Every bowhunting season I try something new in regards to technique or gear. This year I am hunting completely new property since my uncle sold the family farm and these new properties that I am bowhunting lend themselves to something I have been wanting to further explore and that?s deer decoying so new lands and decoying is the focus for this season.
I had made a homemade buck decoy about 25 years ago but the old family farm was mostly river bottom and cedar swamp too thick for the sight lines required for effective decoying. So the homemade buck decoy has been sitting in the chicken coop at my parent?s farm for the last 25 years. I knew I would return to decoying at some point but I didn?t think it would take 25 years. Last week I bought a used Flambeau boss buck decoy off Craigslist and after reading about decoying during the rut I will add a bedded doe decoy to the set . FYI, everything I have read says leave antler off the buck to make him look weak and the more dominant buck will approach the decoy from the missing antler side. I plan to test that theory.
So I retrieved the old homemade buck decoy from the coop and set about doing a sex change operation to convert the standing buck decoy to a bedded doe. Over the years this decoy has deteriorated quite a bit. The homemade ears are gone and the body is pretty dented up but its still repairable. Like most ladies, Dolly has many facets and layers.
Back in the day I tried my hand at taxidermy so I made the front half of that old decoy with a shoulder mount, form from Van void?s Taxidermy supply. I added glass eyes and painted it with latex paint. I made the body from several layers of 1 inch thick, blue construction foam and wood and then carved it with my mother?s electric turkey carving knife. (oh the memories)
I needed to turn this heavy necked foam form into a skinny neck doe so I upgraded my tools and employed a sawsall with a long blade to take several inches off the neck of this form. Then I sawed off the bottom of the body and added a plywood base since it is supposed to be a bedded doe.
Then I painted her with flat brown paint, a little black and some white paint. For the ears I used an old plastic Easter basket that I cut apart and made wooden bases with a wire inserted into it so I can add and remove the ears as needed. I painted the ears brown, white and black. Not bad for an old Easter basket.
To add motion to both decoys I cut out a tyvek house wrap tail since its nice and white and thin and waterproof and will flap in the breeze. I then covered the tyvek with a smaller tail cut out of brown fabric. I added tyvek to the ears so they move in the breeze. The ear tyveck is held on with a Velcro patch. Here is the tail moving is a very modest breeze.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnxXlOjHL8Y&feature=youtu.beDolly the Doe
Oscar the imposter and Dolly the doe.
Now I have to wait for Dolly to get rid of that new doe smell by leaving her out in the sun and rain for the next 3 weeks as I wait for the pre-rut and then set the video camera out during some field hunts.
