# Questions about the snow goose hunt



## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

It is going to be interesting to say the least. My questions are: Are there going to be numbers good enough to hunt an area for a long period of time or is it a one time deal?
Is it going to be like the TV shows and require a 1,000 deke spread to get into any shooting? Is it possible to get into a good area to pass shoot? What is every ones expectations of success? And how many of you are planning on giving it a go?
I am excited to atleast try for them but i think i am setting myself up for a big let down.
Any thoughts or suggestions? PM's are always welcome. 8)


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## Travis R. Bullock (Jul 25, 2008)

lunkerhunter2 said:


> It is going to be interesting to say the least. My questions are: Are there going to be numbers good enough to hunt an area for a long period of time or is it a one time deal?
> Is it going to be like the TV shows and require a 1,000 deke spread to get into any shooting? Is it possible to get into a good area to pass shoot? What is every ones expectations of success? And how many of you are planning on giving it a go?
> I am excited to atleast try for them but i think i am setting myself up for a big let down.
> Any thoughts or suggestions? PM's are always welcome. 8)


I think interesting will be one way to describe it! It is hard to say what these birds will do once they start to get pressure. We are only talking about approx. 50,000 birds total so this will be much different than flyways where you are dealing with millions of birds.

I believe it will require a large spread of decoys and motion to be successful. These white geese are one of the smartest birds on the planet.

I hope everyone that goes out and chases them is successful and safe!


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

lunkerhunter2 said:


> It is going to be interesting to say the least. My questions are: Are there going to be numbers good enough to hunt an area for a long period of time or is it a one time deal?
> Is it going to be like the TV shows and require a 1,000 deke spread to get into any shooting? Is it possible to get into a good area to pass shoot? What is every ones expectations of success? And how many of you are planning on giving it a go?
> I am excited to atleast try for them but i think i am setting myself up for a big let down.
> Any thoughts or suggestions? PM's are always welcome. 8)


Corrine is going to be a big mess.... I hope everybody plays smart. I have only hunted white geese a couple of times and the more you have in your spread the better.. the only thing that will make it difficult for here is there is no wind, so with a bit of pressure the birds will go sky high. and it takes along time for them to tornado down and they have so much time to look at your spread they spook easy.. you cant use e-collars in utah so you need to get a snow goose call and learn to use it. the hide will be just as important as the spread. as far as pass shooting i know of no such place to do it.. There are a few wma's that will be open but the brbr will not be open for playing. good luck, try and find someone to let you on their ground.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

I have no plans to hunt snows in Utah. I’ve hunted them down home in Arkansas a lot. I figured I'd share some random observations on hunting them.

The first day will be the best here, they may not know what hit them at first, but then the snows will catch on to the game real quick. They are quick to adapt to hunting pressure.

Judging from our experience back there you might be able to pick off some singles and small groups with small spreads, but usually the big groups look for large numbers of feeding geese to land in.

All the decoys in the world won’t do you any good if you aren’t in a field they want to be in, they tend to clean out all the feed in one field before moving on if left unmolested. 
They don’t take hunting pressure very well; they will blow out of the country if pushed too much.

Calling snows isn’t like calling Canadians. You’ll need snow goose calls and you can’t have too many callers calling at once. Ever hear the din from a flock of feeding snows? They are numerous and very loud, try to imitate them.

Pits are the best blinds, but layouts will work well if you blend them in well. Hiding in above ground blinds does not work very well for them.

Blind setups for pass shooting don’t work very well back home for us but, you can always use one of our favorite tactics for when they get decoy shy. We call it rolling them, it works kind of like a deer drive. You need to find a field of them that allows you to get some standers in close on the upwind side of the birds without spooking the birds. Snows almost always feed into the wind, if you watch a flock as they are feeding, you will notice as they eat all the food, the birds will jump (fly) over the leading upwind birds and land, and began feeding again. After getting the standers in place, we go to the down wind side and let a couple of drivers out. The drivers will stand in view until the birds get nervous and move, or slowly walk towards the flock until the birds start flushing, if done right the birds will roll (jump over the lead birds until they fly right over the shooters). Its takes some finessing; your drivers can’t get too close too fast or you will blow the birds out the field. With a little luck most of the time your shooters (standers) can get some good shots in as the geese take off over them. 

We have a lot of irrigation ditches thru out our fields, we will use these to sneak in close and blast them or to move shooters in and then flush the geese over them. 

