Decoy repair
 

I have a couple of floating duck decoys that are in good shape except for the end of the bill which has been chewed up by a dog. I want to reconstruct the end of the bill, was wondering if anyone has suggestions on what material I could use to do this.

Thanks,
Rick C.

How chewed up is it, Rick? Could it be sanded out and then painted over?

About 1/4 of the bill is gone at the tip, there is a hole which would let in water. My first thought is to try to build it up with a glue gun to plug the hole and try to fix the shape.

I wonder if putty would work? Might be easier to shape than glue and would fix the hole just as well. Not sure if you could paint over it, though.

You could try some craft foam. You can cut it to the rough shape and then fine tune it with some sand paper. Just be careful what paint you use. Petroleum distillates might cause the foam to disintegrate.

Obtain some Bondo from an auto body repair. It's shapable, sand and paintable. Just don't use too much or it will be too heavy, plus it's permanent. PS Ducks don't care about the shape or length of another ducks bill. Just make it waterproof. i have used the old Herters decoys made from foam with tails chewed off by bored retrievers for years. Course, they're solid.