# how many dekes and what does your setup look like?



## born2kill

what does your setup look like and just wondering how many decoys you are using in the field


----------



## born2kill

for the first couple of weekends of hunting geese my buddies and i use about 400 FFD avery's and kinda set them up as a flattened horseshoe and split them up into 2 groups so it gives them alot of room to land . post repplies wonna know how your setup looks like


----------



## hunt4P&amp;Y

33.3333 Doz FFD's?


----------



## goosehunternd

exactly what i was thinkin , Makes my spread of 15 dozen look pre-school, And there not all full bodies, I have 4 dozen shells, In the first couple weekends of the season I only put out like 5-6 dozen, but 400? wow thats intense


----------



## hunter121390

ok. i think hes pushing the saying that you can never have too many decoys. i mean 400 fullbodies. can i say too much money?


----------



## born2kill

hunter121390 said:


> ok. i think hes pushing the saying that you can never have too many decoys. i mean 400 fullbodies. can i say too much money?


they all costed me a arm and a leg but mean if you love the sport thats what you'll spend you money on. but yea i won about 140 but by going to banquets and shows. then all the rest i just worked my a$$ off. they work i mean when you get flocks up to 100 geese at a time comin in it blows you mind you forget all about everything it all goes right to instinct


----------



## hunter121390

idk. maybe because i don't have the pleasure of having a lot of decoys, i don't really know. i have like 3 dozen and i have no problem getting flocks of up to 100 landing.


----------



## born2kill

hunter121390 said:


> idk. maybe because i don't have the pleasure of having a lot of decoys, i don't really know. i have like 3 dozen and i have no problem getting flocks of up to 100 landing.


thats atrue but i have different uses for them than just candian goose hunting if you put a white sock over their head and then they become blue geese when i hunt snows in the spring soo its a 2-way thing going you see


----------



## dfisher

I have had a lot of decoys. Duck mostly but goose deeks too. They're a pain to set and pick up. Get where they want to be and you can shoot a boat load or...pickup load...with a few dozen.

My 2 cents worth,
Dan


----------



## hunter121390

born2kill said:


> thats atrue but i have different uses for them than just candian goose hunting if you put a white sock over their head and then they become blue geese when i hunt snows in the spring soo its a 2-way thing going you see


ic. but still. maybe its just cuz i dont snow goose hunt. never had the opportunity. always wanted to try it


----------



## born2kill

well let me tell you last year when we were at sand lake in southdakota or atleast in that area there was over 300,000 geese there


----------



## hunter121390

well then its worth it.


----------



## MallardMayhem21

Born2kill How in the world do you haul around 400 FB? I have yet to see an 18 wheeler brought in to a feild to set up but I guess I've seen stranger things!!!  That has to be an awesome site to have a spread like that!! I'm building mine but by baby steps!!


----------



## snowsforlife

that is almost 15 thousand dollars in decoys. I would like to see a picture of that. post one up!


----------



## hunt4P&amp;Y

Not to mention the $10,000 trailer needed to pull it, a truck, guns, blinds. I like to think I have a damn nice spread for a college kid, and I am assuming you are in High School? Thats some nice stuff for that age.

Pics?


----------



## USAlx50

I throw the :bs:

If it isn't bs I throw the youmakebaddecisionswithmoney flag.


----------



## hunt4P&amp;Y

How big of a trailer are you running? I have like 12 doz Pro grades, 4 doz bigfoots, 4 doz oversized shells, couple doz lessers, couple other doz crappy shells, 4 doz mallard floaters. and some snows. They fill a 84 inch wide x 20 foot trailer about 4 feet up. I can't even imagine another 15 doz Fb's


----------



## goosebusters

USAlx50 said:


> If it isn't bs I throw the youmakebaddecisionswithmoney flag.


Wow that if funny!!!


----------



## waterfowler22

I run about 4 doz deeks, 3 doz full bodies and 1 doz shells, then set it up in a U formation. In early season u dont even need that u can pull an alright number of birds with just 1 or 2 dozen deeks and spread um out a lil bit in groups of about 5 or 6.


