Duck decoys

[Bennick16]

  I am just getting to waterfowl hunting and I was wondering what people's suggestion would be  for college kid with not a whole lot of extra money to spend.

[CP]

There are a lot of decoys on sale right now.  Check out Rogers Sporting or Cabelas – buy yourself 6 or so cheap decoys to start then add a few better decoys from time to time as you can afford them.

[h2ofowlr]

Look on CL there are lots of ads for decoys for sale.  Or as mentioned, watch the ads for decoys on sale at the various sporting good stores.

[Badhabit]

Craigslist can be good to find decoys. If you hike into areas to hunt and weight is a concern then look for water keel decoys, the keel is not weighted and they do not self right if tossed (most of the time.) Moses area most target puddler ducks, mallards, widgeon, pintail so a dozen mallard decoys should be fine to start with. The mesh decoys bags are fine for boating or driving in but in my experience the straps tear out on hikes so look for a decoy bag. See if you can get a mix of 8 drakes and 4 hens, oversized decoys show up better than teal sized.
Good luck and have fun out there.

[Netminder01]

Plenty around Moses Lake too

[Bennick16]

I ended up buying a dozen on cabelas for 28 dollars, I'm going to make my own anchor set up for them out of my fishing gear.

[Stein]

I bought a dozen from Cabelas rigged for under $50 - on sale with the $20 off $100 coupon.

I priced rigging them myself and it was quite a bit more expensive, mainly the price of lead weights.

I also bought 2+ dozen mixed off Craigslist and repainted and re-rigged them.  Cabelas had the rigs in the bargain cave for $22.  This gave me a goose, a pair of pintail and a few mystery ducks.

Cabelas also has decent decoy bags on sale fro $7.49 now, they easily hold a dozen and you can get a few more in if you stuff it.

[metlhead]

I would steer clear of the bargain brands. Grab a dozen high quality wigeon dekes and you'll kill everything that flies. You'll still only be set back about $100.

[sakoshooter]

I would steer clear of the bargain brands. Grab a dozen high quality wigeon dekes and you'll kill everything that flies. You'll still only be set back about $100.

I'd probably second metlhead on the bargain brands. I've gone down that road. Can't even give em away after the paint falls off and for water keels, I wouldn't have them shoved up my ***. If they don't land perfect when tossed, you've got to go fix em. And most water keel decoys ride the water horrible in rough weather.

[h2ofowlr]

I would steer clear of the bargain brands. Grab a dozen high quality wigeon dekes and you'll kill everything that flies. You'll still only be set back about $100.

I'd probably second metlhead on the bargain brands. I've gone down that road. Can't even give em away after the paint falls off and for water keels, I wouldn't have them shoved up my ***. If they don't land perfect when tossed, you've got to go fix em. And most water keel decoys ride the water horrible in rough weather.

If I am packing in to ponds and the decoys are on my back, water keels are perfect and slight breeze will push them around great.  No need for extra weight.  When pond hunting, I use 40lb mono with 3" piece of 1/4" pencil lead that I can hook.  Works great, easy pack in and out.
As for super detail and expensive decoys, you don't need them.  They are more marketed to the hunters.  If you have to land birds and then jump them in order to hit them.  The better ones may be your choice.  Otherwise, by the time the bird see the off paint or imperfection, they are getting dirted.

I have several thousand decoys and have just about every gimmick that's legal in this state for bird hunting.  Tried fully flocked, custom flocked, custom painted and got tired of double bagging and gingerly handling them.  I like to hunt them, throw them out and toss them back into the bag.  I have decoys in the spread with no paint and some quality Avery ones that have turned green.  We still shoot limits over them. 
Ticket is scouting, knowing where to set up, proper decoy placement.  Decoys movement in the spread and concealed hunters.  If the birds are flaring, change it up, don't ride it out.  Read the birds, pick up and slide to a point they want to be if needed.  I am not a fan of it, but I will pull my entire spread and move it, if I get a different read on the birds than what I anticipated.  If your hunting 4+ days a week, those nicely painted $100 decoys don't stay nice long.   

Or you can be like some that replace there spread yearly and I have tried this as well.  Fresh decoys, fresh paint.  Helps narrow down the head trash if things aren't going as planned.

[CP]

I wouldn't have them shoved up my ***.

That sounds painful 

[sakoshooter]

I wouldn't have them shoved up my ***.

That sounds painful 

It can be, especially if all the water hasn't drained out of the water keel, LOL.