Stuffed ducks made of foam with their own hands. We make stuffed animals for hunting with our own hands

The main problem when hunting wild ducks is that these birds are not so easy to attract or get on the water, and shooting at them when they are flying too high rarely leads to a good result. This problem is solved by using stuffed ducks. Such a scarecrow is installed on the pond, and the hunter then goes to the position and waits for the victim. When ducks fly over a pond, they see their relative on the water and often sit down on the water with him. This is where you can start hunting for them.

In total, there are a lot of ways to make a scarecrow, one author suggested the easiest way to make a scarecrow using polyurethane foam.

Materials and tools for manufacturing:
- polyurethane foam;
- boards, a piece of fiberboard, nails (used to create a mold box);
- hacksaw, hammer;
- gypsum or alabaster (to create a mold);
- disposable plastic bag;
- a piece of hard foam;
- electric drill and more.

Scarecrow making process:

Step one. Making a casting mold
In order to cast stuffed ducks in the future, you need to create at least one form. For these purposes, a piece of hard foam is taken and the body of a duck is machined from it. Also, to create a mold for casting, you will need a box, the author assembles it on his own. Assembling the box is very simple, you will need a hammer, nails, a piece of fiberboard and boards. A box is knocked down from the boards, fiberboard is used as the bottom. The size of the box should be the same as a scarecrow, it can be larger, but more gypsum will be required.

After the box is assembled, it is fashionable to start creating the form itself. You need to take alabaster or gypsum and stir it well by adding water. It is quite possible to use inexpensive building gypsum for these purposes.

For stirring, the author used an electric drill, in the chuck of which he clamped a piece of wire curved in the shape of the letter G. After that, you need to take the made duck and coat it well with grease such as grease, or there is also a grease called graphite. This is necessary so that the plaster does not stick to the foam. Alternatively, oil can also be used.

Now you need to take the gypsum and pour it into the made box so that it does not leak out, you need to put a disposable plastic bag in the box. Next, a duck is taken and half drowned in plaster, it must be held like this for a while until the plaster seizes. Before that, you need to draw a line in the center of the workpiece, so as not to be nervous in the process.

After that, the duck can be carefully removed, and after hardening, the gypsum with the half-mold can also be removed from the box. The second mold is made in the same way.

Step two. We cast a scarecrow
In order to cast a stuffed animal, you need to take plaster molds and grease them well with the same graphite lubricant or oil, otherwise the foam will stick to the plaster. You also need to make a duck profile from copper wire, it is needed in order to make it stronger. A sinker will also be attached to this wire. Now foam can be poured into both molds, immediately after that, the manufactured wire profile is laid on the foam.

While the foam has not hardened, the two halves of the mold must be quickly connected to each other. A load is placed on top of the mold, it can be a stone, in this position the mold remains overnight.

In the morning, the author takes a knife and cuts off the excess foam without disassembling the shape. After that, the mold can be disassembled and the duck blank removed. It is necessary to remove the workpiece very carefully, since the form and foam are very fragile, and with rough handling, not only the workpiece, but also the form can be spoiled.

Step three. We finalize the scarecrow
At the next stage, the duck should be carefully processed with sandpaper, this process is not difficult, since the foam is quite soft. Still in some places you will need to work with a knife, the author made it in the form of a saw. If it so happened that shells formed on the workpiece, this is not scary, foam can be added to such places. You also need to remember to free the ring from the foam, for which it is very convenient to cling to the weight.

Step four. Painting the workpiece
For painting, you need to use oil-based paint, it does not corrode the foam. But its significant drawback is that it dries for a very long time. Well, each one paints such stuffed animals to his own taste. If you approach this process responsibly, then you can make a very high-quality stuffed animal that will not distinguish from a real duck not only a bird, but also the person himself can get confused the first time. But here the main thing is not to rush and not shoot at the scarecrow, otherwise all the work will go down the drain.

According to the author, using one form, it was already possible to make 15 duck blanks. In order to use the molds for such a long time and cast high-quality blanks, a layer of paraffin was applied to the mold. To do this, the form needs to be warmed up a little and then smeared with a candle. Here you need to be careful, because if you heat the mold very sharply, it can crack. For such a case, the author used stearin candles, and to make it convenient to work, rag gloves were used.

DUCK PROFILES. MANUFACTURING OF STAFFAGES. MATERIALS AND TEMPLATES.

COLORING. ARRANGEMENT OF STICKS. SINKER. COLLECTIBLE STAFF.

Every hunter is looking forward to autumn, and especially a real duckling. Autumn passage of dives, northern, black duck is the time for it. August, September will fly by - and already on the wide expanse of lakes, reservoirs, and in some places just large ponds, black floats will sway on a shallow wave. These are migratory flocks of diving ducks. They always sit far from the shore, on a motor sometimes, however, you can “fly up” to them, but this is forbidden, and it is not proper for a normal, correct hunter to do such an indecent thing. Remain stuffed. Now this is a hunt so a hunt!

