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Post by maestro402 on Sept 8, 2007 11:30:39 GMT -5
Hey Crew
Question regarding calling geese in early season. We had a good flock coming in this morning and I think we scared them off with calling too much. How has everyone been handling the amount of calling? Volume? Just Moans? Etc.
Any help is appreciated ... I'm trying to figure out these crazy geese.
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Post by pigeonflier on Sept 8, 2007 11:47:32 GMT -5
Never say more than what the geese are saying,, and early like this,, most calling is too much. Clucks and moans is what kills geese. A good set of dekes and a flag will out perform even the best callers right now....
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Post by Noblebowhunter on Sept 8, 2007 12:09:56 GMT -5
calls?? you take calls??? i knew i was forgettin somethin
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Post by duff on Sept 8, 2007 12:51:20 GMT -5
If they are heading for you shut up, or keep it to a minimum volume and overall. If they try to land short get super agressive. If they slide off to one side or another give em a few, but if they look like they are comited they might have made you and had nothing to do with calling.
Hide well, limit your calling.
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Post by hoosierhunter2 on Sept 8, 2007 14:08:57 GMT -5
Duff, hit it right on the head! You need to learn to read the birds. Be very well hid and no looky-loos out the blind, only the pitboss who will call the shot! Flag them and what calling may be necessary to get them to look and turn your way, once you have them lined up you can shut her down, and if they look like they are going to try and slide you or change direction, get back on them with some flagging if necessary (unless they are right on you, 70 yards or less), and get excited on the call till they straighten back up and let them work in on their own. Again like stated, a flag is a MUST!!!! Call only as needed and don't start out excited, only give them some and you can always give them more if they aren't responding. And always just as important work on your "hide", take the time to mud your blinds, make sure and add alot of natural vegetation from where your hunting to make sure and blend in, and make sure everyone stays in and covers their face, etc. until it's time to come up and shoot. Good luck!
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Post by shootsa410 on Sept 8, 2007 14:57:36 GMT -5
I don't care if the birds never come to my spread, I just love blowing my call. ;D
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Post by Adam Brown (BGGoosekiller) on Sept 8, 2007 15:24:06 GMT -5
Some men were born to blow, not that there is anything wrong with that or anything though. ;D
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Post by maestro402 on Sept 8, 2007 21:58:54 GMT -5
Duff, hit it right on the head! You need to learn to read the birds. Be very well hid and no looky-loos out the blind, only the pitboss who will call the shot! Flag them and what calling may be necessary to get them to look and turn your way, once you have them lined up you can shut her down, and if they look like they are going to try and slide you or change direction, get back on them with some flagging if necessary (unless they are right on you, 70 yards or less), and get excited on the call till they straighten back up and let them work in on their own. Again like stated, a flag is a MUST!!!! Call only as needed and don't start out excited, only give them some and you can always give them more if they aren't responding. And always just as important work on your "hide", take the time to mud your blinds, make sure and add alot of natural vegetation from where your hunting to make sure and blend in, and make sure everyone stays in and covers their face, etc. until it's time to come up and shoot. Good luck! Hey Bossman .... Great advice from both you and Duff. I think our blinds were well hid with natural vegetation ... However I think our enviroment made us stick out b/c they had already bushhogged the field. I'm going to go get a picture to post to show you all. I know that one of our guys is a Looky-loo kind of guy ... he was wearing a dang black hat with a blue logo. UGH. So when you say pittboss lets expand ... are there rolls we should be playing?? Only one of us calling etc??? |
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Post by maestro402 on Sept 8, 2007 22:42:42 GMT -5
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Post by duff on Sept 9, 2007 4:56:57 GMT -5
Only leave around 3 dekes in the hole, looks like you could move some of those up next to your blinds. Just my opinion anyways.
You want to give them plenty of room to land in front of you.
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Post by hoosierhunter2 on Sept 9, 2007 8:11:25 GMT -5
I agree, there is not good kill hole out in front. Blinds don't look bad from that pic. Need to run more of a U or J pattern with the blinds set up with the wind at your back, put the blinds in the middle of the mass of decoys with plenty behind you and a few in front of you, and either one or 2 long lines out on the sides with a plenty wide enough kill hole. Definitely get the dekes spread out, when they are too close together it is more of an alarmed look.
