Snow Geese Decoy Recommendations

[ganderblaster]

Originally Posted by Canadasnowman

Just ordered some sock with out stakes from Wayne at Skyfly decoys, holy crap free shipping to Canada because of the light weight ....... Nice!

Twice as many deeks from Skyfly as compared to Cabelas for less money, even after exchange.

Looking forward to resting them out before the purchase of hundreds .....

I ordered theee dozen this spring and really liked how they worked in low wind conditions compared to Silosocks. What are you planning to use for stakes?

[Canadasnowman]

Well that's yet to be determined. I gave 1/8cold rolled stock, may move to a larger stiffer stake, considering wood even. Would like Fiberglas but pricey. The thing is what do you use for a stop, to keep them from sliding down. Just couldn't get the full assembly deeks. I'll figure something out.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

CSM

[32-40win]

Are you saying he couldn't supply the fully assembled ones with stakes & backbones? You still have a month+ before the snows show in any numbers, and it only takes a week to get here once he ships them. If he has a two wk delay or something, I wouldn't worry about that, they'll get here in time to use them. And it'll save you a lot of running around and work. The one thing I have done on mine was sharpen all the stakes. I have an old Porter-Cable 5" bench sander, took me about 3 hrs to do 36doz.

[Canadasnowman]

No he could supply then. I didn't order the ones including stakes. I'll do my own that way as I'm adding heads too.

[gloszz]

Originally Posted by Canadasnowman

Well that's yet to be determined. I gave 1/8cold rolled stock, may move to a larger stiffer stake, considering wood even. Would like Fiberglas but pricey. The thing is what do you use for a stop, to keep them from sliding down. Just couldn't get the full assembly deeks. I'll figure something out.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

CSM

I just used rubber washers/gaskets. With the ones I have on my youtube channel, I bent the top wire as if the sock was hanging down from it.

[Canadasnowman]

Can you elaborate on your YouTube channel.

Where you get the rubber washers in bulk, did you make your own stakes too?

Thanks in advance.

Csm

[nube]

I bought another 35 dozen Skyfly's this year. I don't like them as much as Silo socks but they work well. I have about half Skyfly's and half Silo socks. It's a huge spread to put out but it works well

[Pixel Shooter]

Price for sky fly is right but that's about it 😛

[gloszz]

Originally Posted by Canadasnowman

Can you elaborate on your YouTube channel.

Where you get the rubber washers in bulk, did you make your own stakes too?

Thanks in advance.

Csm

https://youtu.be/5ejMr_sUuCo

That's the video for the stake type. I bought the gaskets at princess auto, they had a bag of 500 on discontinued clearance for a dollar so just grabbed it and decided to use it. I made stakes out of 9 gauge wire, 12 gauge fencing wire and a few out of some wood stakes that finishers use inside houses( they threw them into the garbage since they were a bit warped)

[Canadasnowman]

Thanks Gloszz, and good on you for helping folks out. That's what makes this site terrific!

I have a couple ideas in mind, like looping the end wire rather then a open hook. Trail and error.

Wish I had thousands to spend, but don't so, I try to save. I've made 150 sillouettes this year, Canada's and Snows. Should be interesting.

Thanks again.

Csm

[gloszz]

Originally Posted by Canadasnowman

Thanks Gloszz, and good on you for helping folks out. That's what makes this site terrific!

I have a couple ideas in mind, like looping the end wire rather then a open hook. Trail and error.

Wish I had thousands to spend, but don't so, I try to save. I've made 150 sillouettes this year, Canada's and Snows. Should be interesting.

Thanks again.

Csm

No worries. Always happy to help.

I have another video on my channel that shows how you can make those "sillosock" type decoys from coroplast. Elections are coming up so free coroplast

[GooseSlammer]

I've been meaning to jump into this conversation but haven't had the time yet...

Just for interest's sake (in regards to the "cheaper ways" to making decoys, etc.) - back in the day I had 500 Texas Rag decoys, a wicked E-caller system, and time to scout like nobody I knew. We would set up on some wicked fields and often shoot between 2 and 15 geese. Mainly juvie singles that we had to knock down at 50+ yards. Not exactly great results.

After having enough crappy shoots to convince myself those white devils wouldn't decoy - EVER - I gave it one more shot. I SOLD those 500 texas rags (which are way more realistic than the old school ways of doing this like diapers, paper towels, etc.), sold the E-caller, and put those dollars into Sillosocks. It was clear that the bigtime snow goose hunters were using Sillos all the time, so I figured one more kick at the cat and then I'd stop wasting my time with those white buggers and stick to shooting honkers.

