# decoys??? big question



## catcher#20 (Apr 10, 2010)

ok i am new to snow goose hunting what is a good number of decoys? and should i go with shells or fullbodys or rags? and do u need e-caller?
thanks


----------



## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

This has been gone over before and will get hashed out again 100 times by april. ECaller is a must for spring snows IMO.

With decoys you need to consider many things.
1. Do you have a trailer to haul everything in?
2. Do you have the time to set up everything (full bodies take longer no matter what people say)
3. How much you looking to spend?
4. Will you be setting up alone or with a crew?
5. Do you have a wheeler to haul in the decoys?
etc.

Now consider your personal situation and decide what you will buy.

Myself I go with silo socks and deadly's. I can haul them with a wheeler or carry them in. I can set up my spread in 2 hours with help or 3 hours alone depending on if i use the wheeler or pack them in. (less time stubbling blinds because it is only one not extra's i stubble others because they don't get enough on.) Also with the cost you can get more deadly's and silo socks than you can full bodies.

Now with the size of a spread..... It can be different each day. Some days 200 would hammer them and other days you need 1000. So again....ask yourself the questions on how much you are willing to spend and transportation and storage questions and go from there. I personally have 800 decoys and think that is plenty for myself. I can go a big spread of the 800 or shrink it down to 200 or so.


----------



## goosegrinder (Mar 4, 2005)

:withstupid: No offense there Chuck Smith,I don't have a "Yeah That" smilie on here to use. :beer: The only thing I may add is this....If you start out buying cheap decoys(like Texas rags),you'll be selling them fairly fast and going with better quality after a season or two. In other words,I'd go with quality over quantity and build your spread over a couple of seasons. If money,storage,and hauling were no problem,I'd have all plastic decoys(fullbodies,shells,floaters). But since all three of them things factor in,we run Sillosocks and Deadlys.

Alex


----------



## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

This should help:

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/snowgoosedecoys.php


----------



## Toonhunter (Apr 12, 2009)

One more imortant thing that often get's overlooked in these discussions. Just how much hunting pressure is there in your area ? i know for myself i rarely see any other hunters that actually hunt fields with a spred. I see a few jump shooters once in a blue moon, and the only other spreads i see are the occasional outfitter. Yah i am lucky and i know it  . What does this do for me ? Two things that i can see. First is that it greatly increases my chance of pulling birds to me because there are no competing spreads. Secondly it has allowed me to run a vastly lower spread then most probably do. On average i run about 12 dozen feeder silos and 2 dozen lookouts. Add in 6 kites and that is my complete spread. I don't run full bodies at all. It takes me about an hour to set the decoys and about another 20 minutes to camo my blind. All and all a fairly fast and mobile spread. this is by myself as well. Set time dramatically decreases with increased #'s of hunters. In relation to this, when i am done my initial set i ALWAYS walk out 150 to 200 yards and take the time to LOOK at my spread. If it doesn't look right to you it certainly is not gonna look right to the birds. Attention to the little details will often make or break a Snowgoose hunt. The more you do it the easier it will get! :beer:


----------



## Toonhunter (Apr 12, 2009)

Oh and i don't use an ecaller either, call me old school but i like to actually call :rollin: . If your not up to speed on your calling ya can use an ecaller but i love the hell outta doin it myself!


----------



## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Personally I'd still have an ecaller over more decoys. One of the best tools ever allowed to hunters.


----------



## Toonhunter (Apr 12, 2009)

I hear ya on the ecaller Chris, just haven't been able to get my head around it yet . When ya have been hunting as long as i have without those dern new fangled gadgets it's hard to start using them


----------



## Nick Roehl (Mar 7, 2002)

I have a 4 speaker e-caller but I prefer to use my RedBone Buzzerd and call the geese. It's funny that people think you need an e-caller for the spring. I kill just as many snows in the fall as the spring and it's all with a hand call. It's amazing what barks and murmurs can do.


----------



## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

Wingmaster you must not kill many snow geese then. Not using a ecaller when hunt might be fun to try, but if you want to consitently harvest snow geese day in and day out. Thre more quality sound you can put out the better. I will be running 20 speakers in my spread this spring. Snow geese are the most vocal bird on the planet and if you have 300 - 1500 decoys out you need to sound like that many geese. Now when in the canada goose spread I like to throw out a few snow goose decoys I love to hand call and have had sucess in those circumstances hand calling. Infact in the spring with the callers going I still play around and blow the snow good call on top of it, but dont give everyone one out there that the ecaller is not the way to go.


----------



## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

I always use a hand call as well with my ecaller. You will be surprised how vocal you can get with birds. And how they will respond to your hand calls. It is one tool that you need as well. Like mentioned a few barks and murrmurrs along with the attention grabbing ecaller works wonders.


----------

