Topic: The Best Duck Decoys of 2022 (Read 38 times)
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Why It Made the Cut
These decoys are affordable and functional.
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Product Description
If you want to kill ducks consistently, don’t hunt with cheap decoys. They look less realistic (especially in the bright sun); eventually their paint wears down; and before long you’ll have to replace them. On the flipside, you don’t have to buy the most expensive duck decoys either. The Cabela’s Norther Flight Over-Sized Mallards are a good middle ground. They look real enough, if you take care of them. They’ll last many seasons, and they are affordable. If you’re just getting started, you can get a dozen for a little more than $100. Because these decoys are larger, they’ll be more visible, so you can get away with a smaller spread in many situations. Add another six each year and soon you’ll have a nice-sized spread of solid decoys.
Why It Made the Cut
With their affordable foam-filled design, they’re an excellent bargain
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Divers are typically not the wariest of ducks and they will co*e into a puddle duck spread. But if you’re targeting divers specifically, it helps to have a couple dozen diver decoys bobbing around the spread. If you’re just building your spread, I’d go with buffleheads first because they’re prominent in so many flyways, and the bright white contrasting on the black is really what diver ducks key in on (plus, buffies always like to land by other buffies). Higdon offers a foam filled option for these decoys, which I’d highly reco*mend. The foam filling makes them more durable and will allow them to take a few stray pellets and keep floating. This is important for diver decoys since these types of ducks are known for co*ing in low, just above the water.
The only downside to these bufflehead decoys is that they’re a little small. If that’s a problem for you, go with Higdon’s Standard Bluebills, Standard Ringnecks, or Standard Redheads. They’re all good. Hunting divers often calls for big spreads on big waters, so if you’re in a diver hot zone, I’d reco*mend getting a few of the Standard Diver packs, which includes redhead, bluebill, and ringneck species.
Why It Made the Cut
This hefty and ultra-realistic decoy is the ultimate option for targeting mallards on big water.
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Product Description
This is a magnum mallard decoy at its finest. The large profile (18 inches from tail to the tip of the bill) makes it highly visible from a distance and the marine-grade body makes it bomb proof. The beefy, weighted keel ensures it will handle any chop. The decoy’s body profile and paint job are full of thoughtful details that Avian-X has made its name on. These decoys are ideal for migrating mallards on big waters. Because they’re so hefty, you’re not going to want to hike them into little potholes.
There are only two knocks on this decoy. First, the mounting spots on the keel are not co*plete holes. They have a little gap in the plastic that a Texas rig or decoy line could break through. The second is the price. A six-pack—which includes two high-head drakes, two low-head drakes, one high-head hen, and one low-head hen—is twice as expensive as the top affordable decoys in our lineup.
I’ve hunted with these decoys for several seasons now and I beat the ever-loving hell out of them. Unlike my buddy Gifford, I do not always keep my decoys in a slotted bag. They get bounced around in boats and truck beds and garage floors. The drakes have a few scratches on the heads that are noticeable—but not enough to pull them from the rotation or even touch them up with paint. The hens have no damage whatsoever.
If you hunt big-water mallards and are willing to pay top dollar, you won’t do better than these.
Why It Made the Cut
Ultralight, realistic, and durable, these are the ultimate decoys for walk-in hunters.
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I got to see Heyday Outdoor’s Hydrofoam Decoys (formally known as Lifetime Decoys) in action while hunting with the Heyday crew on an early teal hunt in Texas. The coolest thing about these decoys—and the reason they stand out from the co*petition—is the material itself. Instead of hollow plastic, they are made entirely of EVA foam, which is the same material Crocs are made from. The foam construction allows for more carved-in detail and texture than a typical deke. This co*bined with the intricate painting that goes into each model makes the Hydrofoam decoys look incredibly realistic on the water. We hunted over their teal decoys, of course, but their mallards and other species are just as realistic (they also offer a flocked version that costs $10 more).
Being made of hollowed-out foam makes the decoys super light as well (a dozen HydroFoam mallards weighs only 10 pounds). This makes them the ultimate decoy for hunters who need to walk into their spots and must carry decoys. More and more, you’ll see diehard public land (and public water) hunters hauling around Heyday decoys.
