Plastic Goose Decoys

C

Capt. Jack Passie

Well-known member
While all of my pits have at least 120 Stuffers in them when I have to hunt a field or hedge row blind, I'm forced to use plastic. The rats will destroy the Stuffers. I used to think Bigfoots were the way to go. I am very unimpressed with Bigfoots. The birds circle and circle and don't really commit. We are always shooting up at them. Their landing gear rarely comes down. I have one spot where I have about a 100 Hardcore and other mixed decoys and they work well, particularly on dull days. I was wondering what plastic field decoys you guys like. Give me the rite info and I might have ton of Bigfoots for sale.
 
A scull boat is the best goose decoy, lol. Ive been 5 ft from sleeping geese.

I use ghg for geese and keep light dress socks on their heads to protect the flocking. We actually had a goose come into buffle head decoys and we have had good luck standing in the salt marsh and waving our arms at distant flocks we usualy forget our flag.
 
Capt., I ve had real good luck with a mix of Big Foots, 5doz, Avian axp, 3 doz,
Dakota xtremes, 3 doz. I mix them up and find that the motion of the Avian and Dakotas really help finish the birds.

Best - Paul
 
Kind of hard to compare stuffers to plastic. I use the big feet but am adding in the Dave Smith. My hunting partners have GHG. The mix works OK, but again nothing like stuffers.
 
We've never had a problem getting geese to decoy to Big Foots, I have both floaters and full bodies and they are the best goose decoy made in my opinion. They are really durable and the floaters and fullbodies are made in USA. (the whole Bigfoot B2 line that Cabelas sells is made in China and is an insult to the Bigfoot name and legacy in my opinion.) I also have a dozen G&H shells that have worked very well too, especially on the ice. Like some other guys have said, Dave Smith decoys are probably the most realistic plastic out there but you had better take out a second mortgage to pay for them. The new Avian-X geese look really good too but I haven't personally used them and can't vouch for how they hold up. Dakotas are really nice too, one of my buddies has about 4 dozen of them and they are durable but heavy.
 
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The thing that I see with the Bigfoots when used in somebody else's field is exactly what happens when I use them. They're always shooting at the geese above them. I have some Avain and Dakotas . I've used them with both the Bigfoots and the Hardcore. They seem to work well with the Hardcore not so well with the Bigfoot.. I think a lot depends upon hunting pressure. Most guys her on Long Island that use plastic, use Bigfoots and every rig is a carbon copy. Today the last day of the season I had 120 stuffers out half of the buried in the snow and we had our 15 birds by 10:00. I know that I couldn't have done that with plastic. To me the Bigfoots look like silhouettes
 
I used the Hardcover brand for near 5 years to hunt greaters when I lived in Fort Wayne indiana...They are shiny like any new plastic decoys so before the second season I left them out in backyard for about two months in the middle of summer and it reduced the shine considerably to nearly no glare when hunting bluebird skies. When I moved to Texas I ended up buying two dozen avian x snow geese decoys. After mid season I sold all of them for Whiterock decoys. Today I have 70 dozen whiterock snow geese decoys. If we got the canada geese this far south I would use nothing but the Whiterock brand in Canada geese. You can buy about 10 dozen in the canada goose for around 900 with heads. In comparison you only can buy about 3 dozen full bodies at the same price. The positive thing is that 10 dozen will fit in a large duffle bag. Space wise I could barely fit 2 dozen full bodies in the bed of my tacoma. I can fit all 70 dozen in two bags which take up about a quarter of my bed. Of course i chose the economy no head version. One factor to consider is that if you buy the headless version about 35 dozen will fit in the whiterock duffle bag. If you buy the headed version only 10 dozen will fit in a bag. The wonderful thing is that I can put out about 70 dozen decoys in about 40 minutes without a 4 wheeler by myself taking a bag at a time into the field. It took me near an hour to do that with 2 dozen full bodies decoys hunting the same spot because of carry several bags into the field in multiple trips. I regularly hunt with about 4 guys and we can put out about 70 dozen birds in about 15 minutes. I highly recommend this brand if you are repeating a process of putting out and then pulling decoys to keep birds from getting field and decoy shy. They also will handle strong windy days and a very lively in minimum winds. Have hunted 3 seasons about 22 days a season and my decoys are still in great shape.

Regards,
Kristan
 
Check out the DVD "Goose Society" by molt gear. He talks about all the differences of the various brands of full body decoys.

Also, a lot of goose guys say "the secret" in a lot of cases is to simply look different than your competition. So, if everybody has bigfoots, then geese get educated to bigfoots. Maybe an all shell decoy spread or the wind socks Kristan mentioned would be the ticket.
 
I'd run a test. Just a time or two put the bigfoots out in pit blind and see how they work. Then go to the effort and put some stuffers at a hedgerow blind. That will tell you if it's the decoys or the hedgerow.
 
I think that the other guys nailed it, if lots of guys in your area use Big Foots then the geese will get educated to the way those particular decoys look. It only takes a time or two with getting shot at to educate geese really quickly!
 
