Which Hunting Decoy is best for me?
Many arguments have been started during the discussion of what decoys are the best for snow goose hunting. There are many different name brands as well as different kinds of decoys and all have their place in the field. The two most commonly spoken about are the full body decoy and the Wind sock decoy and these two also start most of the highly heated discussions more realistic or more movement, so we might as well start there.
There are many manufactures for full body snow goose decoys starting with the Big Foot decoy, this decoy has close to life like paint scheme and have been on the market since 1984. As time progressed other manufactures took what had been the standard and made their own improvements from a more lifelike paint scheme to Flocking all in an effort to look more true to life.
Once many decoy manufactures were satisfied they had a decoy that looked like a real snow or Blue goose. Next came the daunting task of get their lifelike decoy to move more like a real goose. One of the best motion systems to come out has been the Dakota decoy with the Decoy Dancer motion base. With a Limiter molded into the bodies which eliminates the decoys wild movement in very high wind conditions giving a more true to live movement. They have also incorporated a stretchable leg system to assist with the movement that also allows the decoy to be moved without the base falling off.
The next improvement that has been made to the more than life like decoy and its motion is one that has just come out by Tanglefree decoys. Their newest addition to the motion of their decoy is not only the a motion base but a metal stake that can be driven in frozen ground that also uses the stretchable leg system allowing the decoy to be used in extremely high winds without falling over.
On the other hand we have the best in motion snow goose decoys... this decoy truly has much better motion but its true life like appearance is well less than life like. Although this decoy really does not look like a real Snow or blue goose, its ease of deployment and cost along with its much better motion makes this an all time favorite as well as having the title for more snow geese being killed over them.
The Grandfather of this style decoy is the Texas rag this simple sheet of thin white plastic with a black X once folded and tied, have truly killed hundreds of thousands of snow geese from when I first began snow goose hunting . These low cost decoys are light weight and very effective but their down side was they need a light wind but they tended to tear up with any high wind conditions and their need for constant maintains from hunt to hunt.
The next major upgrade to the wind sock decoy came from Jim Jones who took a tyvek body and put it on a metal stake with metal grommets and put a more lifelike snow goose paint scheme. His decoy addressed the motion needed to attract snow geese and this new decoy made from tyvek was very durable but its cost was quite high compared to Texas rag decoy and the metal stake added a good amount of weight making heaver but still much lighter than standard plastic decoys.
The latest addition to the windsock decoy is being brought to us by Tanglefree Decoy Company they have taken the tyvek wind sock and done a lifelike offset printing giving them the ability to mass produce a snow goose and blue goose finish at a lower price. They have added a high strength fiberglass stake along with a backbone support giving the appearance of a full body even when the wind is extremely low.
Whichever you decide all of these have their place depending field conditions and numbers needed to get the results you are looking for. At www.showmesnowgeese.com we tend to use a good mix of both full body decoys and high motion wind socks in order to get our clients the maximum amount of snow geese possible.
