Black Bin Bag Decoys - An appraisal!

[Frenchieboy]

After watching the video and reading the comments about the "Black Bin Bag Decoys" - Thanks to the member(s) who put the details up) I decided to make some and give them a go. I ended up making 16 from a roll of 8 Morrisons Rubble bags, using a few bamboo canes that I had lying around for pegs which were cut to lengths of about 14 inches so that they would fit into my Game Bag. The idea was to be able to travel as light as possible and I found that I was able to carry all of the gear, gun, hide and all to where I wanted to set up quite easily and without breaking into a sweat - It has been quite a sunny warm day here and nowadays I am not the strongest or fittest of blokes! The beauty of these Bin Bag Decoys is that they will scrunch up into quite a small and light pack - All 16 took up very little more space than just one full bodied crow decoy would have taken.

I had leant all of my decoying equipment out to a couple of new shooters to help them out so i had to work with what bits and pieces I had lying around, which was an old camo (plastic type) tarpuiline (About 14 feet by 4.5 feet) and a few 5 foot long bamboo canes to support the hide along with my camping chair and the obligatory flask of coffee. I had a load of NSI-Uno Prima cartridges which I wanted to use up so I took a belt full (25) of them with me along with my Laurona O/U fitted with 1/2 and 3/4 chokes.

One of the problems i have on most of my permissions is that there are no crops grown so most of the fields at the moment are either long grass (soon to be ready for mowing) or have sheep and lambs or cattle and calves grazing on them With this in mind I was a little restricted in choice of which fields were available for me to shoot over..

I opted for a large field which I knew normally got a few "black uns" flying over all through the day and set my hide up in the corner against a dry stone wall (For extra cover). I set most of the decoys out in a random pattern with a couple mounted on fence posts to act as "look outs"!

With no caller (I had left that with all of the rest of the equipment I had leant out) I was relying on a few crows flying over, and was not too disappointed. What birds did fly anywhere near to my position (Within a couple of hundred yards) came in and committed to the decoys quite well.

All told I ended up with a bag of 9 birds which consisted of 7 "black uns (A mix of crows and jackdaws) and 2 wood pigeons that strayed through my shooting area for a total of 14 cartridges - Guess who's having stir fried pigeon breasts for supper after this evenings bowls match).

All in all I have to say that I was well impressed with the way these bin bag decoys pulled the birds in and the way that they are so light and easy to carry as well as being extremely cheap and a doddle to make - The 16 that I have cost under £3.00 all told!

If you are on a tight budget and want to build up your collection of crow decoys these Bin Bag Decoys are well worth a try - They worked very well for me and there is no reason why they shouldn't wotk just as well if not better for others!

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well done Pete.

[berettadevon]

I agree they are great decoys!! I not so long ago made a load up and took them to a grass field that had only that morning had been cut and baled.

 

My equipment for the afternoons shoot was as follows:

 

21 Bin Bag decoys, My beloved Beretta Ultralight, 1x case of Express power blue, My fold up stool, a 5' x 8' scrim netting.

 

As the bales weren't being collected till the next morning I set a few up together in the middle of field and placed the scrim netting on one side to allow for easy access in and out of hide.

So the hide was made and the decoys were set out into the field, only problem was all them black stuff were flying across the other side of hedge about 200 yards away so I was hoping the simple decoys were upto the job!!

 

With in about 20 minutes of me setting up things started to really heat up and I don't mean with the afternoon sun, I mean with me gun barrels getting so dam hot as I couldn't keep it loaded quick enough. only an hour and half later all 250 cartridges were fired so I had no choice but to pack up!

 

Oh I forgot to say of the 250 fired resulted in 237 laying dead on grass!!!

 

So yes these decoys are amazing and as a result I've binned all my old decoys (too bloody heavy!!!!!)

[Mark L]

We had a go out today trying these decoys they worked a treat I was surprised how well the birds came into them !!!!

[mikesy]

Made some up yesterday and went out for a couple of hours this afternoon.

Not much about but 5 mins after setting up a jackdaw came right in to have a look.

Gentle breeze gave the decoys a bit of movement . I decided to only use the bin bag decoys to see how they worked and ended up with 6 corvids 2 of which landed in amongst them. Missed one and never saw 4 others early enough that came in

really pleased with them as they weigh next to nothing , cheap to make (£3 for 20 ) and they work.

Some looked a lot better than others so I ll redo some of them.

The decoys worked well in an area where wasn't much about pulling in the odd crow passing by..

[Shooterluke]

It was in this months sporting gun showing you how to make them an also a little video clip of them working in the feilds