# The Truth of Big Spreads



## Leo Porcello

Okay I am a big spread guy. I know little spreads will do the ticket but I like big spreads. I read a lot saying you need 1,000+ snow decoys to be successful. I have heard the more snow decoys the better. However in Jim Jones latest snow goose hunting video it appears they are only using about 300 decoys and I think they even say that somewhere in that video. In that video they have several 60 dead bird days and a few 80 as well. If you have seen the video you know that they are where the birds wanted to be and it was very windy so maybe they could have gotten away with 100 decoys. So my question is do you truly think when hunting the spring snows you need 1,500 decoys? Are the big spreads based on ego or need?


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## GooseBuster3

90 percent of his hunts are filmed in SASK where the juvies are dumb as a box of rocks. So you really dont need a big spread, and you dont really need on in spring either. Big spreads work good on catching the eyes of migrating flocks. The bigger the spread the more visible you are, which in return more birds will come into your spread. Last spring our best day was over 450 northwinds. So I guess it is up to the hunters and what they think.


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## gandergrinder

I think goosebuster nailed it.


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## Decoyer

I thought his new video was filmed during the spring? I have the Sask one called Eleven Days in Heaven.


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## GooseBuster3

Hell if I know... only he knows is how to paint he sucks at filming for sure!! Hi my names Jim jones darf........You wanna get one more ankle to gab on to cause you dont have enough to grab on to when I bend you over to pay for my wind socks! :lol:


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## Leo Porcello

It was in the spring. It is called Following the Migration and several times they say they love North Dakota.


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## GooseBuster3

Yeah the crew here woould give him a run for his money!!


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## Leo Porcello

Man did something happen in the past? Sounds like there is some lost love or something hehehe


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## GooseBuster3

Dont get me wrong he has a good decoy, if you are going to put out a video LEARN how t oedit and not drop the camera when you going to shoot. :roll:


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## gandergrinder

Goosebuster is a complete loose cannon. You never know who is going to get some of his wrath. :eyeroll:


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## GooseBuster3

:lol:


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## mallard

I run a tiny spread of 120 windsocks with a cd player.Mostly hunt by my self,so I guess I will have to see if 120 decoys will do the trick at all.I agree on the prices of his decoys Tyler,WAY to much money!I also finally have good CD,cant wait to try it out on the SOBs


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## Leo Porcello

Where you guys getting your CDs? If it is Top Secret tell me to piss off and find out through trial and error. :lol:


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## GooseBuster3

If I where you i would buy the Snow grounder cd, I personlly think it is awsome, but thats my opinion. :wink:


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## mallard

Tyler,This Cd kicks but!I havnt heard any other CD that compares to it.


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## GooseBuster3

When i downloaded the preveiw of it I thought it was pretty good, its really clear and crisp.


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## nodakoutdoors.com

PC, you basically opened up a huge debate on snow geese whether you know it or not. If you ask 20 guys who hunt snows consistently how they hunt, you'll probably get 20 different answers although a lot of similarities.

Small spreads can get it done, but not in most siutuations consistently. How many 200-400 bird snow goose feeds do you see?....not many. How many 200-400 decoy spreads do you think the average snow goose sees in a year?.....a lot.......how many 1000+?.....not many.

That's just a general philosophy, and that's not taking bird numbers, juvy counts, weather, time of year, birds that just migrated into an area, etc. into account.

You're trying to imitate a flock of snow geese, the better job of convincing you do whether it be a small spread or large spread....the better you're going to do.

No matter how much you think you know a snow goose, many days they leave you looking dazed and confused and back to the old drawing board. But if you want to take snow goose hunting seriously, you'll find yourself constantly enlarging and upgrading your spread in quality...

If you look at the guys who snow goose hunt for a living, they use large spreads and their average is much higher than most.


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## Tony Vandemore

Chalk me up on the side of the large spreads. Generally run 1000-1500 down here in MO. Can go bigger if need be, but don't too often. On another note....we had 7" of snow yesterday.....bought ready for this show to get started but it will likely be a bit yet.... Any of you all interested in swapping out some info or hunts up there in early fall for late season duck/goose hunts down in MO or spring snows? Just a thought.


