# Fall Snow Goosin'



## Phil The Thrill (Oct 21, 2005)

Does anybody have much luck decoying snows in the fall? I was wondering how other people do without electronic calls.


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## Andy Berdan (Apr 3, 2007)

Well I guess its really good in the fall cause I have some friends one of which his name is josh Swedberg and I guess they really pounded them last fall. :roll: They were using like 100 silouettes and an e-caller and he said they just slaughtered them. They ended up killing 4 snows and sailed a ross. man thats pretty intense if you ask me. LOL!! You might want to call him up and ask him for some tips cause he is a Buck Gardner Pro-Staff now. LOL!! thought you might get a laugh out of that!!

But on a serious note i heard of some people shooting 38 snow birds over decoys last fall in our area. Not a massacre but thats still a pile of birds. I would imagine that with more mature birds mixed in with juvies it might be a bit tough but still worth it!!


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

I kill a pile more snows in the fall then in the spring.


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## cbas (Apr 3, 2007)

And I'll be out there too. Hoping for a good Fall season. Only tried them in the Spring.

Summer can not end soon enough for me.


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## d wiz (Jul 31, 2003)

We've done OK in the fall. Haven't really crushed them (yet), but we've killed 20-30 in a morning over 3-4 guys.

I can tell you I will spend more time after them this fall than last.


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## Phil The Thrill (Oct 21, 2005)

haha no doubt that swedberg is the best hunter i know that consistently uses my decoys.

Thanks for the support guys i pretty much just wanted to know that it can be done.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Every fall depend on the migration which has been very unreliable the past decade. For what it's worth, last fall was our best ever. We averaged 68 snows/day in ND last fall. We got some pretty good tips though.....thanks 4curl.

I posted up this pic before, but this was our best day last fall in ND. This was right after the birds got migrated down. Timing is the most important factor in snows. Regardless of spread, you gotta be there when they arrive before they get patterned.


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## Andy Berdan (Apr 3, 2007)

Wow Chris looks like you guys railed em hard!! nice job! So do you generally use just as many decoys as you would in the spring or more/less . I was also waondering if the mallards and canadas tend to suck in to the snow decoys as well. It seemed that when we had a few snow decoys out last fall the mallards sucked right in like an F-5 tornado! just seeing what you have experienced


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## jgat (Oct 27, 2006)

It's been said that the best duck decoy on the market is a snow goose decoy.


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

A bunch of ugly mugs in that picture...... :beer:


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Andy Berdan said:


> Wow Chris looks like you guys railed em hard!! nice job! So do you generally use just as many decoys as you would in the spring or more/less . I was also waondering if the mallards and canadas tend to suck in to the snow decoys as well. It seemed that when we had a few snow decoys out last fall the mallards sucked right in like an F-5 tornado! just seeing what you have experienced


I tend to usually throw out everything AND the kitchen sink on nice days in the fall. The day of the pic there was no clouds and no wind, if it weren't for timing I'm not sure we would've shot nearly as many.

When I was a kid, all we used to field hunt ducks was 100 snow goose windsocks. It didn't matter if there was a snow goose in ND or not, the ducks keyed in on them from everywhere.


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## RIVER RATT (May 26, 2007)

Chris thats how we hunt today with lots of socks out, even if we have no snows around...I know some will disagre, but we have shot alot of honkers over snow decoys over the years, and mallards just eat em up...As for the decoy set up, it the same as in the spring...We use vary low key calling...I stop calling as the birds get with in 80 yards of the blinds, so that thay cant key in on the blinds...As soon as the lead birds get past us, I give a few come back calls...As the birds swing back aroud give a few more calls, and stop as thay line up for that final approach...We have the best hunts if the birds have used that field the same day, and Iam shur thats how we get away with vary little calling...We let scouting and the decoys do the job for us in the fall...


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## BeekBuster (Jul 22, 2007)

What is your guys input about how many sillosocks you need to be able to consistantly kill geese under i know many factors come into play, but what do you think the true minnumum amount would be that if you had 50 less you wouldnt even bother. Say that you are wanting limits and finishing birds day in and day out?


