G+H Weather Vane Decoys Deal

Buy 3 six packs get free shipping!! These words are music to all waterfowlers’ ears. G+H Canada Goose Weather Vane Decoys are the ticket for realism in the field. Simple to set up, light for travel, and they move with the slightest wind always realigning themselves. No more days of getting up and moving the [...]

Fall in ND

By Doug Leier Most kids grow up looking forward to the Christmas season. Even before Thanksgiving turkey is served they are counting the days before they can open their share of the wrapped boxes beneath the tree. Many hunters feel that way about October. While September offers its archery and dove and grouse and crane [...]

PLOTS Guide

Doug Leier Over the past two decades the North Dakota Game and Fish Department has emphasized wildlife habitat enhancement and hunting access on private land through its Private Land Initiative. Most North Dakota hunters are familiar with the Private Land Open to Sportsmen program, which provides walking hunting access to more than a million acres [...]

March in ND

By Doug Leier We’re each afforded our own perspective on the beginning of spring. Sports fans point toward baseball’s spring training, turkey hunters anxiously await the April 9 gobbler season opener, and you could fill up pages with other events or notable milestones that people consider as an unofficial arrival of spring The calendar, of [...]

Waterfowl Industry Gets a Black Eye

After years of rumors and speculation, a federal grand jury returned 23-count felony indictment today charging Jeff Foiles of Foiles Migrators.  This is a huge black eye in the waterfowl industry.  Jeff Foiles, a well known representative of the waterfowl industry, is looked up upon by many and is affiliated with many products and companies.   Whether [...]

Nodak Outdoors and Buck Knives Waterfowlers Knife

In the past couple decades, I’ve seen the waterfowling industry become cluttered with more gear then any crew could ever afford or keep track of. Products designed with the sole purpose of making your waterfowling trips more productive and comfortable. Without a doubt, waterfowlers are becoming very good at harvesting waterfowl in all situations. But [...]

Waterfowler Innovations Changes Waterfowling

Waterfowl hunting is changing in a hurry.  One only has to look back a couple decades when there was limited gear options to where we stand today where the options are endless.  Most products come and go but some have come along and changed the game, and a new company, Waterfowler Innovations, is trying to [...]

ND Spring Snow Geese

By Doug Leier The 2010 spring snow goose conservation season opened Feb 20. No we didn’t make a mistake, the probability of snow geese migrating back into North Dakota before March is slim, but the remote chance of a mild winter, limited snow cover and early spring are possible. Yes, I said possible, but improbable. [...]

Thin To Win in the Blind

By Chris Hustad It’s around 15 degrees, and my watch says 8 am on a late October morning in 1993. I have my head tucked under a staked-up snow goose shell, as I watch a flock of 8 snows coming at us 200 yards away. Luckily, there’s just enough wind this morning to keep the [...]

Ducks vs. Geese

By PJ Maguire I have often been asked what I enjoy the pursuit of most: ducks or geese. It is a difficult question for a person who would prefer to spend his time scanning the skyline above decoys for waterfowl. For me, I cut my teeth hunting ducks at my family’s lake cabin with my dad [...]

Survey Says

By Doug Leier With the final shots of North Dakota’s bird hunting seasons behind us as of the close of turkey hunting on Jan. 11, we’re actually only weeks away from the opening of the 2009 spring snow goose conservation season on Feb. 21. Beyond that, the spring turkey season is only a couple of [...]

Montana Goose Hunting

By Chris Hustad My phone rang late last summer and my good friend Lyle Sinner was on the other end. His call was straight to the point, “Hey Chris, are you interested in heading to Montana to goose hunt?” While it took all of about 2 seconds for me to decide, my decision was an [...]

The Other Migration

By PJ Maguire One thing that waterfowl hunters can always learn more about is the migration patterns of ducks and geese. To be successful as a waterfowl hunter it is important to understand how and why ducks and geese use certain migration patterns. Of course weather, moon phases and the calendar all play a major [...]

August Goose Hunting

By Doug Leier Non hunters and hunters who don’t target Canada geese may be a bit take off guard when learning those hunters they’ve seen and heard are out taking part in the early Canada goose season in North Dakota–for good reason. In 1988 the US Fish and Wildlife Service annual spring waterfowl survey indicated [...]