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## Decoyer

The one thing that I think people don't pay enough attention to is spacing of the decoys. Yeah everyone knows tight in the spring, loose in the fall. It varies however from feeding and loafing areas also. Even in the spring the snows are fairly spread out when they are in the cornfield actively feeding. If you get your decoys too tight, then from a distance your spread looks really unnatural. In the fall, I personally like between 5-10 feet inbetween decoys, it may look funny while you are setting up, but go 100 yards away and look at your spread. I guarantee it will look good. When hunting water, that is the time to pack the decoys in as that is what the birds will be doing.

Here is a pic of snows in a pea field in Saskatchewan. Notice all the space inbetween the birds.


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## 1lessdog

To all,
Yes you can do as good on a given day.But I have hunted with Jim and he does it just about everyday.I have hunted with Jim in S.D.,N.D.Neb. and Sask.No he was not my guide I met him hunting in Neb in 1999 in the Spring season.He was running about 600 custom N/W.I had about 750 and we hunted about 3 miles apart for 3 days and we averaged 55 birds a day.Ive always said if you get in the field they want in you will kill a pile of Geese.And that is the trick is to pick the right field.And thats one thing Jim can do is read a field and know how to set up.
One thing is dont slam him for doing what he Loves to do.Hes a hunter first then a Decoy maker and then a Cameraman.He just wants to share some of his hunts with other hunters.
I to have made shows with the Benelli Bird Hunter and know what a cameraman job is really like.Some time when you edit you have to edit the good with the bad.I do know if you dont like it send it back and he will refund your money


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## Decoyer

I don't think anyone is bashing him as a hunter, but just don't put out a product such as the piss poor footage in the Eleven days to heaven video and expect to get a premium price. I mean common, some of that stuff a five year old could have done. One rule that I think you would know is not to drop the friggen camera so you can shoot, then put it in your video.


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## J.D.

Goosebuster3 - his latest video was all filmed in Nodak, Sodak, and Canada in the spring. I would say close to 90% of the birds they kill are adults in the video. I think one day they shoot 80 and they are all adults.


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## 870 XPRS

1lessdog is a guide uke:

"Relive your memories, take a kid hunting", yeah or take a group of hunters out for money


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## h2ofwlr

Decoy has a good point.--Mimick what the flocks in the fields or water are doing. All too often the decoys are set too close together of without open spaces--look at the photo, there are big open spots with in the flock.

If you have that many decoys (1000+) you really need a big group to set them out AND to cover the spread with enough hunters so anything that comes in gets kilt-I've seen it where there are 3 guys with 1500 dekes and they can not even cover 1/3 of the spread when the birds come in.

well thats my :2cents: on the subject


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## nodakoutdoors.com

Welcome to the forum h2ofwlr, glad you found my home.

I have 2 of Jim's videos and whether or not you like the footage it's still in a short list of snow goose videos out there, and I can never have enough for the off season. He gets to hunt snow geese more than most...can't do anything more than envy. And he understands quality in making a product.


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## buckseye

Both big and small work good if you are in the right field. My best hunts for a couple years now have been pass shooting on windy days when the birds are fighting the wind and flying low to follow the contour of the land. I use the live flocks for my dekes. Wait for them to land then go set up on the upwind side, there are always places in their flight pattern where they are very close to the ground for various reasons.

When using dekes you have to know the nature of the beast/birds. Even tho they travel in large numbers they are teritorial when on the ground. You have to make family groups with at least 20ft in between and often a single standing quarding it's group to make sure no other birds get to close, sometimes put two windsocks out to make it look like they are going to chase each other away. Inside the family group they must have enuff room for their wings to spread in the event of an emergency exit, which is at the minium of 5 to 6 feet between birds. If they don't have room their wings would hit each others and prevent them from a sucessful launch. This is not aways true but is a good place to start from.