I have recovered from my many years as a Goose Hunting Addict. Have hunted Canada's and other geese many places, and more times than I care to think about. Killed geese over just about all types of decoys. No decoys ever brought the geese in better than the old Outlaw Decoys, and I mean that sincerely. At times I felt bad for the birds, that's how well they worked, from Cacklers to Giants and those in between.

But we did not hunt the same fields, or places very often. I believe it's more hunting pressure than decoys that becomes the problem. Waterfowl are very sensitive to hunting pressure, more so than most folks think. The way adult Snows hang up over a decoy spread, and let the youngsters test the area, and get killed sez it all. The birds are not dumb and much harder to fool. Longer seasons = smarter geese.

The less fresh areas there are to hunt the birds, the greater the problem it is to get them to commit as we all know. If a shot in killing range presents itself take it.
 
I have original Big Foots that were made in Iowa, I believe, before they outsourced the product to China. They were a quality product then and I have had good results with them.
 
For a little over a dozen years, we had fabulous goose hunting up here. During that interval I purchased a mix of eight dozen Bigfoots I eventually hand painted the feather detail on for hunting here and in NoDak with an airbrush. It took a good chunk of time, but the results were worth it. No two Bigfoots have the same body shade with the same feather edge highlight array. This really made a difference in how the birds react when working into the spread, particularly in bright sunlight.

I combine these with several dozen (8) hand painted Real Geese body style silhouettes concentrated around the layout blinds to break their outlines up. I have added a couple dozen square base Avian X AXPs when they go on sale. These are VERY nice decoys, particularly if you give them the sock over the head and neck storage treatment. I touch the bodies up with Golden's Acrylics.

IF I were starting over with a plastic decoy goose spread purchase, I would go with a mix of Dave Smith Honkers and Avian X AXP birds with Real Geese double-sde fabric coated silhouettes.
 
I have a small set up, but it seems to work. I field hunt a lot during the goose season with 8 Big foots, and 6 G&H Motion feeders. It is combo the guides use around this part of Minnesota, but they use large spreads. I hunt the same large field pretty much all season, and the small spread makes it easy to move around for a different look. I used to set out lots of decoys, shells and full body's, but this small spread seems to work the best of any combination I've tried. The motion decoys seem to keep the attention of the geese as they come into land, making it easier for me to hide.

Miller
 
I have good luck running a spread of silhouettes and Sillosocks for Canada Geese. I also have a spread of all black/white silhouettes and black/white Canada Sillosocks that brings the geese in as well.....
I also have to say that Dave Smith Decoys are way to go when it comes to full-bodies. A small spread of high quality decoys like DSD will work, sometimes I sit out as few as 3 DSD Canada's and get their attention.

Tim
 
I have original Big Foots that were made in Iowa, I believe, before they outsourced the product to China. They were a quality product then and I have had good results with them.
Click to expand...

Big Foot original full bodies and goose floaters are still made in Iowa.

When I lived next to a NWR and season was 90 days long, The geese got educated. Thats when I would hunt 2 Big Foot decoys in a public field. Little to no calling and I was able to shoot 11 geese in the last week of season with a 2 bird limit. These decoys were within 30 yards of woods. I decided to do the opposite of every other club and field around me and it worked.

Also, my buddies and everyone else blow short reeds I am still blowing an old mellow sounding flute that has killed a lot of geese in 26 years. The other winter when I went south after our season was over. The geese ignored the short reeds many times and after they quit calling, there were times the geese instantly committed to the sound of my old flute. I landed geese in the Big Foots every day I was there with my old flute. My one buddy went out and bought a Big River flute just to use somedays in the late season.
 
I have original Big Foots that were made in Iowa, I believe, before they outsourced the product to China. They were a quality product then and I have had good results with them.
Click to expand...

Big Foot original full bodies and goose floaters are still made in Iowa.

When I lived next to a NWR and season was 90 days long, The geese got educated. Thats when I would hunt 2 Big Foot decoys in a public field. Little to no calling and I was able to shoot 11 geese in the last week of season with a 2 bird limit. These decoys were within 30 yards of woods. I decided to do the opposite of every other club and field around me and it worked.

Also, my buddies and everyone else blow short reeds I am still blowing an old mellow sounding flute that has killed a lot of geese in 26 years. The other winter when I went south after our season was over. The geese ignored the short reeds many times and after they quit calling, there were times the geese instantly committed to the sound of my old flute. I landed geese in the Big Foots every day I was there with my old flute. My one buddy went out and bought a Big River flute just to use somedays in the late season.
Click to expand...

Ironically, I just bought 2 goose flutes. I got one of them in the mail today. The other one should be here the first of next week. One of them is a Big River Goose Flute, too.

I've never used a goose flute before. It blows a lot different than my vintage P S Olt goose call.

Sounds like I may have made an excellent choice in adding a flute to the wind section.

Fred
 
One other comment to the small spread of decoys I use . . . The guide groups that I talk to tell me how important it is to remove most of the decoys during the days they don't hunt. So when I am setting up my small group, I do bring them each time I hunt. When I used a much larger spread of decoys, I left them out all season.

Miller
 
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