You cannot be more right about this. I love me some GHG full body and the GHG shells work really well also.

I guess all of my hunts only produce STOOPID birds then. I shot these in a field on my last hunt with the keels stabbed down in the dirt. As stated, the realism on duck decoys is for the buyer. Those birds circled more than a couple times.

I never said you can't kill birds without top of the line decoys. I've shot plenty of ducks over 30 year old water keels with hardly any paint on them. I said that all things being equal, realistic decoys can make a difference.

Nice pile by the way.

pato where'd you get a whoopin crane permit?

Naw, you mis ID'ed another one. That's a Double Crested cormorant and a lesser one at that. Got a depredation tag.

I guess I been lucky with my cartoon G&H decoys all year.

Say what?

Hmmm., I've never seen a cormorant look like a sandhill.....

You clearly don't know what a Sandhill or Double Crested cormorant look like.

Dakota

I must have missed the pic.

If you say realism doesn't matter then why would durability, if the paint comes off then they aren't realistic yet you spend 4x as much on decoys that hold paint?

Well it sure looked like a Sandhill to me. What's clear is the evidence is now deleted....I guess we'll never know.

Its the stay afloat part that we are speaking of. Chinese deeks bust keels, loose chunks when strafed.

Pic was of 4 mallards, 2 pintails and a lesser sandhill. I realized that posting pics was a topwater barney move and removed it. Carry on


Edited to add: I wanna grow up to be like the Beav

Dakota are hard to beat.
They look the most realistic out there.
They look beefy.

Foam filled

Look good

American made

Great customer service if you have a problem you talk to a person on the phone and they mail you what you need.

I had a pulsator short out and they sent me a new timer and bilge pump. I lost the heads off 2
Decoys and when I called to order some more they sent me 4 replacement heads free of charge.

I run avian X and Dakotas, mallard decoys it's Dakotas and it's not even close! Now the rest of my decoys are all avian X! Def love the X's pintails an gadwalls! And I do have avian X mallards but beside the Dakotas it's huge difference! Now durability I love on the X's!

I did not know Higdon was still made in America. That's good to know.

I'm going with Dakotas next year. Realism may not matter to the ducks but it gives me a little extra confidence in my spread. Especially sine I'll be spending a lot more time in the great state of kansas.

Heck they may not be. I'm not sure, but their customer service is great.

Higdons for me, they are solid but heavy if do not boat in.

I'm sold on ghg. It's all I have and the weighted keels are awesome. They've gone through a couple years of real hard use and are still looking good. I'm sure there's others that are more realistic, but I'm on a budget and for the money, I don't think they can beat. If you're only buying a couple dozen, spend the money on something better. If you're like me and need to have a diver spread of 60 (and growing to 150 by next year) and a puddler spread of 54, spending $140 a dozen isn't doable