Fife shooting developments pigeon decoys.?

[Minky]

We were talking about decoys and Back in the 80s a friend bought an amount of decoys made / sold by Fife shooting developments. They were really flimsy ABS plastics that were blunt shouldered, blunt headed, no beak, just flat grey with a black tail band and a white smear on the neck and wing.  They decoy was mounted by a thin plastic triangle piece that went through a slot in the back on which the decoy moved.  This plastic spear head was fitted onto a piece of 1/4 dowel.  On first visual sight they were cheap flimsy rubbish.   But when they were set out in pattern they looked totally realistic and the pigeon were drawn to that pattern more so than the realistic looking full bodied birds which I  had.  Fife shooting developments appear to be long gone and I  can't find any mention online.  So does anyone remember them or maybe have an example of these decoys to photograph. 

[archi]

Yep I have some somewhere and still use them not that we have may pigeons our way to go after.

the plastic triangles where prone to snap but you could carry a dozen in a pocket and worked well

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

A lovely Lady bought 24 of them for me when I was getting in to decoying in about 1998.

I gave them to a Mate to get him started a couple of years later.

We knew them a BLUNTIES!

I then bought Sportplast from Italy.

Edited May 5, 2022 by TIGHTCHOKE

[Bigbob]

Yes ive a few here i was at there closing down sale it was a auction and we bought a load of stuff one was loads of poles loose and in a t chest and afterwards we made a few sets and sold them on  one thing about there hide poles was you got a adptor that fitted them toghter and you could use them for lofting decoys as well as a hide 

[Bigbob]

I went out to the mancave to have a look and found the catalogue 

 

[Salmo]

2 hours ago, Bigbob said:

I went out to the mancave to have a look and found the catalogue 

 

I knew the rep that sold them he had a local wildfowling hotel and I took parties out for him in the early 80s 

[Bigbob]

Be up about Scotlandwell and shooting Lochleven ?. 

[Minky]

Ok,  There are those out there that have acknowledged that these did exist.  But Where are the pictures.  These decoys must be pretty rare now because they were flimsy when bought new donkeys ago.  Sort of the inside bit of a box of chocolates flimsy.  When my mate got them I laughed at them.  It was sort of a gust of wind and they'd be gone off across the field with the leaves sort of thing, BUT how wrong I was.  He had the last laugh on me when his flimsy decoys out decoyed mine, which worked very well until he put his out. Come on chaps hunt one out and post a load of pictures of one of the rare British extinct decoys.  They could form a sort of progression of decoys from bottles rolled in ashes to the Wellington boot insoles that Archie Coates tried, to cardboard silhouettes with a printed pigeon picture glued on it, to bits of painted plastic guttering, To The lifelike rubber deeks,  The sports plast ones,  Cheap shells.  Flocked ones.  The other day a bloke had cut up a pair of old flip flops to make wings.  Human ingenuity knows no bounds.  Pictures people,  Pictures

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I never took any pictures of mine.

[Minky]

That's what I find.  These were a short life decoy that some people used but they sort of disappeared.  A bit like one use airline plastic cutlery.  it's what it is but all thrown away.  Stuff like this becomes collectible because of it's short life.  You never know someone might find one and take a picture of it for posterity because they were a killer decoy.

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Minky said:

Ok,  There are those out there that have acknowledged that these did exist.  But Where are the pictures.  These decoys must be pretty rare now because they were flimsy when bought new donkeys ago.  Sort of the inside bit of a box of chocolates flimsy.  When my mate got them I laughed at them.  It was sort of a gust of wind and they'd be gone off across the field with the leaves sort of thing, BUT how wrong I was.  He had the last laugh on me when his flimsy decoys out decoyed mine, which worked very well until he put his out. Come on chaps hunt one out and post a load of pictures of one of the rare British extinct decoys.  They could form a sort of progression of decoys from bottles rolled in ashes to the Wellington boot insoles that Archie Coates tried, to cardboard silhouettes with a printed pigeon picture glued on it, to bits of painted plastic guttering, To The lifelike rubber deeks,  The sports plast ones,  Cheap shells.  Flocked ones.  The other day a bloke had cut up a pair of old flip flops to make wings.  Human ingenuity knows no bounds.  Pictures people,  Pictures

I haven't got any Shooting Developments pigeon decoys but I have got two Shooting Developments full tins of repair kit for rubber boots and wax jackets with the full instructions still in the tins , if anyone collect this sort of stuff they can have both tins £10 posted .

[Westley]

I used mine for draping the back and shell of a dead bird over, after coating with formaldehyde. I then left the dead bird shells to dry out. Those plastic decoys were a perfect shape for the job.

[Minky]

19 hours ago, marsh man said:

I haven't got any Shooting Developments pigeon decoys but I have got two Shooting Developments full tins of repair kit for rubber boots and wax jackets with the full instructions still in the tins , if anyone collect this sort of stuff they can have both tins £10 posted .

