First Decoy

Z

Zachary

New member
Howdy, new member and duck hunter from Florida. I started duck hunting in 2025 thanks to a deer hunting buddy. Just about finished carving my first duck decoy. I was given a block of black cork and a piece of basswood by a coworker who had gotten it from a local decoy carver 10+ years ago for an education program that didn’t end up happening. Ironically I had talked to the same carver a couple weeks prior and had a chance to see some of his decoys. I still have to finish painting the bill but I figured I’d go ahead and post some pictures of it and get some feedback. IMG_3637.jpegIMG_3639.jpegIMG_3630.jpeg
 
I like it, there is something special about the first decoy, it is the beginning of a great journey. It will hunt well and bring you great memories, be sure to save it and not get rid of it as it will make you smile when you look at it.

Does it self-right? What's your plans for the next dozen?

My first one looks like something out of a kids book, it sits proudly in my shop and sees action every once in a while.
 
benp said:
I like it, there is something special about the first decoy, it is the beginning of a great journey. It will hunt well and bring you great memories, be sure to save it and not get rid of it as it will make you smile when you look at it.

Does it self-right? What's your plans for the next dozen?

My first one looks like something out of a kids book, it sits proudly in my shop and sees action every once in a while.
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Benp, Thank you for the comment! I plan on it, and my future decoys, staying with me for as many future hunting seasons as possible.

I plan on testing it out tomorrow morning to make sure I have it weighted right and to see how it behaves in the water. As for my next dozen, I am waiting to hear back from the coworker who gave me the first block of cork about the possibility of getting the other two that she has. I’ll find out Wednesday if she’s willing to let me have them or not. If so, I plan on making a couple of ringneck drakes. I’m also looking into ordering some tan cork blocks, the black cork worked great under a rasp but it crumbled a bit too much for my tastes when I tried going into finer details. I hope to have a mixed rig of ringers and greenwing teal by the time the season opens, that’s mostly what I see down here. Eventually I want to also carve some out of cedar and/or cypress.

I see a lot of areas to improve on for my next decoy, but overall I am happy with how my first one turned out. I learned a lot making it and I can’t wait to see how it turns will improve. Any tips for me?
 
Good first decoy!
What species are you going for here? My main comment is to shorten up the neck a little.
Did you treat the black cork with sealant before painting?
 
Carl said:
Good first decoy!
What species are you going for here? My main comment is to shorten up the neck a little.
Did you treat the black cork with sealant before painting?
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Thank you!
I was going for a ringed neck duck, the only species that I usually see where I go hunting are teal, ringed neck, and the occasional wood duck. The block was just big enough that I thought it would be waste to make a smaller duck. Plus I thought a wood duck was a tad too ambitious for my first decoy.
Yes sir, I used spar varnish mixed with mineral spirits, three coats before painting and then one coat after.
 
Nice job on your first decoy!! It'll hunt just fine. My first decoy was black cork as well. It sat on my dad's mantle until he passed away. Many, many years and decoys later, I still look back on that decoy fondly even though my current decoys have changed a great deal. Carve on!!
 
Black cork is messy and lacks the ability to put detail in the bodies but if you know its limitations it makes fine gunners. I have a rig I made that I hunted over for years. With black cork you need to put a tail board in to give it some strength. Without it your tails will be prone to breaking. You can also glue a bottom board on to help keep the chines from getting too beat up and give it some strength.
 
Mark Belknap said:
Nice job on your first decoy!! It'll hunt just fine. My first decoy was black cork as well. It sat on my dad's mantle until he passed away. Many, many years and decoys later, I still look back on that decoy fondly even though my current decoys have changed a great deal. Carve on!!
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Thank you!
 
JasonM said:
Black cork is messy and lacks the ability to put detail in the bodies but if you know its limitations it makes fine gunners. I have a rig I made that I hunted over for years. With black cork you need to put a tail board in to give it some strength. Without it your tails will be prone to breaking. You can also glue a bottom board on to help keep the chines from getting too beat up and give it some strength.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the tips!
 
Zachary said:
Thank you!
I was going for a ringed neck duck, the only species that I usually see where I go hunting are teal, ringed neck, and the occasional wood duck. The block was just big enough that I thought it would be waste to make a smaller duck. Plus I thought a wood duck was a tad too ambitious for my first decoy.
Yes sir, I used spar varnish mixed with mineral spirits, three coats before painting and then one coat after.
Click to expand...
You can always oversize smaller species to your block. Drake wood ducks are intimidating but I think hen anything is tougher.

Go over it critically-write down what you did well )floating and self-righting, etc and do those again. Write down what you didn’t like and don’t do those next time… kinda like the classic decoy carving advice of “just cut off anything that doesn’t look like a duck”
 
@Zachary good job on your first bird. Make sure and hunt it, but also keep it protected so you can look back on it years from now .

