Home made Decoying Equipment

[markshaw2000]

Hi all

I thought it might be interesting to see what people use for there decoyong equipment.

 

I have seen many videos on the net about making your own crow/pigeon decoys and wanted to know if any one on here has attempted it and with what sort of effect they had on the birds.

 

Hopefully this will be a good was of people sharing there skills and ideas.

 

Photos and instructions are more than welcome.

 

Mark

[The Essex Hunter]

There you go....

http://s856.photobucket.com/user/TheEssexHunter/library/rotary

 

TEH

[evo]

I got this idea off steve b wales(mod)

 

I firstly outlined one of my decoys onto a sheet of 6mm plywood with a felt tipped pen I did this 12 times,

 

then I cut them out with a jigsaw attached some metal bars with small screws,

 

the next step was to waterproof them and then I gave them a couple of coats of black matt paint,(blackboard paint)

 

they looked good but would they work I thought,

 

they certainly did, they worked brilliant and are so simple to carry, 12 decoys now take up the room of one of my old full bodied ones and I have to say the crows come into them superbly,

 

have a go, you will be amazed just how good they are and they cost next to nothing to make,

 

steve you where a genius thinking of it and has made me one happy crow shooter,

 

 

atb Evo

[markshaw2000]

These look good mate. I seen something similar last night. Deffo gonna try this out. What did you do for the legs?

[markshaw2000]

These look good mate. I seen something similar last night. Deffo gonna try this out. What did you do for the legs?

Sorry EVO.

perhaps I should read the full post befor repling

Lol

[The Essex Hunter]

Sorry EVO.

perhaps I should read the full post befor repling

Lol

 

I guess you are not into welding.....

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/topic/270820-home-made-decoying-equipment/?do=findComment&comment=2398975

 

TEH

[markshaw2000]

TEH...looks good mate did you make it all out of scrap? What's the motor off of?

 

Mark

[The Essex Hunter]

TEH...looks good mate did you make it all out of scrap? What's the motor off of?

 

Mark

It that the sort of thing you will make Mark?

 

The parts that are needed are as follows.

Windscreen wiper motor and the bracket that it comes with from a car

1.4mts of 10mm diameter mild steel rod

1 piece of mild steel sheet 150x100x2mm

300mm length of 25mm diameter steel tube

100mm length of steel tube with an internal dia of 25.4mm

13mm socket (3/8) drive

150mm x 20 x 5 mm mild steel flat bar

80mm piece of mild steel box section approx internal size of 13/14/15 mm

180mm piece of mild steel round section or box section to fit in to above box section.

Two bonnet stays from scrap cars approx 1mtr in length with a diameter of

6/8mm.

Two pieces of 50x50x2/3mm weld mesh 300x150mm

Four crocodile clips and length of 1.5mm diameter steel wire

Fibre or nylon washers to reduce friction. (From plumbers merchant or bearing suppliers or make them from sheet material)

Two steel washers 25mm outside/diamanter and 10mm internal/diameter

 

 

Before you attempt to undertake the building of this rotary, make sure you work safely and use reverent safety equipment!

 

After you have located all the parts, strip the windscreen motor (picture1) and trim down original bracket (picture2/2a) so that the three ground spikes will clear the motor when welded to the bracket (spikes approx 300mm)

Shape the 150x100x2mm so it will fit (picture2) remember your bracket may be different to mine, depending what vehicle it is from! However, it should resemble something like (picture3).

Once you have a good fit you can mark out the locating holes and the centre hole from the back, then drill these out, filling out the centre hole will be safer as the dia is over 25mm! (picture3/4)

 

Tack weld the short piece of tube (picture 3/4/5) to the plate, making sure it is not protruding through and it is square and true, bolt the plate to the main bracket and to the motor and check that the spindle is in the centre of the tube, if so remove and fully weld, you may need to elongate your 3 fixing holes to help out with the centring of the spindle.

