spring snow goose

[CHAD MENGEL]

I was wondering if anyone has done a snow spring snow goose hunt in South Dakota. Im most likley going on a guided hunt there this spring. But i had a buddy say he thinks we could do the trip unguided have just as much success for less money. We do have mutipule electronic callers and would buy about 10 doz. decoys. So the question is, how likely am I to have a farmer grant me permission to hunt on his land, and see the geese, as opposed to just doing the guided hunt and let them put me on birds. oh yeh the trip is most likley going to happen in April.

 

[CraigS]

Got to do that a couple of springs back and it was a blast.

It was a guided hunt for three days of hunting. I think you could pull it off. Spend a couple of days scouting and asking for permission and then a few more hunting.

The thing about the guided hunt was they had over a thousand decoys out maybe two thousand.

Good luck
Craig

 

[TimJ]

I don't really spring snow goose hunt anymore but here are a couple things I know.

You can't hardly set a hard and fast date and sometime in april could likely be too late in SD. They usually start to show up about the first week of march and they move fast if there is a warm week and not a lot of snow to melt. Mid march or a week either way is probably a better time to plan for.

10 doz decoys isn't that many when you are talking spring snows. Might be OK, I never had a lot of luck decoying them but then we only used rags.

Not sure how hard it will be to get permission in the better places, I have heard many farmers are willing to let hunters on their land for this spring season. Just be careful, the ground will be soft and wet that time of year. You aren't likely to be driving out there so you will have to carry your decoys.

If you sneak on geese, I think more are shot that way then many hunters admit to (and I have no problem with that if done properly), please be careful and don't flock shoot. There are almost always some small canadas and whitefronts around large flocks of snows and young specks can be hard to tell from young blues. Shoot for white and don't try to get 20 in 5 shoots.

And if you haven't found it already SD puts updates on the spring migration http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/hunting/waterfowl/Springgoose.htm you can see the dates they went through last year.

Good luck,
Tim

 

[Michael J.]

I would guess you would you would be sorely disappointed in all the choices you have made thus far.

I don't normally encourage the use of guides, but this is one time I would think you would be money ahead to book with a guide on your first hunt, and maybe even subsequent hunts.

Like mentioned earlier, most consistent guides are now using close to 2,000 decoys, this is a big investment, and it takes a lot of room to store these decoys. I would venture some folks get by with 500-1000, but in my opinion going up with 10 doz, decoys and multiple e-callers would be an exercise in futility

To really get hooked on what I would consider snow goose hunting, and not snow goose shooting, you need to get your feet wet and see what it is all about, get in the eye of that swirling mass of 5-10 thousand birds, doing it yourself is great, but 10 dozen decoys isn't going to get it done.

Spend a day or two with a guide, it will be money well spent for the knowledge gained, but do it in March.

Don't overlook gunning in Missouri as well, little bit further, but more guide services to choose from, and cheaper licenses