Goose stuffers

I have been asked to do them by customers before and I quoted them my standard price. The work is pretty much the same. I've had no takers as of yet and that's OK.

 

Have a Jake turkey I mounted. I had it outside my shop to take some pictures. When I came out three toms were beating the crap out of it. Another time I had a mounted hen and the jakes it. A Tom came in and tried breeding my hen for about ten minutes. He then went over to the jake decoy and tried to tear it's head off. He finally got so tired he laid down next to the jake.

 

I started turkey hunting over stuffer decoys three years ago and I can't tell you how many turkeys have to beat up decoys. Amazing how good they work.

 

I am a stuffer man from the Atlantic flyway and I swear by stuffers. For me anyway. True a lot of work to keep them good. I mount my own and mount just as though I was mounting for client. I have about thirty that I have done and as George says, I keep them in a trailer to keep mice off them. With some of the decoys that are made nowadays I do believe its a personal preference. If you can mount them yourself, not much difference in price from high quality they make nowadays. Just my humble opinion which doesn't mean anything to anyone but me.

 

just gotta remember geese and ducks have tiny brains.....can see out of one eye at a time have no depth perception and are color blind...

 

Actually they can see out of BOTH eyes at the same time, its just that they don't have great Binocular vision. Color blind??????????? LOLOLOL They have the ability to see color across a visual spectrum that humans do not,,, in other words their mostly monocular vision is superior to your binocular vision.

 

If colorblind...why is a wood duck so colorful?

 

I'vd hunted over mounted "decoys", or "stuffers", if you prefer, for well over twenty years! I have an inventory of twenty-four white fronted geese "stuffers" and I know these mounted decoys have brought well over a thousand Specs to the dinner table! I hunt over three hundred Sandhill crane decoys above Lubbock, Texas, annually, now, for fifteen years, and they are devastating on flocks of cranes! I have three clients, that hunt, collect, and pay for, "stuffers", and they all pay very well for the birds, as the mounts are wired very heavily, plastic infected feet, wired wings, heavy glue, all to help the mounts maintain well in the "natural" environment, and each of these clients run large trailers with HUNDREDS of "stuffers" inside. I'll take a spread of eighteen mounted Canada's, over fifty plastics, of any kind, any day. Yes, modern decoys are very well made, easy to use, and work GREAT! Yes, a modern decoy is perhaps more durable, easier to clean and house, but, in my humble opinion, very few decoys can match the natural look of the real deal! I see the main difference, late, very late, in the seasons, when gunning for months has the older, smarter waterfowl looking twice, and three times, at ANY spread. I hunt, when I'm not "running and gunning", for turkeys, with The Terminator and his three concubines! That is, a full strut mount, complete with wobbling wings, a pivoting base, and three hens mounted, one in "post" copulatory stance, one "pre" stance, and a standing hen. When this entourage is placed in front of me, NOTHING is stopping EVERY turkey within call and eyesight from examining the 'fake" flock, so much so, that for fifteen years now, I only use a .410 within this spread. Does it fool everything? Yes. I had a friend in Texas, borrow my original turkey "spread" one morning to try and collect an ornery old Gobbler that had slipped him several times. The morning he used my spread, he took the old Tom, and LEFT the spread out while he came to camp to eat lunch! What a mistake! When we returned to hunt the afternoon, all SEVEN of my turkey decoys were attacked and torn apart by both other turkeys, and an angry coyote! If a "stuffer" can fool a coyote in broad daylight, well, that kinda says it all! But, the main point of WHERE to hunt has been mentioned, Happy Hour and Ladies Night at the local watering hole has it's good points, I believe you would call that a "target rich" environment! Same on hunting, you've GOT to be where the target wants to be! And, of course, numerous targets, always helps! LOL!

 

rrrright...plain and simple...there is no" practical "reason for them anymore.......simply a nostalgic exercise using them......I know some guys that hand carve wooden and cork decoys,hand paint...just for the total waterfowl experience.Practically speaking there is no reason for the troubles with stuffers...but for the traditional aspect some find it very rewarding....as far as "out-performing" moderm full bodies,the average hunter may find success...but experienced hunters and guides do not need anything more than the knowledge of birds habits,good calling,location,concealment.heck the eskimos use mud-patty decoys to lure spring birds in that have been called to and shot at for 6 months by knowing where they want to be,how to call and how to stay hidden.

 

If waterfowl had no depth perception, they be cashing into the water instead of landing in it.

 

byrdman, you make petrified wood look soft headed. GEEZ. You just had one of the best, most experienced "bird guys" tell you they worked and you still come up with your hokey pokey dance about there not being a "reason". If what YOU say had anything to do with "reason", why the hell would they fly into decoys inthe first place. Just like some guy shooting robodeer I suppose. That doesn't make a helluva lot of reason either. Get off your high horse and give it a try JUST ONCE and then come back on here and make fun of us again.

 

I know of a few guys here in the Atlantic flyway that swear by the stuffers.I'm a plastic decoy man myself but I know for a fact times that I hunted the same field as my buddy and he had stuffers and I had plastic they all dumped in to him and he wasn't even using a call.so I'd have to say the stuffers pull them in better then plastic.but I still use my plastics as the stuffers are just too gross to deal with.

 

I have one of those electric velvet application gizmos and applied short fibers on 65 Brant decoys last year for a guide I know. He said Brant would fly right by other sets and come right into his. He now wants to do his duck decoys. The difference he said was remarkable.

 

george you either need new glasses or reading lessons......you just don't get it.......again as usual you blast out of your blow-hole before you read and decipher what you read......

 

tangle have you ever watched a duck or goose land on ice...they don't know when they touch down....on water the feet tell them...not there eyes....studies also show waterfowl do not see colors like we do...its the white patches and patterns that tell them the species....why do you think mallards and pintails and gadwall interbreed so often..

 

I read quite well and comprehend even better. At least I was using my "blow hole". Sounds like your tap dancing is coming out of the other end.

 

why do you think mallards and pintails and gadwall interbreed so often..

A drake mallard will breed anything it can hump.

 

Including a fire hydrant I'm sure.

 

My old drake call duck looked like a little mallard. He was a pissa.he tried screwing my geese all the time.I had only drake call ducks as the hens were too noisy for the perfect neighbors.when I'd let them out of the coop in the am him especially would run up to any duck goose and even young swans in the yard or on the river and jump on there back grab there neck with him bill and go like hell.I don't think the poor bastard ever got a load out and he'd even pin down other drakes.funny as hell.the fire hydrant comment made me think of him.sorry for babbling.sad thing is he flew off one day with a group of wild mallards 2 months later I shot him decaying into my spread a mile away from my house.