LL bean decoys?

B

Bill Ferrar

Well-known member
I was looking on the LL bean site and saw they still sell cork decoys. They had prices between $69 and $89 per block.
Who is buying LL bean Decoys at that price????
Does anybody on this site know of one person buying bean decoys anymore?
 
I do ..... but I have to admit, my wife works for LL Bean and I get a hell of a discount. I bought a few a couple years ago and had to return them, the quality was total garbage(made in china). I complained to LL Bean and I must not of been the only one to complain because last year I ordered a few more and they came from an american manufacturer (big sky carvers). But if it wasnt for the discount I wouldnt buy them.
 
My original George Soule LL Beans still work like a charm on black ducks.

I would not buy current Bean decoys though. It is funny, half of my usual rig is made up of the Soule black ducks and the rest are E. Allens... Mixing the old school with the new school.

PB260170.jpg

 
Like Craig I have some old Soule LL Bean decoys. I love them but did hear that the newer ones are sub-par. I still try and find the older ones when I can. The Orvis cork decoys look great but cost even more than the Beans....................I wonder if anyone here has the Orvis blocks?.........................Kevin
 
One of my friends I hunt with has some orvis corks. They seem nice, but again I would imagine the price would be quite high for anything with 'Orvis' attached to it.
 
I buy LL Bean Decoys every chance I get as long as the price is right. I am always looking for LL Bean Decoys in good working condition that were made in the mid-1980's or earlier. I buy them to hunt over.


I am looking for an LL Bean Eider and Scoter for my decoy collection. [These decoys would need to be in really good to mint condition.]
 
I have them and hunt over them. They work well but I was just wondering who is paying that kind of money for a LL Bean decoy.
 
Bill,

I think you have your answer. No one here. Probably no one who spends time on the web sites like this one. There are as good or better cork decoys for less money and very good ones for roughly the same money. Lucky for Bean not everyone hangs out at these sites. To the uneducated Bean has a great name and decoys in stock. They want cork, Bean is there to sell it to them. To the preppy hunter, what's an extra $100? The decoys say Bean, just like his parka and boots. I suspect these are the same guys with the Mercedes SUV. I had one of these guys as a good friend back in the nineties. Wicked nice guy with a sweet professionally trained lab. Bean decoys, Mercedes SUV w/o trailer hitch and lots of toys. He bought a SBE shortly after they came out since they were touted as the best waterfowl gun. He fired a couple of boxes of trap loads through it. We took it hunting and he couldn't fit the second shell up the mag tube. After the hunt he decided he really like his O/Us better. Being the tight wad I am, I asked him if he would let me buy it off him for the trade in price the shop offered him. I'm still shooting that gun, and love it. He lost about $450 on the trial. The problem with the 2nd shell? Benelli had put two shell followers in the mag tube. I took out the extra and I was in business. God bless these guys they keep the economy going.

Scott
 
Back in the late eighties I purchased a bunch of Bean decoys. The biggest issue with then was that the very porous cork they are made of crumbles and looks like hell. A bunch of them sort of broke in half as well. At this point I've been slowly making my own birds out of hign density cork. Have used a few
of the Bean heads and pitched the bodies.

In fairness to Beans I'm sure they would have taken them back if I had driven them to Freeport. However, I wouldn't buy them again. That crumbly cork is really pretty lousy. Try Sneakbox Decoys in Eliot, Maine. Gorgeous birds that i bet will last forever. Nice website.
 
Dear Bill,

First off, I am a devoted LL Bean decoy fan. I bought my first ones in the Winter of 1975, going into 1976. The Fall of 1976, we first used them with some Zack Taylor Sneakbox Wigeons as layout boats. We had arrived, as serious duck and goose hunters (in our minds, of course).

Still, the allure of those cork decoys has always stuck with me. A couple years ago, the decoys were coming from Big Sky Carvers in Montana. I had (years back) somehow lost one of my original 9 Deluxe Oversized Black duck decoys, and as George Soule once intimated in an interview years back, he hunted over just 9 such decoys. That drove me to make the original purchase. Sorry for the aside. I ordered just one of the new Bean Black ducks. I am happy with it, except that the paint is simply flat black. The original Bean Blacks were a dark brown.

