well no more

Ghg decoys for me. I bought a few dozen last year, out of the box already had chipped paint. Spent a lot on a box of fully flocked greater Canada full bodies, out of the box one head was broken and none of the stupid twist on spring loaded crappy feet stands attached right. Several emails, photos and receipts sent and for months I haven't been able to get anything done about it. The last response I got was, "we will look into it and see what we can do" They used to make good decoys, my 8-9 year old decoys look better and have more paint than the new ones. So if you're planning on getting new decoys, I suggest not going with ghg.

I purchased some GHG canvasback decoys that also had some paint chips out of the box.

I bought some Avian X pintails before last season and was very pleased.

They now offer a variety of species. Thinking of purchasing some wigeon as well. I'll probably stick with them from now on.

I guess their quality has gone down hill. I've heard that a lot recently, but I've got some 5+ year old ones that still look good. I don't take it easy on 'em either.

Yep I have a box of avian x I bought when they first came out, still look really good after a few rough seasons and no leaks

I am changing everything over to G and H. I had some paint problems on a dozen. Duck told me to send them back and they replaced them immediately. It is nice talking to the man that owns a place and he taking care of his customers. Old School business, take care of the problem.

I quit buying that chinese junk two years ago.

I beat the heck out of my stuff and the GHG just cannot hang. Paint PEELS, leaks at seams and keels.

My 20 year old water keel flambeaus are tougher. Have been pleased with G&H. They will also soak up steel pellets better without sinking. My son has been known to water swat a decoy

I Use GHG decoys and don't have any issues. Some of the best looking decoys on the market. I hunt 3-4 days a week every week of the season, and I use GHG decoys on every hunt. I am not unnecessarily rough on my decoys, but I definitely don't baby them, either.

The GHG paint problem is largely exaggerated, IMO. I think it's a classic case of a few people having a problem, and a bunch of guys on the various forums jumping on board and complaining with no real first hand experience.

I currently own around 14 dozen GHG decoys, ranging in age from probably 8 years to brand new, and the paint is holding up just fine. Do I have a few that have lost some Pain? Sure, but you can only drag your decoys out of the bed of your truck and throw them back in so many times before they start to wear.

GHG sucks, last good decoys they made were at least 8 years ago...get some G&H and never look back, last a lifetime

G&H offers top notch customer service and paint adhesion for sure, and it is great that they are made in the USA. I just can't get over how unrealistic they look. They look like a cartoon, nothing like a real duck. For the price, I would expect to see more realistic molds and paint.

I'm super careful with my decoys, and every single one was missing paint out of the box. Pintails, mallards, bwt, gwt, wigeon and gadwalls. Now after a few hunts, they look terrible. That's unacceptable for the price. It's not exaggerated. Maybe I got a bad batch, which is why I'm trying to contact them to get replacements, but they are not cooperating like they should be.

I wouldn't say you got a bad batch. I bought 3 dozen last year and every single deke has chips. Some are small and minor while others are so bad I won't use them. Pretty disappointing.

I have G&H, too. As my other die off I'll keep replacing with them, but I'm not going to replace anything until it won't work.

Too much emphasis is put on what dekes look like. Where you put them and how you hide has way more to do with killing dux. Get the ones that will last forever.

The last 3 batches I purchased had paint falling off of them in their individual bags before I opened them. Everything out where I live is mail order or drive 2 1/2 hours. I just kept and hunted them.

I seriously doubt that I am unlucky enough to get 3 in a row of "bad batches".

"Hot Buy" mallards were the worst decoy I've ever purchased as far as paint retention.

Cartoon Looking? They work....but Id imagine my paint chipped junk decoys would as well. I just don't like looking at them.

Buy what ya like. Avery/Ghg will never get another red cent of mine

Erichugh, I wasn't trying to say you were exaggerating. I apologize if it came across that way. I was saying that I think the issue as a whole is exaggerated. If the paint is chipped out of the box, that is unacceptable and I hope they take care of it for you.

I can only speak to my personal experience with the decoys, and I have had good experiences with them. I cannot speak to the customer service of GHG, as I have never contacted them.

This is true, obviously. Having realistic decoys isn't the most important factor in having a successful hunt, we all know being where the ducks want to be is more important than anything else. Thank you for clearing that up for anyone reading this thread who is new to duck hunting. Having realistic looking decoys sure doesn't hurt, though.

