Bird decoys quality

[Fishwhere]

Very new to this hunting thing but im thinking of getting a spread of goose decoys and trying to do it as cheaply as possible as well as space efficient. What do people think of the shell decoys with different heads? I was gonna try buy some cheap used ones and repaint a bit if needed.

And another side questions is if i do go this way do people notice a big difference in goose response to a lower quality decoy? How good are their eye sight? How big of a deal do i have to make regarding quality? I dont want to spend a fortune, especially if i get into ducks too. Another part is can you mix duck decoys into the mix too?

[tikka250]

a good shell spread will kill geese just fine. we have killed a lot of birds over only shell decoys. what we have found is the flocked head shells seem to make quite a difference in responsiveness and willingness to commit. if all you have is used ones then by all means repaint them and get out there! geese have fairly good eyesight but a good hide and keeping still is more important than high quality decoys.
ducks will come into an all goose spread no problem. lots of people dont even use duck decoys.
one more thing to consider is silhouette decoys. i have never used them myself but know many others have great success and will likely chime in.

[dth_]

I agree the flocked tails and heads seem to make a difference especially later in the season when the birds have seen some spreads and been shot at. There are flocking kits that you can get to flock decoys, I don't think it's very expensive but it is likely time consuming. As far as shells, I like the staked shells as they have some movement. And shells are definitely more space-friendly than full bodies.

We have never put out a spread of just silhouettes, but they work great for filling in a spread of full bodies and making it look bigger and had success doing so.

Like tikka250 said, you will likely have ducks coming into your goose decoys, but one of the better investments I made was getting a couple mojo decoys. If you want ducks, put a couple of them in with your goose spread. It is worth the extra for the remote control, the geese don't seem to like the movement. I always try to shut the wings off white side down too.

[32-40win]

I've used some pretty ugly old Carrylite one pc shells and whacked lots of birds over those, and with a buddy with a bunch of old Flambeau shells mixed with them. Shot ducks in the last few yrs over some 35-40 yr old floaters, on the water and in the field, none were flocked. If you are on FB look up the decoy flockers group, plenty of info there. I did 7 doz speck shells a couple of yrs ago, took a weekend, still one doz to do when I get a roundtoit.

[elkhunter11]

A friend that came to hunt with me last year borrowed some ugly old one piece shells , that we added to my shells and his, and we killed back to back limits of geese, with some mallards. Those one piece shells were beat up, with black socks over the necks and a bit of white felt for cheek pieces. And that was in October, after the birds had been hunted for over a month.

[CNP]

Originally Posted by Fishwhere

Very new to this hunting thing but im thinking of getting a spread of goose decoys and trying to do it as cheaply as possible as well as space efficient. What do people think of the shell decoys with different heads? I was gonna try buy some cheap used ones and repaint a bit if needed.

And another side questions is if i do go this way do people notice a big difference in goose response to a lower quality decoy? How good are their eye sight? How big of a deal do i have to make regarding quality? I dont want to spend a fortune, especially if i get into ducks too. Another part is can you mix duck decoys into the mix too?

Painting! As mentioned in responses to your post, use a flocking kit for the heads. Do not use any paint that will shine. If you're not going to use a flocking kit, use ultra flat paint. Shine will steer birds away from your spread.