 

Depending on which direction you decide to run you rotary I would advice to weld the nut, which came off the spindle, to the spindle, this is properly the most critical part to the build, as you do not want to melt your motor, so take great care! The size of the nut will determine the size of socket, which in turn will drive the rotary, make sure that you check the socket does fit the nut! (Mine was a 13mm nut)

 

In (picture5/5a/6) you will see a notch filed out and a small pip welded and shaped to fit the slot this was done so the long piece of tube stays at the same height every time and also enables the weight of the rotary to run on a crude bearing and not put the weight on the motor as they are not designed to take thrust in that way.

 

As you will have seen on the parts list there are two different dia of tube required, the dimensions I have given are close to what are on my rotary and you can change to suit your own build, a close fit is recommended, not to tight or loose as it has to work in the field and I have made it so it will break into two half’s to fit in to a ruck sack.

 

The position of the pip on the long tube should be around 70/ 80mm this will allow the tube to fit over the spindle, but no so long as to foul on the motor housing which is tapered (picture5a/6) with that completed.

 

Take a length of the 10mm diameter rod approximately 320mm in length and file/grind one end to a square. To fit the square of your socket, if your make this a tight fit then you can drive the rod into the socket and roll the rod on a flat surface allowing you to check that the socket is running true prior to welding.

(A good tip is to clean off any chrome on the square end of the socket prior to welding)

 

This done you know have the drive rod, so assemble the base and the long tube using the slot and pip, slide the drive rod and socket down over the nut on the spindle, you will need 2 steel washers with some clearance on the 10mm rod. Then take the piece of 150x20x5mm and drill a 10mm hole in the centre of the bar (picture7/7a) then form the flat bar with an angle on both ends approx 10/15 deg (picture7/7a) if you make the bar into 3 sections of 50mm this will keep things even.

 

Cut one washer in half, place the second washer over the rod, and check that it is centred on the tube. Tack weld the washer and place the two half’s of the second washer on top of the first, then place the bar on top, tack in place check that it sits even then you can fully weld the washer and bar The reason for the split washer is so you will leave clearance to place a thrust washer to act as a bearing) Cut-off reaming execs rod. To fit you’re “bearing” snip the nylon washer on one side and it will slide over the rod.

 

Moving on to the arms, I used a piece of round bar and ground one end square to fit the box section about 45mm which I welded on to the angled flat bar see (picture7)

One piece of box section inside another will work fine but remember to weld a small pip to stop the box sliding through, a good size to use around 12/13/14mm.

 

My arms are made of square section steel what I had to hand, but using the bonnet stays from scrap cars is less expensive! In addition, in turn does not use up new steel! Around a meter in length for the arms is ok, I used a piece of lead with the same weight of a big pigeon and held the arm in a vice and gave it a good bounce to check it out!

 

The cradles are made out of 50x50 2/3mm weld mesh (picture 8) if you count the squares, this will give you the size, I formed the mesh so the birds body sits in the cradle and the sides are angled down a bit, it is not hard to re-bend the mesh to suit. The two centre spikes, which can be made from the off cuts when making the cradle, they need to be placed so; the middle of the breast can be pushed on to them.

The spike for the head is placed so it goes in to the throat, (bend the cradle and the placement of these will be obvious)

 

Making the wing clips is fairly simple, take a 200mm length of your 1.5mm wire fold in half put the folded end in the vice and twist the wire about its self not to tight. Take a crocodile clip and push the folded end through the hole in the clip and secure with the fixing screw and close the end of the clip over the wire.

Place a bird on the cradle and open a wing so it’s in that classic position, bend the wire in a J shape and allow your self enough material to secure around the cradle as to hold the wing at about ¾ of its length. (picture 8/9/10)

 

 

 

 

I mixed up some brown paint and then dabbed green paint here and there, once it had dried, I used a kitchen-cleaning pad to knock of the shine, a length of twin core flex with terminals to suit the motor and spade ends for the battery (I would solder the ends as well as crimping to be safe)

 

 

I hope you enjoy building the rotary as much as I did, there have been a couple of modifications it the time I have had it. In addition, a repair to the cradles as I run over them with my quad when they fell off on the trip back!