----------



## goosehunternd

Im sorry but im guna have to throw up the flag as well :bs: why would he care what other peoples spreads look like and how they set up when he has the spread of all spreads?? He started the topic and if he was looking to top it, he definatly did. Sounds like a young kid tryin to be a big shot. in another one of his posts they had 22 blinds in a field and killed 118 geese, math is way off in eyes of the law and once again no pics to prove these rediculous claims!


----------



## TANATA

Why is that ridiculous? Chuck Norris has killed hundreds in a day with just a brown cowboy hat for a decoy.


----------



## snow123geese

We only have like 2 1/2 dozen and we have gotten many geese with these you just have to get out there and scout and be where the geese are and all you need is a couple of decoys not a couple hundred


----------



## AWO

Late season I may run around 16 dozen fullbodies with another 2-3 dozen shells mixed in in strategic locations, my secret though. Earlier in the year and early season I may run up to 5 dozen. Never have met a rich high school kid! :eyeroll:


----------



## Cudda25

6 doz. full body buying about 3 more this summer with mixed in speck decoys deeks so far.... set up in little familie groups of a bout 2-4 everywhere (i like the natural look) haha


----------



## blhunter3

Last year we ran, 2 dozen ghg shells, 1 dozen fa shells, 12 sillosocks and towards the lst 2 weeks we had 6 ghg fb's.

This year we are going to run, 2 dozen ghg lessers, 1 1/2 dozen ghg fb's and 1/2 dozen ghg ffd, 2 dozen ghg shells, 1 dozen realgeese sillo's.


----------



## waterfowladdict

Between me and my buddy we have like 120 decoys. 2 doz. of those are shells. The number we put out depends on the birds. If we are in a 6" or so grass field mosquitos are a factor in the decision also. Nobody likes picking up decoys in a wall of mosquitos.

We usually dont worry to much about our spread shape. This year all year we ran a blob with a few holes and lookers in certain spots and we had no problems. Ive never seen a flock of geese in a a perfect "U" or a "J" geese get smart to those... especially in the metro area of MN. Not saying they dont work its just my opinion.


----------



## dfisher

I set a dozen FFD's. I need the extra room to stack the honkers in the bed of my pickup.

Good luck
Dan


----------



## White Diablo

I only have 200 pro hunter fullbodies all on motion stakes  !! Guess i got to buy more :lol:


----------



## Honker Guide

My average spread when I am hunting with 4 or 5 guys is between 2 and 4 dozen full bodies. We hunt out of well camo'd pits and we shoot 15 to 24 geese almost every time out. If you are well hid and are on a flyway and in a field of the type that the geese are used to using and you know when not to call, it's a no brainer!! Here is one of my setups this year.










That's me on the left. I guess I should point out that I also use a Flutterwing goose.


----------



## hunt4P&amp;Y

Honker! You get alot of smaller flocks right? Like 12-20 birds at a time? I never get sick of looking at your pics!


----------



## Feather Freeks

i wouldn't even hunt anymore KNOWING that i was going to shoot 15 or more birds every time i went out. Goose hunting wouldn't even be fun if i shot them every time.


----------



## bandman

deathrowcalls said:


> i wouldn't even hunt anymore KNOWING that i was going to shoot 15 or more birds every time i went out. Goose hunting wouldn't even be fun if i shot them every time.


Little far-fetched, but in good light. It may take a little of the mystery out of it, but the fun?? Nahhh.... Good hunting buddies make sure that every day is a new and different day no matter the case.
:beer:


----------



## jwdinius1

> Good hunting buddies make sure that every day is a new and different day no matter the case.


Always the case in our group!! There always someone to make fun of from the night before/ morning of or even digging up old dirt we always make it fun.

P.S. i suggest getting a dog and playing fb, track, wrestling with it to keep it fun.


----------



## dfisher

I bought my honker FFD's new in the box for about $139/6. That's why I got them. Otherwise it'd be shells or silos for me. 
Good hunting,
Dan


----------



## bandman

jwdinius1 said:


> Always the case in our group!! There always someone to make fun of from the night before/ morning of or even digging up old dirt we always make it fun.


