Goose decoy maintenance

I've seen some pretty hoary goose decoys out in the field, and there's no escaping the fact that they can get pretty bounced around in the truck/trailer/ute; and that takes a toll. After last weekend's hunt where it was wet, I didn't have much of a chance to get everything nice and dry, maybe only 90%. My dekes live in slotted bags, and most of the time they have socks on the flocked heads but given that the bags/socks got soaked last time out, I didn't re-sock them.

Got them out this morning for a clean-up.

There are 2 brands of full bodies in my mix, GHGs and FAs. If I were going to buy again, I'd avoid the FAs like the plague. Just taking one of the sentry geese out this morning, I broke its leg mount. This piece is critical to their upright geese versions, as the base mounting ring slides up inside the decoy's leg. So at the moment I have some 2 pot going to work, hopefully the repair is smooth.

Stupid leg arrangement



2 pot mix... hopefully it works



Secondly, the paint quality is awful. The FAs are chipped to crap already. In fact, they came out of the box with paint rubbed off.



Candidate for flocking?

Bad chipping

Anyhow, got the bags airing and hopefully after the remedial work the FA sentry can go back into the field.

I recommend Avery's full body slotted bags, tough & durable

I have my eye on some Higdon Alpha Wobblers to stack out the spread a bit .. maybe some FAs will appear on auction websites soon.

All snug in their bag