[steve_b_wales]

I got this idea off steve b wales(mod)

 

I firstly outlined one of my decoys onto a sheet of 6mm plywood with a felt tipped pen I did this 12 times,

 

then I cut them out with a jigsaw attached some metal bars with small screws,

 

the next step was to waterproof them and then I gave them a couple of coats of black matt paint,(blackboard paint)

 

they looked good but would they work I thought,

 

they certainly did, they worked brilliant and are so simple to carry, 12 decoys now take up the room of one of my old full bodied ones and I have to say the crows come into them superbly,

 

have a go, you will be amazed just how good they are and they cost next to nothing to make,

 

steve you where a genius thinking of it and has made me one happy crow shooter,

 

 

atb Evo

Yes. They are brilliant. I made mine out of black Correx, which is a similar material to what is used for 'For Sale' signs. I was lucky as my future son in law works for a company who had a load of offcuts. Sometimes it's worth asking estate agents for any old or damaged ones, then paint them black.

[steve_b_wales]

These look good mate. I seen something similar last night. Deffo gonna try this out. What did you do for the legs?

As evo mentioned, he had this idea from me. If you can get some Correx, which is a similar material that's used to make 'For Sale' signs, it's much easier to work with, and is even lighter in weight. I have around 60 made up, and the whole lot weighs less than 2Lbs.

To make ground spikes for my decoys, I simply inserted a length of coat hanger wire into one of the grooves in the correx.

[markshaw2000]

It that the sort of thing you will make Mark?

 

The parts that are needed are as follows.

Windscreen wiper motor and the bracket that it comes with from a car

1.4mts of 10mm diameter mild steel rod

1 piece of mild steel sheet 150x100x2mm

300mm length of 25mm diameter steel tube

100mm length of steel tube with an internal dia of 25.4mm

13mm socket (3/8) drive

150mm x 20 x 5 mm mild steel flat bar

80mm piece of mild steel box section approx internal size of 13/14/15 mm

180mm piece of mild steel round section or box section to fit in to above box section.

Two bonnet stays from scrap cars approx 1mtr in length with a diameter of

6/8mm.

Two pieces of 50x50x2/3mm weld mesh 300x150mm

Four crocodile clips and length of 1.5mm diameter steel wire

Fibre or nylon washers to reduce friction. (From plumbers merchant or bearing suppliers or make them from sheet material)

Two steel washers 25mm outside/diamanter and 10mm internal/diameter

 

 

Before you attempt to undertake the building of this rotary, make sure you work safely and use reverent safety equipment!

 

After you have located all the parts, strip the windscreen motor (picture1) and trim down original bracket (picture2/2a) so that the three ground spikes will clear the motor when welded to the bracket (spikes approx 300mm)

Shape the 150x100x2mm so it will fit (picture2) remember your bracket may be different to mine, depending what vehicle it is from! However, it should resemble something like (picture3).

Once you have a good fit you can mark out the locating holes and the centre hole from the back, then drill these out, filling out the centre hole will be safer as the dia is over 25mm! (picture3/4)

 

Tack weld the short piece of tube (picture 3/4/5) to the plate, making sure it is not protruding through and it is square and true, bolt the plate to the main bracket and to the motor and check that the spindle is in the centre of the tube, if so remove and fully weld, you may need to elongate your 3 fixing holes to help out with the centring of the spindle.

 

Depending on which direction you decide to run you rotary I would advice to weld the nut, which came off the spindle, to the spindle, this is properly the most critical part to the build, as you do not want to melt your motor, so take great care! The size of the nut will determine the size of socket, which in turn will drive the rotary, make sure that you check the socket does fit the nut! (Mine was a 13mm nut)

 

In (picture5/5a/6) you will see a notch filed out and a small pip welded and shaped to fit the slot this was done so the long piece of tube stays at the same height every time and also enables the weight of the rotary to run on a crude bearing and not put the weight on the motor as they are not designed to take thrust in that way.

