Help With Sandhill

I am looking to try and hit the Sandhill pretty hard this year when the season arrives.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for decoys?

I've looked at a few to buy, but some people like their stuff too much.

Looking for suggestions on bought ones you like the most, suggestions/designs for making my own, and your thoughts on how many deeks per hunter.

Any other tips are appreciated too!

Thanks in advance guys and gals.

Here is what I did when I was in college at Tech, and it worked very, very well.

- looked for the cheapest used goose shells I could find. Beat up, no paint...doesn't matter.
- Painted all of the goose shells to look like cranes, grey with a red stripe on the head and a black beak.
- Drilled holes in the center of each shell just big enough for piece of whatever size rebar to fit through.
- Bought rubber stoppers and drilled slightly smaller hole through each of those as well.

Push stopper onto rebar, and then slide the "crane" shell onto rebar. The stopper keeps the shell from sliding down the rebar, and the rebar holds it high off the ground mimicking a crane's long legs.

We hammered the cranes over these things, and they were CHEAP! Real crane decoys are pricey to say the least.

I've killed a few of them over cut outs with salted dry skin stretched over them.

The best production crane decoys are the ones by Deception Outdoors. They run $550 for 6 with a lifetime guarantee. Most other crane decoys unless they are handmade (stuffers or flocked foamers) are pretty bad. The silo socks work for some guys in a pinch but they're really the wrong color.

We are still trying to figure out the DIY crane hunt too. Couple of years ago one of the guys on my lease bought some silosocks and spray painted them grey. The cranes definitely decoyed to them.

Spray painting some goose dekes like the other poster mentioned is a good idea too.

I checked out the Deception Outdoors website, those are nice and look pretty durable. I'm even more interested in the turkey decoys though

Good ideas guys, thanks.

Guys another way that really works without decoys is just scout 3 to 4 days every morning early. You want to really figure out their flight path and destination, WITHOUT spooking them, good binos are needed. If the food is there and they don't get pressured they will land in relatively the same location everyday. Set up early, down wind of the X, and hide extremely well. It's not as good as having $1000 in suffer deeks, but you'll be surprised how effective it can be when it works.

This is the method we try to employ but passing shots on sandhill cranes is harder than it sounds, hence the interest in decoys.

I also am going to try and go on a guided hunt, there are good outfitters in the area that I could get an education from.

pass shooting cranes is a blast, the sound they make when they hit the ground never gets old

I've hunted over silo socks multiple times, great success.

Like lawn furniture falling from the sky

We used painted goose shells. We used the gray primer for the base with a little red on the face and top edge of the head and a black beak. Misted a little black over the back section and we killed 40 limits over them in one season.

and dealing with cripples is fun

Crips always got a good helmet shot of #6.....

that takes all the fun out of it

Yep you gotta get out there and go toe to toe with them.

Not with that dagger of a beak on them dudes....

I think your friends are possessed, you better watch out..

That's what a lot of early mornings will do to you.....

Thanks everyone for the tips. I like the idea of trying painting old goose shells. Will keep me busy while I chomp at this bit.

The last punch I took to the face was from a crippled crane

Hmmm, some of those pics look familiar GW. Looking forward to this season.