The Canada Goose

By Doug Leier I  don’t think of myself as a veteran hunter. But when I put pen to paper and add up the years, I realize it’s been nearly 25 of them since I took hunter education in LaMoure in 1984. During that time, I’ve already experienced some significant changes in our hunting landscape. In [...]

Hunting Ethics from an Old Soldier

By Daniel D. Narum On an early morning in September, I awoke just before my alarm sounded and spared my wife the noise. It was 4:45 a.m., and a balmy 63 degrees outside. My gear was already loaded and I had a cup of fresh hot coffee to enjoy on my way to the field. [...]

The Spring Snow Goose Blues

By PJ Maguire The blues have always been American. As American as apple pie, extension tubes, electronic calls and a high enough population of the North American Lesser Snow geese to warrant a Conservation Order. In the last month, I have gone from a blues bar in Chicago on one weekend, to snow goose hunting [...]

A Spring Goose Hunter’s Lament

By Richard Kaplan Note: Article Written at the end of April Hello. My name is Richard. I’m addicted to hunting spring geese and today is the seventeenth consecutive day I have not checked the Spring Snow Goose Migration Report at Nodak Outdoors. My support group believes that writing this article will be therapeutic for me. [...]

Waterfowl Hunting Memories

By Chris Hustad Well here I am, back in another airplane for a cross country trip home from work. As I write this I’m on the first lag of my trip back to North Dakota from Blacksburg, Virginia. After a long exhausting week, it feels good to know I’m going home. And this isn’t just [...]

Ducks, Geese, & UV

By PJ Maguire Every year waterfowl hunters are bombarded with new equipment and ideas. As waterfowlers there is a lot of stuff we need in order to pursue ducks and geese. A wise goose hunter once told me that in order to be successful, you have to lead the pack and not follow. Since then [...]

Bird Band – Duck Band – Goose Band

By PJ Maguire Every year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and agencies ran by the states, place leg bands on a variety of birds across the country. Migratory birds, like ducks, geese, and most recently doves are some of the most commonly banded birds. Harvesting a bird sporting a leg band is a special [...]

First Time on the X

Richard Kaplan Most of my goose hunting success depends on my ability to run traffic over my decoys. I almost always hunt for geese in a harvested field within a mile of a heavily-used roosting area to ensure that a sufficient number of birds would fly over my decoy spread on their way elsewhere to [...]

Hunter’s Choice Waterfowl Regulations

By Doug Leier About 15 years ago I attended my first Game and Fish Department advisory board meeting. I was a fisheries and wildlife management student at North Dakota State University, and had a goal of one day working in the natural resource field. I decided it might be a positive learning experience to attend [...]

2006 Midwest Waterfowl Festival

By PJ Maguire Right now it is August, and I can feel the fall creeping in. The nights are cooler and the days are shorter. It is time for me to organize decoys, check gear and count the shotgun shells I have remaining from last season. It is also time to check out new gear [...]

Sudden Ludden

By Chris Hustad Forecast: 40% chance of rain turning to snow with 25-35 mph winds out of the N with winds gusting over 40 mph at times. The day was the last day of goose season in 1990 and it was on that day that I learned the phrase “Sudden Ludden”. And it was the [...]

Field Blinds – Are They Losing Effectiveness?

By Chris Hustad  In my neck of the prairie, the month of November officially changes our waterfowl season to the late season. While this means changes in rules and regulations such as a season close for canvasbacks and pintails; it also means the rest of the waterfowl world will be tougher to decoy. Try decoying [...]

The E-caller. Don’t Go North Without It!

By Perry Thorvig Twenty years ago, there were plenty of snow geese in North Dakota by the mid-October. Kenmare, Westhope, Bowbells, Bottineau, Rolla, Rock Lake, Cando, and Devils Lake were the hotspots. There were even a few on the river north of Jamestown in those days. But, those were the good old days. Now, those [...]

Hook and Bobber Hunting

By Doug Leier I’ve come up with a new phrase describing how I hunt. Maybe it’s not mine originally, but it effectively describes what I’ve been doing for most of my life. Itxs called hook-and-bobber hunting. My intent is not to degrade how I hunt, or offend anglers who have no desire to use the [...]

