Pigeon & goose decoys

[Dimitri]

Hi guys

I'm looking to buy some pigeon & goose decoys from www.decoys.co.za

Anybody used their products before? What is the quality like and how well did they work?

I'd appreciate your opinions.

Thanks

[Sean Murphy]

I have just acquired a set of 12 of their rock pigeon decoys. Although I have not used mine yet I was prompted to buy them after I saw someone else use them with great success. They are very well made and I am dying to try them out.

Sean.

[G-force]

They work well and are worth the buy.

[Dimitri]

Thanks guys.

Why I asked is because about 10 years ago I bought a few pigeon decoys from a supplier then working out of the Footloose Trout Farm in Diepsloot. I think they must have been imported because they did not have Rocky markings / colours. They didn't work. So I painted them Rock Pigeon colours. Still didn't work. Not one pigeon decoyed - ever.

I went pigeon shooting two weeks ago. Shot a few passing Rockies early on and used them as decoys. As always, it worked like a bomb. There are only 3 drawbacks to using real (dead) birds as decoys:

1. You sometimes battle to get started. You need about 6 birds to get started and, especially if they are flying high over your stand, it is sometimes difficult to get those first 6 or so Rockies. Doves don't work in decoying pigeons in my experience (although pigeons do decoy doves).

2. Sometimes the sunflower heads are too small or too floppy and your decoys keep falling off.

3. Your birds spend the whole day in the sun often rendering them inedible. My late dad used to shoot a dozen or so Rockies at the beginning of the season and tag one of their legs with a bit of wire. He used these birds as decoys for the duration of the pigeon season freezing them at the end of the day's shoot until needed again. The fresh brids never got mixed up with the old birds because only the old ones had been tagged. If a bird went really bad he would just replace it.

However, I think decoys are just far more convenient. If they work.

[Gidsie]

I havent been very successfull with Pigeon decoys and have mostly seen ones that dont work..
So I will be keen to see decoys that really do work...

[johannvdg]

Your rockies are obviously a lot smarter than ours, so please make sure they do not interbreed with the rockies where we shoot. For me they have only brought positive results.

Many times yesterday we were talking too much sh!t in the blind(it has an open top specifically for wingshooting and looks like a hay bale) and by the time we realised it we had birds either hovering over or landing on the sorgum next to our spread, and I only have six at the moment, the others are on loan with a friend. The more decoys you have out, the more effective they are as well. We had so much success over the decoys that we took an extended lunch break under the gazebo, and ended up shooting only again between 4 and 5, and this time we just stood on the flight line.

But also bear in mind I like kit, I love buying and using anything that will add to my experience, if you take your time to study the birds you can have the same amount of success by just choosing the correct spot in the flight line. Any motorised decoy will also work a lot better, I have one nicknamed roboduck, and it also works wonders on pigeons. Where it is legal and safe to shoot doves and pigeons with my air rifle I use a different blind and the decoys to great effect.

The only problem that I sometimes have with new guys in the blind, is that when those high ones drop in from the sky (and you do not have a hope in hell of catching up) they do not have the good sense to leave them and wait for the next one, so I now have a couple of decoys that have been positively killed, but even with a little damage they still work.

[shakari]

Hope I don't sound like I'm not trying to teach my Grandmother how to suck eggs here but FWIW, although I don't have much experience of using decoys here in Africa I did use them for pigeons and doves a lot when I lived in the UK.... and I see no reason at all why there should be any significant difference.

I always found that it was imperative to set the decoy pattern out correctly and if you're not sure how to do that, just sit and watch a flock of feeding doves or pigeons. With stationary full bodied, rocking or shell decoys, I always found the best pattern was in a wide horse shoe shape with the decoys facing more or less into the prevailing wind. Once you've got that initial shape, you can then fill in a few behind the leaders but more or less in that same pattern with either decoys or dead birds as you get them. I'd suggest leaving at least two wing widths and maybe a fair bit more between decoys as well.

If you have any of the spinning/flapping gizmos, I'd suggest putting them towards the rear of the decoy pattern because real newcomers usually tend to land towards the back of the flock.

I've even used suitably shaped grey rocks and had them work as well.

If any of you have areas where ducks/geese overfly but no water to help pull them in, I've also used a piece of black plastic sheeting with a few waterfowl decoys on them and that often works well. I also used to find duck and geese calls very effective as well.