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Duck decoys
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26-08-2009 11:20pm#1Hi folks,
Well I'm dipping my shotgun into the edible fowl world this year and I need to get a clue about a few things.
I like the idea of decoys, and I want to find out more about duck decoys. Which brands are good and long lasting and which brands should be avoided like the plague.
Probably be mostly mallard that'll get shot at the start. I imagine then I should start with mallard looking decoys, no?
Are the feeding decoys worth a go? How many decoys should a one man band have anyway? What's the best method for "setting" them? Do they need to be done in a pattern like pigeon decoys would? Any info is appreciated as I'm entirely green to this type of shooting.
Do any calls work? I'm aware electronic ones are a no no. In the beginning I'll be shooting on lakes as I've to send away my foreshore permit tomorrow. When that comes back I'll be shooting in the shore too so tips are welcome. Since I've lived by the sea all my life I know enough to be wary of the tide
ATB,
John0
Comments
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Hey John good to see you posting.
I have had success with as few as 2 decoys, a duck call and teal whistle. One could get by with a couple of black plastic bottles .... if .... the ducks want to be there.
If you are shooting a small pond or splash 6 mallard or a dozen teal deeks will get you started. Big water, usually a dozen for starters and as many as it takes depending on pressure and conditions.
Keep movement to a minimum at all times and especially when birds are approaching and use a call sparingly. If you see birds flaring stop calling and stop moving.
Use your call to position the birds, BUT, use your call sparingly.
If one is not proficient with a wildfowl call, use the "greeting" call only and when the birds turn drop the call. A sour note at this stage will flare the birds.
Pick up any shiny objects- plastic bottles, cans etc. -flotsam and jetsam - in the vicinity of your hide.
I rarely use a pattern except for sea ducks.
Variety in your decoy spread is more important in my opinion, a few teal mixed in with a dozen mallards adds variety and realism. Keep the teal together. Space the mallards about a meter apart and toward the edges, leave a landing spot in the centre. Location is perhaps the most important aspect of waterfowling. Basically, hunt where you’ve seen ducks. Shallow backwaters off big rivers, smaller ponds, big ponds, etc. - try and situate on their preferred flight lines. Confidence decoys, a ( heron, seagull, pigeon, crow etc.) add that settled look and realism.
Something to remember while duck shooting .... patience ..... is a virtue.
Good luck0 -
Hi DB,
Good to hear from you
Thanks for your informative reply. There's a few bits in there I had not considered at all such as mixing teal with mallard, and using the confidence decoys which strikes me as a particularly good idea!
I'll be shooting on small to medium sized lakes in the beginning. Though I do know of a couple of small marshes the ducks like to be in as well.
Once my foreshore license comes through I'll be expanding my shooting to a small estuary and along some coastline.
One is definitely not proficient at calling
What are your thoughts on feeding? And also blinds?
ATB,
John0 -
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Mmm, customs, am not a fan, got burned by that shower before. (wouldn't mind if they knew how to spend the money, but anyway...). Those ones on Cabelas sure do look good though.
Saw some over in England, dozen mallard for £50. All the same type.
Just wondering about the sleeper/resting types? What's the deal there, are there better times of day to be deploying certain decoys? Getting a bit technical now 0 -
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Well I bit the bullet the last night and ordered some green Head Gear decoys from Cabelas, checked on Ebay and to say there was a small difference in price is an understatement! I know I'll get done on duty but I'll have a better looking decoy that'll still work out cheaper 0
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johngalway wrote: »Well I bit the bullet the last night and ordered some green Head Gear decoys from Cabelas, checked on Ebay and to say there was a small difference in price is an understatement! I know I'll get done on duty but I'll have a better looking decoy that'll still work out cheaper
These are a quality decoy John, we had them out on Tuesday and they were doing the business big time especially for the tufted duck.
Did you order the weights n lines for them?
I had to carry 30 oversized mallard decoys up hill for 3/4 mile back to the car, I really felt that I tell ya.
I must buy a kayak or canoe to put these out, we placed a few as far as our waders would allow and threw a few further out.
Throwing them out further was a mistake, took ages to get them back.
Great morning though, got out of bed at 3.20 and had breakfast and made a few sandwiches. Putting the gear in the car I thought we were going to get an amazing morning. Perfectly clear skies and no wind thought we would have had lovely still glass like water to really make the decoys stand out.
