I took my neighbor on the farm next to ours in Kansas 40 years ago to one of my turkey spots late one morning after the hens were down. He was toting a double barrel 10 ga. with 3.5 inch 5's. I helped him to cross a fence in two places, holding the gun for him. Whoa, it weighed 11 lbs. I wouldn't want to be carrying that gun around the woods all morning, however a turkey died that day, he was headless when my neighbor fired that beast of a gun. Turkeys are not hard to kill, generally easy to get within 20 yards to get a good bead on them. A goldeneye is much more difficult to kill outright. It's more about the comfort of your gun, especially here in idaho where everything is up or down and distance is measured in miles per day. We always try to hunt up hill from the truck.
April Workbench
- Thread starter benp
- Start date
Ronald Bock
Active member
Carving had to stop. Spring is arriving. Had to get more bee hives built up ( paint goes on today) and cleaning out the greenhouse. It actually rained yesterday. Snow will melt fast now. It's been a long brutal winter in Fairbanks. Record cold and record snowfall. We're definitely ready for spring.
it's about time to head up to mile 43 and catch some grayling isn't it? We have another stretch of freezing overnight next week. I hope my potatoes keep their little head below ground a little longer. It's always a gamble on when to plant. Two years in a row we've had a hard frost on June 20. I need some of those bees, strawberries are blooming.
Ronald Bock
Active member
Chena is still frozen. Weird year Don. Snowing again today. Aargh! Will this winter ever end?
Ronald Bock
Active member
I need more storage. My boat is full of decoys. More shelves are full of goose shells and walls are nothing but dozens of silos hanging from pegs. It's a storage problem. Not a decoy problem????
Definitely a storage problem. I have a similar problem with calls, but they require a lot less space!
Thanks Don. I learn something new every time I pick up the rasp or paintbrush. I really need to paint the garage. Looking forward to giving my shelves a clean look.
My picture above shows empty shelves but they will be full soon. I have gotten away from marsh hunting for a variety of reasons so I’m concentrating on my Lake Erie rig. I only need so many decoys but they are all special in various ways.
Well, I have over 300 decoys in 2/3rds of a 3 car garage that acts as the main shop and another converted guest room that I do a lot of hand painting in. Of those 300 decoys, none of them are mine, all in various stages of incompleteness. My personal decoys are in the mower shed, maybe a dozen. Somethings wrong about that situation. A cobbler's children have no shoes.
Huntindave McCann
Well-known member
From a Red Cedar which blew down last summer, in my yard.
2.5" diameter by 3.63" tall,
One of my granddaughters had a birthday yesterday, guess she's getting a new bud vase.
Now she has a choice to make,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, version 2
2.5" diameter by 3.63" tall,
One of my granddaughters had a birthday yesterday, guess she's getting a new bud vase.
Now she has a choice to make,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, version 2
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On rare occasion I do a little wood carving. I'm badly allergic to wood dust, but sometimes it just has to be done. I look like someone doing hazmat duty, but it still only helps marginally. I've been working on this pintail urn off and one for several weeks, work a few hours and recover for a couple days. I will admit there is something therapeutic about hollowing a decoy, other than my eyes are swollen and my sinuses are plugged. It's going well, I'm just about ready to secure the ashes and check the float, I'm fairly confident, I've done a dozen or so over the years. I started with 6.25 lbs of a roughed out pintail and have it down to 2 lbs 11 oz. I would like to get it around 2.5 or less since I have to add back 1.25 lbs of ashes. The client wants it to hunt with another pintail urn I made for him several years ago. No flocking on this one and minimal airbrush.
I hollowed down to about 3/8 of an inch, even up to the back of the bill. I cut the head off at the top of the neck to accomplish that part. The black tail is cast onyx, since it was going to be hunted I wanted to make sure it was strong enough. You can lift the whole decoy by the tail.
Once I check the float I'll glue the halves together and get the detailing underway. There are a few spots that need filled, but nothing serious. my expectation is that the float will be just below the tail a half inch or so. The carving is nearly a full body floater, usually easier to get a proper float.
This is the old pintail urn that the client has had for many years, it's built in the same size and process as the one I'm working on now.
I hollowed down to about 3/8 of an inch, even up to the back of the bill. I cut the head off at the top of the neck to accomplish that part. The black tail is cast onyx, since it was going to be hunted I wanted to make sure it was strong enough. You can lift the whole decoy by the tail.
Once I check the float I'll glue the halves together and get the detailing underway. There are a few spots that need filled, but nothing serious. my expectation is that the float will be just below the tail a half inch or so. The carving is nearly a full body floater, usually easier to get a proper float.
This is the old pintail urn that the client has had for many years, it's built in the same size and process as the one I'm working on now.