July Workbench

B

B. Heitman

New member
Decided to give the old, standard tin soldier speck decoy spread a little bit of attitude... High time to change things up.
I call these guys "Snarky Specks in a Kiddie Pool".
White fronted geese in my neck of the woods (north Sacramento Valley rice), are under a lot of hunting pressure. They seem to be gettin' wise to the big, huge decoy spreads(500+) in every other rice check.... every red or orange billed plastic soldier facing the same direction.
I'm working on a few others. Feeders, sleepers, head scratchers, yappers, you name it.
A very special thanks to Don Mintz and William Reinicke for sharing their unequaled artistic ability, engineering skill , materials science knowledge and sculpting talent.
This stuff is fun!!!
 

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B. Heitman said:
Decided to give the old, standard tin soldier speck decoy spread a little bit of attitude... High time to change things up.
I call these guys "Snarky Specks in a Kiddie Pool".
White fronted geese in my neck of the woods (north Sacramento Valley rice), are under a lot of hunting pressure. They seem to be gettin' wise to the big, huge decoy spreads(500+) in every other rice check.... every red or orange billed plastic soldier facing the same direction.
I'm working on a few others. Feeders, sleepers, head scratchers, yappers, you name it.
A very special thanks to Don Mintz and William Reinicke for sharing their unequaled artistic ability, engineering skill , materials science knowledge and sculpting talent.
This stuff is fun!!!
Click to expand...
VERY quick learner. Its been fun to watch you work through this first batch. I hope nothing but success. Cannot wait for the 26/27 season with kill pics next to your decoys. Now back to work making more! Cant wait to see the next batch drop. I would bet the next ones will go even smoother and quicker for you. Glad to be apart of your journey figuring all this out. Always here if you need any more help sir. Never hesitate to ask.
 
Fine looking work Bob. Some people follow the idea of accuracy by volume and some by precision. I don't compete with large decoy spreads in my stretch of the river, but I do compete with rafts of ducks in the thousands up and down river from me. Birds get wise to the typical 3 dozen plastic mallard decoys and a half dozen plastic canvasback decoys which seems to be the norm around here. Quality decoys make a huge difference over those plastic factory decoys.
 
Would you share a picture or two of your goose build without the canvas? I like the look of the head/neck area. I feel the one I've done is a little bulky. Mine was a removable head which I was playing with but again I like the look of yours much better than mine.

Don't bother...looked back and found your duck build. Thanks for the ideas.
 
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Don , the big rig of GWT in fly fishing terms , matches the hatch so to speak with the big balls of green wings that have made the turnaround in January to head back North. While the BWT are more in the pair bonding phase they won't readily work to big numbers of decoys. I've found that just a handful of decoys work for this species later on in the season. In fact they will skirt the spread most of the time.
 
Joe Friday said:
I'm still working on the Canvas over Wire decoys -- Tried a Gadwall Drake with a gunning box to match. Every decoy is a journey.

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Joe,

Two Thumbs UP!

Yer making some mighty fine canvas/wire decoys. It becomes a addiction especially after ya gun over them and ya find that Simplicity Works.

Just a thought make some low head, and content snuggle head geese. They add charm and Pizzazz to the rig. Fine looking gunning box also.

Best regards
Vince
 
Brad F said:
Would you share a picture or two of your goose build without the canvas? I like the look of the head/neck area. I feel the one I've done is a little bulky. Mine was a removable head which I was playing with but again I like the look of yours much better than mine.
Click to expand...

Vince Pagliaroli said:
Joe,

Two Thumbs UP!

Yer making some mighty fine canvas/wire decoys. It becomes a addiction especially after ya gun over them and ya find that Simplicity Works.

Just a thought make some low head, and content snuggle head geese. They add charm and Pizzazz to the rig. Fine looking gunning box also.

Best regards
Vince
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Thank you, Vince. that's high praise from a man I would call a master decoy maker. I'll vary up my herd as suggested. Best, always.
 
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Brad F said:
Would you share a picture or two of your goose build without the canvas? I like the look of the head/neck area. I feel the one I've done is a little bulky. Mine was a removable head which I was playing with but again I like the look of yours much better than mine.

Don't bother...looked back and found your duck build. Thanks for the ideas.
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Hi Brad,

Here are my templates along with an "in-progress" head. All my heads are laminated cypress boards, glued up with Titebond II or Gorilla Glue. I'll add a few nails in places where there may be weakness or flex, such as the bill and the thinnest part of the neck, and across the grain. Otherwise, I've found the glued wood to be very strong.

As the photos illustrate, I freehand the heads a bit to change them up from the template. I doubt I've ever made the same decoy twice. On the bottom board you'll see the grid lines I use to estimate the positions of the wires. The back spine board has not been placed on this one yet.

I hope this is helpful.

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Brad F said:
Would you share a picture or two of your goose build without the canvas? I like the look of the head/neck area. I feel the one I've done is a little bulky. Mine was a removable head which I was playing with but again I like the look of yours much better than mine.

Don't bother...looked back and found your duck build. Thanks for the ideas.
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Brad, I believe Joe is doing his birds in a more traditional Currituck style which does not use a filler at the breast area. More modern wire and canvas birds use cork or foam and even sometimes wood to create a breast area that can make it bulkier there. Because there is no filler typically the spine board is cut lower at the neck profile and then there is a wire further forward that goes around the neck.
 
I normally don’t carve this time of year but I can’t get it out of my system. I am slowly transitioning away from foam and burlap. I have made more decoys than I’ll ever use so I’m trying quality over quantity. Shown here is a blackjack that I took significant time to do the neck to body transition for the first time. I need to recarve the bill. I’m exciting see how it turns out.
 

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Kevin Puls said:
I normally don’t carve this time of year but I can’t get it out of my system. I am slowly transitioning away from foam and burlap. I have made more decoys than I’ll ever use so I’m trying quality over quantity. Shown here is a blackjack that I took significant time to do the neck to body transition for the first time. I need to recarve the bill. I’m exciting see how it turns out.
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What did you seal it with?
 
Those are INCREDIBLE.
Back in the days (late 60's, early 70's) when 7 million + pintails traveled down the Pacific Flyway, I remember, as a very young man, bagging a hefty number of these eclipse drakes. The limit was 7, and my dad and I took full advantage of it.
These decoys bring back some wonderful memories, to say the least.... duck hunting in 80°+ temperatures , clear blue skies and straps bulging with fat eclipse bulls.
 
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