 

As you will have seen on the parts list there are two different dia of tube required, the dimensions I have given are close to what are on my rotary and you can change to suit your own build, a close fit is recommended, not to tight or loose as it has to work in the field and I have made it so it will break into two halfs to fit in to a ruck sack.

 

The position of the pip on the long tube should be around 70/ 80mm this will allow the tube to fit over the spindle, but no so long as to foul on the motor housing which is tapered (picture5a/6) with that completed.

 

Take a length of the 10mm diameter rod approximately 320mm in length and file/grind one end to a square. To fit the square of your socket, if your make this a tight fit then you can drive the rod into the socket and roll the rod on a flat surface allowing you to check that the socket is running true prior to welding.

(A good tip is to clean off any chrome on the square end of the socket prior to welding)

 

This done you know have the drive rod, so assemble the base and the long tube using the slot and pip, slide the drive rod and socket down over the nut on the spindle, you will need 2 steel washers with some clearance on the 10mm rod. Then take the piece of 150x20x5mm and drill a 10mm hole in the centre of the bar (picture7/7a) then form the flat bar with an angle on both ends approx 10/15 deg (picture7/7a) if you make the bar into 3 sections of 50mm this will keep things even.

 

Cut one washer in half, place the second washer over the rod, and check that it is centred on the tube. Tack weld the washer and place the two halfs of the second washer on top of the first, then place the bar on top, tack in place check that it sits even then you can fully weld the washer and bar The reason for the split washer is so you will leave clearance to place a thrust washer to act as a bearing) Cut-off reaming execs rod. To fit youre bearing snip the nylon washer on one side and it will slide over the rod.

 

Moving on to the arms, I used a piece of round bar and ground one end square to fit the box section about 45mm which I welded on to the angled flat bar see (picture7)

One piece of box section inside another will work fine but remember to weld a small pip to stop the box sliding through, a good size to use around 12/13/14mm.

 

My arms are made of square section steel what I had to hand, but using the bonnet stays from scrap cars is less expensive! In addition, in turn does not use up new steel! Around a meter in length for the arms is ok, I used a piece of lead with the same weight of a big pigeon and held the arm in a vice and gave it a good bounce to check it out!

 

The cradles are made out of 50x50 2/3mm weld mesh (picture 8) if you count the squares, this will give you the size, I formed the mesh so the birds body sits in the cradle and the sides are angled down a bit, it is not hard to re-bend the mesh to suit. The two centre spikes, which can be made from the off cuts when making the cradle, they need to be placed so; the middle of the breast can be pushed on to them.

The spike for the head is placed so it goes in to the throat, (bend the cradle and the placement of these will be obvious)

 

Making the wing clips is fairly simple, take a 200mm length of your 1.5mm wire fold in half put the folded end in the vice and twist the wire about its self not to tight. Take a crocodile clip and push the folded end through the hole in the clip and secure with the fixing screw and close the end of the clip over the wire.

Place a bird on the cradle and open a wing so its in that classic position, bend the wire in a J shape and allow your self enough material to secure around the cradle as to hold the wing at about ¾ of its length. (picture 8/9/10)

 

 

 

 

I mixed up some brown paint and then dabbed green paint here and there, once it had dried, I used a kitchen-cleaning pad to knock of the shine, a length of twin core flex with terminals to suit the motor and spade ends for the battery (I would solder the ends as well as crimping to be safe)

 

 

I hope you enjoy building the rotary as much as I did, there have been a couple of modifications it the time I have had it. In addition, a repair to the cradles as I run over them with my quad when they fell off on the trip back!

Wow...very thorough. I think this might be a project for the summer.

As evo mentioned, he had this idea from me. If you can get some Correx, which is a similar material that's used to make 'For Sale' signs, it's much easier to work with, and is even lighter in weight. I have around 60 made up, ad the whole lot weighs less than 2Lbs.