Uh huh! :biggrin:


----------



## dlip

16 DSD Lessers right now, getting ready to add 4 DSD Specks, and 8 DSD Honkers.


----------



## goosebusters

dfisher said:


> I bought my honker FFD's new in the box for about $139/6. That's why I got them. Otherwise it'd be shells or silos for me.
> Good hunting,
> Dan


Sounds like prostaffer right there! Here you were telling me the other day that FFD's are the only thing that works! Now you're trying to play it off like you stumbled upon a deal?!? Well you better get your story straight and add a Avery Prostaff line on your signature.

http://www.idrink.koolaid.com/zink/manjuice.org.html


----------



## sdgoosekiller

dfisher said:


> I bought my honker FFD's new in the box for about $139/6. That's why I got them. Otherwise it'd be shells or silos for me.
> Good hunting,
> Dan


thats pretty cheap actually about $10.00 less than cost. Good work


----------



## Bryan Pietig

Take it easy on the guy with a ton of decoys. I dont hear anyone complaining about people who own $50,000 walleye boats, or the $200,000+++++ cabins that are oh so common in MN where I grew up and he is from, not just on here but you hear that all the time. I agree with you completely on throwing your money on what you love to do, I do the same.

I on the other hand have gone to the other extreme. Live in SD and I have started using 3- 5 doz all year, and I hunted geese about 50 (??)days this year and we hunt into february. We still have umpteen number of decoys between the guys I go with with on any given day but started to leave them home. I also hunt alot by myself and it makes life a lot easier when you can make a small spread work and saves gas not having to pull the trailer everywhere. I ran mostly FFD lessers, not saying they are the answer but they worked, size is very convenient, but I also had geese flare off them hard late season when birds became very decoys shy when all other variables were out of the question. We do occassionally bust out numbers. As far as setups go, I just do whatever the birds were doing the day before, I ususally get to hunt the X and scout everyday before a hunt so I have this option. Otherwise I play it by the weather, tight and layed down in the cold, and spread out when its warmer.

Here are a few spread pics from the year.


----------



## kberggren

Most of the time when field hunting i use around 36-48 DSD Lessors and Honkers mixed together. But theres been times when i've only used 6-15 especially when hunting around water. Here's a pick of the last day of the season where i combined my 73 DSD honkers and lessers with my dad and brothers DSD and DZ spread. We had out over 150 customs, with some custom painted floaters that me and my brother painted.


----------



## diver_sniper

Wait for it...


----------



## diver_sniper

Woops... well, got it anyways.


----------



## Large munsterlander1

Very nice Dive!


----------



## BigT

10 dozen right now, will be 15 at the season start. All FB's mostly Big Foot's but will be adding Dakota's this year. A couple times I joined with a buddy and we put out around 30 dozen. With that many it looked like a mob, but the design depended on the wind of course, and the amount of blinds.


----------



## foiled08

I could not believe what i heard....Some one said 400 is too much?? That is great for canadians but snows.....

-I'm not lieing, our spread we ran this Spring was 1100. We had likr 6 fallers and a sexy routery machine.. We brought in a neck collar and about 13 bands.

-a spread of 3 dz won't do you that. Maybe if the limit was 1 a day. lol


----------



## SDwaterfowler

foiled08 said:


> I could not believe what i heard....Some one said 400 is too much?? That is great for canadians but snows.....


Condidering this is the canada goose hunting forum, I doubt they were talking about snows.


----------



## Chuck Smith

Our groups runs 15 doz full bodies....GHG and Bigfoots. With 2 doz GHG shells. So 17 doz.

We harvested 49 geese last year in my area. We have to compete with guides and every tom, dick, and Harry when it comes to the late season. Guides are running 300+ spreads with pits. We are hiding 4-5 ground blinds. A couple of times we had guys set up in the same field. We have guys fence line us and all sorts of things.

We set our spread up in many formations and groupings. Depends on the wind, time of year, weather conditions, hunting pressure, and they main thing....how the birds are reacting! We use the U, J, S, x-mas tree, palm tree, small family groups spaced out, tight groups in a big blob with a little landing zone, etc.

We hunted about 10 days in the field. We limited out of those 5 days. The best day is when we had six come in and all six hit the ground! Three of us hunting and done in one group. That day we had three groups around us and one in our field.


