snow goose spreads

[erronulvin]

whats everyones go to snow goose spread? are you guys running fullbodies, socks, silos or shells? have you guys noticed better success using different decoys during different times of the year? we are running roughly 600 fullbodies and a 1000 socks and never really mix them, we try to run socks just on breezy/windy days and fullbodies on calm days.

[metlhead]

Does it work?

[erronulvin]

When we mix fullbodies and socks we notice the birds pick out the fullbodies because they aren't flapping around like a sock in heavier wind. We do pretty good actually just running fullbodies or just socks on their own.

[metlhead]

Just curious. Never hunted snows but shot a lot of them. They do seem to be a bird that'll change it's requirements daily.

[h2ofowlr]

We used to run 2,500 - 4k socks.  We have been building up the full body spread.  Those seem to work a lot better, but like everything else, the snows will start to smarten up to them as everyone else attempts to do the same.  We ran 500 full bodies last season.  Our group shot close to 1,500 snows over them.  If you can run some cyclones or other motion in the full body spread that are human operated, the birds will definately hone into that location.

[hdshot]

We used to run 2,500 - 4k socks.  We have been building up the full body spread.  Those seem to work a lot better, but like everything else, the snows will start to smarten up to them as everyone else attempts to do the same.  We ran 500 full bodies last season.  Our group shot close to 1,500 snows over them.  If you can run some cyclones or other motion in the full body spread that are human operated, the birds will definately hone into that location.

You leave them out in the field all season like the spring guys do? Setting and hauling my four dozen Canadian dsd lesser’s is a lot of work especially when public is turning all miss and no hit.

[h2ofowlr]

We used to run 2,500 - 4k socks.  We have been building up the full body spread.  Those seem to work a lot better, but like everything else, the snows will start to smarten up to them as everyone else attempts to do the same.  We ran 500 full bodies last season.  Our group shot close to 1,500 snows over them.  If you can run some cyclones or other motion in the full body spread that are human operated, the birds will definately hone into that location.

You leave them out in the field all season like the spring guys do? Setting and hauling my four dozen Canadian dsd lesser’s is a lot of work especially when public is turning all miss and no hit.

They are picked up after each hunt.  If we are going to hunt the same spot two days, we will leave the stakes in, but pick up the full bodies.  With 10-12 guys it goes quick.

[hdshot]

Must be cool to have a group like that. Like I’ve said before my former hunting partner asked me if it would be okay if he let 3 of his friends hunt our spot and I said sure. Two of them even have young children and felt like I had a job to do to keep our sport alive. Next thing, getting no invites and told later because I burn bridges.  I guess nice guys really do finish last. 😂

[ducks4days]

In my experience, mixing full bodies and socks / silhouettes doesnt work. They come in but consistently notice something not right at about 150 yards.

I use 1200 socks, about 400 of which have head silhouettes, plus some flyers. It works great on birds that havent seen them yet, I rarely have success 2 days in a row in the same field.

[erronulvin]

In my experience, mixing full bodies and socks / silhouettes doesnt work. They come in but consistently notice something not right at about 150 yards.

I use 1200 socks, about 400 of which have head silhouettes, plus some flyers. It works great on birds that havent seen them yet, I rarely have success 2 days in a row in the same field.

we have noticed that quite a bit as well, or on windy days when we have fullbodies mixed in with socks the snows hover and stay out farther and then fly off and never fully commit.

[erronulvin]

Must be cool to have a group like that. Like I’ve said before my former hunting partner asked me if it would be okay if he let 3 of his friends hunt our spot and I said sure. Two of them even have young children and felt like I had a job to do to keep our sport alive. Next thing, getting no invites and told later because I burn bridges.  I guess nice guys really do finish last. 😂

we hunt with around the same size group. But it's taken a long time to get guys that you can trust, I've been burned and used by to many of them over the years. Heck one of my buddies friends that hunted with us this last season wanted to buy a fullbody snow spread so he could hunt snows this fall, little did he know how much a rig of 500 fullbodies cost.

[h2ofowlr]

In my experience, mixing full bodies and socks / silhouettes doesnt work. They come in but consistently notice something not right at about 150 yards.

I use 1200 socks, about 400 of which have head silhouettes, plus some flyers. It works great on birds that havent seen them yet, I rarely have success 2 days in a row in the same field.

The silhouettes worked good on new birds, but once they smartened up, we had to change up our approach.  Snows can be a difficult bird to hunt if not on the X.  Chasing them on being on the X in my area is becoming more difficult as properties get tied up and leased out.

[erronulvin]

In my experience, mixing full bodies and socks / silhouettes doesnt work. They come in but consistently notice something not right at about 150 yards.

I use 1200 socks, about 400 of which have head silhouettes, plus some flyers. It works great on birds that havent seen them yet, I rarely have success 2 days in a row in the same field.

The silhouettes worked good on new birds, but once they smartened up, we had to change up our approach.  Snows can be a difficult bird to hunt if not on the X.  Chasing them on being on the X in my area is becoming more difficult as properties get tied up and leased out.

I 100% agree with that, we mainly traffic hunt snows around here but do get on some x hunts from time to time. But running traffic and killing a pile of birds is fun to do. I dont think we kill less then 30 or so snows when we run traffic

[hdshot]

Must be cool to have a group like that. Like I’ve said before my former hunting partner asked me if it would be okay if he let 3 of his friends hunt our spot and I said sure. Two of them even have young children and felt like I had a job to do to keep our sport alive. Next thing, getting no invites and told later because I burn bridges.  I guess nice guys really do finish last. 😂

we hunt with around the same size group. But it's taken a long time to get guys that you can trust, I've been burned and used by to many of them over the years. Heck one of my buddies friends that hunted with us this last season wanted to buy a fullbody snow spread so he could hunt snows this fall, little did he know how much a rig of 500 fullbodies cost.

I did a lot of scouting for us when I could find good hunts. He never went to scout around the tri-cities.  Of course duck numbers fell, gas prices exploded, my dad passed away causing me to miss the season, and still had to take care of my hunting partner’s needs by letting him allow his friends to hunt our spot he once gave up on. Next year and after never got to hunt their spots after what I did for them during my difficult times.  With all the gun control passing into law with flying colors I did the right thing still and for my dad because he hated gun control laws.  What my former hunting partner does to fellow hunters is politically dangerous when election seasons comes around.