Hey Charlie.....

Tod since those deeks are starting to look ragged I'll take them off your hands so you will be inspired to make new ones. Seriously great looking rig!
 
Tod since those deeks are starting to look ragged I'll take them off your hands so you will be inspired to make new ones. Seriously great looking rig!
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Sure, swing by today before 9 and they are yours!

One thing on the ragged... they show a lot of salty haze on them and that is after they have been washed to be put away for the season. The salt leaches out of them and crystalizes on the surface. The white is salt powder.

T
 
Tod,
Very nice group of decoys you have made for yourself. Brant have such a neat body and head position on the water, looks like your decoys capture that. For some reason the simpler decoys like the sleds always catch my eye. I think that they were probably used a lot more in the past then what someone like me not in an area with the history might think. I'm sure a lot fewer sleds and sillywets survived then full body decoys made out of more hard to get materials.

Tim
 
Hi Tod,
I really like your birds. I am particularly impressed with the simply but effective paint.
My dekes are all workers but It's too easy to complicate the paint and the results are
often less impressive than what you've done.
I've also enjoyed your latest trip and pictures, Thanks again.
John
 
Tod do you just let the salt work its way out and then clean them before the season or do you do multiple cleanings?
 
Tod do you just let the salt work its way out and then clean them before the season or do you do multiple cleanings?
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When you throw them in the water the salt dissolves and they look right. My black ducks which get used in fresh water early in the season don't get so crusty with salt as the brant - I expect because they get cleansed out by the fresh water hunts (my brant haven't seen fresh water). Those two rigs are black cork and the water can get into them is most of the reason.

The reason those decoys aren't put away is because I'm waiting for soem weather to hose them again.
 
Tod,
Very nice group of decoys you have made for yourself. Brant have such a neat body and head position on the water, looks like your decoys capture that. For some reason the simpler decoys like the sleds always catch my eye. I think that they were probably used a lot more in the past then what someone like me not in an area with the history might think. I'm sure a lot fewer sleds and sillywets survived then full body decoys made out of more hard to get materials.

Tim
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You a simpleton Tim?

I don't know how much sleds were used in the past. They do have a durability issue and an inherent weakness in those side joints. The only person that I know who uses (used) sleds in a commercial sense was Bill Wasson. He taught us to not pick sleds up by anything other than thier droppers, lest they break. I try to do that and my sleds have held up. When I'm hunting by myself (which is typical), I don't touch the wood of the sleds until they are stacked and ready to store. I pull up the largest by its lead over the sheer and it sits on the deck, the next is pulled through the two silhouettes on the largest sled by its lead and so on.

T
 
Oh my those are NASTY....

I can't believe not one person here commented that....

Actually Tod, nice looking rig. I like the sleds a lot. I saw those years ago when you posted them originally (thought it was you...I remember brant sleds) Anyhow, I have some y boards but I always think about sleds since they stack so nice. You have any issues with floating correctly? What is your distance on the spreader bars? Thanks.
 
Oh my those are NASTY....

I can't believe not one person here commented that....

Actually Tod, nice looking rig. I like the sleds a lot. I saw those years ago when you posted them originally (thought it was you...I remember brant sleds) Anyhow, I have some y boards but I always think about sleds since they stack so nice. You have any issues with floating correctly? What is your distance on the spreader bars? Thanks.
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My smallest sled is in the range of 18" at the narrow end. I it quite a mathmatical exercise if you want to calculate how long to cut, rather than eyeball the lengths. I think it took me over an hour to do the calculations. Sleds do want to float poorly if you dont' put enough wood in them. These float perfectly and are 1x4s to support the 1/2 plywood, but I dont' use them in a current. I have oversized scoter sleds that don't like to float well in a fast running current and I run them clipped behind a decoy to keep them up, but they do like to dive. Some will angle the front board up on the leading edge to give life, but I haven't used slelds like that in a current. Wasson uses 3/4 pine for sleds and Steve has some scoter like that too and they are classier then plywood, you have to pin the necks.

I've seen a fair number of sleds that work and some that dont' - the biggest mistake people make, as you guessed, is making the cross peices too short so they don't have enough bouyancy. Short cross peices dont' look as good either and present as much mass from a distance since the shadows are so close. I would say that the front cross peice shoudl be at least equal to the length of the bird and longer is better.

To do it again I woudl also use 5/4 wood because there is more wood to resist the cracking of the shadow to spreader joint that you slways see. 5/4 x 3 vs a 1x4 or sometingn like that.
 
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