Flycoys!

[Sportingrodandgun]

Hello everyone,

 

I recently purchased a job lot of gear from an old fella who had given up and just had it lying around at his house. There was a few nets, a stool, loads of shell decoys, a manually operated flapper (You pull a string!) and half a dozen "Flycoys" (They look like flat decoys with no heads) which came with an instruction booklet.

 

I have never seen or heard of these before but according to the literature, you fling them out of the hide like a Frisbee! They are designed for stimulating the birds during a lull.

 

Google yields no further information on these (I swear I am not making it up).

 

Anyone heard of or used them?

 

Thanks

 

Al.

Edited September 17, 2015 by Sportingrodandgun

[TIGHTCHOKE]

No you're not making it up, they are attention getters to bring birds from a long way away towards your pattern of decoys.

 

They date from before the magnet was first invented.

 

They are probably collectable and may fetch a good price on one of those auction sites.

 

Good luck

Edited September 17, 2015 by TIGHTCHOKE

[the hitman]

Yes I have 1/2 dozen in the garage somewhere .

I used them a lot back in the late 80s , yes they worked ok .

You lifted the bottom of the front of your net hide, and flicked them out like a frisbee , but just off the ground .

When magnets came along they went into retirement .

[Salopian]

Just for general information.

Many years ago when John Batley was a lad, learning to shoot pigeons by being taught by Major Archie Coates, a very good friend of mine , the late Tony Orchard had a company called Apple Sporting Products based in Smethwick. He was the guy who 'invented' hide poles with the aluminium 'kicker' sold by Sporting Supplies and Sandwell Field Sports. He also invented the 'Apple Floater ' and many other 'gadgets'. I made them all.

At the time I had a good mate who lived in Cornwall and we did numerous Country Fairs teaching gun safety and pigeon decoying. My Cornish friend 'invented ' a decoy that you could throw out of the hide to attract passing pigeons, he called this 'The Flycoy ' after an idea suggested by Major Archie to throw a dead pigeon out of the hide.

The Cornishman is and was Chris Green , who has asked me to post this as he is not to good with computers or mechanical things such as 'Magnets'.

I saw him today at 'The Midland'.

[the hitman]

Salopian

 

That's a very interesting post , thanks for the information.

 

I can remember the guide book which came with the " flycoys", and I can remember Chris Green being mentioned .

[muffin]

I have a few Chris Green gave me

[tignme]

I still have two hide poles and an apple floater bought from Tony Orchard at the CLA game fair the only time it visited Scotland at Long Niddrie.

[flycoy]

I still use 4 standard and 2 long Apple hide poles I brought from Tony at the Midland, I think must be 25 years ago. still working fine. Had a set of Flycoys too, wish I still had them they worked well as I remember. Give them a try, seem to remember you flick them low to the ground forehand and they will lift as they turn.

 

"Flycoy"

[Sportingrodandgun]

Thanks for all the info guys. Think I'll hang onto them for the time being and give them a go if I ever get out on the pigeons again!

[wymberley]

While working at Cricket St Thomas we had to stop while the hawks were on display so we had a play with those Which Chris had just given to us. Had anyone have had a modern day phone and filmed the Harris taking one of the Flycoys mid-air, they'd still be selling today. They came with a ground peg so they could also be used as statics.

[ditchman]

meanwhile 6 years later......how time flys

[wymberley]

19 minutes ago, ditchman said:

meanwhile 6 years later......how time flys

Indeed. Posted because of the "Tips" thread. These are the only plastic decoys that didn't shine within a respectable time/use span.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, were they not about in the Archie Coats era ? I use a similar type winged pigeon decoy from the 1980s on a bouncer , 

[marsh man]

On 20/09/2015 at 19:00, Salopian said:

Just for general information.

Many years ago when John Batley was a lad, learning to shoot pigeons by being taught by Major Archie Coates, a very good friend of mine , the late Tony Orchard had a company called Apple Sporting Products based in Smethwick. He was the guy who 'invented' hide poles with the aluminium 'kicker' sold by Sporting Supplies and Sandwell Field Sports. He also invented the 'Apple Floater ' and many other 'gadgets'. I made them all.

