Snow geese

More is better, but no point in going broke buying 10 dozen (insert choice of brand here) for your first season of snow goose hunting.
Start buying sets from guys who are retiring from the game and work from their.
3 doz. might get you started.
Rob
 
There is no givens when it comes to snows. Some days you need 3000 decoys the next you'll kill them over 30 decoys. Buy what you are comfortable with spending $ on and hauling around-setting up. At one point I had over 500 snow decoys between socks, silos and shells. Now I have 30 fbs and still kill as many as over the bigger spreads. My hunting partner has 300 fbs, 800 socks and 240 silos and even he comments he should just drop back to 100 fb's and sell the rest.
 
IronCanadian said:
I was going to say, are they really that skittish these days. I remember as a kid using white plastic garbage bags as decoys.
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The federal refuge system in the US combined with modern agriculture has caused this mass explosion in numbers the past three decades or so. That has brought about huge flocks that fly out to feed and migrate. Those big flocks are alot of eyes scanning. When coming in it is interesting to see them hanging up there just out of range heads swaying side to side checking everything closely. Juvies of course are not seasoned and will bomb in like Kamikaze planes. The average age is way up there nowadays(about 8 years I have read) and they have seen it all from the breeding grounds to the wintering grounds. You have to try to think outside the box to get on them.
OP start small. A couple dozen decoys and if you feel you want to add on as you continue to hunt then do so. One poster mentioned 10 dozen decoys as a big spread. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the average hunters snow spread nowadays but if it is good looking detailed decoys like quality full bodies it will be plenty.
 
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Yup, consider there are snows out there that are 20 yrs old, they've seen every kind of spread imaginable. On no or low wind days they can be fussy bastids, same with specks, which seem to be their scouts most of the time. We have run Sillosocks and Skyfly socks, rotaries, jumpers, wind thingies, flappers, a few fullbodies, anywhere between 20 doz and 70 doz on the field, it is all up to the conditions, being on the X and hiding properly, and the mood of the birds in that flock from day to day. Wind and krappy weather are your best friend with snows, and yet we've also had them work on the odd bluebird no wind day as well. And they seem to get into changing fields from AM to PM pretty often as well, no particular reason, just going somewhere else.
 
Yup what 209 says just got back from sask, yesterday and we had 2 dead calm days could not get them down had to shoot dirty (any which way you can) .last 1 we had a good northerly huge differance and only had 60 silos and some dark full bodies. out.You need weather most of the time.225 for 3 days 6 guns .
 
Snows are the biggest frustration you will ever come across in the waterfowl world. We have killed 20 with 1400 decoys and we have killed 50 with 100 decoys. It seems no matter what you have being on the right birds at the right spot at the right time is what matters. 500 decoys seems to be a good "small" spread to start with we started with that and it was enough to kill a few birds for sure.
 
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