Well it’s 95% done. Need to soften the lines a bit. I didn’t take the back down enough, but my wife suggested I add to the neck which made a pretty big difference. I am looking forward to another one. I’ll make the tail longer and back shorter.
Thanks. I was really pleasantly surprised how easy it was. I definitely used everyone’s advice here and then just went at it.
Just can’t decide if it’s a hen or drake. What does everyone think? Maybe I’ll take a poll and let you all decide.
Well the bad news is that I am really unhappy with the head and the head to body ratio. The good news is that I think I can fix it. But it’s my first try at a non-ducks-in-a-row diver decoy.
I did a search and found some info but am curious with everyone’s experience with carving sleeper decoys. Do I just knock out a normal body and carve the head as a sleeper or is there more to it?
I bet I’m overthinking it.
Yes in some cases. Hence my multi year quest for a mature long tail duck. I have harvested my share of juvenile drakes that came in straight on. I lost the only mature bird on a guided hunt because they didn’t want to pick up birds until 2-3 were down on the water.
Not only do I have good advice here, I have several paint schemes to mimick!
Good head on a football. lol. I keep telling myself ducks are round and decoys don’t need carved in feathers to work.
There won’t be any fancy loops or very much bending, it will be for a short section on a large boat blind I am going to experiment with this year for open water hunting. Thanks everyone.