doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shooting old guns over wooden decoys

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Awesome dove decoys and obviously effective.
I have some old mason Blue bills I display in my book case that my father in law gave me. He found 10 rigged in a burlap bag at his fathers house. I kept 2 of the best and gave the rest to my wife�s siblings since they were family items. I would never hunt those 2.

I hope none of these old gunning decoys weren�t collectors items, they were very inexpensive.

Here are a couple of photos of my dad out hunting on the Delta Marsh over some of the decoys he and I carved. I think he was around 80 then. He is 91 now but no longer hunting. He did though up until he was 88.

Very nice! Dekes look awesome

I still kick myself for not buying a pintail decoy from Cigar Daisey but back then. $300.00 seemed like the world. Worse I later found out that was for a pair not just one. Still, $300 back then was as big as a few grand is today, maybe more then. Oh to be young and poor(er) again.

Honestly, modern factory plastic decoys are ultra realistic and better than hand carved in many ways. Not so much in rough water perhaps but I no longer hunt in rough water. I still admire the talent to carve a Block of word into anything that can fool a Black Duck. I can think of no higher proof of carving skill.

Nice story about the Ward brother decoys KY Jon. I used to listen to stories from my dad and an older uncle (both deceased) hunting over wooden decoys, with the uncle telling stories about hunting with wood decoys and live English calling ducks.

Would have been fun to experience that!

I have read a couple good accounts of the Armistice Day Storm of 1940. Both my parent remembered it as we live near the Mississippi River. More than one party survived the night by burning their decoys.

I've yet to see a shotgun photo on this site of a shotgun that has sold at auction for as much as some old gunning decoys sell at auction. Gil

Here's what's left of my first decoy rig. Somehow none of the drakes remain. I carved these through the summer when I was 15 then shot over them that fall. Some were painted by my brother who would have been 10, so that's 43 years ago. Kind of dodgy-looking but we had no experience, patterns, or even electricity. We did have live models though because we fed wild mallards through the summer. The dekes worked well and it was pretty satisfying hunting over them.

I've hunted over a few reconditioned wood decoys, but never have had a full rig of them. One sunk.

Taking valuable antique duck decoys hunting is about like using a Cadillac Escalade for a woods truck. Too much depreciation...Geo

My father being the pragmatic type, gave away a couple of dozen carved wooden decoys when plastic or rubber decoys came into vogue. I couldn't tell you who carved them, but I remember them laying around collecting dust, unless us kids were playing with them for some reason and cleaned the dust off them. As was his MO, he also had 3-4 WW 1 era McClellan saddles he gave away, that "took up too much space and weren't needed or used."