repaint and renew!!!!

[Neighbor_guy]

I scored a dozen old beat up bluebills at an antique shop last fall. Decided to give em a little bit of a restoration job. Whata you guys think???

Its the first time I have done any ducks...

[leech~~]

Wow, nice work. Was it hard to find flat in all the needed colors?

[Neighbor_guy]

The blue and the grey were colors I mixed myself from my spearing decoy paints.

The final flat finish is just another clear coat. Flat finish is really soft. So I put 2 coats of gloss on them first to seal the paint. Then a coat of flat finish to dull them all down.

[BoxMN]

They look great!

[MJ1657]

Very sharp!

[Neighbor_guy]

I'm just hoping the ring necks and redheads think they are as eye catching as I do.

Only a little more than 6months from diver season

[Neighbor_guy]

Maybe you fancy a Redhead instead...

The red pops a little on camera. It's muddier/duller than it looks in the picture

[fish_hunt_guy]

Wow they look good. Did u do any hens? How much do you want for 6? 4 drakes and 2 hens?

[Neighbor_guy]

Sorry, these ones are destined for my duck boat.

Only did the one Redhead, I picked it up for .50cents at a garage sale. All beat up and not a flake of paint on it. Had there been more of them I would have doctored up a hen or two.

[RK]

Good looking blocks. I have this on my to-do list this summer too. Acquired about 4 dozen banged up divers that need a thorough cleaning/repainting. Thinking of a mix of bills and redheads.

I've watched redheads decoy to floating pop bottles so not sure they're that picky, but nice looking dekes make you feel like you're trying, and it'll give me an excuse to play with my toys when I can't get out fishing.

[Neighbor_guy]

Good looking blocks. I have this on my to-do list this summer too. Acquired about 4 dozen banged up divers that need a thorough cleaning/repainting. Thinking of a mix of bills and redheads.

I've watched redheads decoy to floating pop bottles so not sure they're that picky, but nice looking dekes make you feel like you're trying, and it'll give me an excuse to play with my toys when I can't get out fishing.

So not to take this off subject, but I have a quick decoy question for you...

I know divers prefer to decoy to diver decoys. (learned that the hard way ) And my goal this year is to have both a diver and puddler set. I'm good on the puddles and between the repaints (bluebills/ring necks) and the store bought (redheads/buffleheads) decoys I think I am close to 3doz on the Divers. Should I be "OK" on string size or should I be trying to continue to add to my Diver set?

[fishuhalik]

You can never have too many diver dekes. A good starting point is 5 dozen. Also, on the reds, ya might wanna consider a little bit darker red for the head. Real redheads aren't gonna care. They'll decoy to black & white milk jugs, but if some mallards come in they might flare at that bright color. Especially early in the year when birds aren't in full plumage.

[RK]

So not to take this off subject, but I have a quick decoy question for you...

I know divers prefer to decoy to diver decoys. (learned that the hard way ) And my goal this year is to have both a diver and puddler set. I'm good on the puddles and between the repaints (bluebills/ring necks) and the store bought (redheads/buffleheads) decoys I think I am close to 3doz on the Divers. Should I be "OK" on string size or should I be trying to continue to add to my Diver set?

fishuhalik is correct in that there's really no such thing as too many divers, unless you're on small water. Really, it's limited by what you can handle setting out. If there's a lot of competition more decoys can help, but sometimes 2 dozen is plenty.

I'm just returning to waterfowling after not doing it for a few years, and in the past I had longlines set up for my divers but it was a tangled mess sometimes. Didn't have a good system for winding the mainline, and the rope I used was too thin. Plus I attached decoys right to the mainline so it was no good with a dog.

So I've redone them with a mainline/dropper setup that uses 1/4" rope as a mainline, and 36" 400# mono droppers and long line clips. Makes setting out pretty slick with two people. You can run a string out basically as fast as you can pick up a decoy and clip it to the mainline. Dogs can swim over it, and you can drive between the decoys with a boat if you need to. I keep the decoys with droppers attached in a big collapsible leaf barrel you can get at home depot for about 15 bucks... You can set out 3-4 dozen decoys in a hurry, then do some shorter lines (a few Cans or Buffies or something) with individually rigged decoys, and puddlers closer in.

