Frosted decoys

roy brewington

roy brewington

Well-known member
I,m sure there are plenty of gentleman on this site with vast knowledge of herters decoys so i,m going to throw a question out there. For years i,ve had a problem with herters, Standard, burlap wraped and restle coated, frosting over after being set first thing in morning when air temps dip below freezeing. Doesn,t seem to bother ducks at first shooting light but soon as morning dawns a bit backs are always white with frost and i believe it tends to stop birds from falling in. I,ve only noticed this happening on fresh water and not on salt. Does anyone have a coating that they apply to decoy to stop this problem? I haven,t had this problem with hollow plastic decoys.
 
Just have to untie the boat and go dunk 'em, Roy.

Of course that's a surefire way to make 'em drop in - right as you are in the midst of doing so ;-)
 
Have done both those things many, many times. Packing up to go home the other way to make birds appear in the decoys just as the gun is cased!
 
Roy,

Back in the day, that is prior to plastic decoys, there was purported to be a cure for iced up decoys. I have never tried it and also never forgot it as I might come in handy some day.

The fix: With a sharp knife shave a block of paraffin into very thin slivers. Put those slivers in a coffee can half full of diesel fuel and stir until they are all dissolved. Using a disposable paint brush, paint your decoys with this and set out in the sun to dry - takes a while.

Remember back then almost all decoys were smooth wood so I can imagine that this would work pretty well to keep ice from forming. I have no idea if it would work on your burlap decoys. I wonder if spraying the backs of your decoys with WD-40 or furniture wax or something similar would work?
 
I've used a spray bottle of anti freeze. Works pretty well on frost. Won't hold up to snow.
Click to expand...


Anti freeze isn't safe, we use a spray bottle with windshield washing fluid.

Unless you use the safe anti freeze made for use in RV's, etc.
 
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I,ll wipe them down with original formula armor all between splits and that stops frost and ice from sticking but that frost will still form when water temps and air temps are in right range.Why it only happens on solid body decoys i can,t explain. Something to do with density I assume.
 
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