Any spring snow hunters on here

snowkiller · Jan 30, 2017

Well its getting to be that time of year again to start getting ready.I dont have a huge spread but I run about 350 socks and a 4 speaker e caller.Looking to add to my spread this spring.Usually hunt solo so thats plenty to set out.Lots of snow around so it could be awhile.Going to be muddy too.Cant wait until they get here.

Kurtr · Jan 30, 2017

all i know is leading edge snow geese are some tough sum bitches.

love2hunt · Jan 30, 2017

Its been a long want of mine to hunt spring snows but no one I hunt with has any interest in the mud or setting up all of those decoys. I run a large full body spread for canadas with no room in my trailer for snows and without anyone to hunt with I have not invested in decoys to hunt alone. If anyone is from the Grand Forks area and has room i'd love to invite myself on one of your hunts

. I don't mind paying for gas and have a ton of experience in field so no worry on being safe.

Kickemup · Jan 30, 2017

I only hunt them when they are right off the road and and I can walk up the ditch and shoot them.

KDM · Jan 30, 2017

Kickemup said:
I only hunt them when they are right off the road and and I can walk up the ditch and shoot them.

This is my snow goose hunting methodology as well. I don't do mud in any of my hunting. It just turns a hunt into a GIANT suck sandwich of clean up.

Downrigger · Jan 30, 2017

This will be my first spring season. We run 20 dozen socks and 10 dozen shells with a vortex and some flags but need to do some more motion purchasing before the birds arrive.

NodakBuckeye · Jan 30, 2017

Kurtr said:
all i know is leading edge snow geese are some tough sum bitches.

Beat me to it.

snow · Jan 30, 2017

Deadly& silio socks good,= spread movement.

Traxion · Jan 30, 2017

My snow goose hunting progression went like this-

Built 400 SS in college, along with ecaller, etc. Hit the spring migration a few years, did OK at best. Spent hours worrying about being too late in the migration, LOL that never happened.

Kept building the spread, got up to 750 decoys with lots of gadgets. Spring hunting didn't change much.

Started going to Canada in the fall, got completely spoiled. Shooting birds right off the tundra was 10x easier than spring hunting. Not a slam dunk, but consistent success. Staged birds are so much nicer than migrators. And no MUD!

Kept hunting the spring, finally learned to go later. Had some bad hatch years, some serious mud, and some serious flops hunting wise. Having 80k geese in a section for three days and then none come back, yeah that type of flop. Slowly lost the fire.

Switched jobs, got the family life going, and finally sold everything. Just took too much energy!

I still have an itch to go here and there. But, given the amount of time, money, and energy, it might be the one type of hunt (other than a backcountry elk trip) where I would hire a guide. To go jump in a blind would be sweet, no hassle other than that. I still get the decoy fever though. If I lived right under them I would still be hunting them, just too far to drive for me.

Post lots of pics, I love seeing good hunts. Get back at them for me, I surely owe them for a few days of laying in ankle deep mud LOL!

dean nelson · Jan 31, 2017

If I go out after them this spring I'm going back to the way we guided for them down south. Pretty much screw the local birds and set up a floater/land spread targeting the high flying migrators. Nice thing is this if desired allows you to set up on a pasture ponds avoiding the muddy fields and making for a far more relaxed hunt. This also allows a guy to leave the spread out for extended periods of time. Needless to say if you do that best to keep the spread in a hard to see area from the nearest roads.

wby257 · Jan 31, 2017

dean nelson said:
If I go out after them this spring I'm going back to the way we guided for them down south. Pretty much screw the local birds and set up a floater/land spread targeting the high flying migrators. Nice thing is this if desired allows you to set up on a pasture ponds avoiding the muddy fields and making for a far more relaxed hunt. This also allows a guy to leave the spread out for extended periods of time. Needless to say if you do that best to keep the spread in a hard to see area from the nearest roads.

I have seen spreads set up like that for days before they had any action. For everyday you have action you have 5 with none.

If you want to shoot birds set up in the field they were in the night before. You have about a 60% chance of them coming back the next morning.

snowkiller · Jan 31, 2017

Looks like birds are on the move.Squaw had 300 snows last week now up 152,000.

snowkiller · Feb 9, 2017

Saw that habitat flats had a 500+ shoot on monday in arkansas.WOW

raider · Feb 11, 2017

arkansas looks promising...

http://www.csnphilly.com/the700leve...-video-his-hunting-trip-shows-impressive-haul

dean nelson · Feb 13, 2017

wby257 said:
I have seen spreads set up like that for days before they had any action. For everyday you have action you have 5 with none.

If you want to shoot birds set up in the field they were in the night before. You have about a 60% chance of them coming back the next morning.

Having spent a couple hundred days in spreads over ponds I can tell that is incorect. The birds use the same flyways year in and year out and if you set up in them it is often far more effective then a standard field spread especially in places like NW MO and Nebraska. You can run and gun field flocks but your good gunning on sunny days is often short lived vs pond spreads that have a much longer high success period from late morning into early afternoon along with first and last light. Up here if there's a shit ton of sheet water it's success rate drops off but all depends on the area and what part of the migration you are in.

As for the birds at the rate they are rolling there will likely be birds pushing the border by this weekend.

NodakBuckeye · Feb 13, 2017

And so it begins....

Honkerherms · Feb 13, 2017

Could be interesting by this weekend. Open water/sheet water will dictate where the leading edge will push to. I would easily say into south central SD and who knows how much farther north?

Jeff

dean nelson · Feb 14, 2017

They began rolling into southern SD on Sunday with a pretty good push on Monday. Needless to say would have never pegged this as an early migration year as of a couple weeks ago but with the fields already clear enough into ND and the heat coming this week they have nothing holding them back but their desire to move or not. Highly doubt we will be able to sustain good enough conditions for them for very long but we will have it for at least a short time.

snow · Feb 14, 2017

wby257 said:
I have seen spreads set up like that for days before they had any action. For everyday you have action you have 5 with none.

If you want to shoot birds set up in the field they were in the night before. You have about a 60% chance of them coming back the next morning.

Dean has it right,your statement is correct for honkers as we field hunters are well awhere of,snows are way different,little rascels will out flank ya just when you think you got it figured out or feed the next section over the following day,or someone will jump the roost and bust up the flock and the game starts over,can be frustration at times but we always remember the good times,down times not so much.

jdinny · Feb 14, 2017

dam it just seems we had blizzard after blizzard and now read reports that yankton area is holding the lead edge....funny how shit works out. I'm gonna enjoy my last few beautiful days ripping lips with my boys!#$%^&>

Any spring snow hunters on here

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