[Neighbor_guy]

First attempt at making some canvasbacks. Mostly just wanted some big BLK/WHT decoys for L.O.W. In October. Decided to give these a go. 

[RK]

Nice cans. They'll hunt. 

 

I just finished up a couple dozen redheads. Drakes turned out ok. Hens were a pain. By the time I figured out a process I liked for the hens my test decoy had so much paint on it I'm not sure it'll float. 

Won't win any awards, but never figured divers in general or redheads in particular to be the brightest of God's creatures anyhow...

 

Speaking of LoTWs - you see that you can't bring ducks back from Ontario this year because of avian flu restrictions? http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/2015-04-11-000000/hpai-restrictions-avian-commodities-originating

[Neighbor_guy]

I had heard you can't get them back over the boarder.  Considering I hunt ELY and Baudette  I wonder if they are going to ask that we check passports before we shoot? It's likely that in both cases the birds may have been in Ontario the day before. Or in Baudette they could be going back and forth over the boarder several times in a day.

Your RedHeads turned out sweet. Those will definitely get it done. 

[RK]

Yeah, there'll be rafts of bluebills and ringers sitting under the bridge in Baudette waiting to go through customs...

I get it I guess, but still. I can't image the few resorts there that still run duck hunters are too happy...

Kind of amazing how few hunters there are up there anymore. Used to have to get up at 2 AM to get some of the better spots out of Morson. Now there's nobody on them at all and the camps that used to be full of hunters are shut down by late September unless they have fall muskie fishing guys around.

[Proskier2038]

A lot of good looking dekes in this thread- it will be interesting to see how everyone's hold up after a season. I painted up all my old mallards into blue bills and they made it  for one year but after that they were done even with prepping and priming   . I was debating about selling all my old ratty blocks and buying new again untill I stumbled across a new product at the game fair this year- they make skinz for blocks that just slide over the decoy and are real hd images of birds printed with uv paint and waterproofing - I picked up a dozen and am excited to see how they work-  good luck this season everyone

[MJ1657]

A lot of good looking dekes in this thread- it will be interesting to see how everyone's hold up after a season. I painted up all my old mallards into blue bills and they made it  for one year but after that they were done even with prepping and priming   . I was debating about selling all my old ratty blocks and buying new again untill I stumbled across a new product at the game fair this year- they make skinz for blocks that just slide over the decoy and are real hd images of birds printed with uv paint and waterproofing - I picked up a dozen and am excited to see how they work-  good luck this season everyone

Interesting. How much were they?

[Proskier2038]

Interesting. How much were they?

$50 - they just started I guess and next year they plan to make more than just mallards which will be nice when I want to hunt divers I could just change out my skinz . Should be here in a week and I'll let ya know how they hold up

[fishuhalik]

$50 for how many? A dozen? Cuz you can get 6 brand new redheads for $40

[Proskier2038]

yes for a dozen- and I realize there are cheap options for decoys out there, however I was initially looking for upgrading to flocked/ high end dekes and this seemed to be a much less expensive of an option with comparable looks imo.  Im giving em a run on saturday so we will see how they buck but when i was rigging up dekes the other week they were sitting next to all my others and they sure made the plastic painted floaters look pathetic

[MN BassFisher]

Proskier2038 - do you have any pictures of your dekes with the skinz on them? That sounds like an awesome idea!

[TylerS]

I've seen those. My buddy has a couple dozen. He threw the skins over some old Carry Lites and Flambeus that were all beat up. Pretty impressive. I like them a lot. 

The only drawback is that the cloth does hold moisture a bit after sitting for awhile. I think they advertise them as waterproof, but these definitely were damp. We will see if this makes them break down over time. So far after a full season the covers have held up great, though. 

[Duffman]

Painted up a couple the night before a Bdub trip two years ago. I knew they would be shiny, looks like I'll give the flat clear coat a try.  Thanks guys, now you have me thinking I should turn a couple of old mallard dekes into black ducks.