Decoys Decoys and more Decoys.

[guythathunts]

Ok, so I have a mixture of Canada Goose decoys and I was looking for sugestions as what to do as far as replacing them or trading up fo better stuff. I have 27 shels that I intend on keeping, 12 nice siloets, 12 economy wind socks, and 6 cheaper floaters.
      One question that I had was weather or not it is affective to mix these all togeter or not.
       So what would you do as far as getting rid of, trading in, and adding on to the spread. If your sugestion is that I should buy 5 doz Dave Smiths or even 5 doz Avery Full bodies and sell all of what I have... that dosn's realy fit into my budget. Trading out and adding a bit of money is what I am looking to do. Well I'm Waiting!!!!!!

[ChrisWallace]

I upgraded to 11 dozen Avery FFDs a few weeks back, so I totaled up to 14 doz ffd, wont need shells or other fillers now. I got 2 doz hardcores that might be sold right now, not sure.

I will be getting rid of 4 dozen FAs, 3 doz Avery flocked shells, 4 dozen silos 1 dozen big foots and 3 dozen flocked head and rumps avery fbs, if you want to swing over and take a look at them I can pull em out of the Storage shed where I keep all of mine. Half of those full bodies were used four times, they were a steal in late season and are still in mint shape. probably let them go for 60 buck a half dozen, I paid 89.99 per four for the FAs and 79 for the averys/half dozen. I really wont go much lower than that, I got a flocking kit and the sprayer, I might fully flock them all and keep them, even though I really dont have a use for them except to keep em up in Nodak.

I wouldnt worry about mixing em too much. I like variety in my spreads, I run some lessers in my spread as well, simply because how often do you look at a flock and every single bird is the same size? Never. 103 days till early goose!

[h2ofwlr]

GTH,
What you have is what some guys call a garage sale spread.  Some guys with big $ look down on it, well screw them as most guys have mutliple types of decoys.  It may make a difference to geese that are hunted hard.   But I have seen other types of decoys actually be more effective than FBs becuase the geese are being gunned exclusively by FB spreads.

Myself, I would rather stick with 1 or 2 styles (FBs, Shells, Silos, socks).  ANd available hauling ability make s a big difference, meaning hauling FBs you need at least PU with topper or a trailer, ir not both. And you have to store them too.   So many guys that do not have  lot of space go for shells or silos when it comes to Honkers. 

For silos it takes more #s being at right angles they disappear.  But they are very compact and realistic.  I prefer Real Geese Pros I or IIs.

For Shells, I'd look at GHG, possibly the FFDs.  Reason I say FFDs as there is less glare if there is dew out (no reflective of the back like on FBs or Shell that are painted only).  BTW, also stake the shells up off the ground, unless it is late season and you have using sleepers heads.

[DetSgt14]

No one said that waterfowl hunting was "cheap."  I have half a basement full of various types of decoys, floaters, aqua-vacs, super mags, big foot full bodies, etc.  Over the past two years, a friend and myself have invested in Real Geese silhouettes.  We can carry four dozen in a large decoy bag, and have a sufficient number of them should we need to "walk in" to a hunting area and not drive in.  We had horribly wet weather last year, and I think we would have buried an M-1 Abrams in some of the fields we hunted, so driving in with a vehicle loaded was definitely out of the question.  Since we are geared to hunt and not complain about a buried 4WD truck, we decided that valor was the better part of discretion and walked in with silhouettes, blinds, blind bag, and gun.  The hunts were long hikes, however, we did not have to pay for wrecker bills. 

Innovation and ability to adapt to various different scenarios are the hallmark of the waterfowler.

DetSgt14 :gunsmilie:
"If it flies, it dies"

[Benny]

My group bought into those Avery FFD's, now after one year we all have 2 dozen half flocked decoys because Avery's FFD flocking came off!!

Pretty expensive decoy to loose half the flocking in only one season, and we even had the Avery motion bags with the socks on each indavidual decoy.

Sure they worked fine and the glare was non existant, but were they worth the $175 per 6 decoys????

My old G&H goose deks have served me well for twenty years, only had to repaint them once.

As for the type of decoys, I use shells,full bodies, socks, silos, and kites as well as a flag or two.

It never hurts to have a varity to chose from to suite the ever changing conditions in the field.

Benny

[JohnWester]

My group bought into those Avery FFD's, now after one year we all have 2 dozen half flocked decoys because Avery's FFD flocking came off!!

Pretty expensive decoy to loose half the flocking in only one season, and we even had the Avery motion bags with the socks on each indavidual decoy.

thanks for that info benny... i was wondering about that coming off.

[MR308]

if your flocking came off, call the avery rep!!!