Help! New to field goose hunting

[Muleyman27]

Hey I have been duck hunting for 16 years now. Over the years I have pulled a handfull of geese into my spread with a couple dozen duck decoys and three floating goose decoys. I have always hunted water. I am a farmer and lots of fields to hunt in just never done it. I would really like to start field hunting geese. I plan on getting a layout blind and some sillouettes this summer. Any tips or suggestions on how to get started?

[CP]

Canada geese aren’t difficult to hunt and you have the hardest part solved, you have land to hunt.  As a farmer you can make your land attractive to them if it isn’t already.  Then all you need is:

•   A place to hide
•   Some decoys
•   A call - learn to use it - it isn't too hard
•   A flag works well to get their attention

[lokidog]

Someone is selling goose shells in the classifieds.  I haven't done a "field" goose hunt since back in the 80's in WI, but even then we didn't do much for decoys, it was mostly finding out where they were the day before and setting up in the fencerows.

[HUNTNORTHWEST]

I'm the one selling 24 goose shell decoys send me a pm

[eastsidemallard74]

Make sure geese land in the fields you have access to. You have pretty much everything else covered, a few decoys, and soon a blind. Maybe watch a few videos of goose calling. I found one that has helped me Field Hudnall,search on youtube, good instructional video.

[JJD]

Yeah, field hunting geese is easy, the first few weeks of the season.  Geese educate quickly if they have been shot at a couple of times.  Many of the northerns that come down have been shot at up there and are partially educated.  The locals have likely been popped at least once or twice by the time Nov rolls around.
Gotta be where the geese want to be.  Scout them and see where they are landing to feed.  If ya can, watch'em go out in the morning to see where they are feeding and go back in the afternoon and watch'em come out for the afternoon feed and watch them leave the field in the evening to go back to roost.  Later in the season when weather conditions get poor, they may only go out once a day, usually later in the morning and stay most of the day.  When they have gone back to roost, go out into the field and find their poop and decide how you are going to set up according to available cover.  Being off a hundred yards can make a big difference in the success of your hunt.  I have been studying these bird for over 30 yrs, if someone can tell me why geese prefer certain fields over others, i'm all ears.  I see fields that look great and the geese don't go near them, but they will frequent some fields year after year.
Cover up, if you must move off their landing spot a short distance to get into better cover, like a swale or shallow ditch, for your blind, do it.  The better caller you are, the further off the spot you can pull them (to a point).
Try to set up in good cover next to low cut stubble.  Geese don't like to be stabbed in the a** when they land.
Cover your face, they can look down and see a shiny face for what seems like miles.  If ya have shiny bands on your calls, cover them with camo tape.  Some may call this over kill, but later in the season every little detail can make a differnce.
Try hard to match your blind stubble to the surrounding cover.  Get at least some of it out of the field you will be hunting, if it does not match, ya stick out like a sore thumb.  If the stubble in a field is fairly thin, too much stubble does not look right either.  Again, try to match.  Try to disturb the area where your blinds are set up as little as possible.
Geese like to land in fields, like water, into the wind, set up accordingly.  Set your decoys up facing into the wind or perpendicular (sp) to it, geese don't like wind blowing up under their feathers.
I only flag at geese when they are a long distance away, I just want to get their attention.  If they are heading your direction anyway, leave it lay.
Buy the best decoys your can afford, If you discover that field hunting is not for you, getting rid of better decoys is not a problem.

AS long as the geese are landing in your fields, you are in great shape.  Be ware though, that you can have a big bunch of the best decoys available and be an excellent caller, but if the geese are not wanting to land there, all you will likely do is get a nice nap in your blind.

So much more to tell ya but I'm out of time for now.

Best of luck to ya.

[h2ofowlr]

Make sure you scout the fields, set up where they want to be or the traffic zone.  Using good decoys helps a lot.  A few dozen full bodies can be the ticket in many cases.  The biggest thing is concealing yourself very well.  If you invest in about 4 dozen good full body decoys, you should be in good shape.  Next stage is learning to call good, but that takes time.

