Yes some people still spray paint dekes...

[Paul W]

Just thought id give lurker a reality check; we don't ALL hunt over perfect hand carved dekes. Some of us hunt repainted old junky plastics we got for free!

 

[Victor Duskin]

AMEN!

 

[Carl]

Yep, 1/2 my blubill spread is repainted flambeau's and carrylites.
Cheap is good, free is better.

 

[Steve Sanford]

Paul~

Very nice looking birds! You're following in the footsteps of many, many very practical - and downright pragmatic - carvers and gunners.

All the best,

SJS

 

[CraigS]

Yes we all started by repainting our Flamboo plastics,
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Then we wanted a little more......

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[Cody Williams]

Those look fantastic! If my diver spread didn't have any repainted plastics in it, it would be about 1/4 the size it is now.....long live the yard-sale Rustoleum diver!

 

[Vince Pagliaroli]

Paul - those are some good lookin' decoys, and Free even makes em better. Your paint job is way better than the original, good job. Don't matter to me paper, plastic, cork, canvas, wood, etc. they all are Decoys, and I've used and use em all. The ones you have there, take shot pretty good Above the waterline. Below, or close to the waterline just patchem up till they can't be patched no more (been there done that).

 

[RLLigman]

I'll second Vince's statement. Very Nice!

I started with painted bleach bottles to augment my dozen sport plast decoys.

 

[Bill Burkett]

Siberian snow geese on the Skagit Flats in Wa State were suckers for clorox bottles. Rempve the lables, dab a little white on the cap, a couple black slashes to represent wing tips and you were good to go. I could only afford a half dozen Herter's geese that I repainted from Canada to Snow to Brant as the season warranted. I would put the decoys at the tail of the rig and string the bottles upwind to a knot of cork mallards I made. The snows came right in.

 

[Paul W]

Thanks guys! It would be nice to have the fancy pants dekes, but I am young, married, have a two year old and another on the way. The budget has to give somewhere, and this is it.


I am hoping the increase in hens in the spread (I am still making more that look like these) will have an effect on how the birds come in. The dark is more visible on cloudy days anyway.

 

[Bill Skopelja]

we all started with spray paint...then the obsession slowly grows.

That's a helluva good job for a rattle can. Free Decoys are the best decoys!

 

[Bill Burkett]

I well remember the economics of children versus duck decoys. The main and only thing is to get out there amongst 'em, as the Ranger captain said in The Searchers in a different context. Even if your decoys aren't painted at all. With bird production like this year, there will be some culling needed to keep intelligence of the species high!

The opening weeks are when the birds are at their least colorful as a rule, coming out of the moult, and some old pros began their seasons with the weathered blocks of the year before, and painted a few bright as the season approached December to mimic the arrival of full plumage. The mix of weathered and new bright was considered even more enticing by some.

Your comment about cloudy days and dark decoys reminds me that some have just painted entire blocks flat black to accentuate that visibility on low-light days. One such was an Irishman I met who used the old square two-gallon oil cans on the Lord's Fen. He used the cans because he could just leave them and scoot if the gamekeeper showed up. Later he was a principal n TrendDecoy in Jacksonville FLA when I met him.

Good luck this season!