that there have been many favorable comments received since the 
close of the 1961 hunting season in Wisconsin. Most hunters recognize 
that pit or blind hunting and blind spacing requirements have greatly 
improved the quality of hunting and enabled cleaner kills with less 
crippling when there is room to allow birds to work over decoys. 
Establishment of Delayed Opening Zones and Special Shooting 
Hours: A number of States have experimented with the effects of 
establishment of delayed opening dates, earlier closing hours, 
half-day shooting, etc. In Alexander, Union, Jackson, and William- 
son Counties in Illinois, wild geese may be taken only between sun- 
rise and 3 p.m., central standard time, during the open season. In 
Wisconsin, goose hunting has been stopped at 2 p.m. within the 
managed hunting area on the refuge and delineated zone surrounding 
the refuge. A similar approach was tried at the Necedah Refuge. 
When first initiated, these delayed openings and early closing zones 
were designed to permit birds to develop and maintain a daily feed- 
ing pattern outside the refuge, thereby increasing the opportunity 
to kill geese. The primary objective has been accomplished in most 
cases, and this feature may now be enhancing a more rapid kill rate 
in the vicinity of some areas. This procedure should be reviewed 
critically in the future. 
Considerable thought has been given to the value of delayed 
season openings, and the merits of this procedure must generally 
be weighed on the basis of local problems. For example, in the 
vicinity of the Horicon Refuge in Wisconsin, goose hunting was 
generally delayed a week or more beyond the earliest permissible 
opening date in order to permit geese to develop established 
feeding patterns considerable distances away from the refuge so 
as to achieve better distribution of hunting opportunity. The 
results of this approach may have backfired to some degree at 
Horicon. In 1960 a population of nearly 70,000 geese was present 
at the time the season opened. Following the 94-day hunting 
season more than 50,000 remained on the area well into December 
and a wintering population of more than 10,000 birds developed. 
Present thinking is that it would be better to keep the hunting 
pressure on during the early stages of migration in Wisconsin so 
as to attempt to force a portion of the population on south in an 
effort to discourage the wintering trend. This, of course, pre- 
sents a problem with respect to carrying capacities of wintering 
areas in Illinois and points south. 
There is a somewhat different situation with delayed opening 
provisions concerning the Eastern Prairie population at the Swan 
Lake Refuge in Missouri. In the past, early openings accompanied 
by @ closure after three to four weeks of hunting have resulted in 
larger numbers remaining through the winter. In this area, winter 
temperatures do not usually become cold enough to force birds farther 
