Anyone have any experience and general or guide recommendations for goose hunting in Arkansas? Any equipment recommendations that are a must? I’m just researching as never hunted geese before and looking for a different hunting trip that I can drive to in about 8 hours or less. Trying to decide between late season duck/specklebelly and the Spring conservation snow goose hunts. I’m leaning towards the Spring conservation hunts as seems more affordable and you can kill more geese with no plug in gun. Maybe 2 or 3 days. The other important question is do snow geese taste good? Looks like a pretty cool hunt from what I’ve seen on tv but I’m curious if really good from those with experience. The only waterfowl I’ve ever hunted were teal and the occasional wood duck, pintail and mottled duck in the Everglades that flew in and it’s been decades. Any recommendations appreciated and places to avoid. Looks like a bunch of places online.

Specklebelly are the best tasting goose as they are more of a grain eater. Snow Geese primarily eat winter rye/wheat sprouts and are not that good....strong liver taste. They are....okay in Gumbo. Goose hunting.....you'll have WAY more Geese that just fly over than actually drop down and work the decoys. If you want to target Specks....I would book a late January hunt with a guide that puts out both Duck and Goose decoys in order to increase success.

Thanks. Good to know. Not a fan of the strong liver tasting birds so I’ll pass on the snow then. Appreciate it.

I would recommend an early (pre-duck) spec hunt next year. When the first specs get down they are in educated. Not that a good guide can’t kill them late in the year, but an early season with just a decent guide is as close to a guaranteed limit as you can get in the waterfowl world. They are much more willing early.

X2

And I echo what Buckwheat said about the snows. No one shoots snow geese because they like to eat them. It’s just for the hunting aspect of it. And it’s a lot of fun on a conservation hunt.

However, my Boykin absolutely LOVES him some stir fried Snow Goose Breast done in some Bacon Grease!!

I'm not sure about that. They sure make good sausage. But you need a truck load or two for that. Now that they have extended the dark goose seasons into early feb it has really screwed the light goose crowd.

Maybe you shoot them for food but I don’t know anyone else that does. I didn’t see where they extended any of the dark goose seasons past Jan 31st. That must have been a special something that Arkansas hasn’t added to the website or something?

I will add also that I would not base my hunt on “filling the freezer” with meat. You can only kill three specks per day. At the price for fuel, guided hunt and lodging, be cheaper to go buy some wagyu beef. If you are on the “x” or even near it sometimes, a speck hunt can end VERY quickly (especially if you are involved in setting up and taking down spread).

PM sent for guide contact.

Thanks. I got it. Really appreciate all the information from everyone. Definitely need to consider some things before diving into this. Lot I wasn’t aware of.

I get it that I said Milroe sucks, but this seems nitpicky to bitch about. . Arkansas is Jan 31st, bootheel is Feb 6th, S. Illinois is jan 31. When the seasons for dark geese ended sooner the snows were still in northern arkansas, S. Illinois, and the Bootheel of Missouri. It allowed for the magazine extenders and electrinic calls to be used earlier. Most of the guys I hunt with dont jump shoot snows anymore because they have moved on (usually) by febuary. Yes, I have eaten a bunch of snow geese, but mainly as sausage. It is good stuff.

I remember duck seasons used to be out by mid to late december and goose season late dec to mid january.

I apologize for not stating that It is indeed Febuary 1 and not into febuary, but I was thinking of dunklin, pemiscott, New Madrid and Mississippi counties in Missouri that make up some the bootheel and the counties that I hunt which indeed go into febuary.

As far as how they taste, I actually like them more than a giant canada goose.

Semo I apologize. I didn’t mean to come across nitpicky or bitchy. I’m sorry man. I honestly didn’t even realize you were one of the guys that has been in the Milroe discussions. I went back and looked at what I said in the Milroe conversation and this conversation and I can see how I came across that way. Please accept my apologies.

I’ve hunted in Arkansas for only about 10 years, so it’s always been Jan 31 as far as what ive known. So I thought you were saying they lengthened it recently. I genuinely thought I had missed something on the goose seasons and Arkansas had added a special season that I didn’t know about. You are obviously from up that way and have a longer experience with it than I do.

And I’m sure that anything mixed with the right spices and stuffed in a casing is good to eat comparatively. I promise I was not just trying to me argumentative even though it really came across that way.

I apologize for being snippy too.

You are probably more of a snow goose hunter than I am. I just usually shoot them when they fly into my speck and canada goose spreads. I have jump shot snows a few times with my buddies who used to be ate up with it. So, that info is directly from my friend when I asked him about it last week while we were speck hunting. He said the extended dark goose seasons up our way now make the old methods we used iillegal. They used to kill hundreds at a time of snows. He has 2 Vincies with mag extenders that he doesnt use anymore and we were discussing if he should sell or convert them. We saw 10s of thousands of snows last week and I said we should go kill those suckers. That is how the whole discussion started. But, I think from north of Jonesboro, AR to the river and up they get pushed out pretty quick when those unlimited conservation order hunts start now. Those extra couple weeks supposedly made a ton of difference and is the reason why the "mass snow goose killers" I know quit doing it. Maybe they are just getring too old and fat to chase all those cripples.

Again, sorry for reading your posts in a negative way. I come in here for fun and value learning from all the knowledge on this board.

Nice to see grown adults on the forum that honestly have the best interest at heart. Both y’all bring a wealth of knowledge to this place for sure. Rounds on me if we get together at some point for a hunt sometime.

Kwack Smackers kills them

I hunted with Kwack Smackers over New Years. Both afternoons we killed a 14 man and 15 man limit of specks in a hour. We did decent on ducks the first morning but only killed 1 the second morning.