# How many decoys are you using.



## nowski10 (Jan 27, 2006)

I have A question for you guys. How many decoys are you using. I will be hunting in north dakota soon and I was just kinda wondering what you guys have had the best luck with and what you guys have heard works good. Thanks! Nick


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## goosegrinder (Mar 4, 2005)

450 Sillosocks and 84 Deadly Decoys. Plus,one goose shell to cover the ecaller. :lol: :lol:

Alex


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

We used around 1300 this weekend-could have used 10 and had the same results-mostly windsocks and 300 or so shells


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## Dan_Mohn (Jan 18, 2005)

We Used 700 socks and shells the last 3 days and got just over 40......depends the most on conditions


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

We had just under 200 over three days, hardly got anything. I don't remeber who told me "go big or go home", but they were probably right. I guess I'm not sure if more would have helped, but I know it wouldn't have hurt.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Yeah that is a worthless spread... :roll:


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## honker (Feb 13, 2005)

around 850 full bodies


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

Honker, did you hook up with a group on Tuesday morning down way south in a cattle pasture by chance?


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

GooseBuster3 said:


> Yeah that is a worthless spread... :roll:


Hah, I know this now. 2 months ago when I asked if anyone thought I could pull it off almost everyone said yes. Guess I learned. Gonna have to start sellin some stuff if I want to have enough decoys to actually work with.


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## honker (Feb 13, 2005)

Goose Buster no we did not been hunting just feilds sence thursday morning


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## Duckslayer04 (Oct 2, 2005)

We use about 2500 shells, 100 floaters and about 40 or so flyers, maybe we will throw in a couple of kites.


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## Goose Guy350 (Nov 29, 2004)

500-600 mainly windsocks and silosocks and then 2 dozen FBs in the kill hole, this combo was good for 50 in three days in MO, we'll be trying again this weekend in SD


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## Ty (Mar 11, 2004)

about 850 sillosocks, deadlys, and Avery FBs


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

diver_sniper said:


> We had just under 200 over three days, hardly got anything. I don't remeber who told me "go big or go home", but they were probably right. I guess I'm not sure if more would have helped, but I know it wouldn't have hurt.


At least you shot some over your home-mades


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

They were actually sillosocks. I guess I'll have to get a second job to build a decent spread for next year. And a third one to add to the Canada spread. Then find something to sell so I can buy some more calls that I don't really need. What a life :roll:


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## Scatterwood (Mar 15, 2004)

ussapper that was probably us you saw down south in a cattle pasture.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

if ur heading to SD the mitchell area yesterday had about 15,000 whites flying all over. Most heading east for some reason


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

diver_sniper said:


> They were actually sillosocks. I guess I'll have to get a second job to build a decent spread for next year. And a third one to add to the Canada spread. Then find something to sell so I can buy some more calls that I don't really need. What a life :roll:


When did you guys make all those socks then?


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

Oh we never made any, we just got the economy sillosocks that have to be painted and put together. It almost feels like we made em though, it took a lot more work than I thought it would to get them done. It was fun though.


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

This past 4 days we used 240 silo socks, 100 Northwids custom painted with heads and 100 headless custom painted socks. Well did not do so good.

We shot 8 total.

Three things happened.....Poor field, some poor shooting, and did not call shots when they should have been called (got greedy and thought more would commit). But if you take out the last two we could have had about 20-30 birds. That is for two guys. Not bad but the field is what hurt us.


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

We used around 500 Sillosocks, Deadlies, and Northwinds. Left the shells, fullbodies, and floaters in the truck. Reading these replies makes me feel better about only shooting 11 in the decoys one day. For awhile I thought I would keep that number to myself. Its good to hear that we weren't the only ones that had difficulty getting the birds in close. If only we could shoot the easy blues at 25 yards, huh? (I missed the easiest possible shot on a single blue with the gun cam on.)


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

Scatterwood said:


> ussapper that was probably us you saw down south in a cattle pasture.


Was this your spread?

[siteimg]6587[/siteimg]


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## snowkiller (Mar 19, 2005)

You dont have to have a big spread to shoot geese.I use 200 socks and do just fine.It all matters on the day.Its hard to shoot geese on a bluebird day,but get some wind and some flurries or overcast.GAME ON :beer:


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## Ryan_Todd (Apr 11, 2004)

we use 8 dozen floaters, 430 home made windsocks and 350 home made sillys. all with uvision paint.