2005 Spring Light Goose Outlook

By Doug Leier The variables of each hunt, whether from day-to-day, season to season or species to species, are like fingerprints between humans – no two are ever the same. Sure, there are similarities, like spending opening day with the usual crew in the same field year after year. But the unique aspect of hunting [...]

The Population Ecology and Population Genetics

By Charles Gorecki Lesser Snow Goose is one of three species of snow geese; the other two are the Ross’s Goose and Greater Snow Goose. All three species are migratory waterfowl that fly south each year for the winter and then back north to the arctic tundra in the spring to reproduce. The life history [...]

2003 Snow Goose Migration Chronology

By Perry Thorvig Snow geese begin their migration in late August. By early September, a few of them appear in Saskatchewan. The big migration from and across North and South Dakota occurred on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 30 to November 1 in 2003. The following chronology describes the year’s migration.   September 7-13, 2003 [...]

Hot Spring Goose Hunting Gear

By Chris Hustad There are a lot of new and existing products on the market today that are becoming popular “must have” items for spring goose decoyers in the flyways. Keep your eye on the following products to help make your hunt more efficient and successful. Field Shuttle Decoying spring snow geese is not a [...]

Spring Goose Hunting isn’t for the Weak

By Chris Hustad Spring goose hunting in North Dakota is not for the weak. Whether you’re a decoyer or a sneaker/pass shooter, the mud and weather can make things miserable. I know some pretty hardcore fall goose hunters that won’t even attempt to hunt in the spring. “Too much work” or “Too much mud” or [...]

Spring Goose Hunting in North Dakota

By Doug Leier North Dakota’s spring snow goose conservation season is in progress, but since the birds are just beginning to arrive, it’s a good time to reflect on the past five years of this recent hunting opportunity. The spring conservation season on light geese was one of several responses to an elevated population of [...]

Saskatchewan Goose Hunting

By Chris Hustad There are moments of waterfowling that you can’t really put into words. An explosion of geese on the horizon that just keeps growing and growing until it’s all around you, literally. Instantly, childhood memories of hunting snow geese had reappeared. And I’m sure some of those same geese I hunted when I [...]

Hunting Alone

By Perry Thorvig Who would think that there is actually a “down side” to having the luxury of a lot of time to hunt? The problem is that it may be difficult to get enough hunting partners to accompany you. My hunting partners usually set aside one long weekend a year to hunt geese in [...]

Saskatchewan Waterfowl Hunting 2003

By Chris Hustad The snow goose migration was extremely predictable when I was growing up. On the waterfowl opener in North Dakota, you could find my family staging at the Gateway Inn along with a hundred thousand snows along J. Clark Salyer Refuge by Westhope. We didn’t have to question whether or not huntable numbers [...]

The Evolving Canada Goose

By Jason Phillips Like clockwork the geese left the roost just as the sun rose above the horizon. The geese had their sights on our decoy spread. Our calls matched their mounting excitement as they approached the landing zone, this was the moment that we had all been waiting for. The geese were approaching the [...]

North Dakota Hunting Trip – Year 2000

By Perry Thorvig The 2000 trip to North Dakota was nothing less than spectacular. Though there were not many geese around on the second weekend of October, the ducks were everywhere and in big concentrations. Jerry Vandelac and I experienced an uneventful trip until we got to the Munich area. It was there that we [...]

The Hilton — Old Goose Hunting Shack in North Dakota

By Perry Thorvig I  suppose that most towns in the popular hunting areas of North Dakota have one. I am referring to a hunting shack that sits vacant the whole year accept for a few weeks during hunting season. This is a story about one of those places that we called the Hilton. The Hilton [...]

Snow Goose Hunting After the Blizzard of 2001

By Perry Thorvig The most severe storm that I experienced during the mild winter of 2001-2002 occurred in late October. It had a huge impact on our hunting that weekend. The trip started off in a big snowstorm and ended in another kind of snow-storm. You remember the storm don’t you? It was the one [...]

