# New



## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

I am going to get back into the snow goose hunting game this spring. I am going to make my own dekes out of tyvek and what not. I am planning on using only about 200 tops including shells and the ones that I make.

My question is, what all do I need to make the dekes out of tyvek? I know this has been covered but I cannot find it. 
I know that I need tyvek, but what else will I need. This will just be a side project for me this fall and winter when I am not hunting.

Any help will be helpful


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## goosehunternd (Mar 10, 2006)

$4.80 a dozen W/out the head just the pre-sewen tyvek body


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

What????


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## goosehunternd (Mar 10, 2006)

posted it in the pile a while back, were getting 100 dozen before spring


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

thats how much those sell for or thats how much they are made for? If thats how much they sell for shoot me where


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## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

You can buy econo sillo socks for $35 a dozen if you buy 10 dozzen or more. Why mess with it at that price? All you have to do is paint them. That is 2.91 per decoy and all you have to do is spray paint them!To all you people that read this and are considering snow goose hunting. There is no quick fix! By saving money now it is going to cost you more in the future.

It is going to cost you a minimum $1,000 just to get into the game. And if you try building your own socks or starting out with rags. In a year your going to realize that you could have spent your money wiser! And at a $1000 that is a low end. Remember you need a ecaller, motion in your spread, sentries, and feeder decoys. Then you need to buy something to put your decoys in. Tubs or bags. If you have less then 300 decoys you are wasting your time. You will just get frustrated. It is numbers game try and find a couple guys and spend your mine wisely together with. I am not trying to say you can do it with 10 doz decoys or less, however with all the big spreads and hunters hunting snows success with small spreads are going to be few and far between. 5 years ago 10 doz would have been more then enough.

Also remember now you have all this cool snow goose gear. And you want to go hunting. You cant drive out in the fields, now what? Trust me carrying them in sucks. Cause your try and carry eveything in get setup then shoot birds. You have to carry everything out you brought, then carry out all your dead birds. Solution 4 wheeler! Anyone know how much the costs? Sure you could get a big sled put your stuff in it and pull it into a field. Anyone try and pull a couple houndred pounds of gear in a black otter sled in gumbo before? I have it sucks.

Take it all into consideration when thinking your planing on trying snow goose hunting. I had success early with small spreads, but I made a lot of mistakes going cheap! Dont make the same mistakes!


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

All I will need is two hundred. Thats what my friends hunt with and do great. They hunt where there is almost no pressure. If it doesnt work out this spring there is always next spring.


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## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

Presure is part of it. The birds are getting smart is the biggest problem!


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Where I plan to go with be about a 2 maybe 3 day hunt at most. Other then that I would like to go with people, jsut to get the feel of it. Not that I want to mooch off people. I just dont have the money right now for it.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

I guess everyone thats hunt where I go, they are all at least 2 weeks late. So about 80% of the birds are gone.


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## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

I am sure I hunt close to where you hunt! Probably even hunt the same birds. Do what you want though.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

I would love to buy more dekes, but right now I just dont have the money. Like you said who ones you might have been the only hunter there last year.


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## sdrookie (May 21, 2006)

Very cool! Snow goose hunting is awesome. If you start off with quality you won't feel stupid 3 years from now. I know this from experience. I'm no expert but I am very picky about what I will hunt over. Cheap decoys have realism and durabiltiy issues. I use sillosocks and GHG FB's. About 150 total I guess. We kill a few. We'd kill alot more if we didn't make mistakes all the time. Thats learning to be a snow goose hunter, which is a different topic than which decoys to use.

If you buy quality and have birds flare you know its not the decoys. Probably. Sometimes they flare no matter what you do. Dang snow geese.


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## SDwaterfowler (Mar 2, 2006)

I don't think it could be said better than what shooteminthelips posted. :beer:

If you wait until the tail end of the spring migration you can get into the smaller groups of non-breeders and have a successful hunt with 200 decoys. But you have to put on a ton of miles to find these birds. During the rest of the migration, I wouldn't want to be out there without at least 600 MINIMUM. And don't underestimate the need for a wheeler. Snow goose hunting is enough work the way it is, I would never want to have to foot all of that gear in and out of a sloppy field. I think it is good that you are wanting to get into it but I wouldn't plan on having a barn burner hunt unless you get into the tail end juvies.


