# Someone PLEASE HELP!!!!



## danreg99 (Sep 1, 2003)

Well, my buddies and I have been hunting for awhile now and have all finally admitted that we suck at Honker Hunting. Back when we were in High school we used to limit out all of the time. Now, were lucky if we only get 1 bird. I don't get it. We have about 50 bigfoot decoys, 3 eliminator coffin blinds, and a couple of flags. I know you need more than equipment to lure in birds but this is ridiculous. We have tried about everything imaginable. We set the decoys in a standard J hook or U shape (Read about this in a mag) and put or blinds on the outskirts upwind of the decoys. We also scout the night before and go in the same fields that these geese are in. We gets the birds in at about 100 yards and then they just scoot to the side and keep on going. There was another group of hunters about 500 yards away with about 3 dozen mag shells and they just went barreling in to them. Anyone that could share some info or help me out a little bit would be doing be a BIG FAVOR. I DONT KNOW WHATS WRONG!!! Is it the decoys, blinds, calls or everything? PLEASE HELP.. Thanks for any feedback


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## stoeger (Aug 20, 2003)

Danreg99

Do you have your blinds blended in with the field? Do you have your decoys spread out in little family groups. I usually use a small number of decoys in the early season and that seems to work. Thats just my opinion.


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## wemlaw (May 10, 2003)

I've never been to ND, but plan to come this fall. We have exactly the same thing that you described happen to us were we hunt in Arkansas. It was a strange thing which was worse when one particular friend was with us. He refused to wear a face mask and just had to look at the ducks: right at the ducks. He would tell you that he never looked up, but he did. The only way to hunt with him is a roll top blind and don't let him touch the top. We have one guy call the shots and no one else looks. It makes a differnce for us.


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## danreg99 (Sep 1, 2003)

Yeah, we try to blend in the blinds the best we can. We were in Canola today and they looked pretty good. Do you think mag shells are better then the full body bigfoot decoys? Any info is greatly appreciated.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

We had out 80 bigfoots yesterday and we shot our 30 birds for the 6 of use. Family groups dont matter that much, we ran an X pattern and shot the krap out of them!! We also had soem great callers in the spread I will say calling can make or break a hunt.


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## danreg99 (Sep 1, 2003)

Do you think it matters what kind of bigfoots we have? As far as I know we are all decent callers, but maybe not. Would it matter that we have a lot of Sentry bigfoots? Any tips on calling would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.


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## Ron Gilmore (Jan 7, 2003)

One thing I have found was the placemnt of the sentries if you can make sure they are on the perimeter and spaced it seems to make adifference. Other may have more input but with my limited knowlege this has been an issue. I have eledcted many times to not use more than 4 or 6 in my spread.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

> We gets the birds in at about 100 yards and then they just scoot to the side and keep on going.


When they skirted the decoys, did they seem to want to land in a different part of the field or in another field altogether? And the guys in the super mags, were the birds in their field the night before? When you're scouting, note exactly where the birds were before they leave the field for the roost the night before. That's where you want to be in the morning.

The earlier comments I think were right on. Concealment is HUGE...you gotta stuff those blinds big time. How much were you calling, and how good are the callers? This early in the year, calling isn't that important and can actually hurt you more than help. I think we slightly overcalled to start and by the end we weren't using the calls at all and they coasted right in.

Another thing, how were you using the flags? Were they just handflags? If you use handflags when the birds are close, they can often pick out the blind. I use a 15 foot pole with my flag, so it directs the movement away from the blinds and draws birds from over 250 yards out. One more note on flagging...don't overdo it. The local geese don't fly around the field much at all after they land, if at all. So with that being said use the flag to mimic a goose stretching it's wings rather than a "flying goose". 2 or 3 flutters of the flag is plenty.

And lastly, I only use about 1 to 3 sentry positions per dozen of feeders. A lot of sentries signals distress, you want to give the birds the impression the eating's good...


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

I agree with Hustad on the use of flags. We used three flags on Monday but only used them to get the attention of the birds. When the birds started coming towards us we then put them down and hit them with the calls. When we were trying to turn birds we really laid the calling to them and then eased up as the birds got closer. Mostly just clucks.
The birds that we called were very responsive to calling. We had birds land in the field with us and another flock came by and was going to land with them and I hit them with a comeback call and one bird whipped a 180 and came right in. I also noticed that when the birds wanted to land short Decoyer and Goosebuster picked up the pace on the calls and got real agressive and this often pulled the birds that extra distance to us.
We also had to adjust the spread and the blinds mid hunt because they were finishing a little different than we thought. Adjust till you find something that works.


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## Decoyer (Mar 2, 2002)

I agree with GG and Hustad on the use of calls. You want to call as little as you have to to get the job done. Under certain circumstances you really want to hit them hard though, like the instance that GG described. Once this weekend we had a classic example of this. We had a family group come in and we killed 6 of the 8. We all got back down and threw everything we had at the remaining 2 and got them to at least turn and come back over at 40 and dropped those last two. Calling takes a lot of practice, but when done efficiently it can be one of the most powerful tools a goose hunter can be given.


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## danreg99 (Sep 1, 2003)

They seemed that they wanted in the field and then they looked at us an just kept on going, they didn't stay in the same field. I guess we have way to many Sentrys. I think we have about a dozen!! Oh ****. What do you guys recommend for a call. I have a big river flute call, sounds a little bit high pitched. Has anyone ever heard of the Fast talker goose call from Chris Holste? I purchased that last year, practiced it, and still sound like crap. Are there any sites out there that would help me with my calling a little bit? We only have 1 flag and it is attached to a 20 ft pole. Thanks for all of the info that you guys have given me. Dan


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

How many hours have you practiced on that goose call? I just started blowing a short reed and have practiced for close to 50 hours on it and still can't get all the sounds I want out of the call. It takes alot of time to learn how to blow one. I would not recommend switching back and forth between the two when trying to learn. I used to have a Big river and they blow completely different than a short reed. Good luck.


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## sniperboy (Sep 2, 2003)

One quick question...the field that the geese ended up in...was it downwind of your spread? And only call when they are vocal. They talk, you talk. Flute calls are very hard to master, better for far off geese than when they get in close...that's when you shut up!!
Better luck next time...that's why they call it "hunting and not killing"


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## danreg99 (Sep 1, 2003)

The fields are generally upwind of our spread. That is good advice about the calling. I have never thought of that before. I cant wait till Saturday to try out all of the stuff I have learned. First things first, some of those sentrys are staying in the trailer. Has anyone heard of that Fast Talker call? Thanks for all of the info..


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## danreg99 (Sep 1, 2003)

Thanks guys for all your help!!! Setup decoys a little looser, in the same spot and exactly like the geese were feeding. Put the eliminator blinds just out of the spread and picked up about 14 honkers. Should of have more but 1 of my buddies cant seem to stay still. Once again, thanks a lot!!!!!


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