Hooked on Snow Geese

By Perry Thorvig Some who have tried it are apathetic when it comes to waterfowl hunting. Most of those that walk away from hunting have failed to have those premier experiences that can hook a hunter forever. This is the story of how four hunters got hooked on North Dakota waterfowling. My brother-in-law, Ken Carlson, [...]

The Youngster’s First Hunt

By Perry Thorvig I had waited for several years for the day when my son Erik would be old enough to sit in a North Dakota stubble field and watch the white specks lose altitude and tumble into a decoy spread. Ken Carlson and I had experienced a great flight of birds in 1994 and I [...]

The Challenge of Late Season Geese

By Jason Phillips It was just after 5:00 on an early November afternoon as I watched the sun set in the western sky. It was a particularly spectacular sunset unfortunately I was watching it from the window at work instead of while out scouting for geese. Luckily, my hunting buddies were able to go scouting. [...]

2002 Duck Hunting & Goose Hunting Season Recap

By Perry Thorvig The 2002 hunting season was a big disappointment. I guess it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the goose gods saying, “Gotcha!” The first disappointment was that I never got out this spring to chase the snows because of the need to move my [...]

North Dakota Or Bust!

By Perry Thorvig Some hunters will do anything and endure a lot of hardships to make their annual hunting trek to the North Dakota prairies. I am one of those guys. This story is not about shooting birds and decoy layouts. It is about the adversity we hunters endure to pursue a few flying fowl. [...]

Spring Fling

By Perry Thorvig Monday, March 17, 6:05 a.m. A lone Canada’s honk penetrates the pea soup fog and wakes me from my half sleep. It is the morning after a weekend hunting trip. I notice that the furnace has come on and I am starting to feel uncomfortably warm lying in bed. I throw off [...]

North Dakota Goose Hunting – A Generation of Change

By Perry Thorvig (Part 2 of a 3 Part Series) There have been many changes in waterfowl hunting in North Dakota in 27 years. This is the second of a three part series and describes the changes in waterfowl equipment. Equipment Waterfowl hunting equipment has changed substantially in the last 27 years. Perhaps the biggest [...]

Why I Decoy Hunt?

By Perry Thorvig There has been a lot written about the tactics needed to shoot snow geese. There are decoyers, sneakers, pushers and pass-shooters. We will see all kinds this spring as we look for opportunities to thin the population of snow geese. They may all have their place. I am one of the old [...]

North Dakota Waterfowling – A Generation of Change

By Perry Thorvig There have been many changes in waterfowl hunting in North Dakota in the last 27 years. This third part of a three part series covers tactics, communication, and access to information that will enhance the hunting experience. Tactics Despite all the changes in snow goose hunting equipment and decoys, there are still [...]

It’s Crunch Time for the 2002 Waterfowl Season

By Jason Phillips The 2002 waterfowl season is just around the corner and it’s time for final preparations. For avid waterfowlers, preparation begins at the final sunset on the last day of the previous season. August is crunch time! The planning, preparation and anticipation has reached its climax and everything will soon fall into place [...]

Getting Hardcore for the Spring Season

By Jason Phillips The passion that waterfowlers exhibit may be unmatched in outdoor world. This passion is perhaps most evident during the Spring Goose Season. The Spring Season extends the waterfowling season and has become one of the most anticipated times of the year for waterfowlers throughout the flyway. The challenge of decoying birds that [...]

Spring Goose Season – A Lesson Learned

By Jason Phillips  I  learned a very valuable lesson during the snow goose migration this spring, a lesson that will definitely help me bag more birds next year. The weather in the northern plains this past winter was anything but typical, so it was no surprise that the snow goose migration was also unpredictable which [...]

Spring Snow Goose Hunting Ethics

By Doug Panchot What does hunting the snow goose in the spring mean to hunters? To many it is another opportunity to get out in the field once again and too enjoy the time with friends and family. Too others it is a mission to go out and shoot as many birds as conceivably possible. [...]

The Dawning of A New Waterfowl Season

By Jason Phillips  As the eastern sky began to show signs of light, our anticipation mounted. We had been looking forward to this moment for months. Day was breaking on the North Dakota Early Canada Goose Season Opener. As the sun began it’s ascent it was evident that it was destined to be a very [...]

