# Smart or dumb



## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

I have been trying to figure this out for a long time.

Did we make geese decoy smart or did they figure it out themselves? What I mean is, people use to kill geese over tires. If the decoy market never evolved and everybody still used unflocked shells and rags, would we still kill just as many geese with fullbodies?

I don't want a pissing match, I just want some opinions. Remember people, I just want opinions and no hatin'.


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## jgat (Oct 27, 2006)

I think if you went out armed with tires, a flag and a goose call and hunted the x you would still kill geese if you were concealed well. Decoys have evolved because a decoy companies sole purpose is to make money. The more attractive their decoys are to hunters, the more money they can make. I am not saying that tires will kill just as many geese as FFD's, I am sure they won't, but I just think there is way too much emphasis put on the decoys themselves.

There was talk a few years ago about doing an old school hunt with the crappiest decoys people could find. I think it would be a cool thing to try.


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## FullClip (Jan 22, 2007)

I think that people make geese decoy smart earlier in the season than ever before. I dont think there is any need to use full bodies or 4-5 dozen dekes on opening day or weeks. I bet you could shoot geese over a dozen "shell" tires almost all season, maybe swith to "full rounds" for the last couple of weeks. :sniper:


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## roughfishfever22 (Apr 30, 2008)

I agree with jgat. Although I do not have time to hunt geese very often when I do all I have is 3 dozen old supermag shells. We hunt on a farm early goose season only and every year as far back as I can remember the people across the road always put there decoys as close to our fields as they can. Those people have some of the best looking decoys (all fullbodies) i've seen, and every year fail to get any geese to decoy into their setup, and most years we limit out in the first couple flocks that come to the field.

I don't know why but for some reason the geese would prefer our fresh cut grain field to their alpha field  Although if they keep sky busting at every flock that accidently flies over them 60-70 yards up on their way to feed I might get mad enough one of these years to go blast the fuzz right off the heads of some of their pretty decoys :******: Boy that will get a guy mad when some one tries to pull crap like that.

I think it is more location and concealment than having the better decoys, but I know good decoys won't hurt any either. I don't know if I'm right but this is just my opion.


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

One thing you have to take into consideration is that the geese are getting hunted more.

Look 15+ years ago. Many people thought the only place to hunt waterfowl is on water. some still do. Now you got these birds getting hunted on the water and land.

Then you add in the early seasons, late seasons, longer seasons, youth seasons, spring hunts, etc. The birds get more pressure and see more spreads.

Just like people have witnessed with newer technology's....spinning wings, rotary machines, etc. They are not as effect as they were when they first came out. Still kill birds but not as consistent as they used to. Think about it if you were on the X and a guy next to you had a spinner back when they first came out.....he would kill just as fast as you. Now if you do the same I would put my money on the guy on the X finishing first.

Lots of things to consider. and good discussion.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Here is the situation. You are hunting on the x, and calling and concleament doesn't matter.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

I think the big thing to decoys is it adds to hunter confidence. Lets face it, your gonna hunt halfheartedly if your used to FFD's and have to hunt over tires. Which in turn, makes the hunter hunt harder, longer, and more often. This causes him to take other people hunting. They start hunting on their own. People have more free time now, the people that hunt, are able to hunt more often. More people in the field, means the geese see more decoys (and more importantly, more hunters). Couple that with the plethera of seasons available now, and the geese get wise real quick, or die.

They dont get smarter, they get conditioned.


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## huntinND (May 1, 2008)

Just Like the last two said, more pressure equals wiser birds. I'm sure back in the day birds would just dump right in to anything that looked remotely like a goose. Now they fly higher circle and check things out, and pick out anything that doesn't look natural. If better decoys never came about and the number of hunters went up like it has I think the harvest would go way down. I don't think you have to have the most realistic decoy in the world but it still has to look natural.


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## commander019 (Apr 12, 2007)

15 years ago there were not nearly as many guys chasing these birds.

Latest and greatest gear = attracting more and more hunters to the sport = more pressure on the birds = tougher birds to decoy.


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

blhunter3 said:


> Here is the situation. You are hunting on the x, and calling and concleament doesn't matter.


It always matters...


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

Ever considered that maybe there has been such a thing as man induced Darwinism among Canada geese? You know, survival of the fittest... Or in this case, the smartest.

Think about it, every time you shoot a goose, his genetics are gonzo. He or she will no long be contributing to the gene pool anymore. But what about that goose that slid off at 70 yards and lived to tell about it? He probably made it to Texas, came back up here, and raised a family. Now after this happens year after year, maybe we are seeing a trend. Certainly all geese have become more decoy wise simply through common sense or trial and error. But as we continue to weed out the birds that don't prove to be as intelligent because they repeat their errors, maybe the population as a whole is becoming smarter just because the ones that are wise enough to survive are the same ones breeding year after year.

This theory only stands up if you believe that one goose can be smarter than another even if they have lived the exact same life, which I think is completely plausible. Spend a year with a group of animals and you will notice by the end of it that some of them make better decisions than the others. Whether it's because they're smarter or because they have better natural instincts I can't tell you. But when it comes down to, the one's making the better decisions and learning faster are going to be the ones that live longer, reproduce more, and parent offspring that will likely also have their wit or instincts. And as that continues to happen it makes sense that they will continue to become better at picking apart decoys spreads.


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## waterfowladdict (Mar 23, 2008)

I personally dont think its as much the decoys as it is blind concealment and calling. I do however think that motion IS KEY!!! if all your decoys are standing still not moving at all and a flock circles 3 times they know whats up especially if your running traffic. And when they hear a party horn from every field they go by on opening day they put 2 and 2 together. Its amazing how many people dont spend enough time trying to hide their blinds also, I think that is the number one reason that geese get smart.

My guess is if you were to set up decoys in a grass field with no blinds, no hunters in an area with a good number of geese, you would get birds to land there. Its like when your duck hunting just sitting there picking your butt on a sunny day not saying a word and all of a sudden you hear a splash down and you got birds in the decoys.


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## Kaplan (Jan 3, 2006)

One way to educate geese is to shoot into large flocks of decoying birds to take just a couple of geese. (You see this all the time on goose hunting videos.) When you shoot into a large landing flock, you get your birds but you're also conditioning the ones that don't get shot to become decoy shy.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

They are not decoy shy. Something else is flaring them.


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## huntinND (May 1, 2008)

> One way to educate geese is to shoot into large flocks of decoying birds


That is true, but I'm sure we are all guilty of that. Maybe in a perfect world every body would wait around for singles and doubles but that isn't going to happen.



> They are not decoy shy. Something else is flaring them.


In certain scenarios I'm sure that is true, but I think there is a line on what they will decoy to. So do you think a tire decoy would work just as good? If that was the case everyone wouldn't spend the money on full body decoys.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

I'm not sure what a tire decoy is. I heard of and used some pretty absurd objects through out the years too. I do know if geese want to land somewhere it's hard to stop them.


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## huntinND (May 1, 2008)

I guy I know bought some at a garage sale, it is just a tire cut in half for the body with a head cut out of plywood. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't shoot any geese even though he was set up in the right spot. I think people used to use them many years ago. I guess the tire decoy is the only really crappy looking thing I could think of.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

If the calling is doing it's job they will be looking for a place to land not tires, decoys or dogs. You gotta get them excited when you call.


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