# crawling for geese.



## dogdigger (Jan 26, 2004)

how effective is trying to sneak up on spring geese? i dont have any snow decoys so my only option would be to crawl around and try to get some. :sniper:

any tips ?

thanks 
mark


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## duckslayer (Oct 30, 2003)

:sniper:


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## dogdigger (Jan 26, 2004)

i am new to hunting geese, so what do u mean by pass shooting?

thanks

mark


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## duckslayer (Oct 30, 2003)

:sniper:


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## dogdigger (Jan 26, 2004)

and the flocks wont fly away? man that would be a blast!!! bring a pack full of shells!! haha

mark


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

It isnt as easy has duckslayer said, more often then not they are way the hell out in the middle of a section. You better get readu to get muddy and have a gun that cycles one shell. But crawlign is fun if you are a young guy like myself, I can crawl threw any amount of water or mud! Good luck! :beer:


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

This is a bit of a stretch, but I've done it before and it was worth it. If you see a lot of birds working a corn field at night, lay out in the middle of it the next morning. If they return it'll be a morning to remember (if you're patient enough to let them come on top of you).

Otherwise with sneaking/pass shooting you have to put on miles and look for good opportunities.


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

Sneaking can be very tiring. 4 years ago, I didn't have any decoys for snows either and all I did was sneak em. I did manage to get the highest reported mark for snow geese that year with 132, that is just what was reported by g&f though. However let me tell you, it takes the toll on a guy in teh spring with the conditions fluctuating from sloppy to hard and vise versa. Make sure if your sneaking you actually have a chance at getting at the birds. You'll learn quick what to sneak and what not to sneak after a couple hundred yard belly crawls that are fruitless.


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## Pluckem (Dec 26, 2002)

Last year with the dry conditions it made it a lot easier to crawl on the geese. This year you are going to get messy, and if you see any other hunters crawl there is a 95% chance they are young guys. It does take a lot out of a guy. I also noticed last year since there wasnt any water in the fields it was hard to get in between feeding flocks cause instead of just flying to different fields during the day they were going back and forth between the roosts and fields, which made them fly sky high.


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

Here's a crazy story about a sneak I had last year. I'm not starting a NR debate here, so don't get your feathers all ruffled up, just a story. Anyways me and 2 hunting buddies had been watching this iced over pond for a few days and geese had been using it off and on so we were going to go set up some dekes there and give it a shot this one saturday afternoon. When we got there in the mornign however it was completely covered in birds. Luckily their was a drainage ditch with cattails that led right out to it. All 3 of us are good buddies with the landowner so we drove part way out into he field and parked right beside the drainage ditch. We begin to get pretty close to the flock and we've had flyovers the entire way out there. When here comes a shot from like 50 yds behind us. All the geese get up and we manage to scratch about 4 or 5 and we take a look behind us. 5 MN pickups had pulled out into the field behind us parked right beside our pickup and started crawling the same path we had :eyeroll: It's kinda just a ridiculous story now i don't get mad about it but i thought it was kinda funny that they would try to crawl up our *****. To stay on topic though, when the conditions are dry like they have been the last few years. Sneaking in fields in ND is extremely difficult. The method chris explained above about laying in a cornfield is very exciting if you can get it to work for you. It can get really tough to lay off getting up when you have a few thousand snows barking from 50 yds out. We've used some burlap out in the field and actually had them crawl on us before, that got the heart a pumpin. Anyways good luck. I gotta quit coming on this site, i think the school work is suffering. :withstupid:


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## Perry Thorvig (Mar 6, 2002)

You actually had birds stepping on you??????????????????? Wow, that would be something. I would never have been able to resist the temptation. By the way, kudos to you guys if your camo is good enough to do that. :beer: Be careful though, they tend to crap where they walk!!


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

yeah we had them walking on top of us, but the other part of that hunt is that we only ended up with 7 birds. When we got up i had the burlap stuck to the end of my gun and the other guy that was with me didn't know what the hell to do. Anyways that was one to remember.. Let me tell you,,,i know about the crappin all over the place, lol


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## wooduck26 (Mar 21, 2002)

870 That is nothing short of amazing! great story. Dave!


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Hey 870 it can be painful and yucky but that is the 'goose zone'. Been there many times!!


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Crawling is a waste of time tough why crawl for 25 minutes to shot55-60 snows then it take s a another 2 hours to get them out of the field then another hour to clean them. I get much more statisfaction out of setting up dekes, 15 birds over dekes is like shooting 80 jumpshooting. just my .02


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## Perry Thorvig (Mar 6, 2002)

I agree GB3. I have said it many times that it does nothing for my ego or bragging rights to indiscriminately shoot 3 to 5 times into a flock and drop a whole bunch of birds. I too would rather shoot 10 or 15 while decoying than 80 jumpshooting. But, to each his own I guess.


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## CheapHunter (Sep 24, 2003)

Crawling can be fun! But I simply dont bother if the hunting pressure in an area is too high. Too many times i've crawled 200+ yards only to get within 40 of a flock and all the sudden here a BOOM!! only to see some old guy or some other idiots trying to shoot off the road at
60+ yards. :eyeroll:


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

Dam if I had birds walking on me I think I would have been grabbing them by the legs and biting their heads.


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## CheapHunter (Sep 24, 2003)

:beer:


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## dogdigger (Jan 26, 2004)

i dont like jump shootin either but i dont have any snow deeks so its either crawl for them or sit here at home with my hand in my pants. :roll:


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

dogdigger said:


> i dont like jump shootin either but i dont have any snow deeks so its either crawl for them or sit here at home with my hand in my pants. :roll:


hehehe....... :lol: Well said.

To each their own...


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## Brad Anderson (Apr 1, 2002)

The best decoys are live ones!! Plus, you don't have to pull a trailer everywhere you go.


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