New Decorations
- Thread starter William Reinicke
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William Reinicke
Active member
Dont get many of them here. I have killed one stud but I was 17 yro and didnt think anything of it. Every once in awhile I will come across that pic and I kick myself for not doing something with that bird. My buddy killed a good one a couple years ago. I am still patiently waiting for another moon face to make the mistake. I still have never killed a cinnamon teal either. They're here, but I just never seem to be around them late season when they are perfect. I am sure I have shot many during early teal season. Same with bluewings, but getting those perfect late season studs has been tough for me.
I couldnt imagine the language being flown around when that freezer door opened. I would of been sick... not from the smell either.
William Reinicke
Active member
This mount would be SAWWEEETT!!!! As much as you travel and find different species, you could make that happen in a season or two I am sure.
STUDS!!!! And I mean STUDS!!!! That dark deep blue is my favorite. I know if I asked the better half which one, she would say the turquoise goes with the southwest theme more and like that color better for a mount. I would just do an eye roll and probably get both mounted at that point lol.
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Noah Shaver
Member
I picked the blue one too
Noah Shaver
Member
Thank you Don, we are lucky to have a world champion waterfowl taxidermist right down the street. Actually have two of them in the area. Prices are high but I am willing to pay it on those "once in a lifetime" birds
I get requests for fulvous and black bellies frequently, apparently their range is expanding. It's very difficult to get good references of those types of ducks sitting on the water like a typical decoy. Is the top bird a mottled? I'm getting mixed up in the discussion of mottled and mexican. I'm making one right now and need a good view of a speculum. I'm pretty sure the last mottled I did my reference had the greener version of blue. It's hard to take many of the reference photos off the internet seriously because they are so often mis labeled.
William Reinicke
Active member
Don that of Noah's mount is of a mottled duck. If you go back a few posts, he is showing off the speculum difference between two mottled ducks and now they can vary. I personally like the deep dark blue and he did as well and that is the one he elected to have mounted. So that is 100% a stud mottled duck you can see and reference.
Noah Shaver
Member
Don, the ducks I posted on this thread are mottled ducks, I don't have any good up close pictures of the Mexican ducks we shot. The mottleds will have variations in speculum color from deep blue to a bright turquoise color, really just depends on the duck. Most lean towards the blue end of the spectrum though.
On the whistlers, the reason it is so hard to find good reference material of Black Bellies on the water is because they are hardly ever swimming. I have only hunted them the last 3 years or so but every single time I have seen black belly whistling ducks out on the marsh they are standing and feeding in the grass. Whistling ducks are actually more closely related to swans - they aren't ducks at all. An accurate decoy representation for Black bellies is a standing decoy. I have some silhouettes that I can't wait to try out if I get drawn this season.
Fulvous whistling ducks on the other hand will spend time swimming in the water. Floating decoys are an accurate representation of their habits, but quite a few of them will be standing in the grass as well. They are more apt to decoy to water than black bellies, but it depends on the habitat.
The ideal whistling duck decoy spread would have only a handful of decoys floating in open water, the rest would be a full body or silhouette style decoy standing in the grass in shallow water. Here's a picture of how most Black Bellies will decoy. Not to deep water, but to shallow water they can stand in
On the whistlers, the reason it is so hard to find good reference material of Black Bellies on the water is because they are hardly ever swimming. I have only hunted them the last 3 years or so but every single time I have seen black belly whistling ducks out on the marsh they are standing and feeding in the grass. Whistling ducks are actually more closely related to swans - they aren't ducks at all. An accurate decoy representation for Black bellies is a standing decoy. I have some silhouettes that I can't wait to try out if I get drawn this season.
Fulvous whistling ducks on the other hand will spend time swimming in the water. Floating decoys are an accurate representation of their habits, but quite a few of them will be standing in the grass as well. They are more apt to decoy to water than black bellies, but it depends on the habitat.
The ideal whistling duck decoy spread would have only a handful of decoys floating in open water, the rest would be a full body or silhouette style decoy standing in the grass in shallow water. Here's a picture of how most Black Bellies will decoy. Not to deep water, but to shallow water they can stand in
William Reinicke
Active member
Dont threaten me with a good time!
