small spread mallards

D

Don Mintz

Member
When it comes to decoys, I'm a minimalist. While lots of folks approach decoys with the accuracy by volume idea, I just don't like hauling lots of decoys and the older I get the less decoys I apparently need. Usually I'll only have a pair of mallards and six to ten divers. I had a lot of fun with these poses, I'm calling the hen "the nag" and the drake "hen pecked".

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Don, I also hunt with less decoys. I hunt small salt marsh and use 6-8 mallards and blacks. Some times 1-2 geese when they are handy. When I hunt big water with friends will take 10-12 brant also.
 
The painting on this trio is more than I typically do on gunning decoys. The decoy itself is the same as any decoys I make, but painting is not done in the normal production process that I use most of the time. The biggest reason is I made these decoys for myself and always go a little over the top just because it's fun and I'm not concerned about time. Whenever I do carvings for myself they go in what I call my signature series which is "ᎩᎦᎨ ᏲᎾ" or "Red Bear", my Cherokee name. I had no intention of selling these, but then there was this black lab puppy that became available recently that just melted my heart. He's about 11 weeks old now. I gave him to my 9 year old grandson, but will be trained by my son Caleb. My Chessie passed away 6 years ago and my son's lab is getting pretty old. It was time. Meet Hank.

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I'm fairly new here and really don't know exactly where to post stuff of the carved variety. I guess it makes sense to put it here.

The mallard trio above has been in a series of similar poses. I'm not sure if I'll do another species, but the recent wigeons I posted were the third in the line of this type of pairs pose. It started as a smooching pair of wood ducks, then I changed the hen to the Nag. When I posted the wigeons on facebook, a lady kind of chirped at me about why does the hen have to be a "nag". I'm sorry, it just seemed appropriate at the time.

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Don Mintz said:
I'm fairly new here and really don't know exactly where to post stuff of the carved variety. I guess it makes sense to put it here.

The mallard trio above has been in a series of similar poses. I'm not sure if I'll do another species, but the recent wigeons I posted were the third in the line of this type of pairs pose. It started as a smooching pair of wood ducks, then I changed the hen to the Nag. When I posted the wigeons on facebook, a lady kind of chirped at me about why does the hen have to be a "nag". I'm sorry, it just seemed appropriate at the time.

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Only time i have seen men nag each other is on the golf course, the bar, and in the duck blind. Seems the "HEN" just nags all the time for one reason or another. Seems appropriate to me lol.

When it comes to fowl, I have seen late season mallard really get after a hen though. Almost bully a single hen and its usually a few mallard drakes. I have also seen two drakes go after each other, and I mean beat the living snot out of each other while the hen is 5-10 yards away minding her own business. So, I guess I could a series of fighting or nagging drakes in the near future. But from a human perspective, I think it fits well.
 
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