[Muleyman27]

Thanks for all the tips. I figured it would be all about being on the X. Deff excited to try it out next season. Do you call at geese the same as ducks? Deff gonna get a few videos and thinkin bout getting a flute I like the mellow sound the fly make. Good luck on your end of season hunts this weekend. I hope mine goes as good as it did last weekend. Limited by 10:15

[Badhabit]

Lots of good suggestions. There is a big difference in calling big honkers than the little geese. Little geese need lots of calling, they are pretty noisy and it's hard to over call them. Honks on the other hand don't need a lot of calling. Get their attention and as long as they are doing what you want them to do, glide into the zone, don't risk getting busted by continued calling. Dave Smith has 2 really good cd's on goose calling, I prefer his second one. 

[idahohuntr]

Good thread...wish I would have seen this earlier.  I went out "field" goose hunting today...we got 5...I know nothing about waterfowl hunting.  It was awesome to watch those birds lock up and come in to the decoys...what wasn't awesome was my shooting    Popping up out of a blind is just not the same as standing on flat ground yelling "pull"!

[JJD]

Flutes are good.  I like having one on my lanyard even though they are big and clunky.  I think their main advantage it that geese have heard short reeds all the way down from Canada, besides everybody and their pet Minor bird blows one.  Giving geese something different, sound and tone wise, is a change up and often works quite well.  And, they are generally pretty inexpensive.
Something I wish I'd have done when I started out would have been to keep a log of my hunts.
Date and time
wind direction
wx conditions in general (fog, rain, sunny etc)
how blinds set up
how decoys set up
cover
did we flag, call heavy, etc

I believe this would have shortened the learning curve considerably and made patterns easier to recognize.

[Muleyman27]

Flutes are good.  I like having one on my lanyard even though they are big and clunky.  I think their main advantage it that geese have heard short reeds all the way down from Canada, besides everybody and their pet Minor bird blows one.  Giving geese something different, sound and tone wise, is a change up and often works quite well.  And, they are generally pretty inexpensive.
Something I wish I'd have done when I started out would have been to keep a log of my hunts.
Date and time
wind direction
wx conditions in general (fog, rain, sunny etc)
how blinds set up
how decoys set up
cover
did we flag, call heavy, etc

I believe this would have shortened the learning curve considerably and made patterns easier to recognize.

Good tip I can see how the log would help. As it goes the same for duck hunting and recognizing all of the patterns over the years.

[lokidog]

Good thread...wish I would have seen this earlier.  I went out "field" goose hunting today...we got 5...I know nothing about waterfowl hunting.  It was awesome to watch those birds lock up and come in to the decoys...what wasn't awesome was my shooting    Popping up out of a blind is just not the same as standing on flat ground yelling "pull"!

It is definitely harder shooting from sitting position, 97% of my shooting is this way so it always feels weird shooting at ducks standing up.   

I have not used pop-up field blinds, but I can guess that you would want to angle your feet away from where you expect (want) the birds to land so that you have room to swing.  This would be to the right  for a righty.

[JJD]

Good thread...wish I would have seen this earlier.  I went out "field" goose hunting today...we got 5...I know nothing about waterfowl hunting.  It was awesome to watch those birds lock up and come in to the decoys...what wasn't awesome was my shooting    Popping up out of a blind is just not the same as standing on flat ground yelling "pull"!

It is definitely harder shooting from sitting position, 97% of my shooting is this way so it always feels weird shooting at ducks standing up.   

I have not used pop-up field blinds, but I can guess that you would want to angle your feet away from where you expect (want) the birds to land so that you have room to swing.  This would be to the right  for a righty.

Lokidog,
Yeah, you are correct.  When its possible to make setting up for easy shooting happen. As often as not, getting your blind in a position where it blends in well with existing cover is more important than best position to shoot.  Always set up to your advantage when possible.  As I get more years on me and am less flexible, practicing shooting from my lay out blind, pre season, becomes more important.  Every couple of years, I lose a degree or so in my ability to twist in a sitting position.  Shooting clays out of your Lay out blind allows you to get a handle on how far you can twist before your face comes off the stock of your gun.  When you shoot at geese with your face off the stock, your gun not mounted properly, you create a lot more misses and cripples.  Those who have done much wing shooting know this holds true for shooting at moving targets of most any kind.

