# first time snow hunt.



## sod44 (Sep 30, 2008)

this will be my first time snow hunting and i am wondering 1st of all what are some of the major differences than canada goose hunting. will putting canada decoys out bring snows in? and what calling should i do? any field suggestions. do they like the small little sloughs?


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## sod44 (Sep 30, 2008)

what decoy formations do u do for snows as well?


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## gamberc (Mar 10, 2008)

well first off you might need some snow dekes cause unless your on the X where the snows are gonna be it will be hard to decoy them in my 2 cents


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## Gooseguy10 (Oct 10, 2006)

In my experiences it is much tougher to decoy snows than black geese. Even the best of spreads is hard to compete with flocks of 2,000 + snow geese.


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## sod44 (Sep 30, 2008)

is there any alternative to snow geese decoys because ive heard before that some people put white grocery bags out and they said that works does it?


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

heck yeah it works.


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

Lots of things have worked in the past and still may work. If you want to hunt snows go and buy some windsock decoys or silo socks. They don't cost that much and are easy to pack into a field. They also don't take much storage. You could use 50 decoys or 5000 to decoy snows. All have success.

You can use many formations for snows. The one I find the most success is the J spread. They will skirt the long arm of the J and then float over the rest of the spread. But this does not always work. Also i start with this formations and many times end up changing around the spread as the birds dictate.

Also one thing about snow geese they tend to work vertical instead of horizontal like dark geese. What I mean is they hoover over your decoys and check out the spread. They inch down foot by foot at times. Where as dark geese will do one or two swings and then commit. Snows they could swing and swing sometimes dropping a few feet or gaining a few feet.

It is hard to explain until you have hunted them.

I hope this has helped a little. Because snows are very challenging to decoy and also strategies and tactics change daily with them.....that is why I call them the white devils!


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## Decoyer (Mar 2, 2002)

I agree with all the above posts. On my last snow hunt we didn't have much wind and had great success with the "lazy x" spread. Then right near the kill hole we would finish them off with a small group of decoys in the "circle J" position.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

Snows/blues will decoy to canadas early in the season when there are few other snows around but otherwise you'll need some snow/blue decoys. If you have canada decoys (shells) you can convert them to a reasonable imitation of blues by using white heads on them. Then pick up some snow decoys. Blues really are outnumbering the snows right now but you probably still want to go heavy on the snow decoys because it increases the visibility. Numbers are generally the rule but not always and motion has become very important. Add some windsocks but if you use a type that doesn't have body support don't use them on windless days. The more miserable the weather conditions the less you can get away with in terms of decoy quality. On cloudy, windy days sometimes even paper plates will bring them close enough. In Texas they seem to get away with using just about anything which suprises me considering the geese are pressured all the way down there. I atribute that to the sheer number of birds that are wintering in the area.

As far as being on the "X" I find it is really hit and miss. If feed is really abundant geese often will not feed in the same field every day. If you have seen geese feeding in a field it indicates what they want. While they may not be in that field the next day they may be in one similar. I view Geese feeding in a field is an indicator of its potential. If it has attracted geese it is likely to attract more at some point. I think canadas tend to be more habitual on this issue than snows/blues. The field I have lined up for this weekend is corn that was harvested Thursday. No geese have used it yet but I'm gonna chance it because it is the only cut corn in the area and it is a field I have seen geese in on previous years.

I also have a theory that there may be "traditional" feeding/resting fields.
I know of a couple of fields that attract geese year after year regardless of what and even if anything was planted on them. These fields attract geese both in the fall and spring. I always keep them in mind as my fallback location.

While some people use patterns I have never noticed a difference and abandoned them years ago. That said, I have on occasion had to adjust my blind location throughout the day to get the best shot at the birds.


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## jonesy12 (Apr 1, 2008)

Great info Dakota!!!!


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## sod44 (Sep 30, 2008)

aight thanks.


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