Perry, I'm a HUGE advocate of spreading out the decoys. A relaxed feed will allow birds to move about and feed away from the flock where food is more abundant. When a feed is unharassed for hours, you'll find birds feeding along the road. When they feel stressed they stick to the bunch and hold towards the middle, despite lower amounts of food.
The only problem with spreading the decoys is having enough hunters to cover the whole spread. I grew up hunting with 8 guys spread in singles all over a large spread. With no communication, one hunter would pull up and shoot..and 7 others would follow up with poor, flaring shots. The result was fewer harvests and too many cripples.
I like to have at least a group of 3, and when the shot is called, all three barrels go up at once. I think next year I'm going to split up the groups more and use all-way radios to communicate among the pit bosses. So there's no surprises and everyone can take quality shots.
Plus if you're hunting with rookies...nobody really wants them with guns pointing at them at all times from behind. That's one of the first things I take into account in the field. I was almost shot 2 springs ago.
