Waterfowl Hunting
Working decoys - Projects
4/11/12 @ 9:44 AM
Displaying 1 to 15 of 23 posts
The corn husk gives it more of an even appearance. Oh yah, mice love it too. I wouldn't use it because the mice will literally eat every decoy you own over a winter.
The two oldsquaw were made with the exact process above. The decoy bodies are polystyrene molded in the 70's. Herters 68 heads on them. At this point im glad i got 6 doz heads when herters stopped making them. 49 cents a peace at cabelas!
I found a good oil based exterior primer is way better then kilz II.
Ive seen alot of people restle coat stuff using wrong methods. Simply sprinkling or putting 1 coat of sawdust on does absolutely nothing. u need a good thick coat.
Sounds like you visit the same site I do. They talked about using a ground up corn husk mixture, which they say is stronger, so I was seeing what you thought about the saw dust as I am looking at cheeper as the ground up corn husk is a little bit of money compared to almost free for the saw dust, just have to buy the glue.
Also going to buy my own mold this summer and start making my own diver decoys. Plan is to do bills, and can, than make my way to some long tails the following summer. What did you use for your long tail tails?
It's not hard, but its way easier and better then burlap.
I start with a full thickness coat of Titebond II. I use a huge bin to hold "hardwood dust" I get the sawdust from a friend that works at a local factory that uses it for smoking. I use dried hickory.
I use alot of pressure when I roll the decoy in the first layer of dust.
Let dry.
Second coat is a 20% water 80% mixture of TITEBOND II. Repeat process.
Third coat is a sealer coat and u can use a pretty thin mixture 50/50 to get it done. Just put the glue on.. dont roll it in dust.
The next 3 steps are completely optional depending on how well you want them to turn out...........
1. use 80 grit and sand down the high points.. a few quick swipes or 20 minutes a decoy, its up to you.
2.(completely optional) U can use a thin layer of body filler (bondo) or fiberglass resin to smooth out the sides or area's of detail. If u wanted u could glass the whole decoy.
3. more sanding.
4. primer
5. paint
Sounds like it would take forever. But you can do a dozen faster then you can drink a 12 pack.
Finished product will amaze you.. 100% armor decoy. This is also a great method to fix old foamers..
Right now im putting a 1.5 inch lift kit (pink foam) on a bunch of standard bluebills made with cheap polystyrene beads.
Again my finished product will be larger armor coated decoys.
The reason i'm doing all this is my need to go 100% foam. I wont have a plastic block out next year. I am sure they will need some repairs after each season, at least i wont have a handful of decoys sinking and filling full of water on every weekend trip.
Sorry to hear that, You must have missed some of my preachs on how green head gear makes some of the worst decoys on the market. I too had several problems with broken, missing, misfit, warped and poorly sized keels. Avery had some of the worst customer support i ever talked to. Get the word out to stay away from that junk.
My problem is I used the rigem right keel grabbers with the no tangle line,,,Greenhead gear dekes, mallards, greenwings...I wrapped them around the keel and all they did was snap where they wrapped around the keel...lost a few grabbers.....Might have to change my whole set up...thought about using the weights, clips, etc....
These were built out of "plastic cardboard" for silos. and cheap furring strips for the "Y" board. This was a group effort. I cut out the silos, Clevelandduckaholic (on lake link) painted them, and 2 others fabricated the set up. You can see why im anxious to get going building more!
Displaying 1 to 15 of 23 posts