I guess this is what works for me and I have had to quit hunting with a full limit many times, more often than not. It was terrible in the days of 5 and 10 bird limits. I don't hunt them as hard as I used to because of a back injury so I hope you guys get out and get my share for me, but for God's sake don't bring me any. (sky carp)


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## 1lessdog

Should I know you 870 xprs.Send me a pm or are you going to hide behind the 870 xprs.
No I dont have a guide lic.I did but havent had one for 3 yrs.And all I hunt with are my kids.
Chris knows me we tryed about 4 yrs ago to get the world largest spread going.We had guys from all over coming in.But it just feel through.


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## GooseBuster3

It should be 1LessGuide then........... uke: As for Jims videos, I havent seen the new one but was just guessing that it was in SASK. But as it turns out my guess was wrong. But I think is videos are still piss pour. Tracys Northups video has ALOT better editing.


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## goose

I have every video that Jim has made. I think i like Jims video way more then Tracy's because on Tracy's they rarely ever talk, they never show the spread or anything..its just solid shooting birds.. I like Jims because he sais on most of the hunts "heres our spread and we got so many birds and they talk alot more...the editing can be better but i still like them alot.


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## MCMANN

to let you know yes we didnt do any talking on tracys video because that what we were going for in the next one we will talk and prolly have some tips and pics of the spreads

guys love the movie but like you said #1 thing is no talking so we will fix that

thanks

mike


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## MCMANN

oh ya

if you can be in a feeding field where the birds are i think you can get away from the bigger spreads

BUT like someone said above IMO the bigger you can go with your spread the better you will be

what i have seen the bigger spread will out perform the smaller spread

someone said something about you need alot of people to put out a big spread heres 1 for you

i can put out 1000 nws in 1 hour

to many people IMO setting a spread is just crazy most of the time you will have 2 people setting and 4-5 people talking so it does take a long time

thanks

mike


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## Leo Porcello

When I first orderred Jim's videos he was pretty up front that the filming was not the best so I thought that was pretty cool that he did not try to screw me. I think the old footage is just bonus stuff he put on. For 20 bucks and over 3 hours of birds dieing I did not mind. I also have his late season honkers and mallards and the filming is a lot better. And his latest snow video was worth it to me as well. And as Chris said there is not too many options for snow goose hunting videos. Ben Higdon told me that they are in the works of producing a snow goose hunting video but not sure when it will come out.


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## honkerhntr

This off the subject, but I don't understand why some people think that he(jim) is "bending you over" for the price he asks for his decoys. I don't know if you have talked with him, but he has a lot of different options for buying decoys. When I put my rig together last yr Jim was more then helpful in everything. Just alone the blues have 7 different stages of painting. Now if you don't like the decoys that is fine, but don't bash somebody for trying to make a liveing.

As for the video's the "11 days in heaven" was one of the first that he made. Like others said and Jim himself the footage is a little ruff. His new on "following the migration" was shot in NOdak. 90% of the birds shot where mature. Not the first of the yr juvys.

JMO


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## GooseBuster3

If a guy can use a spray can they can paint custom northwinds. We did 1500 this weekend.


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## honkerhntr

I am glad for ya. I guess you don't need any help do ya.


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## nodakoutdoors.com

Don't let goosebuster get ya, his bark is worse than his bite.

Jim sells, in my opinion, the best snow goose decoy on the market. He doesn't cut any corners, and they're built to last. Sure they aren't the cheapest decoy out there, but they're done one at a time.

No need to get personal if you don't like a video. If you don't like it, don't buy it...pretty simple.


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## honkerhntr

Well said Chris. Hope you have a good spring.


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## Decoyer

> his bark is worse than his bite


Haha, amen to that


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## nodakoutdoors.com

I should have the nickname, "Fireman" for all the fires I have to put out of goosebusters. :lost:


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## gandergrinder

You vouch for a guy and this is how your repaid. You won't hear a word from me again Hustad.


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## GooseBuster3

I wasnt starting anything.... just my opinion.


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## nodakoutdoors.com

See ya at the shop tonight GG. 8)


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## gandergrinder

Sounds good. We can speak at the boy wonder a little.


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