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## RobertKruzan (Jul 25, 2008)

Here where I am at in Illinois 5-6 years ago you rarely saw a snow goose but now you see anywhere from 10-15,000 birds around December thing is we dont need any decoys we shoot them out of a drainage ditch or sit on the levee and shoot them as they pass over some people use decoys but I dont think they do any good most likely because they dont have anywhere near enough snow goose decoys I think the most snow goose decoys I have seen in a field around here would be around 3 dozen.


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## bluebird (Feb 28, 2008)

If you have free time on you hands and not a lot of money you can make SS from scratch by buying a roll of tyvek for around $300, this makes 40dz so it really depends on how much time you have to do it. You can buy sheets of coroplast to make the bodies. Or you can just buy the conversion kits.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

I think we all agree hunting is about being at the right place at the right time, ruling out luck of course. If you know the place that's half the equation then it's up to you to put the time in. That's how I hunt.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Bluebird how do you make them then?


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## bluebird (Feb 28, 2008)

Here is the link to the site i got my tyvek from http://www.allweatherblueprints.com/tyv ... 60100.html

All i did was make a pattern from a SS body (when making the pattern make sure you turn the SS inside out so you make it the right size) then traced it cut out a sh!t load of decoys then got my moms sowing machine sowed two pieces together and BAM you have a wind sock. (when sowing them make sure you look how the SS is done so you do it right and they wont rip) You can either buy sheets of coroplast and cut the bodies out or buy the conversion kit from Greenbaydecoys.com 100 for $125.00. If you want to cut your own bodies out you can buy the support bags from Jim Jones and for stakes you can find them at a hardware store. Then paint the bodies put together and BAM you have a decoy :beer:


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

This could help:

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


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Well I am going to buy 20 dozen sillosocks and then whitehorse and I are going to make as many as we can during the winter. How ever many we get done is what we will use. I have bee doing alot of reading for awhile and I do understand the need for a big spread. But sometimes a person has to pick priorities and right now hunting isn't the top one. So I will make do with what I got. I want to say thanks to all of those who have given me information. Now I need the location of the birds in the spring :wink:

My next question is how do I make an ecaller? If anyone could help me out that would be great thanks.


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## the professor (Oct 13, 2006)

blhunter3 said:


> My next question is how do I make an ecaller? If anyone could help me out that would be great thanks.


shoot quackstacker a pm or search his posts; kyle built an excellent e caller.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Ok thanks


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## Madison (Mar 1, 2002)

BL- I will drop off a finished tyvek body with White Horse on sunday as I'm meeting up with him in the afternoon.. You could use this as a template when you two start the process..

madison


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Thanks


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## MCMANN (Apr 8, 2003)

or you can get econos from deadly decoys for 23.99 a dz


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

What type of tyvek do I need?


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Is there a special tyvek that I use or can I use any stuff.


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## bluebird (Feb 28, 2008)

Tyvek Soft Structure Type 14 - 1443R - Is the type of tyvek you want to use. I put link on another post on this thread that has it for pretty cheap and they have fast delivery.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

How many does that make


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## bluebird (Feb 28, 2008)

The $300 (100yd X 60")roll make between 35-40dz.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Well my hunting partner backed out of many decoys with me so now I'm all alone. I have decided to buy sillosocks. Does it matter how many blues, snows and juvies I have?


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## shooteminthelips (Jun 13, 2007)

This is the first year I will be adding blues to my spring spread ever. I have killed a ton of geese over all white spread for years. You can do it with out blues!


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

blhunter3 said:


> Well my hunting partner backed out of many decoys with me so now I'm all alone. I have decided to buy sillosocks. Does it matter how many blues, snows and juvies I have?


Depends. Farther east, the flocks are almost 50/50 snows to blues, (I think closer to 60% blues actually). Farther west you go, the less blues there are.

We've been running about 50% blues now for the last few years and been doing real well. I dont run juvies as after one hunt in the spring half your whites will look like juvies anyway. I personaly dont think juvies help the spread, but alot of guys run anywhere from 10-15% juvies from what ive seen.


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## Dave Owens (Nov 11, 2002)

When hunting snow geese the key is ... LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. A few hundred decoys will do just fine. These are a few pic's from this fall. We only put out 170 Northwinds and 108 Sillosocks. Notice from the pics that each day was even bright and warm, usually tough conditions. The key was a great ND LOCATION.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Well, due to not enough money due to certain circumstance's I won't be able to buy or make any decoys for the spring. I have a couple dozen northwinds and maybe some floaters, Im going to give it a couple tries with these decoys. I have canada goose decoys I will be using too.


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