I went out in the spring with only 100 Sillosocks to central Saskatchewan (hunting very smart and heavily hunted birds). I set up on a mid sized roost one afternoon where there were plenty of birds cruising the area (and no other hunters - before the "roost buster" jokes start ) I laid down in a white suit with my 100 decoys and hoped for the best - with no real expectations. In the late afternoon (hours before the end of legal shooting time, and in broad daylight) to my complete shock, a small flock of snows showed up, locked up, and dropped their landing gear heading right into my lap. Shot them at about 25 yards. Then a second flock did the same. Then another, and another...

I couldn't believe how the afternoon played out. I was shooting like total CRAP, and couldn't hit a barn door that day. But I left with very few shells and 15 old, mature snow geese. All taken at nice decoying range - exactly the way I wanted them. That was just the beginning of a new life for me.

Since then I have learned a lot about shooting snows (I've gotta give full credit to Pointer - he really knows his stuff!) But I consistently have great shoots now - and a large part of it comes down to using QUALITY decoys.

As someone else mentioned earlier, Sillosocks, Deadly Decoys and Tanglefrees are all wicked. We use a mix of all of them, and I will be adding more of all three this fall. Between my buddy and I we only have about 450, but when we combine that with 10-12 flyers and a couple of rotary machines, some of the stuff I've seen in the field the last couple years has been truly wicked. From my own experience, especially on windy days, having some flyers on poles is just as effective as a rotary machine. So if you're just getting started, make sure you have some flyers in your plans, as that will give you a more affordable start than rotaries. And you'll need the flyers for the rotaries anyways, so I would get them first.

But no matter what you do, I would really stick to quality over quantity. Both is better (of course) but cheaping out up front won't probably get you the results you want. Just my opinion (and I know there are always days that can work out no matter what) - but if you want consistent results on snows - buy good decoys. It makes a huge difference.

Good luck.

[ganderblaster]

Originally Posted by Pixel Shooter

Price for sky fly is right but that's about it 😛

What makes you say that? Have you purchased Skyfly decoys?

[ganderblaster]

Originally Posted by GooseSlammer

I've been meaning to jump into this conversation but haven't had the time yet...

Just for interest's sake (in regards to the "cheaper ways" to making decoys, etc.) - back in the day I had 500 Texas Rag decoys, a wicked E-caller system, and time to scout like nobody I knew. We would set up on some wicked fields and often shoot between 2 and 15 geese. Mainly juvie singles that we had to knock down at 50+ yards. Not exactly great results.

After having enough crappy shoots to convince myself those white devils wouldn't decoy - EVER - I gave it one more shot. I SOLD those 500 texas rags (which are way more realistic than the old school ways of doing this like diapers, paper towels, etc.), sold the E-caller, and put those dollars into Sillosocks. It was clear that the bigtime snow goose hunters were using Sillos all the time, so I figured one more kick at the cat and then I'd stop wasting my time with those white buggers and stick to shooting honkers.

I went out in the spring with only 100 Sillosocks to central Saskatchewan (hunting very smart and heavily hunted birds). I set up on a mid sized roost one afternoon where there were plenty of birds cruising the area (and no other hunters - before the "roost buster" jokes start ) I laid down in a white suit with my 100 decoys and hoped for the best - with no real expectations. In the late afternoon (hours before the end of legal shooting time, and in broad daylight) to my complete shock, a small flock of snows showed up, locked up, and dropped their landing gear heading right into my lap. Shot them at about 25 yards. Then a second flock did the same. Then another, and another...

I couldn't believe how the afternoon played out. I was shooting like total CRAP, and couldn't hit a barn door that day. But I left with very few shells and 15 old, mature snow geese. All taken at nice decoying range - exactly the way I wanted them. That was just the beginning of a new life for me.

Since then I have learned a lot about shooting snows (I've gotta give full credit to Pointer - he really knows his stuff!) But I consistently have great shoots now - and a large part of it comes down to using QUALITY decoys.

As someone else mentioned earlier, Sillosocks, Deadly Decoys and Tanglefrees are all wicked. We use a mix of all of them, and I will be adding more of all three this fall. Between my buddy and I we only have about 450, but when we combine that with 10-12 flyers and a couple of rotary machines, some of the stuff I've seen in the field the last couple years has been truly wicked. From my own experience, especially on windy days, having some flyers on poles is just as effective as a rotary machine. So if you're just getting started, make sure you have some flyers in your plans, as that will give you a more affordable start than rotaries. And you'll need the flyers for the rotaries anyways, so I would get them first.

But no matter what you do, I would really stick to quality over quantity. Both is better (of course) but cheaping out up front won't probably get you the results you want. Just my opinion (and I know there are always days that can work out no matter what) - but if you want consistent results on snows - buy good decoys. It makes a huge difference.

Good luck.

Thanks for taking the time to write this!

[nube]

Originally Posted by ganderblaster

What makes you say that? Have you purchased Skyfly decoys?

