12/21/09 GHG and Bigfoot Fullbody duck decoys
There aren't to many options for fullbody Mallards. As a group we run GHG and Bigfoots. They are both very good decoys. Their paint schemes are very realistic. When we first brought the BF's to the field for comparison, we were very impressed how they looked together. The motion that they have are very lifelike. Now I will talk about the differences.
Bigfoots: The BF's are ran on a very different motion system than GHG. They are run on a tri pod system with rubber bands that control the motion. All you have to do is slide the rubber bands out, and the motion will tighten up if it's very windy. If there is very little wind, just position the rubber bands closer to the center or not at all for more movement.
The tri pod it self is very different. If it is very windy, you can step on the end of the tri pod and gently push it in the ground for more stability. They will grip the ground and hold if the ground is frozen. The one thing we have noticed about BF's, when you are in a corn field with stubble, these decoys stand out very well.
The only downfall with BF's is they come in one species, Mallards. Hopefully they will come out with another species, preferably Pintails, for higher visability
GHG: When setting up GHG decoys, you can do it one of 2 ways. There is a stake system or a motion base system. Either of these systems is very quick and easy to set up. When we set them up in the dark, one person can walk around putting stakes out, while another person or 2 can follow setting out the dekes behind them. This is due to the fact that Avery installed white or orange caps on the stakes. They show up very well if there are head lamps or head lights shining on them.
For control motion, there is a little arm that fits in to the body which has a cone system. When placing the slot of the cone onto the arm, we can minimize the action. When we are looking for more action, we just place the decoy on the stake loosely.
If the ground is frozen, the motion bases are ideal for useage. The stakes have a shaved point on them, but if the top service is completely frozen, they are very difficult to use.
With GHG you can get fb's in different species. There are Mallards, Pintails and Black Ducks. We like to use the Pintails on the upwind side of our spread. That way the white show's up better and the ducks will concentrate on them instead of us.
If you haven't used either of these decoys along your water spread, I highly recommend it. Especially when there is
ice present. We have used them on public lands before. It was late in the season and there was 1 other spread out the day we tried them out. We firmly believe that is why we were able to decoy birds to our spread and they weren't. We even used them early in the season, and helped draw the pressured locals into our spread.
At Dead Leaf'n, we spend a lot of time chasing Mallards in the fields. We are very picky about our equipment. That is why we use BF and GHG full body decoys. And highly recommend them with 2 thumbs up!!!
Rob
11/11/09 The TORNADO Rotary Machine marketed by Sillosock
Originally I purchased this for our crew, to use as an "ace-in-the-hole" ; for those windless mornings and evenings that can impact a Spring snowgoose day. But this year, we decided to use it during some late-season field hunts for mallards as well..............damn good decision! The ducks literally dive-bombed the rotary; tried to fly through it; and even tried to get under it.
Motion in the field is often critical to attracting waterfowl. To be really convincing we have found that mallards love a set of field decoys which look and move like waddling, greedy corn-grubbers. To give the spread more of an up-in-the-air dimension, we have also had success with using the old standbye Mojo-type spinners in the field duck-spread. We do pull birds.......but with the Tornado this season, we not only added the illusion of birds in the air above the spread plus the flash of spinning wings....more importantly, we added flight.
I used the Winduk wind-powered mallards and with some minor retro-fitting to the arms of the Tornado found them to work excellent. Due to the weight of the flyer decoys, the Tornado will
run about 5-6 hours on a fully-charged 12v lawn-mower type battery. ( compared to operating all day when using lighter-weight snow fliers in the spring ) The speed of the rotary is adjustible via a modulator.
For the Dead-Leaf'n Crew, the Tornado did turn out to be the real-deal and not just some gimic which either didn't work at all or didn't meet our expectations. Thumbs up for this product.
Jim
10/01/09 Bigfoot Motion Bases by Clinton Decoys (home of Bigfoot Decoys)
There are many words which can describe a BigFoot Honker deke.....high visibility, darn near indestructable, reliable, and the latest to be said...
MOTION ! This is great, as a lot of hunters ( including us at Dead Leaf'n Guide Service ) use Bigfoot fullbodies as the bulk of their honker spread.