There is a lot of information out there - most will serve you well but ultimately through trial and error you will figure out what works for you and doesn’t .

A double edged sword - as much as the reference materials and competitions are good for knowledge and beginner carvers don’t get trapped entirely in the IWCA world . There are some great videos on the YouTube by Tom Christie .. he has a ton of species on there he gives demos for.

Spend some time researching the old carvers and find a style that you like and make it your own as well. It will make your journey all that much more rewarding.
Plus to the dismay of George Williams I also encourage you to use the “greasy kid stuff” aka oil paints . But to George’s point it’s a learning curve in itself … and one I am still figuring out and a long way from mastering
 
Michael McCord1 said:
You can always oversize smaller species to your block. Drake wood ducks are intimidating but I think hen anything is tougher.

Go over it critically-write down what you did well )floating and self-righting, etc and do those again. Write down what you didn’t like and don’t do those next time… kinda like the classic decoy carving advice of “just cut off anything that doesn’t look like a duck”
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How oversized can I go before it’s too big on a green wing teal? Would roughly double be too much?
 
D. Hinton said:
@Zachary good job on your first bird. Make sure and hunt it, but also keep it protected so you can look back on it years from now .

There is a lot of information out there - most will serve you well but ultimately through trial and error you will figure out what works for you and doesn’t .

A double edged sword - as much as the reference materials and competitions are good for knowledge and beginner carvers don’t get trapped entirely in the IWCA world . There are some great videos on the YouTube by Tom Christie .. he has a ton of species on there he gives demos for.

Spend some time researching the old carvers and find a style that you like and make it your own as well. It will make your journey all that much more rewarding.
Plus to the dismay of George Williams I also encourage you to use the “greasy kid stuff” aka oil paints . But to George’s point it’s a learning curve in itself … and one I am still figuring out and a long way from mastering
Click to expand...
Thank you!
I’ve been hitting YouTube pretty hard lately, I saw Tom Christie’s videos yesterday and started watching a couple of them. The local gun shop has several antique decoys, some wood and some cork, that I have been studying whenever I visit. I actually based the head of my decoy off of one of the ones in the shop.
I used Rustoleum oil based paint for this decoy, is that a good brand to use or would you recommend something else?
 
Kind of depends. You could double the size as long as you doubled the size of everything else so all the species in your rig are proportional. Here is a black cork mallard compared to a plastic avian x. I could repaint the plastic decoy as a teal and the proportion would be good447D0A83-6528-4D97-B811-5DCB11CE407B.jpeg
 
Zachary said:
Thank you!
I’ve been hitting YouTube pretty hard lately, I saw Tom Christie’s videos yesterday and started watching a couple of them. The local gun shop has several antique decoys, some wood and some cork, that I have been studying whenever I visit. I actually based the head of my decoy off of one of the ones in the shop.
I used Rustoleum oil based paint for this decoy, is that a good brand to use or would you recommend something else?
Click to expand...

A lot of the Cajuns use Rustoleums, not a bad product. Personally I use mostly artist grade tube oils and occasionally Ronan paint .
I’ve heard grumbling about some of the newer Ronans though
 
Zachary said:
Thank you!
I’ve been hitting YouTube pretty hard lately, I saw Tom Christie’s videos yesterday and started watching a couple of them. The local gun shop has several antique decoys, some wood and some cork, that I have been studying whenever I visit. I actually based the head of my decoy off of one of the ones in the shop.
I used Rustoleum oil based paint for this decoy, is that a good brand to use or would you recommend something else?
Click to expand...
I use Rustoleum gloss enamel paint on my decoys. I flock all my decoys though, so it cuts down on the sheen dramatically. I think if I were just to use this paint, and not flock, I would be trying to find a way to dumb down the glossiness. Might try flat? But the paint is fantastic for exterior use and how it holds up on decoys. After all.... this paint was designed to seal metal surfaces to prevent moisture that causes rust.

I just have all the basic colors in my shop. Even when im airbrushing, I use this paint and just thin it out, with mineral spirits, to about milk consistency to spray through the gun well. I mix a lot of paint to achieve the colors I need. If you go to the June workbench, and look at my King Eider, that was all done with Rustoleum gloss enamel paint. Nothing fancy, all bought from Home Depot or Ace Hardware.
 
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Michael McCord1 said:
I don’t think it matters. I think we give the ducks entirely too much credit for their cognitive abilities.

Would it look odd to us? Yes. Will it booger the ducks? Not likely.
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Ever see the magnum size from higdon? The mallard are damn near the size of a canada goose lol. HEAVY HEAVY too.
 
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