Need decoy-making help with real ducks.
 

I've been looking online to see if there's any informational sites that show how to possibly make a duck decoy with a live duck. Me and a friend of mine have a few gadwall, widgeon, teal, and spoonies that we are hoping to completely clean out and potentially make decoys with. Not sure how to go about it tho. whether it's carving a cork decoy out and sewing the real ducks over it, taking old paint-faded plastic decoys and just using sewing the ducks over those, or investing in a urethane molding kit and using that. no idea how to go about this and was really hoping for some help on how to hopefully make this work. also any info about treating the inside of the ducks that may be necessary. any and every bit of info and help is greatly appreciated!:hail:

The only way I could see this working is to have the ducks mounted by the cheapest price around and then put them out in the fields as decoys. They will not work on any water, and if you do try that you will damage them. Good Luck.

actually i think we may have it down pat. we started on it last night. completely skinned out the duck and scraped it as best as we could. soaked them in acetone for a little and let them air dry for a while. we have some old cheap teal plastic decoys and we're basically going to cut the head off the decoy, glue the duck's body over the teal decoy, and mount the head resting on top. after just draping the skin over the teal decoy, it looks like this idea can have a lot of potential. also, even if they work amazingly but only last for a season, all you'd have to do is scrape the previous duck off the plastic decoy, then repeat with another duck. plus these plastic decoys were real cheap. we're currently using some real nice looking widgeons, gadwall, a teal, and an awesome lookin spoony for this plan. i'll post pictures of the outcome when we're done within a couple days

so then what's the big problem with trying this idea? we're completely cleaning and scraping out the ducks from head to tail as if it were being prepared for stuffing, so just as if we made a stuffed and mounted duck, why would it stink and rot using it over a plastic decoy?

we're using plastic teal decoys for floatation since they're already decoys that are made for the job, we're just giving them the most realistic body you could get out of a decoy.

we're going to use the best adhesive for the job that we can find, but the duck will be draped over the plastic decoys, and will stop at the bottom edges of the decoy as to not soak in the water when in use.

i don't see any reason why these would rot, why they wouldn't float, or why they wouldnt last for a season. think of a mounted duck. how doesn't that rot? all we're doing is basically mounting a duck with a plastic decoy for a body. why doesn't anybody think this will work? :confused:

You will be wasting time and energy on a no win situation. Don't forget that you asked the question, and now you seem like that you know all the answers, Enjoy yourself.

actually i was just simply stating why i think it would work and asking for responses on why it may not. the one thing i wasn't asking for was a d**k response. "enjoy yourself". thanks man. don't reply to this thread anymore please. you're being more of a waste of time than this idea would be

this accually sounds like a good idea yeah i know im a kid blah blah blah but common sense tells you if you do something right it will work. mabey you could find some flat floating object that you could put the dekes ontop of to keep them from getting wet. also ive heard of people doing this with geese but for fields. they were taxidermists but they mounted some geese and screwed the feet to a sheet of plywood and had some feeding, standing resting and any other position you could think of. they looked very good. good luck with your project. i am currently working on a turkey decoy but am sadly running out of time

I knew of someone who did this years ago with mounted Canada geese. He had mounted them specifically for the purpose of using them as decoys, had sprayed some kind of protectant over them to keep them from getting damaged by the wind, and only used them in dry conditions/on land. He was also EXTREMELY careful with them.

Even then, they lasted less than one season. And the results were negligible because they didn't seem to bring in any more geese than any other decoy spread.

Think about it: if this was such a great idea, don't you think a lot more hunters would be doing it? I admire your zeal, but I think you'll be putting out way too much work for the payback you'll get in return.

As Magnis said, there has been no talk of preservation. Also do yourself a favor, keep these things as far away from any professionally mounted trophies as you can. There are these nasty little bugs known as dermestid beetles, that once they gain a foothold will ruin ANY mounted animal. And the surest way to get them is with improperly mounted animals. Now onto other suggestions, what are you doing about the meat in the wings? What about the fat between the feather tracts? Acetone is not a preservative, so how are you going to keep it from rotting? WHat about the greasy mess that is going to happen when the fat starts to ooze out? If these deeks get wet, you are asking for trouble. Not to pee on your parade but ......... Awe heck, pee away! I promise you that you're not the first or the last person to think of this. And there is a reason you don't hear about them.