We left for our favourite spot at about 4, it doesn't get bright for ages but we wanted to be first to the spot to prevent anyone else getting the best of the shooting. Its a short drive so myself and the old man pulled up at about 4.15. My brother his 2 friends and Jasper our lab were waiting for us. The breeze was much stiffer on the shore but nothing my new drake waterfowl parka jacket couldn't handle.
After a quick chat about who was going to carry what we set off down the hill in complete darkness. Its about 3/4 mile down to a man made walkway out to an island, the walkway itself is about 400 yards long. Behind the walk is a lovely reed bed which always holds duck. We weren't on the walkway long when a boat with a lamp came our way and seemed to want to set up in our location, lucky we got out of bed early. Instead they circled the island and set up deep into the reeds.
We had a lot of decoys with us, 3-4 dozen, consisting of both mallard and tufted duck as we were covering a large area and there were 5 of us shooting. We set them all out anyway, dug in to our various positions and played the patience game.
The sky was perfectly clear still at this point and there were shooting stars a plenty to watch waiting for the first bit of action. As usual when it was too dark to shoot a bird flew straight over my head and was gone before I even budged. Like every morning it progressively got brighter and with the sun the clouds also came. Amazingly the first bit of action was a skein of 6 geese. Geese are a real adrenalin pumper because you can hear them coming a long way out, scrambling to get the magnum carts in. They approached from my left towards my brother and one of his friends. Let them in, let them in. When they were about 25-30 yards over my brother, the three of us rose and fired. 4 of the 6 fell, my brother is convinced he got the 4 with 3 shots as he thought he got 2 on his first shot. I don't know I thought I dropped the second last fella in the group but I didn't argue too much.
From then on it was very sporadic, a few duck here and there. The mallard were very very wary of us. We think either our calling, something we were wearing or the morning in it made them wary and they would not commit to us. They'd come to about 100 yards and then just turn away. No such problems with the tufted duck or teal.
Feck all mallard on the day too, saw a few big flocks of Tufted duck (50+) and Geese(50+) but only about a dozen mallard. Tally for the morning was 4 geese and 7 duck I think. Between 5 of us that was a nice number. Just over 2 each. We did lose a mallard hen though, she was winged and kept diving in front of the dog and even after the dog chased her about 150 yards out, no joy. We had to call the dog back then as he is not in peak fitness this early and we were worried he would tire on the return leg of the swim. Hate losing birds
The standard of shooting was good on the day, we shot most birds that presented a shot. Missed 3 or 4 but compared to our usual ratio that was quite good. Benelli didn't jam once either which was nice.
Few special mentions, one goes to my Peltors, I love this bit of gear. I have a bad ringing in my left ear and these are a necessity if I don't want to make that worse for days on end. Wore them for about 6 hours straight and they were great.
Our lab did extremely well on his first day back, did dummy work over the summer to keep him fresh but they can still be rough on the first day or so but he did really well. He's really getting a feel for it. A little problem he had was because we use semi auto shotguns he was marking the ejected carts and not the birds but that has stopped thank god.
Also the lads in the boat were excellent shots, in particular they knocked 2 geese from a different skein and a mallard. Great shooting indeed.
Went home at about 11 and had a feed, then went and glassed a few hills for any sign of deer. No luck but it was late in the day anyway. My brother, father and the lads went for a night flight in a local pond but I gave it a miss as I was shattered.
Good day but I am very bad at early mornings, not a good mix for a lad who likes hunting.0 -
These are a quality decoy John, we had them out on Tuesday and they were doing the business big time especially for the tufted duck.
Did you order the weights n lines for them?
I had to carry 30 oversized mallard decoys up hill for 3/4 mile back to the car, I really felt that I tell ya.
I must buy a kayak or canoe to put these out, we placed a few as far as our waders would allow and threw a few further out.
Throwing them out further was a mistake, took ages to get them back.
Great morning though, got out of bed at 3.20 and had breakfast and made a few sandwiches. Putting the gear in the car I thought we were going to get an amazing morning. Perfectly clear skies and no wind thought we would have had lovely still glass like water to really make the decoys stand out.