At the time I had a good mate who lived in Cornwall and we did numerous Country Fairs teaching gun safety and pigeon decoying. My Cornish friend 'invented ' a decoy that you could throw out of the hide to attract passing pigeons, he called this 'The Flycoy ' after an idea suggested by Major Archie to throw a dead pigeon out of the hide.

The Cornishman is and was Chris Green , who has asked me to post this as he is not to good with computers or mechanical things such as 'Magnets'.

I saw him today at 'The Midland'.

I know this post is around seven years old but it brought back a lot of memories from some of the pioneers of Pigeon decoying gear , I well remember one of the C L A Game Fairs we went to and watching Chris Green in his bale hide chucking the Flycoy out , to us it seemed like a flying saucer and we didn't spend any of our hard earnt money when we could do the same thing with a dead Pigeon , although the display was very entertaining .

Going back well before then to the very first C L A Game Fair I went to in T Cs neck of the woods in the Stanford area , going down the first row the first lofted decoys we had even seen were all perched well up a tree that was in full leaf and they stood out well , on the stall was these decoys that you blew up a balloon that was inside the decoy , these were very life like and I believe they were made by David Home Gall ? , now that is going back a bit , around mid 60s ?

[wymberley]

36 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, were they not about in the Archie Coats era ? I use a similar type winged pigeon decoy from the 1980s on a bouncer , 

They came out in the mid '80s. They had no wings and were very approximately saucer shaped using the same aerodynamic principles as a Frisbee.

4 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I know this post is around seven years old but it brought back a lot of memories from some of the pioneers of Pigeon decoying gear , I well remember one of the C L A Game Fairs we went to and watching Chris Green in his bale hide chucking the Flycoy out , to us it seemed like a flying saucer and we didn't spend any of our hard earnt money when we could do the same thing with a dead Pigeon , although the display was very entertaining .

Going back well before then to the very first C L A Game Fair I went to in T Cs neck of the woods in the Stanford area , going down the first row the first lofted decoys we had even seen were all perched well up a tree that was in full leaf and they stood out well , on the stall was these decoys that you blew up a balloon that was inside the decoy , these were very life like and I believe they were made by David Home Gall ? , now that is going back a bit , around mid 60s ?

Oh, heavens, are we that old?

[oldypigeonpopper]

11 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I know this post is around seven years old but it brought back a lot of memories from some of the pioneers of Pigeon decoying gear , I well remember one of the C L A Game Fairs we went to and watching Chris Green in his bale hide chucking the Flycoy out , to us it seemed like a flying saucer and we didn't spend any of our hard earnt money when we could do the same thing with a dead Pigeon , although the display was very entertaining .

Going back well before then to the very first C L A Game Fair I went to in T Cs neck of the woods in the Stanford area , going down the first row the first lofted decoys we had even seen were all perched well up a tree that was in full leaf and they stood out well , on the stall was these decoys that you blew up a balloon that was inside the decoy , these were very life like and I believe they were made by David Home Gall ? , now that is going back a bit , around mid 60s ?

Hello, those were the days MM , my first game fair was early 1970s , Hampshire I think, so so much going on , shooting, fishing,  all manor of country sports and decent knowledgeable speakers, I think that's where I met Parsons and Co and their range of decoys and lofting poles, bought the latter,  not like today's offering of game fairs, 

[marsh man]

7 hours ago, wymberley said:

They came out in the mid '80s. They had no wings and were very approximately saucer shaped using the same aerodynamic principles as a Frisbee.

Oh, heavens, are we that old?

Afraid so if you can remember the decoys I am talking about , somehow I don't think the inflated balloon would have lasted me long with the Baikal Russian missiles I used at the time , if that was now I think they would have been sanctions with all the turmoil going on .

