In March of 2009, I had took off to Mound City, MO. With a population of less than 1300 people, this town has little to offer in the way of entertainment. That being true, I did not come here to party, I came to shoot snow geese. The outfitter I shot with was TopGUN GuideService. From large number spreads, comfy layout blinds, good jokes, to excellent customer service, I have found the guide service that has it all. Not to mention, they put you on the birds. I have shot with 2 other guide services in Missouri and South Dakota in my time hunting the spring snow seasons, and by far, Top Gun has the best setup. My reasoning is simple: These guys find the birds then put you on top of them, and not the other way around.
Mound City is known for Squaw Creek NWR. This place, at peak, can hold well over one million snow geese every spring. Many guides simply pay for leases next to or near the refuge and pray the birds cooperate. Top Gun, however, does the opposite. They scout fields, get permission, set up, then bring in the customers. While they are hunting fields, there are more members of the company out scouting new fields in case some fields begin to not produce birds. To some, this may seem like an advertising ploy by the company. This is not a lie, as we saw it ourselves on our trip. We ventured for a 4 day trip Monday thru Thursday. Wednesday, my group was able to be put under multiple tornado's of snow geese and able to shoot 110. Sleeping in and packing the final day, we arrived at the meeting spot to get our birds from the guides. They invited us to hunt the evening in a fresh field that they scouted in the morning and were going to hunt in the evening. How can you deny the awesome teamwork and customer service. There guides had only a few customers on a Thursday because many people hunt the weekend, Friday thru Sunday, or opt for a weekday hunt, Monday thru Wednesday. Due to not having many clients booked on this day, we were able to catch an invite that all of the guides were hunting on. The invite in itself sealed the deal for me that this is one awesome company to do business with. As a social entrepreneur and small business owner myself, I saw many of the qualities that I look for in building a successful company and successful business strategy.
My buddy and I are recent college graduates, and our guide on the right, pose for a photo in the early afternoon after we decided we had hunted enough and had enough fun for one day!
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