I hope these can serve as an inspiration to get going. Pick a species, draw up some patterns and go to it...
This is part of what I had in my late season rotation this year and need to get put away. I sort of ran out of room on the bow of the boat for all of them, but you get the idea. Couple widgeon in there are from the second rig I carved (first was teal), drake mallards are 12 years old, black ducks are from 10 or so years ago and brant are similar vintage, hen mallards are several years back.
Brant alone, I carved a dozen of these and traded a bunch away. These are big - 6" cork and wide. A few brant have died over these birds.
You have to be careful with your fancy hand carved birds since they are so fragile. Paint scheme was a test of how simply can I paint and still have them look at 20 yards. They work on birds.
My plan was that these were fillers until I could carve another dozen, but now I wouldn't shoot brant on my home grounds without them. They look great on the water and you can set them tight to look like a feeding flock. I keep saying I need another dozen full bodies, but what is the point.
These are the only decoys I've ever done from someone else's patterns - they are Grayson's heads from his book adn my bodies to match my full bodies.
This is part of what I had in my late season rotation this year and need to get put away. I sort of ran out of room on the bow of the boat for all of them, but you get the idea. Couple widgeon in there are from the second rig I carved (first was teal), drake mallards are 12 years old, black ducks are from 10 or so years ago and brant are similar vintage, hen mallards are several years back.
Brant alone, I carved a dozen of these and traded a bunch away. These are big - 6" cork and wide. A few brant have died over these birds.
You have to be careful with your fancy hand carved birds since they are so fragile. Paint scheme was a test of how simply can I paint and still have them look at 20 yards. They work on birds.
My plan was that these were fillers until I could carve another dozen, but now I wouldn't shoot brant on my home grounds without them. They look great on the water and you can set them tight to look like a feeding flock. I keep saying I need another dozen full bodies, but what is the point.
These are the only decoys I've ever done from someone else's patterns - they are Grayson's heads from his book adn my bodies to match my full bodies.