Should be some interesting stories coming out of this hunt, good luck guys!


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## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

Thanks for advice mojo1! I hope i can use some of your tactics this year.


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## nickpan (May 6, 2008)

My advice would be to stay away from private property that you don't heve permission to hunt. The majority of the land where the snows frequent on their way back north is either leased to a club or they are property owners that don't want ony hunters on their land. I think the sheriff is going to be extremely busy writing tresspass tickets for those couple weeks. Just be smart about where you are hunting.


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## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

honkerfool said:


> My advice would be to stay away from private property that you don't heve permission to hunt. The majority of the land where the snows frequent on their way back north is either leased to a club or they are property owners that don't want ony hunters on their land. I think the sheriff is going to be extremely busy writing tresspass tickets for those couple weeks. Just be smart about where you are hunting.


No problems with that. There is a chance i might be hunting on private land with the owner and some good friends from this site. If that falls through, i will probably just drive around SC and and up north.


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## OPENCOUNTRY (Jan 25, 2009)

I think that the hunt will be great if you have access on private land. For me, my brother is good buddies with a land owner in Delta. He is going to let us hunt with him on opening day. He says that we will be hunting in 1300 decoys!!! My bro talked to him a few days ago and said that there are already about 5,ooo birds in his field eating in it. He plans on us getting our limit. Anyways, i hope it all falls through cause it will be a hunt of a lifetimeif it does.

I am pumped to hear the stories!!!

Good luck!


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## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

OPENCOUNTRY said:


> I think that the hunt will be great if you have access on private land. For me, my brother is good buddies with a land owner in Delta. He is going to let us hunt with him on opening day. He says that we will be hunting in 1300 decoys!!! My bro talked to him a few days ago and said that there are already about 5,ooo birds in his field eating in it. He plans on us getting our limit. Anyways, i hope it all falls through cause it will be a hunt of a lifetimeif it does.
> 
> I am pumped to hear the stories!!!
> 
> Good luck!


That sounds like bad news to me. With that many birds in the field and 30 days till the hunt they will have it ate out long before the season starts.


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## OPENCOUNTRY (Jan 25, 2009)

hamernhonkers, thats what i was thinking at first. However, he has thousands of acres for us to hunt. He said that the past few years have been like this and he still had geese eating on his land. They just move from field to field. He also said something like he was going to stick up some scarecrows so that they dont eat all of it before the big numbers of geese start coming through.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

OPENCOUNTRY said:


> hamernhonkers, thats what i was thinking at first. However, he has thousands of acres for us to hunt. He said that the past few years have been like this and he still had geese eating on his land. They just move from field to field. He also said something like he was going to stick up some scarecrows so that they dont eat all of it before the big numbers of geese start coming through.


Scarecrows have been tried down home, they didn't work; nothing but hunting or removing the feed gets rid of them.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

I think this will be the best one day snow goose hunt Utah has ever seen! :roll: 

Can't wait to hear the stories...


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## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

OPENCOUNTRY said:


> hamernhonkers, thats what i was thinking at first. However, he has thousands of acres for us to hunt. He said that the past few years have been like this and he still had geese eating on his land. They just move from field to field. He also said something like he was going to stick up some scarecrows so that they dont eat all of it before the big numbers of geese start coming through.


OK that sounds like good news now. If he has that much land they should have plenty of options to choose from. I hope they stick in and you guys smack them good.


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## Sprig Kennels (Jan 13, 2009)

Personally I think it will take alot to push them birds out of the area. i have personally witnessed farmers chasing them on an atv from one end of their field to the other and back again, over and over as these birds are very persistent and dont want to leave a field at all until they are finished. i have been within 25 yards of them on numerous occasions and they could care a less.

I know most if not all the land is leased so access is going to be hard for non-members of the clubs up here in Corinne.


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

Sprig Kennels said:


> Personally I think it will take alot to push them birds out of the area. i have personally witnessed farmers chasing them on an atv from one end of their field to the other and back again, over and over as these birds are very persistent and dont want to leave a field at all until they are finished. i have been within 25 yards of them on numerous occasions and they could care a less.
> 
> I know most if not all the land is leased so access is going to be hard for non-members of the clubs up here in Corinne.


Spooking them out and shooting them out is two diffrent stories...just like any other waterfowl they catch on quick.


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## Travis R. Bullock (Jul 25, 2008)

stuckduck said:


> Spooking them out and shooting them out is two diffrent stories...just like any other waterfowl they catch on quick.


