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Author Topic: Goose Decoy spread?  (Read 5736 times)

Offline 300winmag

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Goose Decoy spread?
« on: August 17, 2015, 09:03:14 PM »
I just got 24 goose decoy shells with stands, 25 mallard magnum shells with stands, and 28 mallard floater decoys for 40 buck today at a garage sale. I now have 30 Goose decoys with six of those being the Avian-x goose fusion pack the rest are the feeder and sentry shells. I also have probably 80 floater duck decoys and the 25 mallard shells. I was wondering What I should do for a Goose decoy spread? Should I put just the geese out or both the geese and the mallard shells? How should I set the spread up in a field and what should it look like? and should I have the shell decoys on the stands or just set them on the gound? Thanks

Offline chester

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2015, 09:33:47 PM »
Pm incoming


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Dilligaf

Offline 300winmag

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2015, 09:57:55 PM »
Should it look like this?

Offline chester

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #3 on: August 17, 2015, 10:03:13 PM »
Close depending on wind direction


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Dilligaf

Offline wadu1

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #4 on: August 17, 2015, 10:03:45 PM »
Should it look like this?
This looks good to me, a landing zone in front of the blind, 35 to 40 yards out maximum. 
"a fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi"

Offline JJD

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2015, 10:34:35 AM »
We do better with more of a J or fish hook pattern.
Think it does a better Job of funneling the birds to where you want them.
X patterns bring birds in but have found that they leave the bird too many choices for a landing spot.

A nice thing about a J is that decoys are pretty easy to rearrange if the wind changes direction.  That seems to happen pretty often, early in the morning, in the wheat fields we hunt.  Evenings not so much.  How you set up depends on the wind direction and terrain. 
All that said, as the season progresses and they have been shot at once or twice, changing your set up can help.  Stay flexable.

You can set your mallard shells out in the field with your geese decoys, but our best results have been to separate them from the geese by a small distance in their own group.  Don't mix them in so to speak.

When ya set your spread up, ya want them to be able to land into the wind if possible, crossing wind is next best and occassionally works better.

When ya set up your decoys have your decoys facing the wind or sideways to it.  Geese don't like wind blowing up their but* any more than you do.  If they are But* toward the wind, wind blows up under their feathers, they don't care for that.

Spent most of my $$ on huntin, fishin & retrievin dogs, the rest I just pretty much wasted.

Offline JJD

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #6 on: August 25, 2015, 02:29:10 PM »
Another thing is to just watch/scout geese as often as you can. Note how they come in, in relation to wind direction, note how they set down in relation to birds already on the ground, What direction they wander while feeding when on the ground.  What direction do they come from. The more you can understand in relation to how they act, the better equiped you will be to set up in various locations. We probably spend 5 - 10 hrs scouting for every hr we hunt.  We pretty much learned by trial and error over many years.
Spent most of my $$ on huntin, fishin & retrievin dogs, the rest I just pretty much wasted.

Offline gaddy

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2015, 03:17:06 PM »
And don't just pile the deek's on top of each other. If you look close enough at wild birds you will see some separation of little family groups (as i like to call them ). After they have been pressured, Don't be afraid to change things up a bit. It might only be a few feet, but I've been known to separate groups by several yards to make the spread look bigger and to give them more options on landing. Like JJD said, every day could be different dependent on the conditions, be it temperature or wind or what ever. One thing i used to do was pay attention to the barometric pressures and weather patterns. The forecast can tell you what they will need to eat. Warmer weather it doesn't matter so much, but when it gets cold they will have to find fast matabolising food sources and feed often. Not sure i spelled that last big word correctly.

Offline quackattack90

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2015, 01:00:04 PM »
I agree with the two gents above.  To many people get hung up on the spread drawings in the books and follow them to a "T".  They are good templates to go off of, but to many people look over the biggest and most accurate learning tool out there.....the goose itself.

Offline Opportunist

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2015, 09:23:33 PM »
I would only use the Avian X goose deeks. I would rather use a handful of quality full body's than dozens of shells, for geese. I use a crescent setup more than any other field setup, with the kill zone slightly to my left to allow for better swing, my buddies are all right handed, if a south paw hunts with us we setup him up on the left of the blinds. Open x setups work great in areas where the wind changes direction alot, I just shift our ground blinds around if the wind changes direction. The later in the season it gets the more random my setup gets. I'll go down to using 4-6 decoys late in the season. I hunt cow pasture geese, no crops other than grass. :twocents:
"Deer season is just a scouting trip for my next elk hunt"

Offline gaddy

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2015, 04:09:25 PM »
Just to bring this topic back up. I used the exact shells you have mixed in with a dozen of the 747 shells and did very well. Still have them in the shed with the hard cores. I don't like to put them on the stands because it creates unnatural shadows. When using those decoys, pay attention to the head placement. How many lookers, compared to the feeders, are the feeders heading in the same direction, or scattered and where are the lookers positioned in the flock. I have seen groups with 2 lookers and groups with many. Mimic the ones with the fewest as they are the ones that are more at ease.
Goose season is coming. Remember the wind.

Offline Tealer

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2015, 06:40:22 PM »
Patterns is a weird deal. It really depends more on the location, how the birds use the location, and the species of goose. I set completely different spreads for big geese and little geese. Little geese are like an angry moving mob. I have seen Cacklers literally land on top of each other. Westerns, (honkers) like to have plenty of room. Hunting mixed groups is tougher. It's usually a crap shoot. I don't have s ton of spread pics but here is a few.
Little geese. Note how tight they are, this spread has worked many times for me. I don't use any real pattern just a big mob, sometimes lighter on one side.




The only real mixed spread I have had work.



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Offline EWUeagles

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #12 on: September 21, 2015, 07:29:55 AM »
Patterns is a weird deal. It really depends more on the location, how the birds use the location, and the species of goose. I set completely different spreads for big geese and little geese. Little geese are like an angry moving mob. I have seen Cacklers literally land on top of each other. Westerns, (honkers) like to have plenty of room. Hunting mixed groups is tougher. It's usually a crap shoot. I don't have s ton of spread pics but here is a few.
Little geese. Note how tight they are, this spread has worked many times for me. I don't use any real pattern just a big mob, sometimes lighter on one side.




The only real mixed spread I have had work.



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Those are some beautiful looking cow decoys.

Offline Tealer

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #13 on: September 21, 2015, 07:38:01 AM »
They are fully flocked.


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Offline h2ofowlr

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Re: Goose Decoy spread?
« Reply #14 on: September 22, 2015, 07:22:49 AM »
Cows are great confidence decoys.  Not everyone has access to them.   :chuckle:
Cut em!
It's not the shells!  It's the shooter!

 


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