Drotts speculates that most Brainerd-area geese move to the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge around St. Cloud once the hunting pressure is too great.

"Some of the goose hunters will field hunt, but the tough part is most all the good fields are tied up by other hunters, and it's tough for new hunters to come into this area," he said.

Around Bemidji, Rave pointed out, the land is characterized as more of a forest zone, and the goose population is not as large as farther west. There are plenty of geese in the area lakes, nonetheless.

"They are spaced out quite a bit farther, and we have birds, but we just don't get the same harvest," he admitted.

Bryan Sathre is a Bemidji-area fishing guide throughout the summer and winter, but he enjoys goose hunting in the fall between fishing trips.

"When the geese are around, it's a great time, and I can hunt right in my back yard, so it's tough to beat it," he said.

Big-City Goose Hunting
Another area with a high concentration of geese in the state is the Twin Cities metro area. The challenge of hunting around the Twin Cities is getting on water where discharge restrictions don't apply and hunting is allowed.

"We try to encourage local cities to use hunting management whenever possible, but there's often resistance from the city council or police department," said Bryan Lueth, the MDNR's urban area wildlife manager. "I think there are some real unsubstantiated safety concerns, and it's such an obstacle," he added.

Lueth's office does as much as it can to educate city officials and keep access open to key areas, but, he said, there are major limitations.

"There are definite population problems with too many geese in many areas, and we try to encourage (city officials) to control the population with hunters who are willing to cull the population for free, rather than pay thousands to have somebody round the geese up and move them," he pointed out.

One of the newer technologies in the market today that Lueth said he hopes changes the challenges of urban-area hunting is the "metro gun" -- shotguns that carry an extension tube that makes the barrel several feet longer, therefore, providing a very muffled sound. The blast of a 12-gauge metro gun sounds like a small firecracker.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that it could make a difference, but we have to get the public to see that this is more than just recreation; it's a safe and efficient way to management (of goose populations)," he said.

Many of the fringe areas of the metro are open to hunting, and a hunter would be best served to contact the appropriate city office and inquire about any city requirements. Some cities require permission from the police chief. A few even charge a fee to hunt there. The reward can be huge, however, with large numbers of geese that are otherwise oblivious to human presence.

"We need a local organization that can work with local landowners and cities to promote the use of hunting as a management tool," Lueth explained. "There are golf courses and public parks that could be hunted. If a group was to get a foothold somewhere, I think it would catch on," he predicted.

Every five years, the MDNR conducts a random sampling of wetlands in the area. At last count, in 2004, some 17,500 geese were found in the Twin Cities metro, but there are some limitations on access and opportunity.