PRATT COUNTY, Kan. — A solid flock of 400, the geese banked into the hard wind one Saturday and slowly lowered over a decoy spread of at least as many.

Whitefronts cackled and Canadas gave high-pitched honks, happy to be back to the pond where they’d drink and rest for the day. There were so many they had to settle down in waves that moved from near mid-pond to shore.

Less than 10 yards from the closest birds, 10 sets of eyes watched the show until Phil Freeman hollered “Shoot ’em” over the roar of wings and calls.

Fourteen geese were left on land and ice when the shooting was over.

“A person could hunt their whole life and never see something like that,” said Mike Christensen, beaming about the sight hours later.

Actually, the morning was designed to be the hunt of a lifetime for four special guests and their adult mentors, part of Christensen’s Pass It On outdoors mentor program.

“We’ve been kind of saving some place like this because we feel so strongly for what the program does,” said Zach Simon, of Flatland Waterfowl, a central Kansas outfitter. “This is the last weekend of the season so we figure we’ll go all out for the kids.”

Usually working with local Big Brothers Big Sisters groups, Pass It On helped about 600 Kansas kids and their mentors make it afield for fishing, target shooting or hunting last year.

The kids were all from Wichita, Kan.

The program provides most of the funding from assorted donations. Derek Rambo, of Avery Outdoors, drove up from Texas to furnish equipment and labor for Saturday morning’s hunt.

Mother Nature, though, wasn’t so kind.

The temperature was 11 with a gusty wind making a you-don’t-want-to-know windchill.

Simon arranged 10 camoed lay-out blinds along the shore of the frozen pond, and topped it with tumblweeds and cedar boughs to replicate a big brushpile.

“This is kind of like a coffin,” 11-year-old Pierre joked as he settled into a blind. “I wonder if this is what it will be like when I’m dead.”

Several thousand geese flushed from the pond when the hunters arrived an hour after dawn, landing amid assorted nearby grain fields.

Out of the wind, the hunters watched as flocks of geese soon started trekking across the sky as Freeman and others made goose music on their calls.

Many flocks seemed to just be flying around, while a few showed interest in the three acres of ice. Several times, birds passed 30 yards above the blind; good enough for most groups but Freeman and Simon wanted the guests to experience the thrill of watching geese settling into decoys nearly within touching distance.

Hundreds of geese were swirling around when seven whitefronts sailed under the flocks and gradually settled amid the decoys. Six of the geese fell to the coming volley of shots. It was the first goose for most of the boys.

A dozen or more future flocks acted as if they would follow the same pattern, only to lift off at the last minute.

“They’re seeing something,” Simon said. “We usually don’t hunt that many people but this is a special hunt.”

It was about 11 a.m. when a white and brown mass of snow and dark geese rose from a nearby field, and the pond became the eye of a cyclone of circling birds.

“Here it comes,” Rambo said from where he was hiding in trees 30 yards away. “These birds are going to do it. It’s going to happen.”

The sight of line after line of geese slowly settling into the decoys was enough that he forgot about the camera in his hands.

Seconds later, Simon’s Lab, Otter, was fetching geese from ice thick enough to hold his weight. Freeman and others in waders stomped and smashed their way through thin ice to the rest.

On shore, four kids high-fived and chattered with anyone who would listen.

Someone mentioned most waterfowlers never see such a sight in their lives.

“But we just did,” said 14-year-old Duncan Oliver, a wide smile crossing his face.