# Who is worries about their snow goose trip out west?



## tbs (May 20, 2006)

I've heard reports of a million birds at Grand Pass.


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## goosemanrdk (Jan 14, 2003)

tbs said:


> I've heard reports of a million birds at Grand Pass.


That would be correct. Also close to 2 million or more located in northern Kansas along with a bunch more(close to 1 million) in south Central Nebraska. Over 1million in southern Illinios as of last weekend as well. Heard there are/have been a bunch of birds spread all throughout Mo for the last week. They just aren't in big concentrations, but broke up in 50-100,000 groups.

Heard that they really started to move around and spread out with yesterday's warm weather.


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## deadduck365 (Nov 5, 2010)

Just got to squaw creek. Almost a million birds. Dnr guy said they just showed up today. Glad we
Didn't cancel. 


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## belden148 (Nov 15, 2007)

Our group had a great hunt. 95 in 4 days. We shoulda broke 100... but the shooting wasn't so hot the first morning lol. We hunted with the Chasin the Migration crew and had a blast. 

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## belden148 (Nov 15, 2007)

Got my first band as well!

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## belden148 (Nov 15, 2007)

We dropped the one with the corn stalk threw his head from about 60 yards straight up... Needless to say he hit the ground hard!

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## goosemanrdk (Jan 14, 2003)

deadduck365 said:


> Just got to squaw creek. Almost a million birds. Dnr guy said they just showed up today. Glad we
> Didn't cancel.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


I would have never guessed that squaw would have had nearly a million birds on march 7th.:coolgleam. OK maybe I would have. Lol


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## deadduck365 (Nov 5, 2010)

It is still frozen over though. 


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

goosemanrdk said:


> I would have never guessed that squaw would have had nearly a million birds on march 7th.:coolgleam. OK maybe I would have. Lol


Crystal whites as well. I'm leaving Wednesday, when you headed again? I'm not worried at all, birds showed up in SE SD today as well. 

I wan't the juvies, those adults will drive you bonkers.


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## EshBallin (Nov 21, 2011)

Got here to Mound City earlier today. Temp is 63 and windy. There are a TON of birds at Squaw, which all showed up in the last 2 days. Most of the refuge is still frozen, but there is a lot that is thawing out. My guess would be more than a million birds, but I haven't heard an official report yet.

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## K-zoo (Jul 19, 2008)

Have a great time! Hope you, Jim and the other guys knock 'em out. Good luck. Can't wait to see the pics.


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## goosemanrdk (Jan 14, 2003)

SBE II said:


> Crystal whites as well. I'm leaving Wednesday, when you headed again? I'm not worried at all, birds showed up in SE SD today as well.
> 
> I wan't the juvies, those adults will drive you bonkers.


I leave on Tuesday night. Going to head for SD if the weather forecasts hold over the next couple of days. Hopefully I will spend 2.5 weeks showing most of the migration what my decoy spread looks like and what my caller sounds like. Hope to pound some adults to start and finish by beating up on the juvies.

Good luck.

Heard that squaw was up to about 1.2 million according to a refuge worker.


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## peters (Sep 28, 2010)

My group is hunting Monday-Wednesday. Saw a ton of birds in the sky today. Hopefully we will make a pile


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## PuddleJumper (Sep 23, 2009)

We just got back last night.There was no shortage of smart birds. A large percentage left north in migrant flocks Monday but all came back by Tuesday afternoon. These birds seem smarter & smarter every year. 

We ended with 64 for 3.5 days. Our juvie count went up as the trip went on as well.

It got up to 73 degrees out there & then we come home to this garbage weather.:yikes:


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## peters (Sep 28, 2010)

PuddleJumper said:


> We just got back last night.There was no shortage of smart birds. A large percentage left north in migrant flocks Monday but all came back by Tuesday afternoon. These birds seem smarter & smarter every year.
> 
> We ended with 64 for 3.5 days. Our juvie count went up as the trip went on as well.
> 
> It got up to 73 degrees out there & then we come home to this garbage weather.:yikes:


Did u have a group of 4? An did I talk to on Sunday at Squaw creek. I'm asking because we talked to another group from mid michigan area


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## EshBallin (Nov 21, 2011)

PuddleJumper said:


> We just got back last night.There was no shortage of smart birds. A large percentage left north in migrant flocks Monday but all came back by Tuesday afternoon. These birds seem smarter & smarter every year.
> 
> We ended with 64 for 3.5 days. Our juvie count went up as the trip went on as well.
> 
> It got up to 73 degrees out there & then we come home to this garbage weather.:yikes:



Sounds exactly like our trip, only we didn't get lucky enough to get 64. We only ended up with 19. We did some missing, but it wasn't enough to even reach 40 if we shot 100%


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## PuddleJumper (Sep 23, 2009)

There were 6 of us & we didn't go to Squaw this year. We went our first year when there were over 1.4 million and it was a sight to see.

I did hear of a couple other groups from Michigan but we were pretty secluded way out in a lodge and didn't run into other hunters. 25 of our birds came on the last 1/2 day- we had a few volleys of shoot, reload, shoot, reload, shoot to help make-up for the rest of the slower days. 

If you want to see how 'it could have been' check numbers from out there this week. They're hammering them. The field we got our 25 in got 85 yesterday afternoon. Lots of fun shoots this week... for someone else to enjoy. Somebody has to save the tundra, we didn't pull our weight!


