I prefer to hunt the earlier season’s, but this is based on many reason’s. One is that our land is more of a wintering grounds for them, and by the time the later season’s are on, they have really disbanded through out the area. My second reason is hunting pressure. Our land is very visible from a local highway, and everyone and there brother wants to hunt there because of the visibility of the birds, and the neighboring land owners do not say no to anyone. As for calls, I like to use a slate and box call at first to get there interest, and as they get closer, try bringing them the final distance with a diaphram call. But again, it all is dependent on the scenario. The diaphram call is tough, but has a distinct advantage of being hands free, and limiting your motion.

I think that the preference point system is like you say, that when you apply for the permit, you are given a preference point, where you are confused is that if you are drawn for a license, your preference points go back to Zero. The big thing that people do not realize is that you do not have to choose a second season, for if you do, and are drawn in it an cannot hunt for some reason, it is treated the same as if you purchased the license or not. The lottery system does not account for purchased licenses, only drawn winners. Not sure if that makes sense or not.

I guess the effectiveness of the real wing kind of depends on what you are hunting. We use these in SD during the spring snow goose conservation hunt and they can be very effective. When hunting snows, they tend to hold up and hover over your decoys, almost tornadoing down on your spread, the real wing movement gets them to almost concentrate on the decoy and not you, as they are hovering down, also supplying movement. If anyone has ever hunted snows, they know that the more movement in your spread, the more enticing it is. With that said, you need alot of wind to really get these going, which can be a problem. Snows are smart, so any advantage we can get, we usually try doing!