Favorite decoys?

[Night goat]

Was looking thru my decoy collection... some are getting pretty old and ratty and think it's time to retire half the flock. I still have my "hot buy" mallards I bought 16+ years ago. Most of my decoys are GHG but I was thinking about upgrading to fully flocked floaters. Heard some talk about foam filled decoys riding better in the water and look more realistic... I'd love to get a set of cork hand made ones but don't have that kind of cash. Thought I'd see what everybody's favs are and pros and cons

[Klickitatsteelie]

SX decoys are top notch. I don’t baby them and they hold up better than anything else I have ever had. I have flocked head mallard floaters and 6 dozen fully flocked honkers and they are both bullet proof.

[goosegunner]

I've had great luck with Avian X decoys. I think the new final approach will be good also

[ducks4days]

Avian X are pretty dang good in terms of paint durability and posture of the models. Im trying to buy domestic as much as possible and most decoys are made in China, I picked up a few G&H floaters and will keep buying them moving forward.

I have a few dozen tanglefree goose silhouettes that work great. They are less effective late season in open fields, but I like to set them up on dry land by dikes or ponds with good visibility to the shore. I also like to hit the NODAK early goose season with my dad, the birds dont see silhouettes or flags out there often and they are incredibly effective.

[metlhead]

Best dekes are the teal and hen pinners swimming in the GHG blocks

[h2ofowlr]

If we are talking goose, Dave Smith Decoys hands down.  I have run side by side spreads in high traffic areas and if the geese get the opportunity to see several spreads, the DSD will out pull the birds 9/10 times.
If duck decoys, I have used just about everything on the market and I have just about every type sold today as I have several thousand of them.  End of the day, location is 1st, and you can run any decoy if you’re on the spot. 2nd is concealment.  If you have some sort of movement in the decoy spread, they will always pick a poor hide out first.  If you want a good decoy that the paint sticks to well and very durable, Avian X is a good option.  They use a good composite material that is flexible and allows great paint adhesion.  Tanglefree the paint comes off.  Flambeau the paint comes off quick.  GHG will start to turn green if left out in the sun.  Paint slowly rubs off, but they seem to hold up well.  Only drawback is they are on the smaller size.  G&H make a great decoy with good paint adhesion, but not as classy looking as some of the new decoys.  My favorite floater is Columbia River Decoys.  Awesome paint adhesion and realism.  They look like a nice carved decoy, and they are of light weight foam resin.  I have 10 dozen foam filled decoys and they are good on windy days, but very heavy.  You will want a boat or cart to pack them around.  If you can "float" a jet sled they are good as well.  If you must drag it across grass, dirt or dry ground, it's an Iron Man challenge.  At the end of the day, duck decoys are sold to the hunter.  Good calling, location and hide and you can kill ducks over black blocks.  I have 12+ dozen fully flocked decoys and I haven't notice that they work better than any of my other decoys.  Flocking just takes more care and rubs off easier.  Higdon fully flocked ones seemed to bleed the flocking colors into the whites on my mallards.  Just my perspective as I typically waterfowl hunt 80+ days a season.

[Jarredhs]

The absolute best I have used so far between all the brands I’ve used or my friends have used is lifetime decoys. They are all foam so any shot just makes a small hole but doesn’t sink them.the flocking and paint is pretty tough. 100 percent I would recommend

[hdshot]

My former hunting partner’s favorite goose decoys were mine until he leveraged our spot for his new friends that could do more only for him and was my fault basically explained. Waterfowl hunting is awesome, I know!

[Delta Duckman]

My favorite is the G & H Coot decoy.  All ducks like coots so I always have them in the spread.  More the merrier on them.

[Oldguy]

G&H decoys. Have held up for years of heavy use. Was surprised that a dozen Blue Bills off to the side of my Mallards drew in a lot of ducks. Kind of like using Coots I guessl

[metlhead]

Small string of bluebills with a half dozen wigeon dekes is a magnet for both.

[Big6bull]

Dakota has some awesome deeks! Highly recommend getting some good flocked, at least the heads

[Kola16]

Weird that some have had good luck with the Avian-X paint. I have Avian-X widgeons, pintails, teal, and mallards and every one of them has lots of paint coming off from light use except the pintails. For contrast, I too have some 15 year old GHG hot buys, and they had not to much more paint wear as the 2 year old Avians.

I took on a big project last summer of flocking all my decoys myself. It was a long, laborous project, but it was also fun! Not to mention the money saving. Also you get a much more durable flocking if you do it yourself. I used my decoys last season every weekend and they have no wear, unlike the Avians before I flocked them.

I only noticed a difference of the flocked decoys to attract ducks on the sunny days. So not many days hahaha. On cloudy days, I am not sure if there was a difference or not. But hey they look good to me! My vote is keep what you have, and make them into what you want. It is easy to foam them yourself if you wanted too.

[dagon]

Most of my decoys are at least 30 years old. Just repaint them when i need to. That said I also bought some bass wood and cork to make my own. I've always heard that cork has the most realistic look on the water. We'll see. 

[hdshot]

I’m hoping to get those MWHGA decoys ASAP!