2011 Spring Snow Goose Hunting Season

We are proud to say that we are one of few outfitters in  the country that hunt snow geese for up to eight months of the year in the Midwest in the spring and fall.  We hunt Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, and Saskatchewan.

Our overall Objective and Philosophy

This will be our 10th season hunting snows in the spring.  A lot has changed and we have adapted!

We offer any type of spring hunt that you would prefer.  We hunt in various locations with all types of equipment (includes full bodies or Deadly Decoy windsocks) that have proven to be effective to decoy snow geese.  We have a total of eight decoy spreads that we constantly move and hunt on a daily basis. We have eliminated any equipment that we feel is not effective and a waste of valuable time.  We know that our time concealing and fixing the decoy spread is much more important. Some days all the sets are full of hunters and some days only a few will be full.  Either way we have 8 full time guides and 5 full time spotters and decoy setters.  This ensures plenty of help if there is a solid snow line and birds stop moving north. The birds start feeding habits in the area and we will be able to target them better and move on them where they feed.  These fields will be set at night or midday.

When there isn't a snow line we keep our decoys set in the prime migratory funnels that the birds use each year.  These are only learned by hunting these fields for the last ten years.  This is when you really benefit from experienced guides. In the spring you will not always benefit from hunting scouted feeder birds as those birds can feed in a field in the morning in Missouri and feed in another field in South Dakota that afternoon. Some fields will be set the day we get there and can shoot great averages for the entire two or three week time frame.  If they dry up and stop killing birds we simply move them into another funnel or "Killing Field" as we call them.  These are fields that may not ever had a bird feeding in but we know year after year when we put our decoys in it we slaughter them!

Chasing an "X" field can sometimes be like chasing your tail.  In the spring birds feed a lot different than in the fall.  The biggest shoots on snow geese will happen from a push back of geese from the north or migratory birds from the south on sunny south wind days.  These days will always out shoot hunting feeder birds in an "X" field.  On these days make sure you are in the field hunting with a lot of shells and not moving decoys or chasing feeder birds.  In either scenario we will work hard to put you in funnels or feeder fields.

When you arrive we will give you our game plan as it pertains to the bird patterns and activity in the area.  Top Gun wants our customers to have the most enjoyable hunt possible while hunting snows.  Weather and snow geese combined can be one of the most predictable and unpredictable hunt you will ever experience.  Unpredictable always doesn't refer to bad hunting as it can be some of the greatest waterfowl hunting you will ever see on an day to day or even hour to hour basis .  I personally am proud to have watched these birds migrate each spring as it is the greatest migration of birds on earth!! 

Where

We start spring snow goose hunting in Mound City, Missouri or Kansas on February 15th and hunt until March 20th depending on the weather and the snow goose migration. We travel with the snow geese, moving into central Nebraska, arriving in South Dakota around March 20th. We hunt North Dakota from April 10th to May 6th.  We finish the spring snow goose hunting season in Saskatchewan from April 20th to May 6th.  We have land leases in all these areas as we hunt in these areas in the spring and fall. We have been finding these areas and following bird patterns for years that gives a head start on the competition new to these locations.

Equipment and Group Numbers

Each snow goose hunt consists of hunting behind 2,000 snow goose decoys (Deadly Decoys or full body Bigfoot decoys), electronic callers, mp3 players, Bose speakers, we try hunt 6 to 7 hunters max per field depending on how the group numbers calculate. We hunt out of final Approach, Hard Core, and Foiles layout blinds. We will work with each group to make the hunt work. Dogs are allowed only in an exclusive groups.(6 to 8) We do not allow them in mixed parties.

Guides

Hunters will benefit from dedicated snow goose hunting guides who scout fields daily and are willing to relocate in an effort to stay on top of feeding and migrating snows. We have a young energetic staff of snow goose hunting machines. My guides have proven to have the stamina and knowledge to put you on birds throughout the entire 70 day season. This is a grueling, muddy, and bloody 70 days that not many guides can finish. We all work together and have a system that has been proven year after year and we have the client base to prove it.  When the snows leave overnight we are able to do the same and be on birds the next afternoon. As a client we expect the same of you because sometimes we have to jump from one state to another on a days notice. This is for your benefit. We scout daily in the area we are hunting and we scout the next state we will be jumping to when the geese migrate north. We do everything in our power to get you on birds daily.