Snow Goose hunts

[Jmort1754]

Anyone care to share their input for guides for Arkansas in Feb?

 

[JMasson]

Yes. I’ll send you a PM

 

[Fatcamp]

Yes. I’ll send you a PM

Can you send me one as well, please?

 

[JMasson]

Can you send me one as well, please?

Sure. I’ll send both when I’m done at an appointment I have this morning.

 

[blastro87]

Start calling outfitters, and find the one that seems the most transparent. If all they wanna tell you is they make piles every single day, look elsewhere. Ive hunted arkansas for ducks, dark geese, and light geese. Theres good days and bad, and your not slaughtering every day, even on a good Juvy hatch and spring with favorable weather conditions. All success rates aside, the best outfitter is an honest one. Ive been one for 10 years and I never tell people what they want to hear, I tell them what they need to hear. Sometimes they dont like it and they dont book, fine by me. Theyre likely living in this fairyland mentality that all hunting is exactly as it looks on youtube. Doesnt take a lot of video footage to look like a hero on YouTube. Find the guy who is honest and isnt afraid to talk about his bad seasons, and is open about the fact that you might not be as successful as you like on your hunt. Thats the guy who is going to give you the best experience cuz hes not blowing a bunch of smoke up your a$$ for a deposit. And dont pay any attention to the price until youve found who you want to hunt with. The rate is irrelevant if your actually looking or a good outfitter. Arkansas has 10 guys on every corner waiting to take your money for a hunt, I wouldnt give 98% of them my money. That 2% is what your looking for. Not long ago any idiot with a handful of white rags could kill snows down there. Now, every swinging dick with a shotgun is gunning for em. Its a tough game to be in anymore...My personal recommendation, find an outfitter who will put you on snows the week before the C.O. starts. Few people gunning for them, you can still shoot specks (might give you a backup option if birds hop areas overnight) and theyre dumber than hammered $h*t compared to what they are 1 week into the CO. You cant use ecallers (to date ive killed more with mouth calls and no ecaller), and you cant use unplugged guns (if you cant kill them in 3 shots your certainly not gonna do any damage with shots 5 through 10). Big deal. Go a week before CO starts if at all possible....For the record, im in Atlantic Flyway. The good days in the midwest make our good days look like a joke...but the slow days out there, are the same as they are here! Good luck and have fun! Remember, no matter how big that flock is when theyre feet down, pick out 1 bird on each shot! You will be more lethal guaranteed!

 

[blastro87]

Quick follow up to my post, heres a pic from an AR shoot week before CO started...we were in what they considered "low" snow goose numbers but they were 98% juvies. STUPID STUPID BIRDS! Sometimes less is more! Ill take smaller concentrations of dumb birds over large concentrations of breeding age birds any day.

 

[Big Ern]

Good advice above. I have hunted AR quite a bit. I have been on snows where it was absolutely ridiculous how many birds were coming in....the stuff videos are made on. I have also been hunting snows and it was kinda hit or miss. Fun, but not piles and piles of birds. Timing is everything. Any outfitter that says otherwise, I would question and keep calling around.

Also, if you get in the birds, make sure you bring a couple of cases of shells! With no plugs you go through a LOT of shells.

 

[Big Ern]

PM incoming

 

[Wyobow1]

Whatever you decide I would plan on minimum 3 days of hunting and hopefully you catch at least one good shoot. Expect a few 10-20 bird days and maybe one 50 bird sat. That would be a “good” shoot. Basically the outfitter will either be set up on a migration set or a feed set. For a migration set I like to see a massive water setup with a pit or damn good box blind brushed in. If a feed set make sure the outfitter has scouts that will out you on the “x” every day. Some outfitters just pick a field under the flight path and try to pull birds, this would be least ideal type of hunt for snows. For Ark I would recommend the end of Feb to catch the juvy pockets. The adults will be gone by then and hunting will be better. Good luck.

 

[Wyobow1]

Also check out Front Range Guide Service. They hunt Nebraska and are very good at what they do. Blastro87 is spot on with his reccomendations as well he’s obviously been in the game awhile.

 

[spur60]

I know a few different guys that guide starting down in Arkansas for the spring CO. I'd pick an outfitter that moves spreads daily to stay on fresh feeds down there. in NE or SD, I'd pick an outfitter that has at least one pit with a migrator spread, preferably over water. Afternoon migrator shoots have been more consistent for us vs chasing feeds the past few years here in SD. Juvie numbers are good, and they are being extra dumb and decoying very very good due to bird flu this fall.

 

[JMasson]

If you decide to hunt in Arkansas I’d hunt with someone who doesn’t only hunt the CO. Nothing irks me more than the fields getting flooded with wannabes who put out 400 socks in one field and never move them. Blows my mind that people pay for that. They come out of the woodwork during the first week of February. Duck hunters that think goose hunting is easy and want to line their pockets off unsuspecting OOSers. Setting 500 full bodies and 1200 socks every morning at 3:00 is the way you have to do it down there, to be successful. My buddies are averaging 40 birds per hunt this year (average group size of 5 guns). Specks are acting real strange for some reason. They think the hillbillies messed with them too much during the early season.

 

[WCB]

Snow Addiction Guide Service