Too Many Geese?

By Jason Phillips As the sun fades in the western sky the splendor of colors serve as a picturesque backdrop for the Canada geese as they return to their roost. This appears to be a sign of success in the dramatic return of resident Canada geese to the Northern Plains. During the height of the [...]

Getting Stuck

By Perry Thorvig The little town of Middle River, Minnesota has an annual goose hunting opening day celebration. They sell beer in plastic mugs that say, “If you ain’t a goose hunter, you ain’t sh*t.” That phrase reminds me of the one that my hunting partner Ken Ziegler says about being stuck. He say’s, “I [...]

Early Season Goose Hunting Anticipation

To many the early September season doesn’t conjure up images of a traditional waterfowling experience. With the potential for temperatures into the 90s and mosquitoes still claiming their throne as kings of the prairie, there is no doubt that the early season is accompanied by some nuisances. However these are minor annoyances that can be [...]

Fish / Hunt Swap Stories & New Friends

By Chris Hustad   It’s 2:30 a.m. on a cold, April Saturday morning. I’m sucking down coffee to make up for the lack of sleep as I pull out of Fargo. We wandered almost 2 hours from home the night before scouting, only to turn around and do it again 6 hours later. But we [...]

Winged Migration

By Doug Leier I’ve got a short attention span. In fact, my 9-month-old daughter can stay on task longer than I can. I say it’s a factor of society, the internet, email and cell phones – the “right now” culture that seems to have us trapped. But somehow, that all changes when we get outdoors. [...]

Special Goose Seasons Continue

By PJ McQuire September 1st will be the opening day for the 2004 early season Canada goose hunting in North Dakota. The 2004 season will be the sixth time in which the North Dakota Game and fish has allowed the early Season for North Dakota hunters. Once again shooting hours will be one-half hour before [...]

The Early Canada Goose Hunting Season

By Doug Leier Not so long ago, in the early 1990s, North Dakota hunters could bag only one Canada goose per day for much of the waterfowl hunting season. The season also ended well before federal frameworks allowed because North Dakota Game and Fish Department biologists were cautious about directing too much hunting pressure on [...]

Goose Calls Are My Weakness

By PJ Maguire My first goose call was a Knight & Hale Double Cluck. I don’t believe that I ever got that call to make a single honk. Now that I am older I realized it was not the call, it was me that had the problem. My father bought me a Big River flute [...]

What Snow Goose Decoys Should I Buy?

By Chris Hustad I think snow goose hunters spend the most money out of all species of waterfowl hunters (excluding what some duck hunters pay for their boat/accessories). It seems that no matter how many decoys one owns, it’s never enough. Ask anyone who hunts with me and I’m sure they’ll agree that I kind [...]

Goose Hunting Tips

By Chad “diver_sniper” Haabala Each evening when I watch the sun sink down into Montana, I put another X on the calender and tally the number of days left. Not the number of days until my birthday, and no, not the number of days until Christmas, it’s something even better than that. I’m talking about [...]

Wind and the Critical Role it Plays

By PJ Maguire Picture yourself in a cornfield. It’s late October, the previous night this particular field was lined shoulder to shoulder with Northern mallards. Standing in the headlights of your SUV you toss a few crispy corn petals up in to the air, and watch as a gust of wind takes them back to [...]

Goose Call Tuning Step by Step

By Chad “diver_sniper” Haabala Ahhh Spring time. It’s wonderful isn’t it? The birds are coming back, the kids are able to play in the yard again without getting frostbitten, Gramps can finally get back on that lawn mower that’s been teasing him for months now. But if you’re like me, there’s really only one thing [...]

Hunting Snows in the Spring

As the season implies, hunting snow geese in spring is about 180 degrees different than traditional fall hunts. Much of spring snow goose hunting is time and weather dependent. The same is generally true in the fall, except then it’s cold weather systems that drive birds south. In spring, warm weather systems melt snow and [...]

Approaching Spring Snow Goose Decoy Spreads

By Chris Hustad There’s just something about the spring season that gets me fired up. It gives me the chance to extend my hunting season, and gives me an excuse for my wife when I explain why I spend so much on snow goose decoys. And I’m not alone in this obsession. Each spring brings [...]

