July workbench

well, we do shoot cripples on occasion, but no worries, they are solid foam. We do a lot of diver hunting and the decoys can get a workout with cripples, but repairs are easy if necessary, in general, we usually don't fix anything, those little black holes don't hurt anything. We have a hole in the head of a decoy my son hit when he got his first canvasback, kind of a nice memory.

Mark, you get over the agony after a while, we will have 50 decoys going at any given time. I've worked on more than twenty decoys already this morning in various stages of completion. I've already flocked 8 pintails and mallards, put keels on 3 with 4 more to go later, I'll be carving on 5 or 6 this afternoon and setting eyes on 5 more as well as cleaning up the detail on a few more so they can get into flocking. I have four birds that I'm designing for a company that I'll get started this afternoon.

sometimes the steps seem endless, but if I get tired of doing one thing, I can always switch to another. My shop is cool enough till about 3pm and then I move into the air-conditioned craft room to do some eyes and detail work.

and no, I never get done with everything I planned for any given day. i used to agonize over that, but resigned to the fact that I get done what I get done.
 
Don, a guide gave a tip... #7 steel trap loads for shooting cripples, have used them and they are deadly. Lots of shot will penetrate the head, not so much the body.
 
Back in my taxidermist days, over 40 years ago now, it was old school before molded bills and skulls replaced the real skull and bill. we extended a sharpened 14 gauge wire that we wrapped raw burlap around for the neck and pushed it through the hole in the back of the brain case and up through the top of the skull. It wasn't an issue with mallards and other puddle ducks, but then came diver skulls. A diver skull was so hard I had to drill a hole to pass the wire through. The skull density of deep divers like oldsquaw must be incredibly difficult to get shot through unless it's in the eye. I always figured my kill shots were in the neck. Dense patterns with smaller shot might have just been the ticket. As it is, it's not uncommon for a goldeneye to dive under straight out of their fall into the water, followed by what no doubt looks like a firing squad of 3 hunters standing at the ready anticipating his head popping up somewhere. Some of those goldeneye cost a lot of money in shells.
 
I'm am buried in ducks right now. I counted 51 decoys in the shop and in the craft room. This time of year, shop means hot place to work in summer, the craft room is in the house with air conditioning, so I always try to have something to do when it's hot. I did a little head enhancement on these that my son, Caleb airbrushed.
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Ron, I wouldn't mind having a little winter right now, thermometer on the back patio said 105 when I came in from the shop at lunch time. lots to do indoors on the decoys, so I'll be staying cool in the craft room.
 
It's what I'd call a "make hay while the sun shines" type of a day. We are having a reprieve from the heat, right now at 2 in the afternoon it's 80 degrees, but the humidity is a little steep at 35%, which is high for mid day here. I'm from Kansas, so I'm well aware at how absurd the humidity comment may sound. I did get a little painting done, finished up this little group. My son wants me to make him a Chiloe wigeon to paint, I'm not sure he knows what he's asking for, but I'm anxious to give him a chance to paint one. I guess I'll go back to the shop and get to carving one.

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I've been working with one basic body pattern for about 15 years now for all of my big ducks like mallards and pintails. It's very versatile and this mallard makes for pose #41 on the same basic starting block. There is still a lot of carving and customizing, but it's kind of crazy what all came come from a simple block of foam.

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Teal getting done just under the radar for early teal season. Messed up and grabbed my standard sized head with oversized body on the way out the door 😖 but we’re going to roll with it anyway

After the eyes cure tonight getting sealed with boiled linseed oil in the morning
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