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Flock coated decoys


sean johnston
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In the last couple of months i have purchased some peckers and shells, all flock coated and i must say they look very realistic and i will be ordering some more.As my pigeon shooting is normaly done in the summer i have not tried the flocked decoys on pigeons yet.My question is do you think these flocked decoys really make all the difference bearing in mind what they used before these were available.My mate just uses standard decoys and he shoots a lot of birds.Does any one else use standard ones to good effect. :(

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Sean,

I've got to be careful on this one!

Years ago, when I only had access to poor pigeon shooting, I used some very poor and shiny decoys, and had some fantastic days. My best bag was 10 birds. :thumbs: , but I knew no better then and the fact is, I really enjoyed myself.

I eventually gave up pigeon shooting because the numbers were so low in Newquay, Cornwall.

Several years, and several hundred miles north later, I discovered what pigeon shooting was really all about, several times getting 100+ bags.

I had no flocked decoys, and you could'nt even get them then.

Eventually I found that flocked 'deeks' existed and have used them ever since.

The smallest bag I've shot since was none, my personal best, 209.

I think it really depends on the age/experience of the birds, the local shooting pressure, and the time of year.

MANY,MANY TIMES, I've had birds, both pigeons and geese, piling into the decoys when I've been packing up, they just wanted that field.

It would be a foolish man who said flocked decoys were a necessity in those circumstances. :(

On the whole, I would'nt go back to plastic, but, lets face it, plastic decoys DO work!  :thumbs:

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A layout of flocked decoys does look very realistic, as you don,t get that "shiny" look to them.

However, we all use(d) plastics for donkeys years, quite successfully.

How much detail can a pigeon spot, from a few hundred feet away?

 

I,m use to treating my decoys a bit "roughly" and I,ve found that flocked decoys don,t like that. Especially the shells.

They also, don,t like getting muddy (or bloody).

 

I have some shell and full bodied flocked decoys and I like using them.

The "crunch" will come when I have to replace them.

Will I pay the premium and buy flocked ?

I,m not too sure.

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yes I looked at that in the sporting gun today and would also be intrested in one of those. I have seen the flock coated coys and they do look  good, but I have 40 or so shells, full bodies and flexcoys already and am loathed to buy any more. Like deako  says you have good days and bad days why only the pigeons know why.

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It has to be said that the flocked decoys do need to be treated with a little care, after all they're not cheap, so they should be looked after.

A guy round the corner from me has a Ferarri 360 Modena...lovely car...but I've never seen him cleaning it with a brillo pad...similar thing really... :(

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Deako, wakey, wakey. :(

We are talking about pigeon decoys not expensive sports cars.

 

Most of us have to carry our decoys and cammo nets in a haversack, or net bag, together with all our other gear , some distance from our vehicle, to our shooting spot.

Most farmers don,t like you driving over crops.

 

Its important that our equipment is quite sturdy and will stand up to some rough treatment.

Mud and even blood, are a fact of shooting life.

We can,t be expected to individually wrap our decoys in cling film and carry them one at a time to the hide.

If suppliers expect to get repeat orders for their products , then they should bear these things in mind.

 

I expect my expensive flocked decoys to last longer than a year.

If they don,t, I won,t buy any more.

Once bitten, twice shy.

 

Did I ever tell you about the hide poles I bought.........:thumbs:

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Cranners,

 

In the first instance, I would contact the supplier from whom you bought your decoys. Explain the problem and see what they say.

Forget the sports cars, I'll make it simple.

If you get flock decoys covered in mud, it will wash off.

If you get flock decoys covered in blood, don't let it dry, or it will only come off with great difficulty. That said, when guiding, I've only had a couple get any blood on them, they are kept seperate from dead birds.

As for the flock coming off...it should'nt, but you still have to treat them with CARE.

If you leave flocked deeks covered in mud/blood and stuff them in a sack and drag them about, they WILL eventually suffer damage, though it should only be slight.

What more can you expect?

If you really want to treat you deeks like ####e and give them no after care, I would seriously advice you to stick with plastic.

Also remember that the cheapest is NEVER the best.

May be hard to swallow...but its the truth.

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I have never had a problem with standard decoys in 18 years of pigeon shooting.

I certainly wouldn't knock any modern decoys.  I will probably purchase some flock coated decoys myself one day.  I am in no hurry though and have recently bought a further 15 standard decoys s/h for £20 .

I now have a flock of 40 standard decoys and have every faith in them.  When I mix the standards with the dead birds i shoot it looks like one hell of a pattern.  On many occasions this winter I have left the magnet at home and just used decoys, this doesn't seem to have reduced my bag size at all.

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Guest flightline
In Sporting Guns March edition there is a letter from some geezer who reckons he has bought a "flocking machine",......... that's right "flocking" not "xxxxxxx".

 :(

I met him last week. He`s going to flock some of my deeks.  :thumbs:

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Guest flightline

Cranfield,

He started by doing his own deeks out of interest, but friends asked him to do theirs as well. He doesn`t charge much. I`ll leave it to you to decide if this is a commercial operation. :(

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Hi guys

I am new to the board, just joined tonight.

I have used in times of no cash litre coke bottles cut and painted to resemble a pigeon ( not exactly like a doo), I shot 138 pigeons using them, I now have the deben high detail shell which has met my needs ok.

The moral of the story is ( some may disagree ) if the pigeons are coming in you could sit anything that roughly resembles a pigeon,  how manytimes have you went out to pick up dead birds and set them up as deeks, and the birds are still dropping in whilst you are standing there.

Am I the exception or has anyone else had this experience.

 

cheers

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I had exactly that experience today. I shot two birds whilst standing amongst my pattern, they came straight in.  I also shot at two groups of birds over the decoys that then flew about 80 yards turned and came straight back in again.

 

I put this suicidle behaviour down to them being extremely hungry due to the cold east wind and also down to the hude decoy spread I had out at the time.

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