Now about the pitboss, you need your best caller or most experienced hunter to be the pitboss, someone that can read the birds and know how to react to them. Everyone else need to be cocooned and not be looking out and giving away their motion in the blinds. The pitboss will be calling and everyone else can listen to him and feed off his calling, if he gets excited they get excited, if he goes into a soft laydown they do to or they just get quiet, etc. Usually you will have someone that will be flagging also, and with these layoutblinds they can be doing this without looking out etc., with the flagging socks and openings in the blind, and the pitboss will direct as necessary, and finally he will call the shot and that is when everyone comes out of their cocoon. You want to kill more geese? This all is very important, all these details is what it takes to consistently kill geese. Also make sure you know what the wind is supposed to do for the day, check your weather forecast, etc. I've been out early in the morning and knew what the wind was supposed to do and set up accordingly even though it wasn't what it was doing at that moment, and sure enough the wind did swirl and set up like we wanted it to, saved us from having to completely change the setup, this is not always the case, but the main thing is be completely prepared for the day. Good luck buddy!
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Post by duff on Sept 9, 2007 9:00:50 GMT -5
But also don't be afraid to move dekes if needed. I've hunted with 410 where we have completely changed our set up to match the wind. It is that important when you are in a layout blind. You want them in the pocket in your face.
And some days nothing matters the birds just do their own thing. Plenty O Days we've called and flagged and changed set-up and calling and flagging to no avail. Calling at lots of birds is fun but it is a heck of a lot funner to pile em up in the mud!
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Post by Adam Brown (BGGoosekiller) on Sept 9, 2007 12:03:13 GMT -5
You don't want the gees3e to have to try to buzz geese right in front of your kill hole. setting the spread up more like a u shape will help.
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Post by maestro402 on Sept 9, 2007 14:02:26 GMT -5
You want to kill more geese? You know I do bossman!!! This is all wonderful information b/c I've never heard this before. AWESOME .... I like being organized. I went out this a.m. with some different friends and had a great time. We had to resort to pass shooting. We got two. So where does the bottom of the J or U need to be? The blinds more toward the bottom of the J or U or right in the middle? |
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Post by hoosierhunter2 on Sept 9, 2007 14:34:57 GMT -5
The bottom of the J or U would be where the real mass of the dekes are and where the blinds would be, and this would be with the wind at your back. Some also call the J set up a swoosh, like the Nike swoosh mark, mass of the dekes spread out with a long string of dekes running out to the side and down wind. Make sense?
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Post by hoosierhunter2 on Sept 9, 2007 14:39:13 GMT -5
Michael,
Let me also tell you of the X setup, this is a great setup when there is realitively no wind to control the geese, and you expect the geese from all different directions. What this is, is exactly that an X, the mass of the dekes spread out with thin lines of dekes spreading out in 4 legs to form an X, and the blinds are right in the middle with the mass of dekes, this will help to land them in all four pockets or kill holes, depending on which way they come from and with this setup, you are pretty good to go for all situations, and you can just pick up the blinds and turn them if the geese are predominately coming from one direction. Again a good setup if you aren't exactly sure which way the geese will approach from and their is no wind.
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Post by duff on Sept 9, 2007 14:51:36 GMT -5
Assuming the wind was blowing towards the camera man in your pic and the blinds were facing the camera man, take the dekes closest to the camera man and put them close to the blinds to help hide the blinds and make it more forgiving on movement.
This will open up the pocket and then sting them out to the edges. When you get the jist of it you can adjust your spread to force them to one spot, sometimes.
I usually like to put 2 or 3 senturies 30 yrds out in the pocket one side or another offset, like they just landed. But leave plenty of room for the others.
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Post by maestro402 on Sept 9, 2007 16:34:49 GMT -5
The bottom of the J or U would be where the real mass of the dekes are and where the blinds would be, and this would be with the wind at your back. Some also call the J set up a swoosh, like the Nike swoosh mark, mass of the dekes spread out with a long string of dekes running out to the side and down wind. Make sense? Yeah ... That makes sense. So does it taper off like the swoosh with less toward the end of the line? |
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Post by maestro402 on Sept 9, 2007 16:38:01 GMT -5
Assuming the wind was blowing towards the camera man in your pic and the blinds were facing the camera man, take the dekes closest to the camera man and put them close to the blinds to help hide the blinds and make it more forgiving on movement. This will open up the pocket and then sting them out to the edges. When you get the jist of it you can adjust your spread to force them to one spot, sometimes. I usually like to put 2 or 3 senturies 30 yrds out in the pocket one side or another offset, like they just landed. But leave plenty of room for the others. Wow ... This is making sense to me. I guess I knew there was a science to decoy placement ... i just didn't know what it was. |
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Post by dukhnt on Sept 9, 2007 20:39:40 GMT -5
Michael all this is great advice ,but if the pictures you posted are from where I think they are those geese are under a lot of hunting pressure. If that is the case you really need to scout these birds ,what times are they feeding ,how many birds, their flight path ,what part of the field are they in etc.
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