Stuffed pigein decoys.

[tom_0787]

I might be thinking irrationally due to having man flu but has anyone with an interest in taxidermy ever considered stuffed pigeons as decoys?

 

I have no idea what what the downsides would be but surely its just an evolution of using frozen birds.

 

If done properly wouldn't stuffed pigeons be perfect on a rotary?

[mudpatten]

Stuffed pigeons make perfect decoys. Trouble is they are very, very delicate and don`t last five minutes. They are also very time consuming to prepare and require quite a bit of skill. A quicker way of making decoys with dead birds is to carefully remove the breast meat and inject the remaining muscle/meat areas with formalin.

 

They look good but just don`t last and have to be handled with great care.

 

A mate of mine used to use 12 of the injected decoys with great effect. He made them last a bit longer by transporting them wrapped in paper in a wicker basket.

Edited December 31, 2010 by mudpatten

[Roly]

There is also reference in an old Pigeon Shooting book I have by John Gray circa 1988 to pigeon shell decoys made out of real birds by plucking the feathers from the breast, cutting the skin along the breast bone and peeling back.

Then remove the breast meat, the breast bone ribs and legs and remove the entrails.

Now the best bit, paint the inside of the carcass with formaldehyde and leave for 4 weeks to cure!

 

Another tip given is to spray them with Hairspray to keep them waterproof!

 

I'm not kidding you it has a full step by step guide with a shopping list and pictures as well.

[Bobba]

Dead birds from freezer is a useful sustitute but the trouble with any carcas is that if re-used over & over again it tends to look like road kill!

[liamp79]

As already said in others posts, i've just started reading a book by John Humphreys. He says about using stuffed decoys. The only problems being that they do become extremely fragile and all the feathers fall out. Also they do go mushy in the rain. Another thing he mentions are the inflatable decoys. Has anyone ever seen any??? Don't really think they caught on!!!

[antdg]

have a look here it might help.

My link

cheers

[shootnfish]

As already said in others posts, i've just started reading a book by John Humphreys. He says about using stuffed decoys. The only problems being that they do become extremely fragile and all the feathers fall out. Also they do go mushy in the rain. Another thing he mentions are the inflatable decoys. Has anyone ever seen any??? Don't really think they caught on!!!

i have got about a dozen of the inflatable decoys. they are called H&H Decoy there made from a soft rubber material the way you use them is you put a balloon in it and blow it up, then put on a wire stand with a loop on the end so it dont pop the balloon. they move about well in the wind. dont use them now though use flocked shells, but they were quite good in thier day, only downfall was having to blow the balloons up.

[greybeard]

I can go back further.

Archie Coates wrote the best seller on pigeon shooting back in the early 60's. In one of the chapters he explains how he used real birds and as has been said, they are very delicate but are the best you can get. Archies alternative was to skin a pigeon - feathers and all, and stick it to a shell or full bodied decaoy after treating the skin and wings with formalin. They were more robust but still needed careful handling.

One other decay he mentioned that he had tried was to pluck a bird and stick the right coloured feathers to a shell. They were even more robust but needed stacking carefully.

His comments after all this was that they worked a treat but did not seem to be worth the effort.

[woodie01]

Do you still have the HH decoys? If so would you consider selling them and how much? I've had mine so long they are falling apart.