# Need advice!



## Feather Freeks (Jan 21, 2008)

Last year was my first time snow goose hunting. We were in South Dakota and we shot 2. yes 2. There were birds everywhere you looked, but we were only pass shooting, and they wouldn't fly low enough. This year we are gonna try decoying. Right now i have 110 homemade sillhouettes, traced from big flock canadas. (they're actually very detailed, and are painted with UV snow goose paint) i also have 12 northwind snow goose windsocks w/ heads, and 4 magnets. i want to buy 100 more economy windsocks (cuz that's all i can afford) and my buddy is painting 40 canada shells white with UV paint. my questions are as follows. - are sillhouettes effective for snows when used properly? since they come in to the decoys almost vertical? - am i going to need more decoys than this, after i have the hundred windscoks? - is it good to use a variety of decoys? - This year we will have 7 guys in layout blinds... Whats the best way to hide this many hunters in 250 some odd decoys? kind of a mouthfull there, but hopefully i can get some help. You don't have to answer every question either, just answer one if u want.


----------



## justund223 (Aug 28, 2006)

its gonna be very tough for you to hide seven layout blinds in 250 decoys, what i would do is have everyone buy a white coat and justt wear camo, works as more white, plus blinds are a pain in the butt in the spring, you have enough decoys to kill more than two geese already just make sure you have a good e caller and have fun decoying :thumb:


----------



## goosehunter20 (Oct 19, 2006)

I agree with that many blinds you are better of just wearing half white half camo suits. Last year I hunted with some guys whose spread was almost all homeade silos with some bigfoots and to this day its the best snow goose hunt Ive ever had. Just make sure you have a good Ecaller with 3 or 4 speakers and you will kill some birds


----------



## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

If you run the blinds put the buggers right next to eachother. That way it looks like a solid line, not 7 lumps in the field.


----------



## averyghg (Oct 16, 2006)

id suggest using a blind, depending on how muddy the field is. trust me, it isn't fun to lay in the mud!!


----------



## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

My theory is that you need 200 to 250 decoys per hunter. To be successful. That is just my opinion. Buy a bunch of rags just to get your numbers up.


----------



## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

averyghg said:


> id suggest using a blind, depending on how muddy the field is. trust me, it isn't fun to lay in the mud!!


That, and your neck will be sore after about 5 minutes trying to look around. It however is a great way to hide!

I hate to say it but I would be found in one of my Finishers!


----------



## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Blinds are nice, but sometimes they just CANT be hidden, and id rather have a cold, wet body, and sore neck, with lots of geese on the ground rather than a nice warm blind and only a few birds. We almost always wear whites for fall or spring snows. Unless were in tall corn, we wear whites.

If you can hide em, use em, if you cant, rough it a little bit.


----------



## watrfwlnut (Dec 26, 2007)

Guys help me out here...some of the responses here have raised some ? for me...is it really that tough to hide 7 blinds in 250 decoys..?? and the reason I ask is we hide that many blinds in a Canada spread of about 100 decoys..?? and also is it really better to have 7 white blobs that nothing like a snow goose laying there than a mudded and corned blind..?? even if the stubble is low I still thought this would be the better option...help me out here I'm heading to NE in Feb and just want to know which way to go...I guess we can go ready for both...thanks


----------



## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

watrfwlnut said:


> Guys help me out here...some of the responses here have raised some ? for me...is it really that tough to hide 7 blinds in 250 decoys..?? and the reason I ask is we hide that many blinds in a Canada spread of about 100 decoys..?? and also is it really better to have 7 white blobs that nothing like a snow goose laying there than a mudded and corned blind..?? even if the stubble is low I still thought this would be the better option...help me out here I'm heading to NE in Feb and just want to know which way to go...I guess we can go ready for both...thanks


Never underestimate how well theyll be able to pick blinds out. They may look good at ground level, but where are the birds? Up in the air tells a different story. If you can hide them well, they are GREAT, but sometimes, in some places, you cant.
For white, we only wear white jackets, camo pants. We pack the decoys in a blob as well around us, and even have some on 30" stakes to put actually over us sort of. This works real well in places where you cant hide a blind.


----------



## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

watrfwlnut said:


> Guys help me out here...some of the responses here have raised some ? for me...is it really that tough to hide 7 blinds in 250 decoys..?? and the reason I ask is we hide that many blinds in a Canada spread of about 100 decoys..?? and also is it really better to have 7 white blobs that nothing like a snow goose laying there than a mudded and corned blind..?? even if the stubble is low I still thought this would be the better option...help me out here I'm heading to NE in Feb and just want to know which way to go...I guess we can go ready for both...thanks


IMO I can hide my blinds. We never get flared birds from the blinds. That we know. Canada's are much different then snows, so we will throw that out. It is a different time of year, fields are different etc.! It really depends on the field. I don't go out in a plain black field. I would rather be in a field with cover. As in 5 inches of stubble of some sort. OR a drainage, slough or rock pile. The only way I will be in a wide open field is if we are running a 1200 count spread weather it be fb's or socks. It is way easier to just cover all around and over with this spread. With 250 can it be done? Heck yes. with 10 can it be done? Umm kinda.

You just have to hunt how you feel it will work. You know the birds, you know the land.

Good luck!


----------



## 6162rk (Dec 5, 2004)

SENT YOU A PM


----------



## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

watrfwlnut said:


> Guys help me out here...some of the responses here have raised some ? for me...is it really that tough to hide 7 blinds in 250 decoys..?? and the reason I ask is we hide that many blinds in a Canada spread of about 100 decoys..?? and also is it really better to have 7 white blobs that nothing like a snow goose laying there than a mudded and corned blind..?? even if the stubble is low I still thought this would be the better option...help me out here I'm heading to NE in Feb and just want to know which way to go...I guess we can go ready for both...thanks


Plus sometimes after making eleventy billion trips on foot with decoys and ecallers and such, its kinda nice to not have to hoof out blinds as well. I love blinds, when I can hide em well.


----------



## Feather Freeks (Jan 21, 2008)

Thank u all for answering my Q's! But can anyone else really touch base on my sillhouette situation? i got one good response, but i would like to hear more. and as for the blinds, there will be 6 in a row and one camera blind in the back. But i have watched movies with the people using those white coats. I have some snow camo, so i might have to give it a try, but it all depends on where we are hunting. I also have another question about decoy placement. I have seen these spreads that people use in fields, and it seems that they spread out 300 decoys over 200 yards of ground, i know it makes it harder for the geese to pick u out, but how would they decoy in spreads like that, do they just fly over? Because there is no central focus, and what if they landed like 200 yards away?


----------



## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

You will be amazed, but if you enter a spread with an idea of where you want the birds to work and make the spread funnel to that part or pocket in the spread you will be successful. You have to remember that snows unlike canadas are not scared of flying over decoys. Snows will often fly over the majority of your spread before cupping their wings. I think you will be fine with sillhouettes, especially if you get enough wind. Here is a sample spread I drew up real quick. The main landing zone is for the large flocks to fly into, the fullbodies would be spread downwind about 100 yards, once again you don't have to worry about flocks landing out there because snows naturally want to get where the feed is. Directly behind the blind we have a sparsely decoyed area that really attracts singles and doubles. Then on the upwind side you can see that the decoys are replicating the natural tendency of snows moving up the rows on feed.










This spread is for 1200 dekes, but you can easily convert it to fit any situation, keeping your nice dekes where the snows will see readily and the rest away from them.

The purple dots are ecaller positions, it was covered by the nodakoutdoors emblem.


----------