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## RIVER RATT (May 26, 2007)

Iv had a lot of really good hunts over 300-400 decoys, hunting on the X...We didnt shot limets but we finished birds consistantly...I normaly run 1100 socks, fulls and flotaters in the spring running trafic...This past spring was so muddy I was unable to set all of my fulls, and floaters, and we hunted over 700 socks...We avraged more birds per day than in years past...We also had alot of juvies this past year, and that helped suck the adults in...It seems to varys from year to year for us...We shot a six man limet over 1500 decoys, but the birds fed in the same field for 5 days...It got ugly really fast...Scouting is more impotant then overall numbers of decoys to me...


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

Rather than start a new thread I thought I would bring this one back from the shadows. I've got a question for the more experienced. We have just over 100 Avery FBs brand new this year, plus we have all of our spring sillosocks, deadlies, and NWs probably between 500-800 total depending on who all comes. Anyways my question is when hunting large numbers in the fall, would a small spread of great decoys be better than a huge spread of mixed good decoys?

We've got two different opinions in our hunting group:

Guy #1 thinks we spent all this money on buying great decoys why would we ruin all that by setting bags right next to them. Plus better finishing birds.

Guy #2 thinks when hunting big numbers we need the pulling power of more decoys to even get a shot at birds.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Seperate the spread. Sillosocks and deadlies upwind on the feeding edge,and fullbodies trailing off downwind. Im a firm believer in bigger is better.


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## jgat (Oct 27, 2006)

If it were me, I would set out the entire spread just like bareback said. But if you are going to be hunting quite a bit, give it a try both ways and let us know which way seems to be better.


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## takem1 (Feb 20, 2007)

Goosebuster- That is the #1 question as to whether it's quality or quantity that really matters. As far as mixing full bodies with socks NO WAY! Unless you feel like you don't have enough FB's to pull them. I can tell you that I have started to go to the FB's.

If you're on the X then definitely go with FB's. Once the birds start to work the FB's are the way, but the problem that I see is the fact that say chris sit up his big spread next to my FB spread that I would have a really hard time competing against a spread of over 1000 socks with my 500 FB's. Hey chris let's hear what you have to say about that and if you agree or not.


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

I actually logged on tonight to ask Chris to voice in on this topic. It has been something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Drawing spreads in my class notes, and asking all the knowledgable people I know. I don't want to sound like a suck up or anything, but Chris is probably the biggest snow goose authority I know.


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## takem1 (Feb 20, 2007)

Goosebuster- Don't you agree though with what I've said about the FB's and if your on the X it's the way to go but whenever your up against a massive spread GOOD LUCK! I see how both different types of spreads could be the way to go depending on the situation.


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we will just go fullbodies, we don't normally see any other guys run any spreads for strictly snows in the fall. I've maybe seen one spread in all the falls that would compete with us if they were in the same area. I know other guys have better spreads than us, but no one in our neck of the woods even bothers setting up on snows really.


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## takem1 (Feb 20, 2007)

How many are you going to run?


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

we shot snows a couple times over a purely canada spread. In the fall I usually look for fields that snows are sharing with Canadas because if the snows dont work you can usually count on the black geese.

So my answer is throw out all your canada FB's and all the snow FB's (separate them) and hope that you can shoot em both, if not at least you have the dumb darks to shoot. When Ive mixed socks in during the fall it has seemed to flare birds.

Maybe a little different angle of looking at it but thats what I usually do.


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## goosebusters2 (Jan 13, 2006)

takem1 said:


> How many are you going to run?


We'll be runnin 108 full body snows and blues this fall


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

Socks and silos work well in the fall here in sask. Tomorrow we will run 25-30 dozen socks and silos. Pics and reports to follow. :beer:


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## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

Headshot, is that 25-30 dz. spread usually effective in the fall up there? I'm making my first trip up there in 08 and have about 25 dz. sillosocks. I was hoping that would do. Are you hunting all whites and using the ecaller or are you using std. calls?


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

> is that 25-30 dz. spread usually effective in the fall up there?


It works but we throw in a couple dozen specs and a few ducks. I shot 8 lessors,3 pintails, 5 mallards and 5 ross geese over that spread last weekend so I guess it works. :lol: We use mouth calls so we can use dark decoys.


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## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

Sounds like a good mixed bag!


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