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Snow Goose Hunting Gear
Q: I live in North Dakota and I plan to hunt light geese this spring. Do you need all those decoys and electronic calls?? -Max Barta
A: I know the thought of spreads of hundreds to thousands of decoys and all of the new gadgets out there can seem a bit overwhelming to people that may only hunt light geese a couple of days. While I like to spend most of my time snow goose hunting over decoys, pass shooting is a ton of fun and can be very productive!
The key with pass shooting is to take some time to observe the birds movements either off the roost to feed or trading between feeding flocks. Typically the most productive shooting comes when small bunches of birds are flying back and forth amongst feeding flocks. The key is to get under the flight line in these situations, find a natural feature that will afford some cover and patiently wait until birds are well within effective range.
If you are lucky enough to have birds that have established a relatively consistent pattern and your schedule allows some flexibility, wait for those days when you have strong winds or foggy conditions will you give you the upper hand.
One other tip on pass shooting-be ready to move quickly-if birds quit using your flight line, move quickly to a new site under the flight line. The best pass shooters I know are tremendously mobile to constantly stay under the birds!
Some of my most fond memories of snow goose hunting have been on great pass shooting days so don't be daunted by all of the mountains of gear-get out and scout grab your gun and have some fun!
Good luck.
Q: When snow goose hunting are dozens upon dozens of decoys needed? Why or why not? -Scott Free
A: Scott, in almost all circumstances huge decoy spreads are the norm for pursuing white geese. And even with all of the best equipment they can make you look down right foolish (I have sworn off hunting them altogether about 20 times in my life but keeping coming back under the allusion that one of these days I will get it right!) Most really good snow goose hunters I know put far more thought into their spreads than even the most big water diver hunters I have associated with, and that is a result of the tremendously large flocks and the cagy personality that these birds have when they get to the primary hunting areas.
While traditionally very large spreads of simple decoys were deployed, today more and more hunters are getting more sophisticated to the spreads they are laying. More hunters are adding full bodies, silhouettes and shells to their rag spreads and also adding flags, kites, goose magnets, string of wings and others to replicate the amount of activity that is underway with a large flock of snows. From what I have learned motion is the key to making snows really ball up and come in.
Now with all of that being said, Delta’s President Jonathan Scarth and a good friend and former Delta student (who will remain nameless) had wonderful shooting over 18 high quality decoys with great concealment and after a thorough scouting job on October morning this fall in Manitoba.
Scott, I would argue that with snows like every other waterfowling scenario, scout hard learn the birds and keeping adding tricks until you find something that works in your area. Best of luck!
John Devney