Decoys, sort of

[Lunker]

Every once in a while ill see a mag or article explaining how to paint a gallon jug with mallard colors or do such a thing to make inexpensive decoys. Our decoy spread is very small right now, and are planning on buying more, but was wondering if any one uses these types of money saving methods?

[loc9fisher]

hey lunker, i've read similar articles but those gallon jugs were used as diver decoys, not mallards. take a white gallon jug, slap some black paint on it and you have an inexpensive diver decoy. if you need big numbers of decoys and don't want to spend the money, this is the way to go.

on another note, i read an article about a guy in canada who uses small rectangles of roofing tar paper (along with quite a few dozen decoys) for hunting geese. he places the tar paper at the upwind side of his spread and for a few bucks he adds a couple hundred little black rectangles, that at a distance adds the needed black to such a huge spread. and he says he doesn't even place them one by one. you just take a pile and throw it up and let them scatter, kick a few around and presto, big spread in minutes.

good luck with your question. loc9

[can it be luck?]

I never heard of the tar paper spread, but I could see how that could work. Geese at times are not as fussy as to the excact layout and appearance of your spreads. The numbers game often works well on geese. Not to say that decoys are to be randomly thrown out, but the hunter is generally trying to direct and prepare a LZ/DZ for the birds. Only one drawback to the tar paper though, weight. On a windy day you may find yourself chaseing paper vs geese. Shingles perhaps? Maybe Ice and Water Shield? Probably less chance for a littering fine,and FUN to whip them shingles out too! Who knows,different colored shingles for different species? Hmmmm. can it be luck?

[Sand Burr]

I used tar paper decoys for years back in the golden age of no money. I even have a word document I made of instructions of how to make them with a pattern. You can make about 50 dekes out of a roll of tar paper. You insert laths in the center to keep them down. They worked excellent for fill-ins. I just never used them in the landing zones. Weight can be an issue but I know you can put 50 in a cheap decoy bag and carry it and you cant do that with shells or full bodies.

[loc9fisher]

don jensen is the name of the guy who i read uses tar paper. after he sets up the real dekes around the landing zone he says "last i'll toss out 500 to 1000 pieces of light weight black roofing paper, starting at the edge of the geese and scattering them downwind another 15 yards. so the distance from the upwind edge of the spread to the downwind edge is approximately 35 yards - good shooting range." jensen also sets his blinds at the upwind side of the spread, so basically he's sitting in the landing zone. and the tar paper at the opposite end, behind the plastic dekes, is 35 yards away from him at its farthest point.

he also says "you want lightweight paper so it'll wave in the wind." he tears the paper into 6x12 inch rectangles. jensen also says "one hunter can put these 'decoys' out in just a few minutes. you don't place them by hand. instead, you just walk along and deal them like playing cards, letting them fall into the stubble. or you might toss out 20 at a time and kick the piles to scatter them. some will lie flat, others will lie on their edges. it doesn't matter. the idea is to blacken the field with the tarpaper strips. don't worry about where they fall or how they look."

i haven't tried this and i don't know if i ever will, but i guess it works. and i assume that if he's hunting in canada that he's shooting at birds that haven't seen much hunting pressure yet that year. i don't know if that would make a difference or not, but its an interesting idea.

[This message has been edited by loc9fisher (edited 07-11-2003).]

[Guest]

My gawd, I hope this fella doesn't come to my area and start tossing garbage around the fields like that. It is a sure way to get landowners p****ed off.