Greg / MO

Another novice question, guys.

I' m looking at picking up a deke or two, and had the opportunity to compare one by a company called Buck Wing (I think) and the Feather Flex.

The Feather Flex sure seemed light, although I wondered about the durability of both finish and its lifespan.

The Buck Wing decoy sure was well-built in comparison, but the shine on the body really bothered me. Is this a problem? I know gobblers sort of have an iredescent sheen to them sometimes, but all the hens I' ve ever seen were dull -- and this was a hen decoy.

Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated.

RICHIE3

I feel the same way about shiny decoys, even though I cannot prove they have ever hurt a hunt when I use them. But, my way of fixing the problem, if there is one, is to buy a cheap can of flat black or charcoal gray spray paint. Hold the can about 2 to 3 feet away from the decoy and spray it so the paint mist from the can barely hits the decoy. This will take away the shine without discoloring the actual paint job on the decoy. Use just enough to take the shine off. Good Luck!!!!!!!

purep7646

I have the Buckwing decoys and I don' t like them. People on here recomended Delta decoys and I like them a lot better than my Buckwings and I like them better than the Feather Flex ones I have seen. The deltas seem to be smaller, better built and less noisy than the Buckwings. The Buckwings are big, too shiny and make a little more noise than I want when opening them. The Deltas do make a lot of noise when opening them but not as much as the Buckwings. The Feather Flex look cheap but they fold up smaller than the other two brands. Out of those 3 brands or any other brands, I would go with Delta decoys.

maytom

From a durability standpoint, the Feather-Flex line isn' t that good. I had some of those a few years ago, the paint wore off and the bottom opening ripped while trying to put your hand inside to fluff it out!! The Buckwings are indeed very shiny, I agree!! The blowup variety are the least durable in my opinion. I currently use some older Carry-Lite decoys and these are very well made, but I don' t like the stakes on the newer ones. Just have to check them all out first hand before buying I guess!!

TrkEmon

I looked at the Buck Wings and thought the same thing...too shiney. And I thought the hens were too dark in color. Maybe it doesn' t matter to the turkeys, but it bothered me. LOL.

I' ve been using the Flambeau collapsibles. I did have a problem with the stake splitting the top a little on one of my jakes, but I cured that by going to the Buck Wing Turkey Decoy expander. It anchors in and stays, so you don' t have a stake working in and out all the time. Works for me.

I like the detail of these calls and in fact bought a second pair last year on clearance for $5. They' ll do me fine...until a newer better deke comes out.

ButchA

I have the Buckwing decoys. I have a jake and hen combo set. Yes, they are shiny, almost too shiny! [:' (] What I plan to do (recommended by a friend), before the start of the season, is to take some VERY VERY FINE 0000 steel wool and carefully and gently rub down the texture of the decoys feathers. It will just slightly take off the irridensent blinding glow of the decoys. I' ll let you know how it works out and what they look like, once I do it.

Butch

purep7646

That is the only thing I like about the Buckwing decoys, they come with that stake. The only bad thing about the stake is if you drop the screw for the top, your screwed. I lost one screw on my stake. I am going to see if the stake will work good with my Deltas, if it does I am going to make a cut in the top where the stake is at so I can use the Bukwing stakes. Got to go try it out. *edit* it didn' t work.

TrkEmon

I have yet to use the decoy expanders in the woods, but it WOULD kinda suck to lose the top screw. Maybe some Lok-Tite will take care of that.

ButchA

UPDATE:

Regarding my previous post on the Buckwing decoys.... I found some #000 steel wool and LIGHTLY went down my hen and jake decoys (even strokes neck to tail). It actually worked! It didn' t ruin the decoys. It didn' t harshly remove that irridecense shine to them. But, it did ever-so-slightly tone down the wicked blinding brightness of the shine. If you look really close (I' m talking use a magnifying glass here ), the steel wool made microsopic feather detail down the body of the decoys! Hmmmmmm..... I might be on to something here!

Now, I' ll just have to see how well they work this upcoming season! [8D]

Butch