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't think that a couple of tins of old wellie boot repair kits would have the same pulling power as those old "stubby" decoys. 😊😁😆

Edited May 7, 2022 by Minky

[Bigbob]

I think there must of been 3 sets, as you can see the middle and the top are the same only the peg is different, wher the bottom one has a different peg yet again and the neck bars are different and has no beak painted on. 

 

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I had the top version with the black stick.

Stubbies that looked like blancmange moulds.

Looked mighty basic, but they worked well, some time last century!

[Bigbob]

For £6.59 per 10 they did okay that might buy you one decoy today LOL 

[51/50]

1 hour ago, Bigbob said:

I think there must of been 3 sets, as you can see the middle and the top are the same only the peg is different, wher the bottom one has a different peg yet again and the neck bars are different and has no beak painted on. 

 

 

I've still got some of these stashed away somewhere,i'm guessing it was around 35 (?) or so years ago i bought them,the sticks are the middle clip-on type,i'll see if i can dig them out sometime soon & post a picture,no idea what i paid for them but they did the job for many years!

[Bigbob]

15 minutes ago, 51/50 said:

I've still got some of these stashed away somewhere,i'm guessing it was around 35 (?) or so years ago i bought them,the sticks are the middle clip-on type,i'll see if i can dig them out sometime soon & post a picture,no idea what i paid for them but they did the job for many years!

Aye its great being a collector or Hoarder as the wife says LOL i just needed  to go out and get them i knew where they were about in the collection  then we had no internet for a couple of days 

[51/50]

I've definitely got hoarding issues,it's a curse! 🙄

Anyway,found them,sticks are nowhere to be seen though,buried somewhere else no doubt....

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by 51/50

[gmm243]

I had some,maybe a dozen.We have very little pigeons here so I stayed them black and used them as crow decoys.

I still use them and even have some of the pegs.They are great until the wind picked up then they flew all over the field,the clip wasn't a whole pile of use in a gale. I also still have and use two of their full body crows decoys. They are huge in comparison to what we have today,must have been based on a revenue and not a rook.

I also have still some of their hide netting - I think it was called Leafscreen? Had a permanent hide at home made out of it.Must have been good as the man cutting the hedges never saw it and shredded the whole hide. 

I was young when they were on the go but still remember looking with wonder at their little owl decoy complete with flapping wings wondering if it would ever work.  Years later a friend and I had a great morning on jackdaws with a big owl decoy but although we tried it many times after it never worked again.

[derbyduck]

I had some of those ,they were the ones with the rubber bits on the pegs and rocked in the breeze , I had a kestrel strike on one ! so they must have looked ok .

 

[Bigbob]

13 hours ago, gmm243 said:

I had some,maybe a dozen.We have very little pigeons here so I stayed them black and used them as crow decoys.

I still use them and even have some of the pegs.They are great until the wind picked up then they flew all over the field,the clip wasn't a whole pile of use in a gale. I also still have and use two of their full body crows decoys. They are huge in comparison to what we have today,must have been based on a revenue and not a rook.

I also have still some of their hide netting - I think it was called Leafscreen? Had a permanent hide at home made out of it.Must have been good as the man cutting the hedges never saw it and shredded the whole hide. 

I was young when they were on the go but still remember looking with wonder at their little owl decoy complete with flapping wings wondering if it would ever work.  Years later a friend and I had a great morning on jackdaws with a big owl decoy but although we tried it many times after it never worked again.

Theres a bit of that leafscreen here as well maybe 6x6 foot green on one side mustard colour on the other , Handy for the hedge or harvest im starting to think these guys knew there stuff or where ahead of there time ?. LOL 

[gmm243]

I think they had two types of hide net.One (like mine) was dark green and brown on the other side.Then there was a harvest one which was lighter in colour.

Pity they are not on the go now,they had some decent gear at the time 

[51/50]

I also still have these,3 of them are as old as the pigeon shells,possibly made by the same company?,the 2 odd ones are a fair age too,i still use these to good effect along with Silosocks & a flapper & add dead birds on cradles as i go along.

 

[Minky]

On 14/05/2022 at 14:10, Bigbob said:

I think there must of been 3 sets, as you can see the middle and the top are the same only the peg is different, wher the bottom one has a different peg yet again and the neck bars are different and has no beak painted on. 

 

 

Yep.  they're the ones.  From memory the ones that my mate had were like the bottom one but he had the centre peg.   I just laughed when he showed them to me BUT the laugh was on me when these flimsy (bubble pack plastic/ chocolate box liner) decoys out decayed my realistic decoys.  I think that because they were so flimsy that even the slightest breeze made them move they were more visable. The downside was as stated, that when it was gusty the shell could be ripped off the post and end up in the next field.  I seem to remember that they used to split where the post pivot went through the body.  Thanks for the pictures bringing these old obsoĺete decoys back interview on the net.  If they were still available I'd  definitely buy some for the sheer pulling ability.  Since I started this thread I've had the idea of extending this to show all sorts of decoys from way back when. From the simplistic decoys that people home made.