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White-fronted Goose Harvest Study

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

White-fronted-goose-harvest-study

Do you love hunting White-fronted Geese in California? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting geese, whether it’s making the perfect shot, learning to call effectively, or buying the best choke tube, we want to help people in every aspect of goose hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting White-fronted Geese is.

Harvesting a White-fronted Goose is the most iconic achievement in duck hunting, especially when it’s a memorable hunt or you get a banded bird. However, there are a few people who have made harvesting White-fronted Geese their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many White-fronted Geese have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the White-fronted Goose harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many White-fronted Geese are harvested each year and what areas shoot the most – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at the adaptive harvest reports for each state in 2021 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for harvesting White-fronted Geese.

Where are the Most White-fronted Geese Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt White-fronted Geese in California are the most likely to harvest the most amount of White-fronted Geese per hunt, followed by in Arkansas and Texas. Since 2021, those in California have harvested 101,598 White-fronted Geese, whilst in Arkansas and Texas, hunters have harvested 74,913 and 21,623, respectively.

The ten states that harvested the most White-fronted Geese, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. California – 101,598
  2. Arkansas – 74,913
  3. Texas – 21,623
  4. Louisiana – 18,231
  5. Kansas – 8,781
  6. Missouri – 8,126
  7. Oregon – 5,199
  8. Oklahoma – 4,617
  9. Indiana – 4,049
  10. North Dakota – 3,957

(Sources: USFWS Harvest Survey)

The data showed that the White-fronted Goose hunters sticking to the fields and lakes of California are most likely to harvest a White-fronted Goose. Shockingly, Texas White-fronted goose hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see a White-fronted Goose on the average goose hunt.

More Waterfowl Harvest Studies
Harvest studies are conducted by the USFWS each year in the U.S. to gauge the number of ducks and geese that are taken by hunters. This aids in setting bag limits and managing migratory bird populations from year to year. Below are the most common migratory species with available harvest data. Please click the links below to see how many birds were harvested and where.

The Most Common Shotgun Used for Harvesting White-fronted Geese

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a White-fronted Goose, the 12-gauge was revealed as the most commonly used shotgun, with over 80% of hunters choosing it. A 20 gauge and a 10 gauge shotgun rounded off the top three, with 20 gauge being the second most popular.

The 28 gauge came in fourth place with 12% usage, while the 410 bore came fifth, with 5%.

We also delved into which month people had been harvesting the most White-fronted Geese, and discovered that November was the most common, with 43% of White-fronted Geese harvested. The months of December (33%) and January (24%) came in second and third. This is likely due to goose season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months.

states-that-shoot-the-most-White-fronted-geese

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

“As any goose hunter will know, harvesting a White-fronted Goose is a big achievement – unless you’re a well-known hunting guide, an amateur hunter with multiple limit hunts on White-fronted Geese is quite the accomplishment.

“It’s interesting to see those in California harvesting so many White-fronted Geese – especially when you consider the history of White-fronted goose hunting in Texas and Arkansas – you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Pacific Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how White-fronted Goose harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe Arkansas will surpass California this time next year.”

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