Guess what's molting...?

[gudspelr]

At least in my neck of the woods.









I started going through the areas I've been seeing the Canadian Geese with their fuzzy little critters and found the feathers all over.  Once I saw the feathers at the first spot, I hit up some parks with ponds and found more.  Never collected feathers like this before, but REALLY wanted some natural feathers for my natural shafts without spending a bunch of money.  I plan on doing more checking over the next few weeks, because I think the molting just got going and will continue for a bit yet.  I'm hopeful that between the 2 sets of turkey wings a buddy gave me and these, I'll have enough to fletch 2 or 3 dozen arrows.  I'm thinking I might try some 2 fletch arrows and leave them a bit taller to make up for missing a 3rd feather-might get more arrows fletched out of it...?


Jeremy

[Scowler]

Excellent haul!

[Muler44]

Those look good!  Should make some nice arras!

[Sparrow]

Goose makes good fletching. Nice haul !  '  Frank

[Nifty]

What part of the country are you in?

I wonder if they're still molting down here in GA.

[BowEd]

Good find.Match em and strip em.A person can see the water repellant film on those goose feathers after fletching.To me goose is'nt quite as stiff as primaries from a turkey wing.I use them as a cock feather with turkey.That could stretch the amount of arrows done too.

[crooketarrow]

   Around here the geese started molting last week. I fished 3 different ponds and got a couple dozzen fight feathers. I only use flight feathers but some of those secondarys look good. I'm sure you could use these also. I've got 2 other ponds and a park I hit that I get dozzens others from everyyear. Then by the end of JUNE I go back around.

[gudspelr]

Nifty-I'm up in the Idaho

Crooketarrow-I managed to find some of the longer, stiffer flight feathers, but a lot more secondaries.  At this point, I figure I'll do some different fletching on some shafts and see how they all fly, then take the best results and make up some good hunting ones.  All the rest will hopefully make for good target and stumping arrows.


Jeremy

[Nifty]

Went to the lake park yesterday afternoon, found about 12 good primaries (6 left and 6 right). Also picked up a nice handful of the bigger secondaries... I'll try them out and see how they compare to the turkey feathers! 

Thanks for the heads up!

[Prarie Bowyer]

Woa!  I didn't realize you could get that many feathers on a haul.

[billy]

Yeah now is a great time to pick up some Canada Goose Wing feathers.  I've collected LOTS of them from parks and lakes.  They look identical to the wing feathers of a mature bald eagle but are legal!  I have also used them on arrows for wet, rainy weather and they held up much better than turkey feathers.  Even still I usually avoid using my primitive gear in the rain. 

I think they will continue molting for the next 3 weeks or so.  So keep checking back at the places where you picked them up because they will keep being replenished by the geese for the next few weeks!

They work great for fletching..... but I don't use them because you can't see them in flight.  I prefer to use white feathers because I film my hunts and need to see the arrows in flight, and so does the camera.  But if you've got them...use them!!

[gudspelr]

Billy-

I've heard how hard it is to see the good fletching, but like you said, I'll use what I have .  I've thought about it though and am thinking of using white thread to wrap the feathers and maybe trying to use some of PatB's rabbit zonkers-sounds like they work well.  I'll keep checking back at the ponds and see how many I can get-I love free .

Jeremy

[Carson (CMB)]

Been watching ebay for turkey feathers and they are about $1.00 per primary right now.  So good  reason to find and collect these geese feathers.  I worked near the willamette river last year and would pick them up from the waterfront park during my lunch.  I guess it was about this time of year.  I need to go back and check. I really like goose fletching. 

[JackCrafty]

Awesome.   

[Chicknlady]

Finally got a chance to hit a park with a huge pond nearby... Jackpot!    I didn't count how many goose feathers I collected, but it got to the point I couldn't hold onto them with one hand.   If I had been a day or so earlier, before they had mowed, I could have had a ton more... saw too many sad, ripped-up feathers laying around.