Jacob Morris for SPLIT REED
It’s a November morning, with rolling green hills and small villages tucked against the early dawn. You set up in your spread wearing white and hiding in the swan decoys. You hear a unique honk from a goose you traveled so far to hunt. Have you ever wanted to hunt somewhere that lead shot is still a thing, where you could hunt without bag limits and where you’re not limited to the typical dawn to dusk restrictions? Well, you might want to go hunt ducks and Barnacle geese in Sweden! Kris explained “It was a lot like spring snow goose hunting here in Manitoba. But they use big swan shells, dress in white, and have a goose chair. We shot Barnacle Geese, Greylag Geese, and Canada Geese all in the same hunt.” After hearing the different sounds of these geese and adjusting his calling, Kris had them feet down in the spread in no time. Like a true waterfowl guide or hunter if it can be called at you are determined to convince those birds to commit to your decoys. In the afternoons they would do duck drives, which are similar to whitetails drives. “You go out with the guides and you stand around a pothole, while one guy goes in the hole to scare the ducks out. You are standing on the high ground of the bank and start shooting as the ducks fly out of the pothole. Similar to a tower pheasant hunt.” If you ever get the chance to go on a unique hunt, Kris recommends without any hesitance that you take it.
Kris Wujcik of Michitoba Outfitting like many people, grew up hunting the elusive whitetails. He himself learned in and around Troy, Michigan, with his dad and uncles. “Back then we couldn’t hunt until we were 12 years old. It was a lot of sitting with my dad watching him hunt, but I have a lot of good memories of that.” He went on to mention that his father grew up duck hunting, but kind of got away from it. Kris started to waterfowl hunt when he was 16 years old chasing ducks in Michigan. I had the same thought as you, isn’t Michigan a heavy hitter when it comes to Goose hunting? Well for Kris he said it was much easier and cheaper to go duck hunting “Just like anywhere it’s easier to go duck hunting, all it takes is a handful of water decoys and a pair of waders.” However, he eventually booked a guided goose trip in Michigan and has been hooked on honkers ever since. That guided goose trip literally paid off. “That hunt I booked with Dave Hartline of Honker Hunts, I ended up guiding with that outfit two years later after going on three guided hunts with his outfit. That’s when I officially started my guiding career, when I was just 19 years old.” Also, through those three guided hunts with Honker Hunts is where Kris met one of his guides, and now lifelong friend, Steve.
Kris got his break when he got the chance to guide some early season goose hunts for Dave’s outfit, this is the nuisance hunt and runs the first 15 days of September. When he was not guiding hunts, Kris made money as a roofing and siding contractor. He gave a good tip on how to properly get landowner permission by helping first and asking later. “Learning the roofing and siding trade was a good way to get land access from a farmer. To do a roof repair for a farmer or put up some gutters, was always appreciated by them” He used this trade to slowly turn his passion into a profit- which is hunting for a living.
Kris would do roofing jobs year-round but would shut down from September to December. Then he would do the early goose hunt and spend the rest of his time off chasing waterfowl in Michigan. He went on to say that it was hard to guide in the regular season because of the sheer amount of access to public lands. The goose limit was only 1 or 2 so there wasn’t a huge market in Michigan for guiding unless you have huge groups of people. When there is only a 1 or 2 bird limit you have to get creative with the birds you kill, “We spent a lot of time decoying geese in the regular season and sniping those geese that had collars around their neck.”
Michigan has good duck hunting, but the stories of places filled with skies black with waterfowl lingered in Kris’s mind. It led him to start taking annual trips to Arkansas, North Dakota, and eventually, he made his way across the northern border into Canada. His first experience in Manitoba, the great number of ducks and opportunities to hunt was like nothing Kris has ever seen. “It was THE place to go waterfowl hunting, it was the first time in my life I witnessed that amount of ducks dry land feed, that was a heck of an experience.” This trip holds a special place for Kris because that is where he met his wife. Love and ducks are every waterfowlers weakness. You will end up in pretty crazy situations at times chasing both, but it is well worth it in the end. For Kris, he courted his wife for three years before he finally decided it was time to make a move to Canada. “I remember the day I left, packing only my gun, my dog, and minimal personal belongings in my truck. The day I actually left was 5:00 am on 9/11. I was about three hours into my journey when all that stuff went down. I stopped to get gas in Wisconsin it was $8 a gallon I had ¼ of a tank left and decided to push it a little further. I went as far as I could and when I had to stop to fill up it was $12 a gallon, I had to pay it! When I finally made it to Canada the next day, they kind of just welcomed me into the country saying, ‘Welcome to Canada’ which was kind of odd because of all the stuff that was happening in the states”.
Around December that same year is when things got a little tricky for him, because he may not have gone through the correct process to move to another country. “I was looking at my paperwork and noticed the line where it says how long you planned to stay and thought shit, we better go cross the border and come back to renew the paperwork. My soon-to-be wife and I decided to drive down to get some groceries and cross back over into Canada. They didn’t like that too well, Long story short I basically got deported! I eventually became a citizen of Canada this time going through the right immigration channels.” Which is good for people looking for a guide in Canada but bad for the waterfowl that migrate to Kris’s fields in early fall.
Kris said he got into outfitting because he had always been an entrepreneur at heart. From shoveling snow when he was a kid to owning a roofing company for a number of years. When he found his love for guiding and hunting the next reasonable step was to own his own outfit. In 2004 he made his dream a reality by starting Michitoba Outfitting. When they started it was just a one-man show running out of a hotel. Today they have an amazing lodge to accommodate hunters. They also offer waterfowl or whitetail hunts, and they are one of Split Reed’s Premier Outfitters.
You never know where you might find Kris waterfowl hunting. In the coming year, he wants to experience more unique hunts like his Sweden hunt. He doesn’t care about making as many piles he just wants to experience different hunts. One thing is for certain- you will find him putting the ducks and geese feet down in the decoys for his clients.