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## peters (Sep 28, 2010)

PuddleJumper said:


> There were 6 of us & we didn't go to Squaw this year. We went our first year when there were over 1.4 million and it was a sight to see.
> 
> I did hear of a couple other groups from Michigan but we were pretty secluded way out in a lodge and didn't run into other hunters. 25 of our birds came on the last 1/2 day- we had a few volleys of shoot, reload, shoot, reload, shoot to help make-up for the rest of the slower days.
> 
> If you want to see how 'it could have been' check numbers from out there this week. They're hammering them. The field we got our 25 in got 85 yesterday afternoon. Lots of fun shoots this week... for someone else to enjoy. Somebody has to save the tundra, we didn't pull our weight!


Your trip sounds exactly like ours. 64 birds in 3 days. 12,10,42. I think Thursday they killed 86 birds. Oh we'll I still had a blast.


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

PuddleJumper said:


> We just got back last night.There was no shortage of smart birds. A large percentage left north in migrant flocks Monday but all came back by Tuesday afternoon. These birds seem smarter & smarter every year.
> 
> We ended with 64 for 3.5 days. Our juvie count went up as the trip went on as well.
> 
> It got up to 73 degrees out there & then we come home to this garbage weather.:yikes:


Got up to 73 and dropped off 30 degrees and started blowing 40-50. The birds were on us in 5 minutes when the front hit and the wind switched in seconds only option I had was Flipping the blinds and running a tail of about 25. I cut my trip early, we shot around 125 in 3 days with one 80 bird day. Still 1.2 at squaw as of yesterday.


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## ReddHead (Feb 17, 2005)

Headed to pike county il tomorrow afternoon to hunt Thursday and Friday. My first snow goose hunt. I'll post how we do. 
Redd


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## deadduck365 (Nov 5, 2010)

We did make our trip. As many knew we had some guide issues with the dates we had paid deposit on. I feel that we were not given 100 % effort on the days we did hunt. On the other hand the guide we did the other day on was awesome. I am not going to elaborate on this. I don't feel the need to bad mouth. I am also going to keep the new guide a secret. Hope everybody heading out shoots some birds. 


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## mkubiak (Feb 21, 2006)

Just got back from Mound City area on Wed. night. We pulled out on Wednesday morning at 10am when the temps dropped 30 degrees and birds didn't want to work. Monday and Tuesday we shot a combined 50 birds. The dog got some good work making most of the retrieves.

On Tuesday passed on many singles and small groups waiting for the photo finish. We had 2 really good tornado scenarios that ended up bugging out.

A lot of variables with snow goose hunting: when you want to call the shot, wind (Always thought that more wind was better until this trip), our outfitter and guides worked hard for us.


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## starky (Jun 19, 2006)

Who did you hunt with?


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## fowlme (Jun 19, 2009)

Was in mound city last Thursday through Saturday and it was tough, birds did not work for us. Did see some amazing feeds going on. It is always a sight to see the flights and all the birds in the refuge, and I enjoyed the time there and was able to get a few birds. Hopefully the next time mother nature will be more corporative, we had our dates moved twice.


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

starky said:


> Who did you hunt with?


He hunted with Central Prairie Outfitters.


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## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

SBE II said:


> He hunted with Central Prairie Outfitters.


Your not even going to tell us that you know but won't say:lol:

To be honest I laughed when I read " I am also going to keep the new guide a secret". Why even bring it up.


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## peters (Sep 28, 2010)

Central prairie guys are too notch. They worked hard for us to stay on birds. I'll be back there with them next spring


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## deadduck365 (Nov 5, 2010)

TSS Caddis said:


> Your not even going to tell us that you know but won't say:lol:
> 
> To be honest I laughed when I read " I am also going to keep the new guide a secret". Why even bring it up.


We did not hunt with CPO. I brought it up to prove a point. Just because you have just been hunting the same guide service for years doesn't mean that they have kept up with the times or are giving you 100%. It seems that when the outfitters get too big they don't seem to care about the quality of the hunts just the $. 


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## Down River (Sep 10, 2009)

deadduck365 said:


> We did not hunt with CPO. I brought it up to prove a point. Just because you have just been hunting the same guide service for years doesn't mean that they have kept up with the times or are giving you 100%. It seems that when the outfitters get too big they don't seem to care about the quality of the hunts just the $.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


It was our first time with CPO.


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## deadduck365 (Nov 5, 2010)

Down River said:


> It was our first time with CPO.


I have never hunted with them. The website makes them look great. I would love to do that Canadian get away in late September. I wanted to make sure nobody thought I was bad mouthing them. 


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

TSS Caddis said:


> Your not even going to tell us that you know but won't say:lol:
> 
> To be honest I laughed when I read " I am also going to keep the new guide a secret". Why even bring it up.


What are you talking about? I'm referring to who mkubiak hunted with because a person had asked.


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

deadduck365 said:


> I have never hunted with them. The website makes them look great. I would love to do that Canadian get away in late September. I wanted to make sure nobody thought I was bad mouthing them.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Just to reiterate for people that are confused dead duck is NOT referring to Central Prairie.


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## starky (Jun 19, 2006)

CPO looks a little pricey at $300. p/d though.


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

starky said:


> CPO looks a little pricey at $300. p/d though.


They use all full bodies and try their best at getting set up on feeds. A lot more cost involved in those set ups. A lot of leasing involved to. What's HF charge? A LOT more.


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