Back in the late 70's, LL Bean was offering the same paints they used at George Soule's decoy shop, in their catalog. I made a large, costly purchase of the paints. Believe it or not, I still have about every color that the Decoy Shop ever used on their Mallards, Canadas, Blacks, Scaup, and Cans. I have babied these paints unlike any paints I have ever purchased.

Not sure exactly how many Soules I have, but some of my most prized Soules are early Brant, and a few Widgeon Soule sold to a Carolinas based company called; Stuart C. Hurlbert, The Old Guide. These must be some of the most rare George Soule Decoy Shop birds ever offered, as LL Bean never offered them, back in the day. I still have an old LL Bean catalog that proves it.

Sorry for the longwindedness of this note. As I stated above, I am a fan of these wonderful decoys. They toll ducks and geese with few peers.

God Bless you and yours, this Christmas Season!

Mark Rongers

ps; here's a pic of that Soule Widgeon with a Soule Wood duck

View attachment Soule Widgeon and Wood duck.jpg
 
Have not posted on here very much but visit and read this site everyday, on the subject LL Bean decoys i have seen thousands and i only own about 18 which I purchased from a lady in the late 80's. My question for all you is has anyone seen or have some signed by George Soule?

of the 18 I have one pair of goldeneyes and they are both signed in ink on the keel.

I too prefer the older ones.
 
Hi Mark,
This is turning into an interesting post for me. You have them, Worth has them. I have and hunt over LL bean decoys. To me they work just as well as any other cork decoy. I must admit I'll hunt over any decoy, I have herter foam brant and others from the 50/60 that were falling apart so bad that I had to burlap them. They work great. I hunt over wildfowlers, they work great but Ice up rather quick.
I have cheap aqua keal in geese when setting out 60 birds light plastic is nice compared to my bean geese. I also hunt over famous brand plastic with heads that twist lock on, what a bad idea.
I have to admit I like my Bean but I am not willing to pay the $90 they are asking. That is why I asked is anybody buying them NOW
Please keep the post coming
 
Bill,

I have about 50 Bean decoys. Geese, Blacks, mallards, Bluebills, some cans and a brant. I have several of the oversized blacks, my favorites. What can I say I love my Beans. I also shoot over foamers and some plastics depending on the situation. If I'm out in my BBSB I take the Beans. If I'm going in my larger boat I use my foamers and or plastics.

The Beans are great. I think the newer ones are junk. I'm not even sure they are made in the USA anymore.....so why support the Chinese? If you want nice cork decoys there are plenty of really good carvers on this site, guys who are duck hunters and make a little extra cash selling there decoys. My two cents.... support them........

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the season and have a Merry Christmas

Zane Every
 
the new ones that are in their current catalog a made in Canada. It seems that LL bean must shop their decoy manufacturing around to several different manufacturers. I have a couple of blacks that are clearly marked LL Bean, and they came from an LL Bean outlet, but they are like no other kind of black that I've ever seen them put out.
 
LLBeanBrant.jpg


decoys-1.jpg


I bought these from George Larson last spring, but I forgot to ask George when they were made and if / when they had been repainted. Does anyone know when they stopped selling brant blocks?
 
The George Soule heads are very distinctive, they are rather elongated. That is the thing I always noticed about them. I have not been particularly impressed with their decoys in the last several years, I think you can find nicer ones for a better price.
 
I have a dozen Bean mallards purchased in 1982 or 1983.
I seem to remember that the CSR said theey were made by
a gentleman from Williamsport,PA named Ty Turner.

Am I having a delusional Senior Moment?
If so , who would have made them in the early 1980's?
Thanks
Tom
 
I've got a bunch of LL Bean cork decoys that I'm selling. Please ping me if you have any interest.

Thanks.
 
I've got a pair of unused mag blackjack from the 80's in the original box with the original catalog. I got them for $50. They're cool but they don't make me warm inside, I'll get them wet one day, but I've got much better ones to christen before those....
 
Craig~


Those are gorgeous Black Duck stool on your stern deck, but...the heads do not look like any Beans I know of. Do you know the vintage ? Got a closeup?



BTW: I have seen a bunch of older (George Soule) Beans birds - Coastals and Deluxe Oversize - through my shop in recent years. There are some really nice birds. I always wished, though, that they would haven taken the time (no expense) to bevel the ends of the keels (as Wildfowlers did since the beginning) to protect the paint on the rig mates.


All the best,


SJS

 
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