# Ever have "just one of those days"?



## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

So I'm curious. I'm afriad to even count, but this year i had a number of really tough days in the field. We would do our scouting, sometimes get smack dab on the X, sometimes as close as the permission we had been granted would allow us. We would set up with between 50 to 100 FB's. The calling was there. The blinds were almost invisable many times. I mean every detail i could possibly think of was taken care of. We would sometimes begin our work at 3am and be just getting done as the sun came up. And it isnt like any of us are new to the game, we have killed geese all season doing the same thing in years previous. And even with all that, during the last two months of the season we would get repeatedly skunked. The birds would do anything from working the spread then sliding off or flareing to simply not returning at all, and anything inbetween. Have you guys ever had strings of days like this that make you question all your tactics?


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## DeltaBoy (Mar 4, 2004)

Had it happen a few times this fall... When everything does work out it sure pays off for those days you worked your ars off and nothing worked out.


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## Bloodyblinddoors (Oct 25, 2006)

I got frustrated a number of times this season as well, For the same reasons you did.


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

> The birds would do anything from working the spread then sliding off


 Educated birds!!! Damn hard to decoy!



> flareing to simply not returning at all,


 They saw your blinds or however you were trying to hide.

From my past experiences this is what the verdict was!!
The later it get's in the season the more educated they become. If you find some smart birds ( that you know from hunting them previously) I would try ditching the blinds and laying in your decoys using natural cover to hide. The birds are really adapting to the blinds in the field. Any contour change in the middle of the field and the will stay away from it.

Just my experiences......


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## bullocklabradors (Oct 18, 2004)

That is why they call it hunting and not shooting! Yes, I think we have all had days in the field like that but like mentioned it makes the days when everything goes right really feel good.

Take Care,

Travis R. Bullock


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## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

Maverick said:


> They saw your blinds


I wonder more about this as the years go by. On the early birds, in heavy cover it might not matter, but when the blind profile is a foot or more higher than any other cover in the field (late stubble, etc) laying down under a camo cover or camo clothing might be a better option. Whites in a snow covered field is impossible to beat. Versatility is still the name of the goose hunting game! Getting locked into old habits can hurt success. Trying something new (old) might make all the difference. Good hunting, Burl


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## tb (Jul 26, 2002)

bullocklabradors said:


> That is why they call it hunting and not shooting!


That's the reason for the anticipation we all feel while we're setting up the spread in the perfect field. Just about the time you think you have it all figured out, you get fooled. Sometimes when you think your setup is a longshot and the day might be a bust, they decoy like crazy. Go figure. a lot of things can happen. Weather changes, birds pull out, etc., etc. That's exactly why its so much fun.


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## Old Hunter (Mar 8, 2002)

Diver Sniper 15 years ago I would hide 6 people dressed in goosesuits in a spread of 100 super mag shells and 50 sillies.. Everyone in the group would shoot their limit. We shot locals ,migrators,Big geese,little geese,whitefronts you name it. I thought I was the greatest goosehunter in ND. Now I have a trailer filled with flocked full bodies,RG Pro IIs,blinds, motion decoys, a bag full of short reeds,all the stuff and I dont shoot near the geese I used to in the past. I dont mind though in the early years it was too easy. Shooting a limit was somthing I expected every day.
Its the evolution of geese. It does not stop. The birds get smarter every year. It happens to everyone;birds coming in nice,about 80 yards they start sliding to the side or flair.Sometimes it is caution that makes them slide if they flair they probably saw the blinds. big blinds will hurt you with smart geese. The easiest blind to hide is the X-lander. It is not very comfortable,it is hard to move it,it is not warm, it is hard to call from but it hides better than any other blind. You can get a very low profile with this blind, you can hunt out it in the flat position if you want. Large  decoys can stand above this blind. Small blinds in the dense spot of your spread is my suggestion. Get some movement out away from the blinds.Get their eyes away from where you are. There are good motion decoys that will help direct where they look. The motion given from decoys on stands or motion stakes is not enough. If it is going to pull their attention it must be much more visible than just a motion base. A wing flapper used properly can help I use a decoy that Higdon made several years ago.They should have improved instead of dropping the idea. I modified it to give it better motion. I call it the peckerhead. You can operate a motion decoy a long distance away from the blind by using fireline as it does not stretch.Hunting smart late season geese is best done as a team effort. It becomes a game of inches. You need all of the components; motion ,calling,flagging, concealment. I'll say it again try to pull their eyes away from the blinds. good luck


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## gunnen 4 green (Jul 30, 2006)

I agree with Maverick..

It's the blinds and concelement... I had a string of 2-3 days like this and started to get creative. I had similar issues one morning and got frustrated. I went and sat on a SMALL knoll about 100 yds in front of my spread. No cover - just me in the middle of a stubble field hiding behind a small knob.