Spring Snow Goose Decoying Tips (2007)

By Chris Hustad I love this time of year. The snow geese are pulling out of their wintering grounds in route up north, pushing as far as Mother Nature will allow them. Today there might not be a goose in the state, tomorrow there could be hundreds of thousands. I’ve setup a decoy spread in [...]

Motion in the Decoys

By PJ Maguire Nothing will cause wary waterfowl to stay clear of shotgun range like lifeless decoys. Allowing your decoys to appear alive or have motion will increase your success in the field. Motion will bring birds closer to the decoys providing better and less-crippling shots. In this article I will discuss several tricks and [...]

Snow Goose Decoys

By Chris Hustad The month of August marked the beginning of decoy making season when I was growing up. We would meet in the backyard one of our hunting partners where we would put our ideas to the test in our always evolving snow goose spread. We made our own shell decoys from life-size to [...]

Getting Ready for Spring Snow Geese

By Doug Leier For many hunters, spring turkey season ushers winter out the door. I prefer to kick start spring much earlier, marked by the return of snow geese. South Dakota’s spring snow goose season opened Feb. 1, in what should be the heart of winter. North Dakota’s season opened Feb 18. While it still [...]

Nebraska Snow Goose Hunting

By PJ Maguire The spring is only one time of the year that waterfowlers will travel South for the opportunity to hunt less “educated” birds. I was hunting south last year, in South Dakota, when I met J.D. Westerholm from Nebraska and Shawn Reiff, from the Rainwater Basin Decoy company, who is also from Nebraska. [...]

So You Wanna Be a Spring Snow Goose Hunter?

By Chris Hustad It’s that time of year where winter is inching closer to spring, and my email box will begin to fill up with various questions on using decoys for spring snow goose hunting. Don’t get me wrong, one of the main reasons I started Nodak Outdoors years ago is I can’t talk enough [...]

Spring Goose Memories

By Chris Hustad Anyone who knows me or has read any of my articles over the years knows my passion for hunting weary snow geese. From the start of the migration in Saskatchewan in the fall to the last flocks that leave North Dakota each spring, I can be found in pursuit of snow geese. [...]

Making Your Own Ecaller

By Chris Hustad It’s hard to believe that another spring season is around the corner. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was preparing for my first spring season, an exciting opportunity to persue my favorite gamebird, the snow goose. Like all types of outdoor activities, the spring season has evolved with a boatload [...]

Canada Goose Hunting Off the “X”

By Jed Fluhrer Almost all goose hunters have experienced the high of finding a field full of geese. The feeling of anticipation is unlike any in the waterfowling world. There’s nothing better than setting up decoys on a frosty morning in a field covered in goose scat and downy feathers. While there is no guarantee [...]

How to Make Northwind Decoys

By Jed Fluhrer “GanderGrinder” With the fall hunting seasons over and the winter months already upon us there is no better way to avoid cabin fever than a midwinter project. If you’re like me you are reminiscing over past hunts and looking forward to March and April (or whenever your season runs) when you can [...]

Convert Shell Decoys to Floaters

By Chris Hustad with help from Tyler Ellenson If you’re reading this article, then I’m assuming you have an interest in decoying snow geese. Whether you’ve been doing it for years, or whether this is your first step in giving it a try, welcome to the insane world of hunting snows. If you take snow [...]

Snow Goose Decoy Spreads

By Perry Thorvig The following is a description of decoy spreads deployed on a recent hunting trip. There were two groups hunting. Each group had about 500 decoys. They consisted of Northwinds, Last Looks, shells, and various flags and kites. There was no frost on the decoys any morning. E-caller’s was used only once. During [...]

Early Canada Goose Hunting Tips and Tactics

By Chris Hustad Resident Canada goose populations have exploded in recent years. It’s like night and day comparing the amount of Canada’s I witnessed last year to 5 years ago in my favorite areas. As a result, there’s more and more hunter’s taking the field each September, and for good reason. If you’re new to [...]