[JJD]

Flutes are good.  I like having one on my lanyard even though they are big and clunky.  I think their main advantage it that geese have heard short reeds all the way down from Canada, besides everybody and their pet Minor bird blows one.  Giving geese something different, sound and tone wise, is a change up and often works quite well.  And, they are generally pretty inexpensive.
Something I wish I'd have done when I started out would have been to keep a log of my hunts.
Date and time
wind direction
wx conditions in general (fog, rain, sunny etc)
how blinds set up
how decoys set up
cover
did we flag, call heavy, etc

I believe this would have shortened the learning curve considerably and made patterns easier to recognize.

Good tip I can see how the log would help. As it goes the same for duck hunting and recognizing all of the patterns over the years.

Muleyman27,
If ya get right down to it, it probably holds true for hunting in general.  I can see how a log might help in understanding big game patterns as well.
I think most of us use prior experience to help us understand how game animals react to different conditions and locations.  Those of us who have some years on us wish we'd kept logs as we are in the memory overload phase of our lives.  A log might supply us with a few, oh yeah, I forgot about that, moments.   

[Muleyman27]

So I was wondering does anybody put some duck decoys in their goose spread? Where I duck hunt there is a about an acre sized pond with a lot of clear flat ground around it. Does anyone think it would work to have a few dozen goose decoys on the side of pond and a few in water and then a couple dozen duck decoys all in water. On any given day I see prob 500-1000 geese fly Over while duck hunting all within a about 500 yards or so. It's not the X spot but a lot of traffic. What do u think?

[JJD]

If we have seen Ducks landing with the geese in fields, we put out a dozen or so off to the side of the spread, but not mixed in with it.  Otherwise ducks will often want to land where the geese are landing anyway.

We have not had good luck decoying geese into small bodies of water.  When we do, a dozen goose decoys will suffice.  As often as not, we use them as confidence decoys for ducks, if some geese come in it's a bonus.  Not saying geese never land on small bodies of water .  They will even roost in old flooded gravel quarries.  I don't hunt these myself if it is indeed a roost, ya bust'em off of these and they don't land in nearby fields.  You bust'em off a couple of times and they don't come back. 
I never feel bad if some of the local kids hunt these spots cuz they are often limited by gear and transportation as to where they can hunt, I remember being there myself.   

[sakoshooter]

Yeah, field hunting geese is easy, the first few weeks of the season.  Geese educate quickly if they have been shot at a couple of times.  Many of the northerns that come down have been shot at up there and are partially educated.  The locals have likely been popped at least once or twice by the time Nov rolls around.
Gotta be where the geese want to be.  Scout them and see where they are landing to feed.  If ya can, watch'em go out in the morning to see where they are feeding and go back in the afternoon and watch'em come out for the afternoon feed and watch them leave the field in the evening to go back to roost.  Later in the season when weather conditions get poor, they may only go out once a day, usually later in the morning and stay most of the day.  When they have gone back to roost, go out into the field and find their poop and decide how you are going to set up according to available cover.  Being off a hundred yards can make a big difference in the success of your hunt.  I have been studying these bird for over 30 yrs, if someone can tell me why geese prefer certain fields over others, i'm all ears.  I see fields that look great and the geese don't go near them, but they will frequent some fields year after year.
Cover up, if you must move off their landing spot a short distance to get into better cover, like a swale or shallow ditch, for your blind, do it.  The better caller you are, the further off the spot you can pull them (to a point).
Try to set up in good cover next to low cut stubble.  Geese don't like to be stabbed in the a** when they land.
Cover your face, they can look down and see a shiny face for what seems like miles.  If ya have shiny bands on your calls, cover them with camo tape.  Some may call this over kill, but later in the season every little detail can make a differnce.
Try hard to match your blind stubble to the surrounding cover.  Get at least some of it out of the field you will be hunting, if it does not match, ya stick out like a sore thumb.  If the stubble in a field is fairly thin, too much stubble does not look right either.  Again, try to match.  Try to disturb the area where your blinds are set up as little as possible.
Geese like to land in fields, like water, into the wind, set up accordingly.  Set your decoys up facing into the wind or perpendicular (sp) to it, geese don't like wind blowing up under their feathers.
I only flag at geese when they are a long distance away, I just want to get their attention.  If they are heading your direction anyway, leave it lay.
Buy the best decoys your can afford, If you discover that field hunting is not for you, getting rid of better decoys is not a problem.

