NorthernIAWaterfowl

Looking to buy new mallad decoys and as wondering what everyone else has had the best luck with.
Thanks

originalwestcoaster

find something on sale that you like the look of. example-you like the keel, offered in multiple positions, flocked, etc.

yes, cheapos will chip, but so will the more expensive stuff. read somewhere on here and someone said "just buy the avians and forget about your decoys". well I got some avian bwt and they chip too.

if you're building a spread from scratch I'd get at least 2 dozen of a good sized decoy. not necessarily magnums. and then if you have to, get 2 more in a "hot buy" or economy pack to add some numbers

originalwestcoaster

in MY experience(not that that means anything)

higdon-good price, good quality, average to poor realism(does that matter? idk)
avian-beautiful, light, good poses, still chip
flambeau-look good, but terrible paint quality
hardcore-good paint, great keels, but little variety in poses
ghg-decent all around. don't love the carvings

Cuvvy

Overall when you facter in realism, durability, size, weight,price etc. For mallards my choice would be

1. Avian X
2. GHG ProGrades
3. Dakota
4. Tanglefree Flight Series

All are good decoys just depends on your style of hunting whether you walk in or boat hunt. I'd look for sales before you buy at full price.

originalwestcoaster

regardless of decoy preference, does anyone else have this problem?

I hunt out of my boat blind and always toss and align decoys before pushing my boat to where I think it'll hide best. get the blind up and boat hid well. sit down to have pre-shooting smoke and look up and my decoys are like 10 feet away from me lol

get out of boat at 5 minutes to shooting and start tossing decoys out and away from the boat

my new higdon magnum flocked, avian teal and hardcore pintails looked good this morning. not much flew, but a half dozen birds came right into these dekes.doesn't mean I shot that many

cashius23

I'm notorious for this. Not the smoke part though. I like my birds close I guess.

NorthernIAWaterfowl

Anyone ever tried the lucky duck deception series mallards?

browninga5m

Avians look the best imo. Look at the new Hero decoys. I have 6 of the alphas and they look very good. Held up well in Canada the last 10 days as well

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BROWNING THE BEST THERE IS

Benelli 86

A couple of years ago someone left a bag of avian x mallards behind my back tire in tall grass....and the decoys got ran over by a F150 with 4 people in it and a bed full of gear. 3 decoys affected and had dents that popped out once we brought them into the house and warmed them up. Couldn't tell which got run over after that. Since that day I haven't bought anything else. I'm biased after that experience.

pairofsingles

my votes goes to

1.Avain x
2. Dakota
3. DOA

just my opinion avian best hands down

Denny

I like the ones we find on our spring flood Treasure hunts on the Mississippi, good varity, cheap entertainment running flooded timber on islands. Always find a few good ones still floating. All the ones we leave out all season are the junk we find. If we lose a few every year we can always replace them.

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One crazy ole F***

okieduckhunter

My sets never look the same from the blind as they did when I was putting them out. Usually there are several that somehow managed to end up banging against each other when the winds change slightly as the sun comes up as tends to happen on the lakes I hunt. I have yet to see decoys banging together bring ducks in so nothing more frustrating than having to get out of the blind and move decoys in prime shooting time.

Depending on what you are smoking they can look closer than they are .

okieduckhunter

I own some of everything but the Dakotas and that is only because I don't like the erect heads on some of them---remind me of ducks that are getting ready to take flight. I am tough on decoys in general and all of them after a year or two need touched up. I enjoy a bit of repainting every year and have taken to flocking heads and such in the offseason so my thought is buy decoys you like the look of and go from there. I will say nothing has held up like my LL Bean cork (no idea who original maker was but have had them since '83 and Herter burlap wrapped which I have had since '79.