threaded cartridge (used in those old-fashioned fizz-giz bottles, you know – the Soviets also had them, don’t be so surprised!). A lower, round part of the spent cartridge had been cut off and a neck-hole was drilled …Well, here lies the secret that was never revealed by the owner. Seriously, the intimate knowledge of this kind is probably the most guarded thing in a hunter’s experience. But that call really worked, despite being amateurish and a bit clumsy.

Amazingly, most imported calls work in Russia as well. Looks like there is no serious language barrier in the “goose world”. Personally, I prefer Faulk’s CH-44 and H100 – in Moscow they’re available for about 500 RUR (less than $20).

Next we have to solve a “concealment problem”. A warning here – and I have to say this loud and clear – most import hunting camouflages significantly differ from local landscapes (except two or three – with grass and cane/bulrush patterns), so you’d better rely upon domestic products. Goose blinds from one famous American company were giving away shooting positions as if the geese had a radar or GPS with exact location marks. One of my hunting companions switched to “Leshy” (“Old Nick” or “puck” in Russian) – sort of a ghillie-suit that really helps.

Duck hunting Russian style

­Yet there’s one more serious reason that made some of the guys quit using ground blinds: they are ..err…too cozy to use. Lying on the ground in a wind & waterproof shelter with a head and gun rests? Well, it may result in sleeping – and failing the whole hunt. A due amount of “discomfort”, on the other hand, may keep you awake.

Lastly, the guns. I’d stay with a 12 gauge semi-auto (3 or 3 1/4 inch receiver). You may choose a double-barrel or a hunting pump-action (their number, by the way, has decreased significantly – a common sight in Russia 20 years ago, they are “rare birds” now.) Shot size may vary – from # 1 to 2/0 (BB to AAA) – it depends on your personal preference or how your gun chokes (if fixed) cope with larger projectiles. But stay away from using buckshot loads – still some ill-tempered (and…err…“mentally challenged”) shooters would use against high-flying targets at distances exceeding 100 meters, pretending they are a sort of anti-aircraft gun crew. In Russia they are also called “oxygen shooters”, because they hit nothing but air. Besides, a falling 8.5 mm buckshot pellet can cause some trouble to a fellow hunter, being heavy enough to hit hard. To minimize the risks, I prefer remote corners of the Moscow Region with fewer people to meet.

Enough of geese and other waterfowl game. Let’s take a look at the third most-popular Russian spring hunt. Maybe I should have put it in first place. A Russian classic. The most honored by Russian writers and artists (btw, a good many of them, including Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Isaac Levitan and many more had a strong addiction to hunting). I guess there’s a simple explanation: a spring hunt is more about “re-booting” a human organism after a long, cold and dull winter, rather than about “hunting” itself.

The perfect choice for hitting the “reset button” is to go for a woodcock hunt, also known in Russia as a “woodcock roding hunt”.

Biologically, a Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax Rusticola) is very close to the American species, which is also known as the timberdoodle, Labrador twister and mudsnipe, so I don’t have to waste time & page space describing the bird – you know what it looks like. Their habitat is also well-known.

Duck hunting Russian style

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Again, Russia goes its own way. I mean in the Western Hemisphere woodcock hunting is mostly an autumn hunt, but here it’s mainly a “spring season pastime”. Its rules are simple, indeed.  Don’t shoot females (Remember? Nesting season is very close and it’s rather easy to remember that only male woodcock perform their mating “air-show”. Females sit on the ground). Shoot clear flying targets. And the third – always search for your trophy before you shoot another bird.

It’s easy to meet these requirements – especially if you keep a well-trained hunting dog. In case you don’t have one, you will need a good flashlight with a bright and wide beam – woodcocks have a remarkably efficient natural camouflage pattern. It really helps while searching a trophy on a forest floor.

Traditionally, spring woodcock hunts are called in Russian – “roding hunts”.  There’s also an old hunting trick exploiting the bird’s “basic instinct”. To attract a bird, on hearing a flying male woodcock chirp, throw your cap or a glove in the air, imitating a female taking off. In a few seconds, you may be searching not only for a cap, but a trophy as well. It really works.
Woodcocks have a very wide vision angle and really big eyes, and in 80 per cent of cases will react to a sudden, unidentified object of their size flying off the ground. It’s also very easy to tell a female woodcock from a male, the latter having a very specific gurgling chirp, resembling, well…to me it sounds like a buck’s tending grunt, though in a different tone, of course. And remember, females sit on the ground, so you have almost zero chances of hitting the wrong target.

A few words about finding a hunting ground. Indeed, the best way is to ask the locals, but they might be reluctant to give away the best places. Interestingly, migration and flying routes do not change, regardless of a human’s increased presence in the forms of highways, towns, villages, etc. So generation after generation of woodcocks still fly even in Moscow! A couple of years ago, in the height of “Bird-Flu Frenzy”, up to a dozen dead birds were found not far from the Moscow State University building in Sparrow Hills. The Moscow tabloids went berserk about it, scaring people with apocalyptic headlines. Finally, the scientists calmed the public – no virus found. The birds had died in “midair collision accidents” – hitting the polished glass windows. These forest birds still cannot tell the difference between reality and its mirror-like reflection.

The ideal place for a woodcock hunt may look just that – an opening in a forest, or a leaf-forest verge with visible grass and ground. Abandoned fields spotted with low brush or open fields next to forest edges.

Duck hunting Russian style

­The further from a village, the better. But some other local residents (of wildlife origin) may not be happy to accommodate you. This past weekend I found some evidence of a moose presence 

Duck hunting Russian style

­on the hunting ground, but in reality moose don’t go after humans in spring, and the teeth marks were quite old.

Shooting woodcocks is not simple. But a trophy is worth trying for. At last, the woodcock is a very unique bird in a gastronomical sense. Highly prized in medieval Russia, upland game is still considered a luxury dish and dozens of recipes still exist (“a woodcock baked in rye dough with apples and huckleberries” sounds good, right?) And they serve it in a restaurant not far from Red Square.

Stop! I’m not giving away “hunting secrets” that easily!

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.