 

7 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, those were the days MM , my first game fair was early 1970s , Hampshire I think, so so much going on , shooting, fishing,  all manor of country sports and decent knowledgeable speakers, I think that's where I met Parsons and Co and their range of decoys and lofting poles, bought the latter,  not like today's offering of game fairs, 

They certainly were good days , or so that's the way we like to remember them , the Game fair was the high light of our year , we went to wherever it was on and saw various types of countryside we had never seen before after coming from an area that was level with the sea , on the W A G B I stand if you showed them your membership card the drink was all free and you just made a donation in the bucket , with being young and drunk whatever was going we went away with many a head ache , happy days indeed 

[wymberley]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

Afraid so if you can remember the decoys I am talking about , somehow I don't think the inflated balloon would have lasted me long with the Baikal Russian missiles I used at the time , if that was now I think they would have been sanctions with all the turmoil going on .

 

They certainly were good days , or so that's the way we like to remember them , the Game fair was the high light of our year , we went to wherever it was on and saw various types of countryside we had never seen before after coming from an area that was level with the sea , on the W A G B I stand if you showed them your membership card the drink was all free and you just made a donation in the bucket , with being young and drunk whatever was going we went away with many a head ache , happy days indeed 

I'm convinced it all went to pot when they swapped the members' enclosure straw bale seating for plastic tables and chairs.

[marsh man]

12 minutes ago, wymberley said:

I'm convinced it all went to pot when they swapped the members' enclosure straw bale seating for plastic tables and chairs.

One thing that was very noticeable was the amount of ( wildfowlers ) who would be walking around in sweltering temps with Barbour wax coats on and most of the gear for a trip below the sea wall in conditions that would warrant a hard weather ban in this day and age 

On the Eley cartridge stand they used to give you a small diary that was f o c , mind you the fair was in July so you only had five months of the diary  left , another year we went they had Archie Coats on the stand , at the time he looked a poor ole thing who carried a lot of weight and was bad on his legs and on the W A G B I stand they had Kenzie Thorpe keeping the crowd amused with his bird calls in his Lincolnshire accent , then at the later fairs we used to watch the trick shooting by John Bidwell , another top showman. 

 

[mossy835]

i do remember seeing them many years ago.

[derbyduck]

On 25/03/2022 at 17:21, marsh man said:

Afraid so if you can remember the decoys I am talking about , somehow I don't think the inflated balloon would have lasted me long with the Baikal Russian missiles I used at the time , if that was now I think they would have been sanctions with all the turmoil going on .

 

They certainly were good days , or so that's the way we like to remember them , the Game fair was the high light of our year , we went to wherever it was on and saw various types of countryside we had never seen before after coming from an area that was level with the sea , on the W A G B I stand if you showed them your membership card the drink was all free and you just made a donation in the bucket , with being young and drunk whatever was going we went away with many a head ache , happy days indeed 

Indeed they were good days , the WAGBI tent was a good watering hole and meeting point back then , my first one was 30 July 1966 and they kept broadcasting the score of a football match that was going on down in London, the crowd showed great delight in the result ,football was never my thing so I wasn't interested . (any chance of a photo of a flycoy ?)

[marsh man]

5 hours ago, derbyduck said:

Indeed they were good days , the WAGBI tent was a good watering hole and meeting point back then , my first one was 30 July 1966 and they kept broadcasting the score of a football match that was going on down in London, the crowd showed great delight in the result ,football was never my thing so I wasn't interested . (any chance of a photo of a flycoy ?)

Me and my brother also went to the one in 1966 , I was 19 at the time and my brother was four years older , we hired a motor and heard the football on the car radio , In those days we used to leave our house around Friday tea time , we would then travel all the way , or most of it in daylight , when we got there we would just follow the small crowd who had no doubt been to the pub back to the showground as these had been camping for the weekend , as it was now dark my brother would pitch his one man tent and I would sleep in the motor , come the morning we would put the ole pan on the little camping stove and have a couple of bacon rolls followed by a strong cup of tea , as we were already on the ground the pay stalls were behind us so it ended up a cheap weekend with free entry , even when I got married we still continued going to the main fairs and sometimes had a weeks holiday touring the area until we went to the fair on the Saturday and Sunday , our last one was at Crieff in Perth ( Scotland ) and after that we started to go to the more local ones at Holkham and the Fenland , nowadays the interest is beginning to fade , mind you I do hope to go to the Sandringham Game Fair in September , nice little fair in spotless grounds .

We only remember the good times and we had quite a few of them , Happy days indeed .