AS long as the geese are landing in your fields, you are in great shape.  Be ware though, that you can have a big bunch of the best decoys available and be an excellent caller, but if the geese are not wanting to land there, all you will likely do is get a nice nap in your blind.

So much more to tell ya but I'm out of time for now.

Best of luck to ya.

Lots of good info there JJD. I'll be coming over next season just to pester ya.

[Muleyman27]

Thanks for all the tips jjd. I have always used 3 goose decoys as confidence decoys and pulled in a few geese over the years but this year got a new spot and had some geese work my spread and a few different times land. That's why I was curious if alot of geese would land if I put out more decoys. Deff gonna give it a try next year. If nothin else hopefully make my duck hunt a Lil better ha.

[JJD]

Yeah, field hunting geese is easy, the first few weeks of the season.  Geese educate quickly if they have been shot at a couple of times.  Many of the northerns that come down have been shot at up there and are partially educated.  The locals have likely been popped at least once or twice by the time Nov rolls around.
Gotta be where the geese want to be.  Scout them and see where they are landing to feed.  If ya can, watch'em go out in the morning to see where they are feeding and go back in the afternoon and watch'em come out for the afternoon feed and watch them leave the field in the evening to go back to roost.  Later in the season when weather conditions get poor, they may only go out once a day, usually later in the morning and stay most of the day.  When they have gone back to roost, go out into the field and find their poop and decide how you are going to set up according to available cover.  Being off a hundred yards can make a big difference in the success of your hunt.  I have been studying these bird for over 30 yrs, if someone can tell me why geese prefer certain fields over others, i'm all ears.  I see fields that look great and the geese don't go near them, but they will frequent some fields year after year.
Cover up, if you must move off their landing spot a short distance to get into better cover, like a swale or shallow ditch, for your blind, do it.  The better caller you are, the further off the spot you can pull them (to a point).
Try to set up in good cover next to low cut stubble.  Geese don't like to be stabbed in the a** when they land.
Cover your face, they can look down and see a shiny face for what seems like miles.  If ya have shiny bands on your calls, cover them with camo tape.  Some may call this over kill, but later in the season every little detail can make a differnce.
Try hard to match your blind stubble to the surrounding cover.  Get at least some of it out of the field you will be hunting, if it does not match, ya stick out like a sore thumb.  If the stubble in a field is fairly thin, too much stubble does not look right either.  Again, try to match.  Try to disturb the area where your blinds are set up as little as possible.
Geese like to land in fields, like water, into the wind, set up accordingly.  Set your decoys up facing into the wind or perpendicular (sp) to it, geese don't like wind blowing up under their feathers.
I only flag at geese when they are a long distance away, I just want to get their attention.  If they are heading your direction anyway, leave it lay.
Buy the best decoys your can afford, If you discover that field hunting is not for you, getting rid of better decoys is not a problem.

AS long as the geese are landing in your fields, you are in great shape.  Be ware though, that you can have a big bunch of the best decoys available and be an excellent caller, but if the geese are not wanting to land there, all you will likely do is get a nice nap in your blind.

So much more to tell ya but I'm out of time for now.

Best of luck to ya.

Lots of good info there JJD. I'll be coming over next season just to pester ya.

Pester quietly or you will flare the geese we will be hunting