I find it funny that G&H fans accept the fact that their decoys look like a joke right out of the box, but can't stand if a little paint chips off another brand haha.

I haven't really had any problems with the paint chipping on GHG's but our decoys go out the weekend before the opener and get picked up and moved maybe 2 times a year. The main problem I have is they will just start sinking. Splitting at the seam I guess. We will have 2-3 dozen decoys every year to repair that are full of water but have no visible holes in them.

I think they look great. You don't like this one.

Y'all would die if you hunted in LA...those boys kill a donkey load of ducks over 2 litre bottles painted black

Having said that....it drives me crazy for my decoys to look like trash...but I would rather someone make a killer keel-less decoy that blows around in the slightest wind then one that is pretty. I don't hunt open water and normally a slough needs a lot of wind to get a keeled decoy to move around. Drake had some and I'm nursing those best I can.

Catahoula Lake's finest decoy spread.

Yes sir, one of (if not THE) coolest place I've ever hunted and I hunted it on a wet year a few years back...it was flooded into the trees and no one could use their pit blinds. Just the floating blinds you pull your boat into and then hunt out of it. Very cool experience!

I think they look good...

I think it's impossible for the paint to chip on G&H decoys, it can fade, but not chip.

Well actually I have to take back some of the negative things I said, I finally just received an email back, they are sending me replacement decoys for all of the packs I complained about, and a replacement Canada goose decoy for the head that broke off. Should be mailed out this week. I'm not as mad as I was, we will see if the paint is any better on the replacements.

Since you brought it up it I was looking at these. Are they like yours if so how do you like them?

keelless decoys

Or you could do like I have done and cut the keels off some decoys only to use for 1-3 inches of water. Works like a charm, takes about 1-2mph of wind to make them dance, hard to believe till you see them. Buy the lightest, cheapest ones you can find, old flat bottom Flambeaus are the best..

Those are the new ones that I heard they were going to come out with but didn't think they did...they replaced the ones I have. I like'em and thank you because I'll probably add a dozen. The downside is if you are a guy who wants to stand in one place and throw your decoys out...it won't work...over 1/2 of them will be laying on their side. You almost have to place them. Thanks!

They look ok, but Lots of other brands look more realistic IMO. The feather detail isn't there, and the colors don't have any depth and variation like you find in GHG, Avian X, etc. the eyes also look very unrealistic. The green is all one shade, where the green on GHG Wigeon heads has different shades, purple, etc like a real bird. It may not make much of a difference as far as fooling the birds is concerned, but I figure the whole point of a decoy is to look like a real duck, so I might as well have the most realistic ones I can find. You never know what is going to convince a given group to fall into your spread on a given day, so why wouldn't you want decoys that look like the real deal? I think we can all agree great looking decoys can't hurt!

I assume the painting process G&H uses limits the color variation to a degree, and that they choose to use a coarser feather structure because it helps retain paint somehow. G&H decoys don't seem to chip or flake at all, the paint only comes off if it scrapes/rubs off or fades. I would run 100% G&H blocks if they looked like GHG decoys, G&H decoys are better in every way other than realism.

Ducks don't care about a crappy paint job at all, so don't buy the ones with good paint jobs that turn crappy and are cheaper buy the ones that cost more and are consistently crappy through the life of the decoy.

Duck hunting 101

With the keelless do you have problems with them rolling over during the hunt if it is to windy?

Anyone here run the dakota extreme mallards with the flocked heads? How do they hold up?

Those have a concave bottom on them so they sort of create a suction to the water. I won't say I've never had one flip but I'll say the dog has flipped more on their side than the wind has. To me the hassle of setting them and the hassle of having the dog or wind flip them are far out weighed by how much they move with just a slight breeze.

I've got a few brands, some old school, some newer (Flambeua Storms up to Avian-X) I've hunted the storm fronts the last few years and they offer a lot of value. I'm tough on dekes, they've got good paint, thick reinforced plastic, handled temps in the single digits without cracking, being banged around in the the bottom of boats and decoys bags, being shot (heavy plastic, clean holes or dents with no long cracks or splits.... (impatient hunters + expensive dekes are an exercise in futility

Handle a hardcore, avian-x and a storm front. You'll see the difference in quality vs value.

Dozen mallard storm fronts can be found for $39.99.

Judd is right though, the Drake breeze riders move in zero wind. Looks like they got a perch tied to em

Don't bang em around too much though! They're thin thin

Dakota deeks