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

snowkiller said:


> You dont have to have a big spread to shoot geese.I use 200 socks and do just fine.It all matters on the day.Its hard to shoot geese on a bluebird day,but get some wind and some flurries or overcast.GAME ON :beer:


We had pretty much perfect conditions last week and they still werent giving us a good enough look


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## Ridge Nelson (Jan 19, 2006)

I found that the better the conditions , more bluebird days, with a small spread we do pretty good and on nastier days we dont do as well


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## kaiserduckhelm (May 26, 2005)

If its foggy all you need is an ecall and a case of shells. :wink:


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

GooseBuster3 said:


> Yeah that is a worthless spread... :roll:


Geeze, Not everyone is made of money.Do like a lot of the guy's here do and combine your decoy spreads. Most people have built up the numbers of decoy's they own over time.


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

We had really low cloud cover on Friday morning. Almost fog, but not quite to the ground. But anyways, the birds held tight all morning, the only ones that moved anywhere were ones that got spooked by jumpers. I was stoked when I realized they would have to fly low to see the ground. But it turns out they waited it out and took off only after the clouds had lifted. Is that normal? Or was it a case of typical bad luck?


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

When I first came to ND I had 36 windsocks, no e-caller, and I killed birds. Sure not 100s in a day but I still had birds decoying in. The next year I had a few more and last year I had 286 sillo socks and I did pretty good. But the point being I had 3 doz old NWs and out of say 10 hunts I shot decoying birds 8 times. I don't think that is so bad.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

mallard said:


> GooseBuster3 said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah that is a worthless spread... :roll:
> ...


Look at the time he posted, I'm sure he was drunk and talking intelligent. :wink:


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

> Look at the time he posted, I'm sure he was drunk and talking intelligent.


 oke: :laugh:


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## Scatterwood (Mar 15, 2004)

USSapper I believe that spread was south of us. I believe that spread was right off the highway. We were off the beaten path on a smaller pomd although it was similar and I had to take a second look at the picture. There spread was set super tight and they had Alot of guys it looked like.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

He must always be drunk because you can look through 90% of his posts and he is just as ignorant.


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## goosehunter20 (Oct 19, 2006)

I use about 150 custom painted windsocks and 2 doz bigfoot snows and blues and about a dozen duck decoys and I do really good whenever theres a strong wind and even better in the snow. And I can usually get a few to decoy on a bright sunny day. I dont think its the number of decoys, you can do just as good with a smaller spread as you can with a big spread if the condition are right.


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## duckhuntinfool (Oct 24, 2006)

GooseBuster3 wrote: 
Yeah that is a worthless spread...

Geeze, Not everyone is made of money.Do like a lot of the guy's here do and combine your decoy spreads. Most people have built up the numbers of decoy's they own over time.

I know this first hand! Still in high school and have been building the spread for a couple years. I have 500 rags and 70 silos and 1 doz shells and an e caller. Bigger than all my friends any ways.


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## RBW (Sep 27, 2006)

Decoy numbers shouldn't hardly matter....MAKE SURE YOU ARE HIDDIN!....and for gods sake DONT WEAR WHITE...it worked me a few years ago but not anymore


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## TheDogSlayer1 (Dec 15, 2006)

You can kill adult snow and blues with a small spread but you need to do the little things right. We (3 guys)kill 37 S/B on Monday and Tuesday morning this week in SD with this spread (all adult birds): 2 doz avery fb, 2 doz socks, 1 doz silo, 4 magnets, 2 kites and 2 e-callers. Thats 66 decoys. We hutned from sun up to 10 am each day. We put the full bodies on the down wind side of the spread, left a ten yard space and then put the socks in the middle of the spread and the silos on the up wind end. We flew the kites out on up wind side of entire spread. We put the e-callers in the middle of the spread with single geese calling. We laid 60 yards down wind of the spread. With this small of spread, you only get so many opportunties and you have to capitalize on them. We kill most of the birds at ranges between 50-80 yards, only a few "gim mes". We were shooting 3 1/2" heavi-shot 2s & 4s. If we had been shooting steel, I bet we wouldn't have killed 10 geese.


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## Ty (Mar 11, 2004)

kaiserduckhelm said:


> If its foggy all you need is an ecall and a case of shells. :wink:


Can I get a hell yea?

:beer:


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