We left for our favourite spot at about 4, it doesn't get bright for ages but we wanted to be first to the spot to prevent anyone else getting the best of the shooting. Its a short drive so myself and the old man pulled up at about 4.15. My brother his 2 friends and Jasper our lab were waiting for us. The breeze was much stiffer on the shore but nothing my new drake waterfowl parka jacket couldn't handle.
After a quick chat about who was going to carry what we set off down the hill in complete darkness. Its about 3/4 mile down to a man made walkway out to an island, the walkway itself is about 400 yards long. Behind the walk is a lovely reed bed which always holds duck. We weren't on the walkway long when a boat with a lamp came our way and seemed to want to set up in our location, lucky we got out of bed early. Instead they circled the island and set up deep into the reeds.
We had a lot of decoys with us, 3-4 dozen, consisting of both mallard and tufted duck as we were covering a large area and there were 5 of us shooting. We set them all out anyway, dug in to our various positions and played the patience game.
The sky was perfectly clear still at this point and there were shooting stars a plenty to watch waiting for the first bit of action. As usual when it was too dark to shoot a bird flew straight over my head and was gone before I even budged. Like every morning it progressively got brighter and with the sun the clouds also came. Amazingly the first bit of action was a skein of 6 geese. Geese are a real adrenalin pumper because you can hear them coming a long way out, scrambling to get the magnum carts in. They approached from my left towards my brother and one of his friends. Let them in, let them in. When they were about 25-30 yards over my brother, the three of us rose and fired. 4 of the 6 fell, my brother is convinced he got the 4 with 3 shots as he thought he got 2 on his first shot. I don't know I thought I dropped the second last fella in the group but I didn't argue too much.
From then on it was very sporadic, a few duck here and there. The mallard were very very wary of us. We think either our calling, something we were wearing or the morning in it made them wary and they would not commit to us. They'd come to about 100 yards and then just turn away. No such problems with the tufted duck or teal.
Feck all mallard on the day too, saw a few big flocks of Tufted duck (50+) and Geese(50+) but only about a dozen mallard. Tally for the morning was 4 geese and 7 duck I think. Between 5 of us that was a nice number. Just over 2 each. We did lose a mallard hen though, she was winged and kept diving in front of the dog and even after the dog chased her about 150 yards out, no joy. We had to call the dog back then as he is not in peak fitness this early and we were worried he would tire on the return leg of the swim. Hate losing birds
The standard of shooting was good on the day, we shot most birds that presented a shot. Missed 3 or 4 but compared to our usual ratio that was quite good. Benelli didn't jam once either which was nice.
Few special mentions, one goes to my Peltors, I love this bit of gear. I have a bad ringing in my left ear and these are a necessity if I don't want to make that worse for days on end. Wore them for about 6 hours straight and they were great.
Our lab did extremely well on his first day back, did dummy work over the summer to keep him fresh but they can still be rough on the first day or so but he did really well. He's really getting a feel for it. A little problem he had was because we use semi auto shotguns he was marking the ejected carts and not the birds but that has stopped thank god.
Also the lads in the boat were excellent shots, in particular they knocked 2 geese from a different skein and a mallard. Great shooting indeed.
Went home at about 11 and had a feed, then went and glassed a few hills for any sign of deer. No luck but it was late in the day anyway. My brother, father and the lads went for a night flight in a local pond but I gave it a miss as I was shattered.
Good day but I am very bad at early mornings, not a good mix for a lad who likes hunting.
Nice read. Pity about the hen! But if you read the article in the digest this month you def did the right thing calling the dog back! 0 -
EPointer=Birdss wrote: »Nice read. Pity about the hen! But if you read the article in the digest this month you def did the right thing calling the dog back!
I haven't seen the article myself but yeah its a huge worry, at that distance in the wind, where the sound of the whistle is being blown away, water in their ears, it can be hard for them to hear a command and with a bird 10ft in front of them they're less likely to give you full attention.
I was genuinely worried. Luckily I think the dog himself realised he was getting tired, he turned and saw the "come in" command and made for shore. The brother said if he went under he was stripping off and going straight after him.
Lucky in a way that it's a lake and not the tidal estuary as the strong currents make it a lot worse.
SO I suppose its a warning to anyone with a dog, if your dog is a bit hard of hearing or there is a strong wind blowing the sound of the whistle away don't send your dog after a swimming duck. He'll lead the dog on a merry dance and your dog may swim further than he is capable of returning from.0 -
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