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Guided Spring Snow Goose Hunts

The Hunt
Spring Snow Goose Hunting gets in your blood, if you have never seen or heard the racket of 10,000 Snows and Blues circling down into your spread you have missed one of the greatest experiences of the waterfowl world. Spring Snow Goose hunting is something truly amazing to see and I there is nothing else to compare it to in waterfowl hunting. To have the opportunity to see up to a million birds in a single day is northing short of amazing. Snow Goose Hunting is also a vary frustrating experience if your new to it, knowing where the birds are coming from, where they are going, finding the right kind of field, knowing what effect the weather is going to have on them is all things that comes with time and experience.

Spring Goose Hunting I have been a waterfowl guide for 14 seasons now, but last year was our first year offering snow goose hunts. Just sitting in a picked cornfield amongst up to a thousand snow and blue decoys with the snow goose e-caller roaring is enough to get you excitedÂ…..then the birds start moving and it gets really amazing. With a little luck it is tornado after tornado circling down on the spread with geese stacked up to thousands of feet above the ground. When it all goes right you better have a full case of shells in the blind and remember not to touch your barrel because it will be red hot.

Every day is a different experience, some days will be a struggle and the birds will not cooperate as well as desired and other days will be a barrel burning experience. 2007 we averaged 70+ birds per day out of my spread with on average 5 hunters in the field. I think our best day was 120 for 6 of us and our hardest day was 20 birds. For this reason I hope everyone can come to enjoy more then one day of hunting, best case would be for a 3-day weekend for each hunter so they can increase their chances of that barrel-burning day.

Typical Day in the Field
Our typical day will start early usually an hour before shooting time to make sure everyone is ready to go and any last minute changes to the spread can be made. Typically the action does not start until shortly after sunrise, we like to have everything ready to go at first light just incase we get some early arrivals. We will typically hunt from the early AM until the morning flight is over, from there we will break for a late breakfast/early lunch. At this time we will usually break off from you so we can do some scouting for the following mornings hunt, sometimes we will decide to pull the spread and relocate it for the evening hunt. After lunch we will return to the spread for the evening shoot, this will depend on how the geese are moving. We do hunt until sunset every day, at the end of the day often we choice to pull the spread to move it to another field for the following morning.  Moving the spread is a group effort since it takes so much time to move up to 100 dozen decoys and blinds, especially after mudhole 2008....it was a hard season in the mud and weather.
Usually we will pick-up the spread in the evening and start two hours before sunrise to reset the spread.  If you do not wish to move a lot please let me know so we can pick a location that allows for daily traffic birds.  From there we will usually move to town for diner and talk about the days adventure. From there the guides will probably leave to start setting the Snow Goose spread for the following day.

Spring Goose Hunting Guide Scouting
Scouting is the single most important component of spring snow goose hunting, if your guide is not scouting he is not doing his job very well. On an average 3-day weekend I will usually put on 500-1000 miles scouting, I want to give you the best possible opportunity to kill a limit of snows and blues. It is quite common for us to move our spread three times on a 3-day weekend so that we are on the "hot" field. Since we are scouting every day we might be moving up to 100 miles the next day, if that is something you don't want to do let me know ahead of time so we can find the best possible field closer to our home base. It is your hunt and I will fashion it to your desires.

Equipment
Decoys - The spread will depend on the hunting situation, early in the season we will usually set a very large snow goose spread consisting of up to 1,000 decoys, later in the season we sometimes will run ultra small decoy spreads. One of my better spring snow goose hunts was over only 100 full body decoys, just in the right spot at the right time. Currently we use a mixture of decoys including Bigfoot and GHG full bodies, Silosocks, custom painted Northwind, GHG and G&H shells, and floater decoys.

Blinds - For spring snow goose hunting I strictly use Final Approach x-lander layout blinds, these are the lowest profile blinds available and also the most comfortable from my experience. Easy to conceal blinds is key in the spring, we will ask you to help each morning and throughout the hunt to touch up the stubble on your blind.

Electronic Calls - During the spring snow goose season e-callers are allowed by the USFWS. We use top of the line callers with up to 8 speakers covering the entire snow goose spread. We use The Snow Persuader electronic calling system, this is a top of the line snow goose calling unit that is loud enough to draw the farthest flock, and has the sound quality required to get that same flock feet down hovering above the spread.(make sure to bring ear plugs - these ecallers are LOUD)

Special Equipment - We do use other types of equipment in the field to entice and fool the wary snow goose, depending on that the situation calls for or allows we will use other tactics. I can't tell all my secrets so to you will just have to come and hunt with me to learn it all.

Locations (Click on each state to read more)

Missouri
South Dakota
Nebraska


Pricing

Missouri


Weekends-$450 for 3 day package

  • Weekend hunts are all day Fri/Sat, and till noon on Sunday

Weekdays-$160 per day

  • Monday thru Thursday

Groups of 6 or more are gauranteed their own field, otherwise groups will be mixed to reach 6-7 hunters per field.

South Dakota

Weekends-Fri/Sat all day, Sunday till noon

Weekdays

  • $160/day-Contact me about lodging and lunch if desired.

Groups of 6 or more are gauranteed their own field, otherwise groups will be mixed to reach 6-7 hunters per field.

Click for Deposit Policy



The Midwest Waterfowl Outfitters Difference
The biggest difference between us and other snow goose guides is we only run ONE field per day so you're always on the "hot" field. It will always be myself and another guide with you, usually one of us will leave the field during the morning and evening hunts to scout for the next days hunt. Spring Goose Hunting The next biggest difference is I want you to view me as your hunting buddy; I want to have fun in the field and by no means want to have a guide/client relationship. I am not doing this to make a living as I am doing it to allow me to hunt all season. With the rising cost of fuel it had become impossible for me to hunt every weekend. There are only so many weekends to do this every spring and I want to enjoy them all. As much as I am your snow goose guide, I am also a member of the hunting party. 

Lodging
We do not provide lodging as part of the spring snow goose hunts; we will however provide you with names and numbers of hotels in the area we are hunting. Lodging is usually very reasonably priced, since your spend up to 14 hours a day in the field lodging is usually not a big priority to our hunters.

What to Bring
  • Clothing - A variety of clothing, preferably waterproof. Spring Snow Hunting is usually done in muddy fields and you want to stay warm and dry. It also can get warm, so I recommend you dress in layers so you can strip it off in the morning and add it back towards the evening.
  • Ammo - I recommend 3" or 3.5" BB's. If you can afford Hevishot it is the best option, #2's in Hevi are a deadly load. Even on a slow day I still manage to burn through a box of shells usually, I have also had days where you dang near burn through a case of shells. I would recommend bring at the minimum of a case of shells with you for a weekend trip, there is usually stores within 20 miles where you can buy more.
  • Bird cleaning supplies - Bird cleaning is the responsibility of EVERYONE in the party, if you don't want to clean birds it can be done by our guides for a fee. I also recommend bring one gallon ziplock bags, fish fillet knife, and a large cooler for each member of the party.
  • Food and Drink - I recommend you bring snacks for in the field, the days can get long. I do however not allow under any circumstance alcohol in the field, if I find your drinking in my decoy spread or show up in the morning under the influence I will ask you to leave the spread.
  • Camera - Always nice to take some action photos or after hunt group pictures.

Booking Now for the Spring 2009 Snow Goose Season

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