----------



## Myles J Flaten

2 mega huge carrylites


----------



## nodakoutdoors.com

Myles J Flaten said:


> 2 mega huge carrylites


Get 'em! :beer:


----------



## FullClip

Id love to see this 400decoy spread that is outta glencoe,mn since its 20 min from hutch (where i live) and ive never seen anything in this county or tricounty area over 10 dozen. thatd take like 10 peopel 4 hours to set out. Anyway I run 6 dozen ghg fullbodies and 4 dozen ghg full body mallards and 2 dozen of these indestructible full bodies that my dad gave me made by a company called sportplast.??.


----------



## commander019

born2kill said:


> what does your setup look like and just wondering how many decoys you are using in the field


All depends on the situation and time of year. Anywhere from 6 FFD's to 15dz FFD's.


----------



## tvtrav

Ran 5 to 6 dozen GHG's last year. Upgraded to 10 doz FFD's this year. Probably won't set them all up for the early season, but we'll use them all later in the season.

Here's a couple spread photo's from last year.



















Trav.


----------



## Andrew Bremseth

400 decoys wow! Would love to see that picture set up.

As far as 400 decoys early season, waste of time. Start off slow and small and by the end give them everything you got. Pull out a 400 decoy trick on them in December.


----------



## mshutt

Where are the blinds at in the second picture??? :beer: Looks good!


----------



## goosebusters

trav, I talked to you up North of Michigan last year and we split those two fields loaded with cacklers. It was fun putting the two spreads against each other last year. How'd you guys do that day? We saw you drop a few.


----------



## tvtrav

You guys were NE of us about 3/4 mile, right? I remember.

Those cacklers were fast and skiddish. Two of us got our limit pretty quick. It was fun to work the cacklers after that for awhile.

There was a ton of birds in that area that day, so we hit the same field the next day.....Very few birds, one flock of cacklers worked the decoys and that was it. That's what I get for being lazy and bangin' the same field two days in a row.

How'd you guys do?


----------



## goosebusters

5-man limit with 13 cacks and two giants. Plus 4 bonus ducks. I couldn't believe that cacks that day. The area was money because we had four other back-up fields for that morning. Did you guys hear the roostbusters that morning? They pounded the roost to the North, six shots sent about 5000 cacks into the air.


----------



## Sean Ehmke

Wow, all those dekes and only 49. We shot 69 out of one dozen Bigfeet and a dozen oversized GHG Shells. Who says you need a big spread just be were they want to be and you can use the two magnum shells.

just my :2cents:

Sean


----------



## shooteminthelips

Probably could get it done with a lot less decoys, however it is fun use a big spread! Some people like to use a big spread and feel it that it helps them! Some of us are just decoy whores and like to blow all our extra money on decoys every year.


----------



## Almomatic

shooteminthelips said:


> Some of us are just decoy whores and like to blow all our extra money on decoys every year.


When you can't spend it on women I guess that makes sense!


----------



## goosehunternd

> When you can't spend it on women I guess that makes sense!


I know I would rather blow cash on dekes, forget the women, hunting equipment is a WAY better investment.


----------



## shooteminthelips

It is ok Alomatic is just upset cause his mom doesnt make me pay anymore! It used to be buy one get one, now she just begs me to come over I cant figure it out! He is also upset cause he moved out west where men are men and sheep are nervous, with not a woman with a full head of teeth around!

Spending money on hunting equipment is way smarter then on women. 
On a side note. When I tell guys I am hardcore waterfowler they say you know I used to go every weekend, Myself and few buddies used to out and rip it up and have fun hunting! The next line is always, "but then I got married." At what point is it ok to let a woman tell you that you can or can not go hunting? And further more who's check is it? Yours or theres? Cause I can guarantee it is ok for them to blow their wads at Target or the mall every week on shoes, but when the average joe wants to go shoot some geese with his buddies the foot gets put down!!

Sorry my buddies just need to figure it out!!!!


----------



## shooteminthelips

And that isnt all directed toward Alomatic his mom may be dirty, but atleast he wanted to go hunting when he was around. Unlike some buddies I have!


