Snow Goose Decoys

What do you guys use for snow goose decoys? Do you use snow goose shells, or will they decoy into Canada goose sets?

I find that having a mixed type of decoy works better than any single type alone. We usually put out anywhere from 800-1500 'Texas Rags' (made up into windsocks). Having a few sets of Canada decoys is a good thing. Add to this 6-18 Goose Magnets (flying decoys, but not the cheapo kytes) toward the back of the spread (so they focus somewhere other than where the hunters are lying).

So, how long does that take you to set up, and how many men work on it? I assume with that many dekes you surround your blind and are sitting right in the middle of them?

Imho, the perfect size for a hunting party for geese is between 6-8. Given that many people, we can usually put out the spread in less than 2 hours (if everyone knows what they are doing, WAY less than 2 hours).

There are different kinds of patterns we use for the spread. Early in the season, we will generally setup in a 'U', 'V', or 'J' shape, with the spread pointing into the wind. We position the hunters along this point. This will make the geese come over the point and land in the open spot behind.

X X X X X X X X X X X landing X X area X X wind

I read in one of them hunting mag's where thay took old gallon milk jug's and painted them to look like duck's.then they added weight (rock's,lead,whatever) to them to hold em down. I don't hunt duck's or geese so i wouldn't know if thay work or not.but from the pic' i seen,it seem's like thay should. Think the mag' was last months field &

Ah yes, the snow goose. It is my girl's favorite, out of all the kinds of

But how long does it take you to pick them up?? Man - I hated rag spreads - bending over is tough in chest waders. Many newspapers used to use aluminum sheets for the printing process (maybe they still do) and I once bought a bunch and cut patterns out of them that made full bodied dekes. Set them on the drive and spray painted them. Easy to put out - just walk along with an arm load and drop them off - wouldn't blow over unless you were in a gale. You could use a stick with a hook to pick them up. Great for us old fat boys.

On average, about 2/3 the time it takes to put them out.

I only wear chest waders when goose hunting if I know the ground is saturated AND I don't have one of those nifty 'boats' to lay in.

How much do they weigh? I can't imagine being able to carry 1000 of them into the field. We do use a 4-wheeler to drag stuff in/out, but that's not always a possibility - sometimes we have to carry it in bags (or drag in the 'boat'.

Heavier and bulkier than rags but they're pretty light - I could grab 30-40 on one arm and use the other to drop with. I built 200 and one person could carry them - although they were bulky. My main complaint with rags was having to weight them down to keep them from blowing (I used plastic tablecloth). All that bending just wasn't a lot of fun . At least with these you could just walk along and drop them. Hey - I'll admit I was lazy.

*All* of the rag decoys I use (including those by guides I know) are made into windsocks. You 'whip' the decoy to fill it with air, and put the stick into the ground (into the wind, to help give movement to the the decoy).

Hey Chris,

God a few questions for you in regards to the Snow Goose decoys. I bought Texas Rags for the first time about 7 years ago but never put them on dowals. I recently bought 200 rags and am in the process of tying them to the dowals. My question to you is, what's the fastest way to make them? I have someone else helping but it seems to be very time consuming even when we are on a roll. Suppose I'd have to bring in more people to help make them? I'm hoping to buy another 400 rags before the Snows come down, hopefully I'll have enough time to make them. Thanks.