Stuffer duck decoys.

I don't like that idea. The birds will probably last one trip before they get trashed. If you do do it I wouldn't charge any less. Your actually putting more work in with the removable heads

 

a lot of good skins and hard work down the tubes !! unless extreme care is used and they are ONLY used as standing birds back on the bank away from the water!!

 

I stopped doing stuffers years ago for that exact reason. They'd go out and trash them after one or two shoots and then whine to me. I charge MOUNT prices now and the stuffers issue has gone away. If it's such a good idea, give him a catalog and tell him to do them himself.

 

With the realism of today's decoys, I have no idea why anybody would ever go that route. I'd have to be pretty hungry to ever start doing them.

 

Rick, you don't hunt ducks and geese do you? I can take 6 stuffer Canada geese and put them in front of a blind or pit and take 100 Big Feet and put them at the other end of the field. Every goose that lands in that field will come to the stuffers. The birds sure know the difference.

 

I'm with Rick, they make some pretty convincing decoys these days. These look better than any stuffers I've seen...


By the way, a bird taxidermist from North Dakota... I'm going out on a limb and guessing he's done a little bit of waterfowl hunting. LOL

 

That's fine Cole, however, I've seen that geese DO know the difference. Two years ago I had a guy bring me 6 (his possession limit) and paid me $2400 to mount them conventionally on 12x12 boards with a wire loop coming out the back. Within a week, he called me back and asked to bring 6 more.

Here on the Chesapeak and Delaware Bays, the stuffers don't need to be fancy. I've seen them without heads and the results are always the same. Big Feet look as good as any decoy can to us humans, but to a goose, when given the choice, he's going to the stuffers.

 

ill stick with my decoys. theres so many damn geese here it dont matter whether you use stuffers or dekes. personally i think stuffers are nasty and just a bitch to move around. theres a guy here who uses stuffers all he does is skin them out except for the head. he leaves the head intact. they work for him but to me thats nasty!

 

Yep I made 8 for myself years ago with 2 liter bottles and still kill more with them nasty looking things than I can with 2 dzn bigfeet or HC decoys. No doubt about it stuffers will out kill them everytime here.

 

i have a real hard time believing stuffers will out work all dekes. these big foots are pretty damn convincing!i think its all in our minds!

 

ill stick with my dekes!

 

I can't see spending that much money for stuffers personally. Decoys can be expensive as it is.

 

Here's my two cents worth on the subject. If the customer wants them and is willing to pay for them, then I don't care what he does with them once he leaves the shop. He can use them for target practice for all I care. What matters is that he likes them when he leaves and you're satisfied with the job you did on them. Now if he wants you to do a cut rate job for a cut rate price, then that's another story.

 

If I had that kind of money I'd buy DSD's instead!

 

LOL Franchi. You don't seem to grasp that these guys are seldom regular joes. The guy who paid me owns Schneiders trucking company. Many of the pits around here go for $10,000+ a season for 4-6 hunters per pit. They're using Citoris and Kreighoffs while I'm content with Remingtons. The stuffer guys fit on opposite ends. The ones with all the money buy them or the guy who can't afford the dekes does them himself like nalley did.

 

i would never make them for someone else..
but i do have 18 canadas and late season smart birds they are unbelievable...
you can always tell when someones talking about stuffers if they have ever hunted with them.
there is a big difference in painted plastic and feathers...(also what a bird sees)
and mine are a lot more durable than a normal mounted bird.. i can pick up by the neck and carry..
also some of the new decoys need to be babied more than stuffers...cant touch other decoys in transport and need to be bag ed separately.. i have seen flocking ware off in two hunts..

 

I made a flapper with the skin of one of our "giant" canadas over a siloutte decoy with real wings...love it...but for regular spread you cant beat the higdon or final approach......besides its all in the location and calling.....my hunting partner can bring geese into a spread of milk jugs if he wanted to...and he actually got a honker in the early spring "return" to land on the roof of a small building

 

George, not going to debate you on what works better between stuffers and FFGHG or an other primo decoy for that matter. I've never hunted over Stuffers before, but I've shot my fair share of birds...Yes, I've done a little bit of duck and goose hunting...lol The fact is you don't need em'! If you are not shooting birds, its more than likely location...Not stuffers. That is the biggest factor when it comes to bird hunting.

The way I see it...Who wants to shoot their limit in 30 minutes anyway? I would rather make a day out of it.

Considering my Dad used to shoot limits of Snow Geese 25 years ago with plastic milk cartons...Well, you get the idea. Birds have gotten smarter and more pressured but it's still all about location. You get the right field, the right conditions...It really doesn't matter what you are using.

As far as stuffers go...I could give a dozens of reasons why it's not worth it...But anyway!

 

X2 what Rick said..... If you are not in the right spot and the weather is decent.... You wouldn't kill them with a dozen live geese tied to stakes... I've killed just as many snow geese over flat rags as I have windsocks and all others, and lets face it, it way harder to kill a snow goose than Canadas any day... I've had hunts in the next field over kill half the birds that I did on the same day... They had full bodies, I had Texas rags. That being said if they pay full price, make the money mounting the stuffers. Who cares if they really need them or not.