----------



## SDwaterfowler

I'm married and I hunt any time I want. Well, I might have to take 1 or 2 weekends off during the entire season to keep her happy but that is it. The key is to make it up during the off season. Treat her good, take her on a vacation, keep up on the honey-do list, etc. I have friends that are married and get to hunt 1 day each weekend at the most. I can't understand that.


----------



## bowhunter04

SDwaterfowler is right. I got married and all my buddies thought I was done hunting. I still ended up hunting more than a lot of them. I can also guarantee I spend more on hunting than my wife does at the mall. I just make an effort to keep her happy in the offseason and bring her with from time to time during the season. To put it in perspective, she asked for a shotgun for our first anniversary.


----------



## Almomatic

shooteminthelips said:


> And that isnt all directed toward Alomatic his mom may be dirty, but atleast he wanted to go hunting when he was around. Unlike some buddies I have!


My mom said..., aww I better not embarrass you on a public forum. Remember Mikey, I'll have more time than a clock to hunt this fall, better plan a hunt, I know you like to see geese die! :beer:


----------



## shooteminthelips

Well dont worry about it we are starting on the 15th of August so let me know! You know I will have them on lock down!!


----------



## Almomatic

I'll be off before season starts thru the 19th, keep me posted! Since my butt is parked in Wyoming at the moment I'll say hi to the sheep for you.


----------



## mitch flaten

born2kill said:


> for the first couple of weekends of hunting geese my buddies and i use about 400 FFD avery's and kinda set them up as a flattened horseshoe and split them up into 2 groups so it gives them alot of room to land . post repplies wonna know how your setup looks like


Show me a feild in north dakota that has 400 geese in it during early season. Putting out unrealistic numbers doesn't create confidence.


----------



## shooteminthelips

I have seen flocks of geese that big by the second or third week in September! After they get kicked around they really start to bunch up! 400 isnt a stretch! And when running traffic I dont think you can have to many decoys. Your trying to make them think that the party is at that spot not where they are going!


----------



## CMURPHY

Im not ripping on the guy with 400 decoys, if I could afford it I would have 400. But how long does it take to set all 400 up, with blinds and all


----------



## SDwaterfowler

I seriously doubt he has 400 FFD's. And I think it is pretty pointless to use that many during the early season. If the spread is for real, I want to see a pic.


----------



## bluebird

If you have to set up 400 FFD to kill a limit of geese you must be doing something wrong.


----------



## SDwaterfowler

bluebird said:


> If you have to set up 400 FFD to kill a limit of geese you must be doing something wrong.


Absolutely! I could see it coming in useful in the late season but no reason to need that many in the early season. And half that many is more than enough for the regular season.


----------



## shooteminthelips

It would take no less time then putting out 400 snow full bodies and most people dont think that is that big of a deal. And in the early you can take 5 birds and in the late fall you can take only 3 birds. I doubt he has 400 either. If I won the lottery I would do it and I would pay someone to put them all out and take them down!


----------



## SDwaterfowler

Can't really compare hunting snows to hunting honks. Different ball game. We usually set out 1000-1500 dekes for snows vs. 3-18 dozen for honks. There just isn't any point in wasting $$ and time to set out 4 times as many decoys as you need to shoot a limit. I think this is a case of someone trying to be cool on the internet.


----------



## Wingbuckler 4

born2kill said:


> for the first couple of weekends of hunting geese my buddies and i use about 400 FFD avery's and kinda set them up as a flattened horseshoe and split them up into 2 groups so it gives them alot of room to land . post repplies wonna know how your setup looks like


WOW that is probably the dumbest thing ive heard!!! Why would you spend that money there is no situation when hunting cans that you need to set up 400 coys. You talk about putting socks over there heads for blues and snows why dont you sell all of them except about 8-10 dozen then by a nice spread of shells, sillo socks, texas rags, and full body snows and blues. Then you would have a nice spread for both cans and snows and blues even though i doubt you have 400 ffd's. We run 8 dozen ffd elite lessers, 1 1/2 dozen ffd elites, 1 dozen ffd elite shells, and 4 dozen ghg full bodys mallards when need be, and if its a duck field we will put of the mojo's. We usually set them up in a loose "J" or "U" and then put some family groups in the back and off to the sides and we always hammer the honks and quacks


----------

