Hey Keith Mueller and other carvers...

Rick Pierce

Rick Pierce

Well-known member
I've made the commitment to myself that I'm going to eliminate plastics from my rig totally by the 2012 season and have a puddler rig and a diver rig.

I know that a person should never start vast undertakings with half-vast ideas, so I'm asking for help.

When you work on a "flock" of mallards, for example, and are going to have several poses, do you design the head and body pattern for every pose, or are you taking a few base patterns and modifying "on the fly"?

The reason I mentioned Keith specifically was the "165 rig" described in his book, but I'd like to hear everyone's approach to it.
 
Rick,

I am certainly no decoy carving expert by anyone's definition but I have been observant with the birds I have hunted over. I have found that when I make about 1/4-1/3 of a species as sleepers, the decoying birds invariably land next to them. If I was making a spread, I'd make 1/3 semi-highhead, 1/3 snuggle head and 1/3 sleepers. JMO
 
I agree with Pete. Low head and sleepers are very content looking. Plus the necks are less likely to break. You could take just one head pattern and position it differently on all of the decoy bodies. A low head could be turned in all direction including to the rear for a resting bird. This would be much easier and less time consuming for a large gunning rig. Best of luck with it.....................Kevin
 
A few base patterns and let it fly from there. A draw knive can get you some really cool positions before you hollow out the birds. Have fun Rick. Hank
 
Great question Rick! That depends on how you design your decoys. If you are going to use "classic" designs (such as Shang Wheeler, Elmer Crowell, Lincoln-sorry; reginal bias)......the bodiy design would be more "generic" and will only vary slightly such as tail heights, chest heights etc. But you can be more creative with these designs by building continuity into the designs by matching the paticular body language to the head pose. By balancing the body movement with the head pose it will certainly create a more balanced and eye appealing decoy and rig with more realistic flare. Remember, we are mostly carving the decoys for our own eye, the ducks aren't that worried about it! If you choose a more contemporary design (meaning more realistic than traditional) your body to head continuity needs to match more realistically....otherwise the "look" of the decoy may appear un-attractive to you the maker and your friends, and eventually the collectors.

You can also approach the rig (as in my 165 rig) from a purely artistic and sculptural approach. Build and design your rig from all your favorite decoy makers. My rig was composed of Shang Wheeler, Gus Wilson, and many New England designs. Because I like all the designs from my area, it was difficult to settle on one design, so I made them all. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed hunting over that rig. Each decoy had a seperate appeal to them, but when they were all floating, collectively they looked like a flock of sea ducks to me (and to the eiders). I think many carvers on this forum would agree; a rig of animated poses is a bonus no matter which way you look at it.

I received your email, I will answer it later.

Good luck with your rig! If I can help you in any way, please let me know.

Keith
 
Here my process rick, understand I am still finding my way, they are simple gunners and all carving is done on the fly, no measuring or templating. One body pattern, 1 or 2 heads patterns then freehand more postions as I am tracing them out. On the bodies I only cut out the top profile, I then cut tailboard slots, lower tails(higher head. some breast resters) middle of body tail(breast rester, content) and upswept tail (sleeper) based on the heads I have. I carve the heads first then grab a body with appropriate tail, on high heads I shave down and do a lower profile body and vice versa on lower heads thicker body. I will also carve a different back line if I have 2 or more heads the same. I have a lot of printed out photos that I can glance at while I am doing this. I never get two decoys the same, That also may be from the fact I do a lot of experiementing when carving as I am still learning.

here is a pic of the drakes of the last batch I carved, I did 19 which was too many, but I was selling 6 and wanted a dozen for my self, I prefer to do 6-12 at a time. Might be hard to see but even on the breast resters, each one is unique, head tilt, head direction, tail and where the head meets the breast. I don't try to be antanmoically correct, just my representation of what I see and there is a lot of variation in the real world.

View attachment redheads2.jpg
 
I've made the commitment to myself that I'm going to eliminate plastics from my rig totally by the 2012 season
Click to expand...

Easy...hunt over less decoys.
Click to expand...

Good advice. I plan on finishing a rig by next season. 24-30 should be plenty. I already have about 10 partway done. I used to hunt 60+ sometimes 100+ decoys, but I don't think I really need that many.
 
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