Does anyone else ever wish they had 5 dozen of each duck and goose species with different poses of Don Mintz flocked and airbrushed decoys?
Or is it only me?
Every pic he posts on here, I sit there and stare in amazement of the quality, workmanship, and artistry he puts in them.
Keep up the awesome work Don.
Or is it only me?
Every pic he posts on here, I sit there and stare in amazement of the quality, workmanship, and artistry he puts in them.
Keep up the awesome work Don.
Completely agree. I'm not sure how @Don Mintz ended up here or why he decided to become a significant contributor, but I am darn glad to have him on the forum and am constantly impressed at the quality of work he does.
Thanks guys. You can blame William for my presence here. We collaborate on a lot of things. He suggested this was a good place to camp out with friends. Making decoys is a creative outlet for me, but I do a lot of other things to pay the bills. I consider myself a multimedia sculptor/painter, most creations end up in front of an airbrush eventually. The other forum with a name we do not speak was getting weary of my time there and I think some of them even think I may have died. Yikes.
William Reinicke
Active member
Hes kind of a follower! In all seriousness, this is a much better place for both of us. THANK YOU all for having us. Don is a true talent. An absolute best friend and not even sure how it happened. @Noah Shaver sent me ideas of his homemade decoys, when I was helping resolve an issue with one of his duck calls, and next thing I know I was figuring out if this was something I wanted to do. I remember a guy I used to hunt with (still really good friends but got restationed in MD and now back home in Illinois) had 6 full body wigeon custom done by Don and his son. I was really young and this had to be 2014/2015ish (would have to go back and look through albums to be more accurate) and I remember sitting there thinking how fantastic these decoys looked. I remember we only hunted over those 6 decoys, on this little little bitty sliver of river and we killed all our wigeon. I was an absolute believer, but had literally no means (at the time) to buy his decoys. As I got older, and came into money, I kind of got away from the mindset I needed really good decoys. Then over time that changed, and I invested in (what I thought) were the best of the best decoys. After 2 seasons with them, I wasn't overly impressed. My hunting partner of 11 season moved out of the state, we settled up on what was in the trailer, but essentially, as of May of this year, i was without any decoys and had to figure something out. I had already started picking Don's brain since February because I had a feeling this was coming.Does anyone else ever wish they had 5 dozen of each duck and goose species with different poses of Don Mintz flocked and airbrushed decoys?
Or is it only me?
Every pic he posts on here, I sit there and stare in amazement of the quality, workmanship, and artistry he puts in them.
Keep up the awesome work Don.
Like with many things, the masters are usually tight lipped and keep their ideas close to their chest. I bought 12 GH decoy blanks, they had tons of feather detail blown into the plastic mold. I knew his double flocked process from him explaining it enough to other folks. I really wanted to try airbrushing because I remember those wigeon from 8-9 years prior. I thought the GH decoys would be like a paint by number since all the detail was laid out... WRONG!! I got through them, but they were terrible but my first. I figured I would reach out to Mr. Don since I was struggling so much, and talk about a man who has figured some things out who is not afraid to share. He's a rarity for sure, very very helpful and does outstanding work. Shocked he isnt sick of me yet, but I am like a sponge taking it all in. Not sure I will ever have the time to carve and do custom stuff like he does, but maybe one day.
Todd Duncan Tennyson
Well-known member
That hoodie is awesome. I wanted to do a dead mount of seaducks .. .the scoters and Old squaw and a harlie over a part of an old sea piling with some netting on it and maybe a glass fishing float. But my freezer died and the birds were ruined by the time i was back from being out of town.
William Reinicke
Active member
ANOTHER FREEZER GOING BAD CASE!!!! Not even my birds and I hurt for you! Thats just terrible!
Hooded is super cool. I get a few every year, I finally just pulled the trigger on sending one to the taxi. I kind of already want another one facing this one but head turned toward the viewer, holding a little fish in its mouth. Like a fresh catch. i would need to find someone comfortable doing this though. The number one target this year is a late january pintail with at least a 4-5" sprig.
Noah Shaver
Member
William Reinicke
Active member
lol I usually can find plenty here.... and im not that far from texas. That one there is a stud! Love the pose too. This one yours?
Noah Shaver
Member
Yes sir, from a few years back