To make ground spikes for my decoys, I simply inserted a length of coat hanger wire into one of the grooves in the correx.

Gonna try this at the weekend I think, if I can get my hands on some correx.

I'm sure there's a couple of houses for sale on my street ;-)

[labstaff]

I remember reading an article years ago (Think it was John Darling??) using newspaper scrunched in the middle as decoys.........never tried it and can't imagine it would work???

[markshaw2000]

Yes. They are brilliant. I made mine out of black Correx, which is a similar material to what is used for 'For Sale' signs. I was lucky as my future son in law works for a company who had a load of offcuts. Sometimes it's worth asking estate agents for any old or damaged ones, then paint them black.

Hi mate have you got a template for these?

[evo]

Hi mate have you got a template for these?

all I did was draw around one of my full bodied decoys

 

atb Evo

[steve_b_wales]

If you google 'Crow Sillouette' you will see some shapes of the bird. I just enlarged two different ones and cut my decoys from them.

 

 

Here you go.

 

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=crow+sillouette&qpvt=crow+sillouette&FORM=IGRE

[markshaw2000]

all I did was draw around one of my full bodied decoys

 

atb Evo

If you google 'Crow Sillouette' you will see some shapes of the bird. I just enlarged two different ones and cut my decoys from them.

 

Here you go.

 

http://www.bing.com/images/search?oq=crow+sillouette&qpvt=crow+sillouette&FORM=IGRE

Cheers lads. Ill let you know how i go on... steve, roughy what size did you enlarge them too? Edited January 10, 2014 by markshaw2000

[steve_b_wales]

I enlarged the image to roughly the same size as a full bodied Crow decoy. It does'nt matter if you make them a bit bigger, it could even help in some way. I'll measure one of the decoys when I get home from night shift this morning and edit it onto here.

 

Steve.

 

EDIT: The size of the Correx 'decoy' is 12" length from beak to tail and 5" height on the body.

[markshaw2000]

I enlarged the image to roughtly the same size as a full bodied Crow decoy. It does'nt matter if you make them a bit bigger, it could even help in some way. I'll measure one of the decoys when I get home on night shift and edit it onto here.

 

Steve.

Ok mate. Thanks for that. I've just got a load of a4 corex so I might blow them up to fit them

Mark

[happy.plinker]

Get some heavy denier black tights and pull them over pigeon shells, double it over then a small cable tie, works well. The wife was looking for her tights one day and I told her some other bird had em !

[steve_b_wales]

The size of the Correx 'decoy' is 12" length from beak to tail and 5" height on the body.

[The Essex Hunter]

I enlarged the image to roughly the same size as a full bodied Crow decoy. It does'nt matter if you make them a bit bigger, it could even help in some way. I'll measure one of the decoys when I get home from night shift this morning and edit it onto here.

 

Steve.

 

EDIT: The size of the Correx 'decoy' is 12" length from beak to tail and 5" height on the body.

Why don't you just simply trace of one of yours Steve and put it in the post!!

Much like I did on SD and the fox pattern went to 30 + people

 

TEH

[markshaw2000]

EDIT: The size of the Correx 'decoy' is 12" length from beak to tail and 5" height on the body.

 

Thanks mate. Ill let you know how its going on

[antdg]

Get some heavy denier black tights and pull them over pigeon shells, double it over then a small cable tie, works well. The wife was looking for her tights one day and I told her some other bird had em !

 

LOL

[evo]

EDIT: The size of the Correx 'decoy' is 12" length from beak to tail and 5" height on the body.

 

Thanks mate. Ill let you know how its going on

any pics yet of your decoys bud,

 

cheers Evo

[THE AD]

Get some heavy denier black tights and pull them over pigeon shells, double it over then a small cable tie, works well. The wife was looking for her tights one day and I told her some other bird had em !

I did this once worked a treat,only problem we had was i dropped a pair of the tights in my mates car. As you can guess his misses was not to chuffed very close to a divorce. She thought i was just covering for him when i said what had happened.