Even the gentlest breeze got these decoys moving on the water, and the dual keel design allows them to move even more freely in any sort of current. They’re quiet and don’t clank together like plastic decoys do, which is yet another reason they are so ideal for walk-in hunts. Their lightweight design doesn’t sacrifice durability, either. These dekes will take a beating and keep on floating, and they’re made to last a lifetime. —Dac Collins
Why It Made the Cut
This is the best-looking wood duck decoy on the market.
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Product Description
Do you really need wood duck decoys? That all depends upon how seriously you target woodies. Singles and pairs will lock into a regular mallard spread. But if you target wood ducks specifically, especially larger flocks of migrating woodies, it definitely pays to have a dozen wood duck dekes in your arsenal, and you won’t find more realistic ones than the Avian-X Topflight Wood Ducks. First, you’ll notice the colors. They are gorgeous and vibrant, just like a real woodie. What’s most impressive to me is how they also nailed the coloring on the hens. If you’ve seen a mature hen woodie in the fall, you know they have nuanced (and beautiful) hues mixed in with all that brown. Avian-X nailed that with this series. Also, the body positions are very accurate and lifelike. A lot of other wood duck decoys have the drake’s head sticking high up above the water, like he’s on alert. While wood ducks do strike this pose, that’s not the only position I want to replicate while hunting. The Avian-X body positions look much more natural and relaxed.
While many wood ducks get shot while pass shooting or as bonus birds, I target them specifically in the Mississippi flyway (which is loaded with wood ducks at certain times of the year). I have found that the bright colors of these Avian-X decoys draw in larger flocks of wood ducks better than regular puddle duck decoys. These dekes, paired with a simple wood duck call, make it possible to work and finish flocks of 12 to 20 wood ducks.
Why It Made the Cut
This is the most realistic looking full body duck decoy on the market.
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By now you’ve probably noticed that Avian-X keeps popping up on this list. That’s because they make extremely realistic decoys, and I’d rather hunt with fewer realistic decoys than more dekes that don’t look as good. That concept holds true for the Avian-X AXP Full Body Mallards.
These are large, full-body decoys that look amazing in the field. Their colors, detail, and body positions are all excellent. The only problem is that they’re very expensive. If you wanted to build a spread of, say, five dozen full bodies, it would cost you $2,000. But many hunters don’t need that many full body duck decoys. Most field hunters targeting mallards can get away with a goose spread along with a couple dozen full bodies on the X (along with some spinners). Even just six full bodies along a sand bar paired with a floater spread helps bring mallards in close. If you want to add some realism to an existing spread, you can’t do better than the Avian-X AXP Full Body Mallards.
Why It Made the Cut
These decoys will allow you to build field spread without breaking the bank.
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If you’re new to field hunting and set on starting a duck spread, these shells would be a good place to start. They cost less than half the price of the most expensive full bodies. And they look plenty good enough to kill ducks over. The 12-pack includes two active hens, two feeder hens, four active drakes, and four feeder drakes.
Also, because you can remove the heads on these shells, you can stack them. That means they will take up less space in a decoy bag and you’ll be able to load your spread into a truck instead of needing a trailer. The real downside here is that in high wind (often when the duck hunting can be very good) any type of shells on a stake will bob or spin frantically. Some movement in your spread is good. Too much, and unnatural, movement is not good.
“Motion decoy” used to mean only motorized spinning-wing decoys known as robo ducks or, simply, Mojos. But now there’s a wide variety of motion decoys available. Here are three of my favorites.
It’s hard to beat an original, and the Mojo spinning wing decoy is still bringing ducks to the kill hole after all these years. The latest version has a soft, flexible body, magnetic wings, and a solid housing for the body. This design creates less wobble, rattle, and noise than those older spinning wing decoys produced. It has a remote that’s Bluetooth co*patible, so you can turn it on and off as you see fit. As for hunting with spinning wing decoys, they’re not the silver bullet some hunters believe them to be, especially now that so many hunters use them and ducks see them all the time. On highly pressured local ducks, I leave the spinners at home. On big migration days where I’m trying to catch ducks’ attention from long range, I’ll run spinners.
This clever decoy mimics the rocking, bobbing motion of a feeding mallard. As it bobs, it sprays water across the spread like ducks are really getting after it. On calm days, having one or two Pulsators out there will bring the spread alive. That’s because the Pulsators themselves are moving, but they also create little ripples that move the decoys close to them. This is often all it takes to convince wary ducks to co*mit. This is a foam-filled, one-piece decoy with a seven-hour run time. I