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Where do you hunt snow geese? You drive-scout the area in late afternoon, follow a flock to its feeding field, then hope the landowner will let you set up there in the morning. If you are rebuffed, don't despair. Instead, try to get into a field next to it, but you absolutely must be between the roost and the feeding area, under the flock's flight path. Hunting beyond the feeding field is all but useless, considering the incoming geese would have to fly over a flock of thousands of their happily gobbling relatives to get to your decoys. That isn't going to happen. Another option would be to set up between two feeding fields, and hope to waylay geese trading back and forth between them.
After the regular Canada goose season closes, special snow goose hunting regulations go into effect in the Mississippi Valley Flyway. Guns can be unplugged; electronic calls are permitted, and bag limits increase to 20 light geese per day. Non-toxic shot is still mandated and normal baiting rules still apply. Hunting begins one half-hour before sunrise and ends at sundown.
A 12-gauge shotgun will serve just fine. Since snows and blues weigh 6 to 7 pounds, BB or even No. 2 Federal Classic Steel Heavy High Velocity shot is fine. If you are shooting iron, such as Federal Tungsten or Polymer/Tungsten, No. 2s or 4s will do the job while putting more pellets in the pattern.
Snow goose hunting tactics are a subject widely debated. With the explosion of the white goose population has come a tremendous increase in hunting pressure. These critters come under fire in early September in Canada and face unrelenting danger all the way down the flyway and back. By the time they get into Illinois they have seen it all, and only the smart ones have survived. You will be challenged. Here is the traditional strategy.
Since huge snow/blue goose flocks love company, a few hundred decoys may not turn their heads. You will need 400 to 800 decoys, but many can be nothing more than white paper plates, squares of plastic tablecloth, white plastic bags or any other innovative material. Put your best decoys up front, and then get as much white down as possible. Dress in white or good field camo, and lay in the downwind end of the spread.
Blowing a goose call into a flock of noisy snows is a joke because they'll never hear you. The use of electric calling devices, permissible only during the spring hunt, is responsible for an upturn in hunters' good fortune. These callers are thought to be seven to eight times more effective than conventional mouth-blown calls. Illinois' snow goose harvest has risen over the past few years, partly due to increased hunter effort and improved tactics, but the electronic callers may well be the main reason.
The big snows with the black wing tips are rarely shot. They wisely stay high above and watch the youngsters take the punishment. Don't pass shots hoping the whole flock will settle in. That hardly ever happens, so shoot what you can, when you can.
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