The geese either didn't notice me or didn't care. 3 groups came in at 25 yards and I had a short hunt from there. They were still decoying and they were still close in opportunites so who cares how you get it done.

Also - I have hunted with a guide service in TX that had the best way to hide. Dig a small coffin blind in the dirt with a 45% backrest. Make it just big enough to allow your body to hide in the hole. From there, throw a peace of plywood on top of you and cover with dirt, stubble, etc.

I have seen this outfitter hide 8+ guys doing this and still have great results.

Honestly, it's not that much work either - you can knock out the hole in 5-10 minutes and when it's said and done the whole is filled in and it shouldn't bother the farmer.


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

Old Hunter,

I agree totally. It is a matter of the birds getting used to our tactics. I think any of us would start learnin pretty quick if every time we headed out to eat we came back with a few less family members. I'll work on some kind of motion invention, becuase your right, there doesnt seem to be much on the market that does a good enough job.

Gunnen 4 Green,

ya know coffin blind idea is the EXACT SAME thing i've been planning to start doing next year. The second to last hunt this year we were in a tilled bean field. As we all know, there is no way to hide a blind in that crap. This was a long shot field, and a quick throw together hunt. So we decided to just cover ourselves with burlap and throw what stuble we could find over it. The one flock that did work us got about 40 yards before they slid off. Now that i think about it i know exactly why. They didnt see any blinds, thats why they got as close as they did, but at 40 yards im sure they saw our big dumb faces (which should have been covered, i know) googleing at them. The ground was frozen so we couldnt get any lower than we were, but with virtually no cover we almost pulled it off. So if we could do that, but slide in the coffin blind/ply wood idea i bet we would give ourselves a much better chance.

The next thing i plan to add to my set up is a few of those big rubbermade storage tubs, 3 shovels and however many slabs of plywood as we need. That way we can put the dirt we move in the back of a truck instead of trying to mix it in with the field, that would be much better than having a bunch of fresh, differently colored dirt laying around, and it will be mighty easy to fill back in.

thanks for the comments guys :beer:


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## tb (Jul 26, 2002)

gunnen 4 green said:


> I have hunted with a guide service in TX that had the best way to hide. Dig a small coffin blind in the dirt with a 45% backrest. Make it just big enough to allow your body to hide in the hole. From there, throw a peace of plywood on top of you and cover with dirt, stubble, etc.


Wow, that's getting back to the way we did it in the early 70's. Only we used burlap and strips of lath. I suppose it's ok if you have a guide service do it for you. But don't kid yourself -- its a ton of work. Some fields get so dry and hard its like digging concrete. Some are full of rocks. When it rains, even a little, its so muddy so fast you don't even want to be there. When the ground freeezes, forget it.

When the idea for white painter suits came along, we thought we had died and gone to heaven.

Have fun with your shovels. LOL.


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

oh trust me, we have no fear of breaking out backs out there. me and a buddy spent three and a half hours with a coal shovel and tire iorn (the best we could do that day) in a field that was like concrete, as you said, digging pits for our blinds one morning this last year.


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## gunnen 4 green (Jul 30, 2006)

When I talk about digging a pit I am not talking about an average pit... 
First off, yes it's tougher if it's a soupy mess or concrete but for most of the fall you can get away with it.

The whole is only deep enough to fit your legs and give yourself a decent back rest. Secondly, the plywood only covers about 70% of your body and we threw shells over our head (slotted for vision) to cover our head and shoulders. It's not the most enjoyable way to hunt but It is the best way to conceal that I have found.

Time wise - I watched the guides pull it off in 5 minutes.. Me, it took me all of 10.. If you are in decent shape you can do it pretty quickly....

The bottome line is they are still smarter than us so keep getting creative...


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## tombuddy_90 (Aug 5, 2004)

boy o boy did i have one of those days sunday, and monday, went out scouting saturday in the rain and fog, and some how found 3-5 thousand birds in a field, got permission to hunt it and got my gear ready. a body of mine came out with me got out to the spot at 10, a little late but it was a blizzard out. we could barley see over 150 yards, spooked only 50 or some canadas out of the field and set up only a dozen avery fullbodies, because i thought with the bad weather if the birds were coming and we saw them a dozen should be enough. got sat up and started hearing honks coming from a river on the other side of our field. we walked over there and found all the birds siting on the river. sat there and they never left, so we decide to come back monday, nice day monday just a little wind and clear skies; got out there early and set up with whites cloths in the snow, sat until 1:00 and not even one bird got off the pond all morning, finally we had to leave and the dang birds were just siting on the pond chillin.

darn stubern birds

thomas


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