Back to Blog
Duck feeder5/15/2023 ![]() ![]() "I use them every day, and feel they benefit me every day," Vandemore says. Mix Things Up In northwest Missouri, Tony Vandemore uses feeder decoys to hunt moist-soil units and flooded agricultural fields on intensively managed private land. "Adding that little bit of realism to your feeder decoys can be the difference between finishing birds or not." "Watching ducks and geese tipping to feed, you'll see a lot of water moving around them," he says. "Throwing several duck butts out in deep water may not work if you are hunting local birds that know the area."Įven in ideal situations, Vaca prefers to rig his feeder decoys on a jerk string or some other method that creates decoy movement. "I've seen guys try to use feeder decoys where they really shouldn't," he says. "When I'm out scouting and I see ducks or geese feeding and dabbling in shallow water, I try to reproduce that activity by adding feeder decoys to my spread."īut hunters shouldn't use feeder decoys everywhere, cautions Vaca. "I don't like to do the same thing every day with my decoys," Vaca says. This approach relies heavily on scouting and knowledge of waterfowl behavior. In other words, he strives to make his decoy spread closely imitate the waterfowl behavior he observes in the field. Set a Super-natural Spread Thirty-year veteran waterfowler and Final Approach pro-staffer John Vaca uses what he refers to as a "match-the-hatch" strategy when setting his decoys. "In the timber, ducks are used to seeing two dozen regular mallard decoys, so I mix in mallard and black duck feeders to give my spread a different look." "If I am using two or three dozen decoys, a dozen of them will be GHG Pro-Grade Butt-Up feeders," Ronquest says. The way feeder decoys displace water even with a slight twitch of the jerk cord can be a big draw for working ducks. I like the way they move water."įor ducks looking down through the tree branches, moving water is an indication of ducks feeding below. "But my favorite thing to do with them is to put them on a jerk cord. "I like to use them because they provide a different look and feel to my decoys," Ronquest explains. ![]() RNT-V producer Jim Ronquest relies on feeder decoys to set his spread apart from the crowd. Never Leave Home without Them When hunting flooded timber, especially on public land in Arkansas, realism is a must. Here are some useful tips from three veteran waterfowlers on how to use these decoys to bag more birds: But today's decoy manufacturers have taken realism to the extreme, offering an array of feeder decoys in a variety of lifelike postures. In fact, waterfowling historians believe that floating feeders were among the first decoys used by early American waterfowlers. Or: run a long carriage bolt through the base cap (or plug), letting the end stick out and hit the ground, like the spike that sticks out of the bottom of a stand-up bass or cello.Feeder-style decoys are not a new tool in the duck hunter's arsenal. Easy to fix: just mount the feeder higher. Most of the plugs I see out there would work, but you'd be back to the height problem (if you're concerned about chicken ergonomics). Of course, it's best to use plastic or something else that can be thoroughly cleaned. It will take you more than 3 minutes to assemble, but it would be more efficient. Another way to go (and in response to some reader comments): if you add some kind of plug right at the bottom of the Y, the birds would be able to reach all the food. At first the bottom part connected to the "Y" was only three inches long and the birds didn't like that much, so we set it up on a brick and the chickens seemed to like the altitude better, so the final version uses a six-inch length of pipe to place the food where the chickens can easily reach it. We considered quite a few other variations, but they all had drawbacks mostly related to spillage and security. But I haven't seen the extra three-inch piece added to the Y connector: without that small extension the chickens managed to spill quite a lot of food, but that three-inch piece cut spillage to almost zero! We tried a 180-degree elbow with the edge cut off: the birds were able to eat just fine but they spilled quite a lot, and closing the pipe for waterproofing and rodent-proofing would have required additional engineering. There are lots of PVC chicken feeders out there, and several folks have gone with a design very similar to this one. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |