Normally I hunt ducks on small ponds and put out a few goose floaters off to the side a bit, but when we field hunt for geese, its all goose decoys in a typical U or V pattern. BUT i just scouted a new field and it is covered with geese and ducks, so how would I do a spread for this situation? Thanks for any help, going out Boxing day morning to try and hammer them.
Field spread for goose AND ducks together, what to do?
- Thread starter rubberdown
- Start date
We have 4 Lucky Ducks with remotes, and maybe a dozen or so full body motion duck decoys on the stakes. And for the geese, its a mixed bag, maybe 6 to 8 dozen in total of full bodies (big foots and motion full bodies), shells, and silos.
So where in the typical spread should I put the 4 lucky ducks, or is 4 to many? where should we place the full body ducks?
Thanks.
So where in the typical spread should I put the 4 lucky ducks, or is 4 to many? where should we place the full body ducks?
Thanks.
What he said.
the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
Put out your goose dekes and just spinners for the ducks. After 35+ years of hunting ducks in fields I am totally convinced duck decoys for field hunting are just to attract hunters to spend more $$. Put your Lucky Ducks where you want to finish the ducks! Myself I like them 20-25 yards out front of me. In closer than that and you find out quickly just how fast a finishing group of ducks can be making shots quite difficult!
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Stubblejumper has it and so does the spank, goose spread with the robo ducks, staked duck decoys will not hurt, but seem to make little difference. Bear in mind they will try to land on top of the spinners, literally, so position shooters accordingly. We use some long stakes to vary the height of the spinners. Spinners on water can be hit or miss, but on land they are magic
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M12shooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- East St. Paul, mb
Goose deeks make pretty good duck decoys. Location is number one though. Could put out a thousand deeks but if birds not interested in the field you could spend your time at something better...
So its been a little while since this hunt we did in this field but we didnt do tooo too bad. We used 4 Luckyducks, our goose spread (about 6 or 7 dozen decoys) and I put out 6 of my full body motion duck decoys blended into the mix. We actually lost 2 of the ducks which I thought would be impossible on a field hunt, but 2 of them that were out there taken with the 3rd shot managed to walk into the heavy brush surrounding the field and we couldnt find them. It would have been better had the farmer that farms the land not come out and bothered us for 20 minutes during prime time, but he was pissed we had permission to hunt a field he doesnt own but he farms. Anyways, we took home 8 mallards and 2 honkers.
the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
Nice! Nothing like a mixed field shoot.
We hunt those kinds of situations alot here in the west where somebody else other than the person farming the land owns it. Most usually tell us to notify the farmer or check with the farmer that he is ok with it being hunted. Communication between all parties is important and may save you future hassles or altercations.
We hunt those kinds of situations alot here in the west where somebody else other than the person farming the land owns it. Most usually tell us to notify the farmer or check with the farmer that he is ok with it being hunted. Communication between all parties is important and may save you future hassles or altercations.
Well, there are 2 huge fields split by a row of trees and bushes and when looking for permission to hunt these fields I asked the farmer who only owns the smaller side. His wife said he was out of town but told me to call him on his cell that evening after 6pm, she then told me that the 2 of them didnt really want any gun hunting on their property but to give him a call anyways. THEN she tells me to go see the land owners that live directly behind her explaining that they own the larger portion of this field. So I go visit this nice older lady around the block and she gives me the A-OK but tells me to be careful while hunting. I asked her about driving on the field and she said it was okay as long as we didnt make a mess. That night I called the first guy and was told "no I have people already hunting and dont want any problems letting someone else hunt there too" so I said thank you anyways, have a nice evening. Now fast forward a couple days to the next Saturday morning and after shooting at the first 2 flocks a guy pulls up at the road and starts walking to our setup. I say good morning and he says "who gave you permission to hunt in this field", so I quickly explain who I was, and who the land owner was that we talked to. He was pissed that we drove on the fields and we profusely apologized and said it would never happen again. I then told him I was the guy that called him and he said "ya ya I know, I dont like anyone hunting on my property" which is not what he told me on the phone. Next he asked me how I know the land owner was the land owner, and I told him his wife tipped me off to that information, to that he snarled and said "I highly doubt it" and my reply was "then how would I know you didnt own the entire field unless she informed me of that?"
Anyways, after him stalling us for 15 or 20 minutes and still not being a happy camper, we missed out on 2 flocks of geese and at least 2 flocks of ducks coming over our spread. We set up another time in another part of the field and met 4 other locals to that street and a few had nothing good to say about this particular farmer, so I guess his reaction to us is just a reflection of him all the time, not just because we were there.
Funny thing also was every one of the neighbors we met told us we were in a no gun hunting area, until we pulled out our maps clearly showing we were in a legal area for discharge. All of these neighbors were in fact very polite and we even invited them to join us, but they all had to be at work that day.
all this ....
It wouldn't be uncommon to find land owners or neighbors that dont know the rules/regs, and it wouldn't be uncommon to stumble across a cop that doesn't know all the same, so being prepared is my best line of defense if someone says those 2 words "you can't"
