Decoys

The story behind the Series 72 decoy Once upon a time the Herter's "family" in Waseca MN sat down to create the "ultimate" duck decoy. It needed to be lightweight, unsinkable, and durable. They settled on a solid foam construction and maybe because it was just over 7" wide they called it the Model 72 (Herter's Model 72 is a trademark of Cabela's last we checked) and it became the favorite of serious duck hunters in many flyways for the latter half of the 20th century. Untold thousands were...

This "butterball" is a bundle of energy in the air over marshes large and small. They typically travel in small groups and seem to delight in changing elevations at high speeds. This is the smallest diver and would appear smaller yet if the drake did not have the puffy hooded head with strident white set off by iridescent purple and green. Our decoy emphasizes this distinctive head shape, seemingly large for a bird of this diminutive stature. The hen is characteristically muted as hen divers...

When you hold this striking 16" gunning decoy in your hands you are transported back 50 or 75 years to the era of hand crafted wooden duck decoys hand painted with replicating the era. Yet it you think this beauty is going to cost you performance on the marsh you are wrong! We chiseled out the material from the bottom to keep the weight down to about 1.75 lbs each. The resulting concave bottom has proven to ride solid in fair winds or high seas. The standard wood keel is notched to accept a...

We hand carve these decoys, apply linseed oil to preserve the wood, and then hand brush on oil paints for a realistic and accurate finish similar to our wooden hunting decoys. Like all our wood decoys we use glass eyes in the head to add that extra touch of realism. Decoys destined to be urns then have a hand fitted bottom board screwed in place. To access the storage area, remove the screws, place the bag of ashes inside and reseal the bottom board. Our wood decoys are hollowed from a single...

These beauties add a touch of elegance to a decoy spread. Beautiful in flight, sitting on a branch, or swimming wood ducks are a welcome addition to a hunters bag. They look for secluded back waters and prefer wooded covers such as river bottoms and small ponds. Found all across North America but most numerous in the Mississippi and Atlantic flyways. Our "woodies" are close to life size and look as terrific on the mantel as they do in the water.

Blacks make an effective confidence decoy, as it seems other species of ducks appreciate their wariness as much as hunters do. Seeing as how blacks are "cousins" to mallards, we based our basswood shapes on our 4 mallard poses (standard, resting, sleeper, drinking, dabbler). The dimensions we use are a magnum sized 16" X 7" with weights of approximately 1.75 lbs each. Our signature hand applied oils over a linseed oil base coat result in a realistic feather finish that even wary Mr. Black will...