Yes it is.


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## Sprig Kennels (Jan 13, 2009)

I agree a vast amount of hunting could push birds out but if you knew how many of the fields up here are locked up and not easily accessable to the general public. I dont think there will be as much hunting pressure as one might think because of that. clubs will want to keep the birds around and I would assume they would not over hunt the fields to keep the birds in the area. I also know these birds are also so sporadic on where they go and feed. I see them every single morning and every single evening and they are not predictable in the least. You cant peg them to a fields as easily as canada geese as they will go to a field for a day or two and to a different field miles and miles away the next and I know that not every field will be covered by hunters. We are talking a relatively smalll group of birds to how much land they have available to feed on. They are also very very persistant birds. i have walked right up to them and stood 25 yards away from them taking pictures and they just sit there and look at you. They also get alot of pressure from locals to keep them out of their fields and they wont budge so i am one to be inclined it will take alot to get them to leave for goood. I would put my money on them moving out of west corinne and maybe to an area like bear river city or up near tremonton or such. there is just too much feed in the area for such a relative small group of birds to get pushed out that easily.......just my two cents from watching them for the past 10 years as they fly over my house and feed in the fields behind my house.


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

I gerentee that most of your fields in corrine will have people in them... most field clubs IMO dont really manage the game in the feilds they just are happy you payed your money and will put you in a feild. the thing we have going for us is theses birds have never been hunted on the way back so in this asspect I agree with you... your right there is ALOT of land between corrine and Tremonton.. It will be interesting to see how far north they fly to feed. Im not saying its a total bust but I dont think we will have more than a few days of lots of action. this is total speculation so time will tell.


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## Sprig Kennels (Jan 13, 2009)

another reason I dont think all the fields will get pounded as heavy as during the regular hunt is alot of the fields are getting worked on that time of year and covered with manure from the dairy's. Now I know waterfowl hunters will brave some adverse conditions to hunt geese but I dont know too many that will lay in fresh wet sloppy cow manure just to shoot a goose. :lol: and the ironic thing is these fields that get the manure are often times the fields the geese frequent as they pick out the corn from the manure........


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## Travis R. Bullock (Jul 25, 2008)

Sprig Kennels said:


> Now I know waterfowl hunters will brave some adverse conditions to hunt geese but I dont know too many that will lay in fresh wet sloppy cow manure just to shoot a goose.


I think you might be suprised!


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## Sprig Kennels (Jan 13, 2009)

i would be suprised actually as there are some days when the wind is blowing the wrong direction and the smell alone will make your eyes water :lol: :lol: 

does cabelas sell "manure" pattern camoflauge? :lol: :lol:


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## nickpan (May 6, 2008)

The manure fields are the best to hunt in  i hunt corinne nearly every weekend during the main season and we can't wait til it gets cold and they start spreadin, we've had our best shoots layin out in the s*** 8). In fact Sprig, i believe i hunt behind your house all the time!


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## Sprig Kennels (Jan 13, 2009)

how did you do this year?....it seemed for a while there the birds just stopped flying. there was about a month period i didnt see much movement at all for canada geese....

that field is one the snows have used alot the past few years when it was corn and manure so hopefully they will come into it this year for ya. :mrgreen: 

those snows will come right up the the ditch where my kennels are and they dont seem to be bothered by the dogs so close by.


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## nickpan (May 6, 2008)

We did ok this year. Not nearly as many geese this year as years past. We killed as many geese the week between christmas and new years as we did the whole season. We did best more over closer to town this year. Did happen to get a few there by your house but it wasn't as good there as years past. It was a really strange year. The snow hunt is going to be interesting thats for sure. We were doing some work at the dairy last spring when the snows were there and its quite a sight none the less!


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## WasatchOutdoors (Sep 26, 2007)

Sprig Kennels said:


> i would be suprised actually as there are some days when the wind is blowing the wrong direction and the smell alone will make your eyes water :lol: :lol:
> 
> does cabelas sell "manure" pattern camoflauge? :lol: :lol:


Not that I'm aware of, but if you want to wear your camo up to our farm in Perry and help us clean out the corrals, I can personally guarantee you a perfect match....lol!


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## duckmaster (Nov 2, 2008)

Hopefully we can all find some sleeper places to hunt. good luck to all you out there. Play nice in the sandbox :twisted:


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