# starting a spread off right



## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

allow me to apoligize in advance if im drilling this topic too far into the ground, but i would like some input before i start spending money. ok, its time for me to start building a serious goose field spread. ive been goose hunting for a while but it was usually just me and a buddy putting together about 50 beat up mixed and matched hand me down shell dekes. we didnt have the money for anything better, and we wernt going to be held back by that fact that our decoys were junk.  but now there is a little spare cash, and its time to go to work. so what im asking is; if you had 800 bucks to start a goose spread from scratch, how would you spend it? all fb's? mix in some shells and silos? is it best to start with numbers and work realism in over time? or just go straight for the best you can buy right away? i have some experience with what works best, but some expert advice would be nice. thanks guys.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

$800.00 can get you a pretty nice starter spread. If you have the room for FBs then that is what I would go for. You could get a min of 2 doz Big Foots (if you work the right deals you could get 3 doz) and probably more Avery's and have some spare change. I think you will find that 9 out of 10 times you will do better with 2 doz quality decoys opposed to your current 50 mixed and matched hand me downs.

If you don't have the room for the FBs then I would put it into the Avery Shells as they seem to be pretty nice looking.

As for starting with quality or quantity. I think most will agree to go with the quality and build your desired size spread from there. Honestly if I would have done that I would have saved hundreds of dollars and would have more higher quality decoys than I have now.

I am not into mixing and matching decoy brands or styles. Some swear by it. I have been successful doing it but I think it has hurt me at times. But you have a few choices for your current decoys. Keep them, touch up the paint, convert to snows. sell them and get more new decoys or ship them to me as a gift!

Good luck!


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

diver_sniper said:


> i have some experience with what works best, but some expert advice would be nice.


I forgot to add I am not even close to being an expert!!


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## greenhead (Jun 1, 2004)

I would go with the fullbodys right away in the end you will be glad you did.


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## SDNDhtr (Apr 29, 2005)

im in the same boat as you diver_sniper. ive had some hand me downs all my life but last season added 12 GHG full bodies. the spread looked odd and the geese didnt always seem to like it. this year im going to get rid of my hand me downs, get another 12 GHGs and talk a frined (i hope) into buyin 12 GHG shells. i think it should work in most cases.


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

pork chop, so what your saying is that you dont recomend getting ghg and bf fbs? just pick one or the other? cuz i was thinking about going with a dozen bf, and a dozen ghg so that i could decide once and for all, for myself which i prefer, and then building up those numbers in the future. but its an interesting point, one i hadnt thought about, but it makes sence. anyone else have any experience with that? does it help if all your decoys come from the same factory?


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

one more thing i forgot to add, what opinions do you guys have on wind socks? we have used them before, and i guess to me they didnt look bad, we of course didnt set them in the landing pocket or anything, more to the back of the spread. is the motion they produce worth the slightly ugly decoy? or is that something i should not even bother with?


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

For me I would have to stick to one of the other. There are plenty of guys that mix them up and do just fine. I have mixed them up and done fine as well. But my personal preference is to use the same brand. But I am sure you would be fine mixing the two. Like I said it is just my "personal" preference.

I assume your talking Canada Goose Windsocks. Personally I would stay away from them. For the movement use your flags and windlife heads. I used decoy dancers for movement but it seemed like they either moved a little or they were break dancing. So I renamed them Decoy Breakdancers. Moving Goose Decoys has a nice little contraption that makes the heads move around in a natural kind of way. If you have seen Fallen Skies II then you have seen that product.


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## honkertalker (Dec 7, 2004)

First of all.. if you dont have a field blind youre going to NEED one of those. Go with either the Avery Finisher or the Avery Powerhunter. Then finish out the rest of the money by completing the Avery/GHG spread by getting the GHG fullbodies. You wont be disappointed.


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## Matt Fiala (Nov 8, 2004)

Start with a blind for sure, then pick up as many fullbodies as you can handle. Then with what you have left I would have to say the GHG shells are some of the best looking out there.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Chalk another up on full bodies for me.

I won't go into the "which brand" argument, but it depends on what type of person you are. If you don't mind spending time here and there replacing parts then go with the cheapest alternative. If you just want to have a spread that'll last no matter what you throw at it; spend the extra money and get the most durable.

I know some people though who swear by an all silhouette spread, simply because everyone has full bodies...let alone, a 2-4 dozen spread. You can pick up a lot of used silly's for $800, maybe as much as 10 dozen or so. Canada goose hunting is fastly becoming a numbers game.

With that all said, I agree with what was posted earlier and get a blind if you don't have one. If you're on a budget, get a khaki blind or Xterminator for around 200 bucks...or even look for one used.

Don't forget to save some money for a flag too.... 

My .02 - good luck on the investment!


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## CatManJack (Jun 19, 2005)

Diver keep in mind that you dont need fb to kill geese, which I am sure you are aware. I kill all my geese over shells.. If you can call and flag then save your money and use it on gas. Most people get fb because they have some type of internal compensation issues. Stick with what has been working best for you.


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## Bob B. (Jun 26, 2005)

I agree with the quality thing. This past year we thought quantity was the way to go till we only put out our GHG decs and had the best hunt of the year. What we do when we don't have our buddies decs with us is use our 12 GHG's & our RED Head shells with flocked heads. The paint scheme is identical. The Rea Heads are available with flocked heads now for only $79.00. I put some of them on motion stakes so they weren't all resters. This is a good way to keep all your decs looking the same at less cost. The other thing is that I don't plan on ever using decs without flocked heads again. That seemed to make a huge difference for us as well.


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