I had someone tell me once that if anyone (friends or acquaintances) he hunted with ever shot his decoys, especially his hand carved decoys that he bought, he'd punch them in the face. Punch someone in the face over decoys. No offense is meant here, but decoys are THINGS. They're inanimate objects. Yes some are VERY expensive, the carvers put a lot of effort into them and many are works of art that I could only hope to come close to creating only in my wildest dreams. But they're still things. If you have decoys that you treasure that you don't want them to possibly even be shot, don't take them. Or leave them next to you in the boat if you must take them. Or take them only when you're hunting with them so that any stray shot is on you. There are situations where we don't have a dog with us, like layout hunting or warm weather hunting in FL on big, deep alligator waters. Or the cripple is so lively that we wouldn't send a dog (remembering a strong current Puget Sound surf scoter that we chased probably a mile and shot at way too many times in our efforts to try to kill the cripple, which we eventually did before sending Mike). Even with a dog we try to kill the cripples before sending him. Not always possible but we do try. We do try to wait for the bird to not be in the decoys, or make the effort towait for an opening where we won't shoot the decoys but nor do we want a bird to go off and die slowly.
If you think he's consistently shooting the decoys on purpose then that's one thing. I wouldn't punch someone in the face over it but if I thought someone was deliberately shooting my rig up (plastic or otherwise), then I might not hunt with them anymore, but only after a good long conversation about it and giving him another chance. Or I'd just hunt with them over THEIR rig. Then I don't care if they get bored and wanna shoot their decoys all day long.
But nor am I going to toss away my friends and hunting buddies for shooting my decoys in the course of hunting or in trying to prevent something from dying a slow death. I'd have no friends or hunting buddies if I did that. Heck, can you imagine what I would've had to come up with when somewhere along the way the blueyed teal that Lee Harker carved me (probably one of my most treasured decoys) dropped off Steve's bike on our three mile trek in to our hunting spot? I was mighty disappointed and really worried I'd never see her again but I sure as heck wasn't going to punch him or hate him or never hunt with him again or throw away an excellent friendship over it. And losing her was waaaaaay worse than if she'd been shot. Luckily we found her on the ride back out and no one had taken her home.
Just my .02. If you think he's a good friend and hunting buddy.....breathe in, breathe out and move on. Decoys can be fixed. Good friends and hunting buddies can be very hard to find.
Dani
