[stoeger]

I was curious to know what you think about when people put their dekes out the night before. I know that it does not settle to well with the people in my area where I hunt. All I can say is that they deserve to have their dekes stolen. In fact I heard of some hunters getting their dekes stolen. If your too lazy to get up early in the mornig and set up then you deserve what you get. Like I said earlier I just wanted to know where you all stand on this topic.

 

[Leo Porcello]

Stoegger,

Well for some it is a fact of life. In CT where I grew up the goose season started on the 3rd Sat in Oct. The Friday before people would park on the side of the fields and when the last flock flew off for the night it was a race across the field. If you wanted to hunt you had to do this. It made for a long boring night. Now a days I usually get up about 0200 and get to my spot. So far so good however sometimes you have people that set up right next to you. There is no 100 yard rule here in AK. In CT you had to be 100 yards from other hunters that were not in your party. I have seen a lot of guys leave there decoys out. This won't stop me from setting up there if they are not with the decoys. I usually will wait a little while to see maybe they forgot something at home and had to run off. However I believe what comes around goes around so as far as stealing the decoys that is not my bag. I am not sure my hunts would be so great hunting over stolen decoys and having to look over my shoulders. Another thing is I have put decoys out say 0300 and got cold and ran home for coffee. If I came back and someone was in the process of taking my decoys well its just like one of my teachers use to say. You do the crime you do the time. However the time with me won't include the law. I am definetly a take matters in my own hands kind of person.

On another note how long have you been in Minot area? Is that your home or are you AF? I have orders there in March.

 

[Matt Jones]

I wouldn't set my dekes up the night before because I'd be too paranoid about them getting stolen. If it's private land I don't see the problem. If it's public or unposted and someone's putting dekes out as a way to claim "their" spot that's just BS...it's not your spot unless you're there.

However with snow goose spreads I think you'll get a different response from most poeple.

 

[stoeger]

Pork

I live and work in Minot. I am not in the AF. I do my hunting on my own land and some of my neighbors. I am origanally from a small town outside of Minot. I don't want it to sound like I support stealing someone's decoys but you take the chance putting them out the night before. So I do not want to hear those people wondering why their decoys were stolen. I believe this had happened on unposted land to some nonresidents.

 

[stoeger]

Matt

As for people setting up snow decoys overnight thats their choice. I can see their point if they did set them up. The incident that did occur was canadians decoys.

 

[MNhunter]

. All I can say is that they deserve to have their dekes stolen. .

stoegger - I do not think we deserve this if it is our land, nobody DESERVES to get thier OWN decoys stolen. Yes, I set my decoys up at night, and move em around in the morning, I hunt over 70 days a year and this is how I do it. And I take offense to the fact that you are calling me lazy.

Public or unposted land is a different story.

 

[GooseBuster3]

I would consider it lazy as well, if you only have to set up 150 canada dekes, but snow goose hunting we put and take down 1000 decoys everyday when we we are hunting snows, the only time I have ever left a decoy spread out over night would be when Our group had 1400 northwinds and 168 floaters out and I'll tell you take takes along time to put up that many dekes .

 

[MNhunter]

I still dont see how it is lazy, the same amount of work is being done just at different times, I dont leave dekes out during the day, after the hunt, as we never, ever hunt the same field 2 days in a row. I dont see sleeping in another hour cause your dekes are set already as being lazy either....its just planning ahead.

Lets compare hours,days, weeks, months in the field, then we can talk about who is lazy and who isn't.

Andy

 

[stoeger]

MN Hunter

I do not have a problem with you putting your own dekes out on your OWN land. However anybody that does it on unposted or public land, I guess that they take the chance of having them stolen. As to taking offense of being called lazy, I am sorry that you feel that way. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Did not mean to cause scene.

 

[Ron Gilmore]

I am not sure but aren't decoys to be pulled at the end of shooting hours? I do believe that some boys a few years back got ticketed for this, not sure. I guess I need to amke a call on Monday to find out about this.

 

[Field Hunter]

Ron, I'd say the man reason some guys would even think about letting thousands of dollars in decoys to stay out overnight in a field, unless it's their own land, would be to beat all other groups to a field for the next morning....pretty much a greed thing.

 

[stolenbase]

I'm pretty sure that thats illegal even if it is your own land.

 

[J.D.]

First of all it is not illegal to leave decoys out overnight on private or unposted land and on public land it is legal to set decoys at midnight, although you are not allowed to leave them unattended for more than 30 min. Secondly many guys dont have a choice but to set some or all of their dekes up the night before if they want to get them all out by shooting time the next morning. And thirdly nobody deserves to have their dekes stolen for any reason. :-?

 

[stolenbase]

J.D., we are talking ND laws not Nebraska.

 

[J.D.]

Stolenbase - im referring to Nodak. I hunt Nodak, Sodak, Neb., Ia, Co, and Mo. each year so i have to stay up to date on the regulations. Cmon man you live there you should at least know the laws in your OWN state.

 

[stolenbase]

k. but i'm still convinced that you cant put up the night before because I think it's not like baiting but along the same lines.

 

[MNhunter]

stolenbase- If your not conviced then look it up, but it is all perfectly legal except on public land. It has nothing to do with baiting at all.....

The only time I leave them unattended is when I set up the night before the hunt, when I get off work, the middle of the night. And never leave them when I leave, I never hunt the same field twice in a row anyways.

For me, since I work nights it seems more practical, but thats me.

As for the guys that use decoys to "claim" spot, I leave em in the same ranks as skybusters.