Frustrating Rewards: Freelance Hunting

Kyle Doolittle for SPLIT REED

I am Kyle Doolittle from CallnFallWaterfowlers, and freelance hunting is our way of life. Now, I’ve gone on guided trips before, but there is just a different feeling about a do it yourself hunt. Along with this, there can be some very frustrating times though. First off, you must grow accustomed too gas station dinners in your truck for countless nights. You work a 12-hour shift and proceed to drive around until dark. It’s not uncommon to go through 2-3 tanks of gas every few days scouting. Once you finally find a goose feed, the real work begins. I always like to keep a few small gift cards in my truck or goose meat for the farmers who make it all possible.

After getting permission for the field, you start to plan out the hunt. Where are the birds mainly feeding? What type of field is it? Where is the wind coming from? Where are the birds roosting? Where is the best hide? We discuss this all as a group to make the hunt as successful as possible. If you freelance hunt, you will gain knowledge of things to look for. Such as scouting near open water during the late season, or scouting areas you know hold birds at certain times of the year. But as much knowledge, as you gain, you can never predict the hunt. The birds might switch fields the day you hunt the feed, or someone beats you to the field.

Earlier this year we had something happen that you can’t plan for. My hunting buddy, Matt Coonen, got permission on a feed for the next morning. He had everything all planned out and ready. We got there the next morning and got all set up. Once first light came, the farmer started yelling across the field at us. Matt walked across the field to see what was happening. Come to find out, the farmer was elderly and he had forgotten within the 12 hours that he had talked to Matt prior. You never talk back to farmers though, no matter who is right. The more you argue, the less likely they are to allow hunting in the future. And at the end of the day, we need farmers in order to have a waterfowl season. Through all of this, through all the frustration, there is another successful hunt around the corner.

This past August, we had anywhere from 6 to 8 trucks out scouting around the clock and still nothing. Feeds can be hard to find early season because you’re targeting small local family flocks. It was about two hours before dark the night before opener. We were getting pretty discouraged about not having a field for opening day. I walked out of my house to finish out the night scout when I heard the best sound you could ever imagine. A hail of geese and they were somewhere close. I quickly got in my truck and sped towards the area I heard the birds. Lo’ and behold, we had found the holy grail feed we were looking for just a quarter-mile from my house. We miraculously got permission and the weight was off our shoulders. Nothing more we could do than wait to see what the next day brought. It started out hot and heavy right at shooting light. Small flock after small flock decoying within 20 yards. We ended the day one bird shy of an eleven-man limit! The feeling of all the hard work and frustration paying off is why you thrive to do it over and over.

With freelance hunting, you get to call the shots. you do everything. The scouting, preparation, decoy placement, shot call, bird cleaning. The list goes on and on. Sure, the easy road would be to pay someone to sit over their spread and kill birds, but there is little reward in the easy route. And even when the hunt doesn’t pan out, you still get to meet some pretty awesome people along the way; people who share the same passion as you. Other than a select few guys I went to school with, our hunting group is made up of people we have grown to call family along the way. The biggest fear you must overcome when freelance hunting is a failure. You must remember that every single person will experience failure and defeat at some point, but that’s what helps you grow as a hunter. I will always resort to freelance hunting whenever possible. The reward always outweighs the conditions.