decoying geese on stubble

[scarter]

im planning on shooting the stubbles this September over decoys.

I've got a dozen mallard decoys, how many goose decoys do you think I need?

[joknob]

im planning on shooting the stubbles this September over decoys.

I've got a dozen mallard decoys, how many goose decoys do you think I need?

if your shooting mallard,then no goose decoys required.if your shooting geese,then no mallard decoys required. craig

[The Ghost]

Get a good caller thats the important bit....grabs the attention

[Penelope]

Canadas? Half a dozen will suffice. 4 feeders, 2 head ups.

 

Mix the mallard in and get the best of both worlds.

 

And as Ghost says, a decent call.

 

As you are only up the road, I'd be happy to give you some tips on calling before your outing if you haven't done any/don't have one.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Penelope

[motty]

Get a good caller thats the important bit....grabs the attention

I think the decoys are the important bit. I've shot geese over decoys a few times and have found they will come into the decoys without any calling.

[big bad lindz]

Motty, You might upset the purest wildfowlers as some say decoying is not wildfowling.

Like many I do both shore shooting & decoying over stubble. I have never used any duck decoys over stubble so unless you are thinking of an evening flight with splash on the fields where you may get both duck & geese I would not bother using the mallard decoys.

With regard to the amount of geese decoys, this may depend on if you can get transport into the fields to drop off all your gear or how far you have to walk with all your gear on your back.

Shell decoys although light enough to carry are bulky and take up space in your rucksack / decoy bag. If you can get some FUD`s then these are great for transporting and are good at attracting in the geese.

I have a mix of both FUD`s & shells and depending on the state of the fields I sometimes walk in and also and use the car.

You will have to do some scouting of your stubble fields. I would usually put out 20 to 30 decoys and if I go out with my shooting freinds we can have up to 50.

But you have to start somwhere as decoys are not so cheap so I would get as many as you can afford and try them out. The pattern you use will depend on the location of your hide and how many decoys etc. The use of field craft is important, the same as pigeon decoying

I have some old felt decoys that I sometimes use as well and I have found that thay bring in pigeon as well.

and as has been said a good call and practice with it.

 

Good luck, I am sure as September gets closer there will be more said about both decoying and shore shooting.

 

BBL

[The Ghost]

I think the decoys are the important bit. I've shot geese over decoys a few times and have found they will come into the decoys without any calling.

The point I was making was...You have decoys now get a caller now thats the important bit, it grabs there attention when you have that they may come over and see your decoys.

I can call ducks and geese to me when they are a long way off, even flying away from me....they will turn around and decoy.

I did not say any bit of kit was more important, this is PW and you will always have someone on here who would say "the gun is the most important" or "the cartridge" or "your phone" need I go on.....Are you saying that 'decoys are the most important bit of kit you take while shooting' Motty...think about it

[Barls2-9-12]

At the end of the day if you are shooting a field where the geese want to come onto feed you will not need a lot of decoys to bring them in to range to shoot. But on a another day when your trying to pull them into the field your shooting on which they are not directly feeding on, it can help to have a bigger pattern of decoys. and it goes without saying a good call in the right hands will work wonders...

[The Ghost]

At the end of the day if you are shooting a field where the geese want to come onto feed you will not need a lot of decoys to bring them in to range to shoot. But on a another day when your trying to pull them into the field your shooting on which they are not directly feeding on, it can help to have a bigger pattern of decoys. and it goes without saying a good call in the right hands will work wonders...

Good advice Barls

[henry d]

What species of geese? Are you going out for just duck or geese or both?

 

Canada - probably just a handful, Greys - probably a lot more, Pinks in December (yeah I know you said sept) - 50 to 100+

Edited June 14, 2013 by henry d

[scarter]

That helps guys thanks very much! Will Greys come into a pattern of Canada's?

[shakin stevens]

That helps guys thanks very much! Will Greys come into a pattern of Canada's? Yes greys will come in no problem, most waterfowl would have a look if you are in the right field where the food is, crows come in pigeons fly in for a look.

[Tony G]

I have 50 foam shells that look like Greys. Last year here in Bedford I had Greys,Canada's,Barnacles and Mallard all come into them. Put them all out in a random pattern facing different directions then make gaps in the pattern for the real ones to land. As some people have said calling isn't always needed if you are on the field they want to be on. If you do call once they are committed it's sometimes better to stop and concentrate on shooting !

[Tony G]

Forgot to say,I also use the same decoys several times a year in Scotland for the Pinks

[The Ghost]

I was always told to put more feeder decoys in the kill zone, geese are greedy birds and they will want to be where the food is being eaten.

Just make sure you have a good landing area short of your feeders the geese will want to land in, if you watch them in the wild they do this...then walk up to where others are feeding the most.