Goose Calling Tips, Duck Calling Tips Help and Advice “How to’s”

We’ve got a great selection of videos on duck calling instructions and goose calling instructions. Learn all the duck calling tips and goose calling tips you need for the field and on stage. These come highly recommended! To get the most out of the instructions, you’ll need to have RealPlayer for the audio clips. Click [...]

How To Stay A Step Ahead Of The Migration

By Chris Hustad Spring snow goose hunting has become one of my favorite seasons. While still close to its infancy, it has provided some of my most memorable waterfowling experiences. Whether it may be fooling a migrating flock of snows into shooting range or watching flock after flock of whitefronts, canadas and ducks land in [...]

Spring Snow Goose Stratagies

By Chris Hustad Snow geese are tough to hunt. That’s a reality that everyone needs to understand before they head out to the field. There’s really no magical combination of decoys that will bring in the birds, and you normally can’t set up in just any field and get shooting. Sneaking a flock is sometimes [...]

Goose Recipe

Here’s some favorite goose recipes of ours. Goose Recipe Ingredients: 4 large goose breasts 6 tablespoons of salt 3 containers of BBQ sauce (kraft works fine, and it’s cheap) 1 container of favorite BBQ sauce (I like Famous Dave’s “Rich and Sassy”) Mustard Hamburger Buns I like to prepare it the night before the hunt, [...]

Spring Snow Goose Decoy Tips (2003)

By Chris Hustad 2007 Decoy Tips If you plan to hunt in the spring, especially over decoys, there’s a lot of work involved compared to the fall. The following is a list of tips and tactics we use to make the whole experience a little easier. –You don’t need a fat wallet to amass a [...]

Downsizing Your Decoys

By PJ Maguire When I was a young waterfowler, not too many years ago there seemed to be only two brands of decoys: Flambeau and Carry-lite. My first duck and goose decoys were Flambeau and my high school hunting buddy, Matt Gouette, had Carry-lite’s. Nowadays, I cannot page through a waterfowl hunting magazine without seeing [...]

Steel Shot Review – Shotgun Pattern Information

Just as each waterfowler has their favorite techniques to pursue waterfowl they also have their preference of shotgun shells. The selection is generally made based of several different factors that include: manufacturer reputation, availability, cost, past experiences, etc. Although each of these may hold some validity the best way to determine which is best for [...]

Taking Advantage of New Goose Hunting Gear

By Chris Hustad (Fall 2004) Well it’s that time of year again, fall preparation season. There’s 3 times a year that I can guarantee you’ll find me in a sporting goods store or searching the Net for gear; the spring “tackle box filler”, winter “jig bonanza” and at this time, “the fall essentials”. Okay, so [...]

Cooperative North American Shotgunning Education Program (CONCEP)

By Kevin Hayer Last spring I was invited to a CONCEP nontoxic shot seminar presented by Tom Roster and hosted by the N.D Game & Fish Department. CONCEP is short for Cooperative North American Shotgunning Education Program which is an international education and research program. CONCEP is supported by multiple Game & Fish agencies including [...]

Planning a Waterfowl HuntingTrip to Canada

By Justin Gatzke Well, it is getting down to crunch time. We are officially less than two months away from the big waterfowl hunting trip to Canada. Coordinating a hunting trip can be a series of headaches if you let it overwhelm you. There is lodging to find, licenses to buy, trailers to stuff, and [...]

Fast & Easy Wild Game Bird Cleaning Tips

By Chris Hustad This type of bird cleaning is best used for ducks, snow geese, lessor Canada geese, and upland game. The process of breasting the bird and packaging takes about 3-4 minutes/bird. It’s a great way to do large numbers at a time. I learned this years back and have been using it ever [...]

Layout Blind Concealment Tips

By Chris Hustad Without a doubt, the introduction of layout blinds is one of the biggest assets to field hunters in the past decade. Every year, existing models get makeovers adding better modifications. There are many brands on the market, and many models can be found of each. I’ve hunted out of most of the [...]

Scouting for the Fall

By Doug Leier  I  hate to bear bad news, but summer is fading faster than the Minnesota Twins. While there is still some time to soak in the last remaining days of August, it’s also a good time to start preparations for autumn and all its splendor. It’s never too soon to begin planning for [...]