If you used them you would understand. They are cheap. They take longer to set up and take down, smaller in size and the stakes are shorter and hard to get in the ground at times. But they do work....

[The Spank]

My hunting partner and I are running a mixed spread of 42 dozen Deadly's(his) and Tanglefrees(mine) plus 6 dozen GHG shells and fullbodies and 8 dozen Real Geese Pro Series silo's. We have a dozen fliers, two rotators, a couple flags and a 400watt Kenwood sound system incorporating 6 speakers which we mounted in the backs of some of the shells. The speakers were cheap at Princess Auto and the decoys we just watch for good sales and keep adding as they go on sale. If you hunt in a group if each person buys their own decoys and each contributes a different accessory such as rotator, e-caller etc. then the expense isn't overwhelming for one or two guys. For example my partner and I each had Foxpro e-callers but he decided he wanted the stereo system. Well he purchased it and I purchased the 12 volt battery for it. Same with the rotatator, he purchased it and I purchased the battery and all the flyers. He owns the shell and full body decoys and I own the Real Geese. The socks we each purchased our own of differing brands so as to identify whose are whose for when picking up or hunting solo or with other people. I currently own 24 dozen of the Tanglefrees and they look good and work well and I purchased them over 3 seasons never spending more than $199 for a 48 pack at wholesale sports. The Real Geese Pro Series 2's I bought for $99/dozen at North Pro Sports. That was $200 off per dozen!!! You can build a good snow spread relatively inexpensive if you watch for good sales and spread it out over a couple seasons. Our goal is 1000 decoy spread and two other guys have gotten the bug to join us so we let them know they will need to purchase some gear to add to the spread. They were ok with that.

[The Spank]

My hunting partner and I are running a mixed spread of 42 dozen Deadly's(his) and Tanglefrees(mine) plus 6 dozen GHG shells and fullbodies and 8 dozen Real Geese Pro Series 2 silo's. We have a dozen fliers, two rotators, a couple flags and a 400watt Kenwood sound system incorporating 6 speakers which we mounted in the backs of some of the shells. The speakers were cheap at Princess Auto and the decoys we just watch for good sales and keep adding as they go on sale. If you hunt in a group if each person buys their own decoys and each contributes a different accessory such as rotator, e-caller etc. then the expense isn't overwhelming for one or two guys. For example my partner and I each had Foxpro e-callers but he decided he wanted the stereo system. Well he purchased it and I purchased the 12 volt battery for it. Same with the rotatator, he purchased it and I purchased the battery and all the flyers. He owns the shell and full body decoys and I own the Real Geese. The socks we each purchased our own of differing brands so as to identify whose are whose for when picking up or hunting solo or with other people. I currently own 24 dozen of the Tanglefrees and they look good and work well and I purchased them over 3 seasons never spending more than $199 for a 48 pack at wholesale sports. The Real Geese Pro Series 2's I bought for $99/dozen at North Pro Sports. That was $200 off per dozen!!! You can build a good snow spread relatively inexpensive if you watch for good sales and spread it out over a couple seasons. Our goal is 1000 decoy spread and two other guys have gotten the bug to join us so we let them know they will need to purchase some gear to add to the spread. They were ok with that.

[GooseSlammer]

Originally Posted by ganderblaster

Thanks for taking the time to write this!

Happy to help.

[ganderblaster]

Originally Posted by nube

If you used them you would understand. They are cheap. They take longer to set up and take down, smaller in size and the stakes are shorter and hard to get in the ground at times. But they do work....

I agree with some of that. The stake system is also more sturdy on the skyflys vs silosocks and you can adjust the skyfly sock openings to wind conditions. The skyflys also take less room in storage as they fold down.

[32-40win]

I was assembling some Sillosock sentries today, and putting heads on some Skyflys, so I had the chance to compare the sillysocks, Tanglefrees and Skyflys all together. I had sharpened all the glas stakes on the Skyflys, they went in far easier than the Tanglefrees that weren't sharpened, which got fixed PDQ. The Skyflys have better stakes, maybe because they are 6" shorter, they do seem a bit stiffer. I had to grab the stake and push on all of them as they had heads on, sillysock was the easiest, no doubt, but the Skyfly wasn't bad at all. Found the Skyfly was easiest to carry a big bunch of, and definitely the best for ease of storage. The backbone bends and the heads can be turned on the Tanglefree, so I could get them in the tub Ok, the sillysock sentries are another matter. The best way to store them is definitely the sillysock bags. Skyfly bag is "meh". It'll work, but, I wouldn't get any extra ones, sharp corners for the zippers, that will krap PDQ. Sillysock bags are far better. Skyflys pick up wind the best, other two are heavier bags, take a bit more wind to work.