Now, several years ago, a manufacturer on the West Coast came out with an after-market product to bring motion to BigFoot fullbodies. Yes it worked to some degree; however, the movement was quite marginal and the footbase was very bulky and not user-friendly. About the same time, a major catalog company also began marketing motion stands for the Bigfoots; which relied on springs for movement. They proved to be too weak, broke easily, and imparted no reliable movement whatsoever. HOWEVER, Clinton Decoys finally came up with a product that works in both light and heavy winds.....which is no small feat; due to the sheer weight of the Bigfoot fullbody honker decoys.
The tri-stand with center pivot stake is definitely user friendly! (even at 0'dark-thirty). Several dozen take up little space. They keep the decoy at a good height for visibility in stubble. They provide great "waddle" motion in light winds and when used on feeders, they give a good arc of "searching" the ground for food. The amount of movement is controlled by where one attaches two strong bands....absolutely nothing remotely close to inferior rubber bands!
We've been using the tri-stands since they came out last season and have experienced no band-breakage whatsoever.
Its great to see a company listen to its consumers and come up with a product that really works. We at Dead Leaf'n highly recommend the Bigfoot Motion stakes. Big thumbs up for the tri-stake stand. Controlled motion really does help put geese closer to the 'kill-hole".
Jim
10/13/10 THE WINDWACKER DECOY SYSTEM
We are fortunate here at Dead Leaf'n; in that, on several occassions throughout the year, we have been contacted by new product developers requesting that we field-trial their hunting-products. We are also in contact with established companies who request us to try their product line; in order to expand their respective geographic marketing areas. This has fostered some good relationships and allowed us to sample some good-quality products. In return, we are able to provide the vendors and other hunters with unbiased comments, observations, and critiques; plus first-hand experience with actual field-applications of the respective products.
One such company is
WindWacker Decoys out of San Diego, California. (
www.windwhacker.com ) This is a family business; owned and operated by a father and son ( Don and Rob Rohrke) who are both dedicated waterfowl hunters. I do believe that they have really come out with a winner of a motion-decoy concept and that this product should be seen throughout marshes and stubble-fields beyond those in their West coast locale.
Now, from the get-go, I'm not trying to say that location, concealment, and effective-calling will be negated by the use of the
WindWhacker. Rather, it's place is definitely as a tool that a hunter can use to his/her advantage to get the birds attention and to give one's spread a closer look. Most everyone can agree that the visual appearance of a decoy spread and realistic motion in the decoys are two keys for fooling waterfowl. Nowadays, almost everyone who braves O'Dark-thirty, whether leaving a launch or pulling into a field, has either gooseflags or Mojo-type spinning-wing decoys on board. In contrast, the
WindWacker Decoy system is a user-friendly, no-frills keep-it simple design motion decoy......that offers a "new spin" on the motion-concept........one the birds have either not seen or gotten used to.
Windwhacker is also an
American-made product !
USER FRIENDLY cannot be stressed enough:
NO batteries; few components; lightweight; easy set-up and take-down; easy to transport. Due to a proprietary beveling of the leading wing edge, these "wings"
DO work in the lightest of breezes to very high wind conditions. The
Windwhacker motion decoy concept is based upon the contrasting-colored spinning blade which captures the appearance of the birds natural wingflash-movement; which can be seen for incredible distances. Their new upgraded staking system is a 45" graphite pole with lockdown capabilty for the hanging arms from which attach the spinning blade(s). Also available for those who hunt deeper water or just require more height for visibility, are lock-down adaptors which can be used to retro-fit standard conduit for accepting the
Windwhacker hanging arms.
Offered in several different configurations, we at Dead Leaf'n field-trialed both the single and double-wing duck models. Unfortunately, the receipt of the
Windwhacker decoys came somewhat late in our 2009 duck season.....a duck season that a combination of weather patterns and migration proved to be very frustrating. We were still able to get them out afield on more than one occassion and the overall verdict is that they
will be in use on every duck hunt of the 2010 season!!. Birds that were stale or used to seeing Mojo-type spinners reacted very well to the movement on a consistant basis. There were no hangups or flaring as a result of this product We were also able to utilize it during the Spring conservation snow-goose season. Placed upwind of the spread, it allowed us to guage ducks' reaction while we were in-between the flights of snows. It was quite a sight to watch the ducks literally dive-bomb the
Windwhackers.
A very good quality product combined with yankee-ingenuity.
Gets an A+ rating. We will hopefully soon have video available on this site of more
Windwhackers in use this 2010 season.
For additional information, feel free to email me at
doquin49@q.com or check out the entire Windwhacker product line at
www.windwhacker.com.
Jim