[motty]

The point I was making was...You have decoys now get a caller now thats the important bit, it grabs there attention when you have that they may come over and see your decoys.

I can call ducks and geese to me when they are a long way off, even flying away from me....they will turn around and decoy.

I did not say any bit of kit was more important, this is PW and you will always have someone on here who would say "the gun is the most important" or "the cartridge" or "your phone" need I go on.....Are you saying that 'decoys are the most important bit of kit you take while shooting' Motty...think about it

I just quoted your post.

I have had geese (canadas and greys) coming into my pattern ( canada shells, sillosocks and foams, pinkfoot fuds and whitefront sillosocks) as i have driven my truck to the edge of a barley stubble. My mate in the hide (without calls) shot a left and right. The pattern was set up in the middle of the field where the geese had been feeding and we were hidden in a standard large desert camo net hide. The decoys were no more than 20 yards from the hide.

We shot 14 geese within half an hour and could have shot many more had we wanted to. Incidently, we also shot 231 pigeons on the same field that day.

My point is, if the geese have been feeding confidently on a field, i don't think a call is that important.

Edited June 15, 2013 by motty

[The Ghost]

I just quoted your post.

I have had geese (canadas and greys) coming into my pattern ( canada shells, sillosocks and foams, pinkfoot fuds and whitefront sillosocks) as i have driven my truck to the edge of a barley stubble. My mate in the hide (without calls) shot a left and right. The pattern was set up in the middle of the field where the geese had been feeding and we were hidden in a standard large desert camo net hide. The decoys were no more than 20 yards from the hide.

We shot 14 geese within half an hour and could have shot many more had we wanted to. Incidently, we also shot 231 pigeons on the same field that day.

My point is, if the geese have been feeding confidently on a field, i don't think a call is that important.

[The Ghost]

I think the decoys are the important bit. I've shot geese over decoys a few times and have found they will come into the decoys without any calling.

The most important thing when shooting is the goose/pigeon/duck without them you are sitting in a field or marsh playing with your phone.

You can quote me on that, 'the most important part of shooting is your quarry' thats why I will never shoot a hare.

I have never shot 14 geese in a season let alone a day, I do know two blokes on the Solway who shot 74 geese in a day...needless to say they have no respect from me or any other wildfowler....I did hear they sold them all.

 

My question would be what is more important your decoys or the 74 geese....we take six geese per year each (24) on our permissions...as you know we could have hundreds.

[scarter]

All your advice has helped a lot.

Is anyone out there in a club or syndicate which you can buy data or flights on one off kind if thing? I am in a syndicate in Northampton but am always looking for new places to try and meeting new people.

I am a bit of a new comer to Wildfowling but am mad keen to learn more!

[motty]

The most important thing when shooting is the goose/pigeon/duck without them you are sitting in a field or marsh playing with your phone.

You can quote me on that, 'the most important part of shooting is your quarry' thats why I will never shoot a hare.

I have never shot 14 geese in a season let alone a day, I do know two blokes on the Solway who shot 74 geese in a day...needless to say they have no respect from me or any other wildfowler....I did hear they sold them all.

 

My question would be what is more important your decoys or the 74 geese....we take six geese per year each (24) on our permissions...as you know we could have hundreds.

Not quite sure what you're getting at.

I was saying that to decoy geese i think the decoys are more beneficial than a call. You seem to be going off on a bit of a tangent with the whole 'quarry the most important' bit.

[WelshAndy]

This gets me every time! People can go out and shoot a bag of 200+ pigeons and get a pat on the back woop woop. Another person can go out and shoot 10 Canada geese, and they get ridiculed?! 3 geese will graze as much as a sheep and poop nasty toxic greenies every 7 minutes!

[Penelope]

This thought tends to be more for migratory greys, pinks and whitefronts (uk population falling due to short stopping) which until quite (30 off years ago) recently had much lower populations than they currently do. Also particularly with pinks, a significant part of the world population winter in the uk

 

Localised high feral populations skew this a bit.

 

This gets me every time! People can go out and shoot a bag of 200+ pigeons and get a pat on the back woop woop. Another person can go out and shoot 10 Canada geese, and they get ridiculed?! 3 geese will graze as much as a sheep and poop nasty toxic greenies every 7 minutes!

Edited June 17, 2013 by Penelope

[Pole Star]

Canadas? Half a dozen will suffice. 4 feeders, 2 head ups.

 

Mix the mallard in and get the best of both worlds.

 

And as Ghost says, a decent call.

 

As you are only up the road, I'd be happy to give you some tips on calling before your outing if you haven't done any/don't have one.

 

That's the spirit of a Gentleman Penelope & more what pw should be about , I have pulled in Greylags with anything from 2 deeks up Scarter & do your reconnaissance the day or two before & if you put Mallard decoys out I think it best if they are away from the main geese decoy pattern & best near a flash as BBL said .

Good luck