Once in October, when I was getting a ticket to the Moscow Sea, I heard the following words from a hunter: “Well, why are people going there now? I considered this the highest praise in my address. Indeed, it’s one thing when it’s mid-August, it’s warm, you can even swim, and another thing, when it’s cold, save the icy clouds in the morning, the clouds are low, the snow is about to fly, but you have to get into the boat, row to the place, put stuffed animals crooked from the cold fingers, and then warm your hands on a cooling glass of tea from a thermos. But the trophy justifies all the torment and deprivation. A full-bodied autumn duck is filled with fat, fine, round, like a cobblestone. Not like the August one, which recently took to the wings, all studded with buds of unopened feathers. Their houses have to be pulled out almost with tweezers. No! Such "liquid" game is not for me.

late autumn hunting with scarecrows I also like it because you are shooting not at the mallards and teals that are common in our places, but at the dense, hard-to-wound northern duck - the sea and crested duck, at the blue and turpans. Do not believe those who say that their meat smells like fish. It's all nonsense! Even the big merganser, which is sometimes the hunter's prey at this time, if cooked correctly, does not think to smell like fish, although it also feeds on it. The only duck that really stinks of fish, as I have seen from my own experience, is the loot, the little merganser.

And here you are in the hut. In front of him, not far from the shore, a flock of "baits" froze. It’s cold, your hands get cold, your feet in rubber boots barely move, but all this, both cold and bad weather, instantly disappears when the eye notices a string of dives, black, like firebrands, spreading far, far above the water itself, like firebrands, which get along right to your stuffed animals. And only on how you set them up, how well they look, the success of the hunt depends.

The ducks are already close! With a hiss of feathers, their blue-gray legs spread out, they slow down, glide through the water and freeze at a close rifle shot. And when the flock sat down to the stuffed animals, when, quietly poking, the divers look around warily, do not move, try not to look at these beauties, because even the gleam of your eyes can betray you. Seeing the danger, the ducks quickly swim before takeoff, and even without any “warning” they will splash their paws and wings on the water and - remember what your name was!

The very charm of this hunt is in that unforgettable sight, when hundreds of ducks, red-headed pochards or other ducks literally fall from the sky to your stuffed animals with the noise of a passing train! It must be seen and felt!Such a hunt can be quite lucrative, especially if you get into a gross span. You can sit in a hut or in some other ambush all day. There is no shooting norm, and what a hunt without prey! If you are on a hunt with a partner, and even have a boat, you can drive diving flocks, wrapping them around stuffed animals.

Probably, this hunt also attracts me because my very first prey was the black sea drake - a drake in a black and white feather, shot down on a small lake near Moscow near the Yaroslavl highway. My hunting life began there, and the first impressions sunk into my soul forever. Later, while on student practice in the Novosibirsk region, on the eastern outskirts of the famous Baraba, I saw a real gross span of a diving duck, the flocks of which covered half the sky. Now it is hard to believe how many ducks flew and were caught there, on Lake Ubinsky. In those families where there were hunters, and certainly in each there was a hunter and more than one, several barrels of ducks were salted for the winter. Quilts and pillows made of selected down lay on the beds almost to the ceiling. How is it there now?

To lure passing ducks, and local ones too, herding before departure, you can put not only stuffed animals, but also profiles cut from plywood or sheet aluminum. Just like they do when hunting geese. More S.N. Alferaki mentions such profiles, made individually and mounted on floating wooden circles. Hunting magazines have repeatedly published materials about duck profiles. Some authors suggested making them connected in threes on a special cross, which is anchored. It seems to me that such profiles work worse than real full-sized stuffed animals, and there is no pleasure from them. Still, real, well-made stuffed animals, set up by a large flock, sometimes seem, swaying on a shallow wave, to be real live ducks.

Properly made duck stuffed- the key to success during the gross duck migration in the fall. In the spring they are not hunted - shooting at flocks is prohibited at this time. They are the main point in this exciting autumn hunting. Moreover, with a small number of stuffed animals, even well-made ones, hunting is boring. The duck will crawl to them reluctantly. You need at least 20-25 stuffed animals. I even put about fifty. Fuss, however, is a bit much, but it’s nice to look at such a “flock” and the duck brings them down perfectly. After all, this is a flocking bird and any accumulation of relatives attracts the rest.

Almost all of our hunting bases near Moscow have always been equipped with stuffed animals of the "military hunting" production. But it's not bait! These are scarecrows! The best domestic stuffed animals can be considered the products of the Omsk Tire Plant, as I have already said. They, of course, were made by experts in duck hunting with stuffed animals, which is widely practiced in the Omsk region. Today, stuffed mallards, teals, wigeons, pintails and dives of foreign production have appeared in stores. They are good, do not say anything! How alive. There are even "magnums", enlarged one and a half times, they can be seen from a great distance, and therefore they attract a duck with particular success.

However, you can make excellent scarecrows yourself. Almost everyone can cut out a duck likeness from hard polystyrene foam, prime it and paint it, who, as they say, has their hands inserted in the right place, and almost all real hunters are like that. He taught me how to do it, my classmate at the institute Yu.F. Mamaev. What is needed for this?

First of all, you need to get foam, but not the light and soft that goes to the packaging of TVs and thermal insulation. Get the one that makes life belts, floats for big nets, or buoyancy blocks for motorboats. The styrofoam should be firm and not wrinkle. Glue - "Moment" or BF-2. Just do not nitroglue - it dissolves the foam. You will need some kind of putty, oil, and preferably acrylic, art paints with a brush, a sharp knife, a rasp, medium-grain sandpaper, a drill with a long drill and a hacksaw or jigsaw. I sawed blanks with a string saw placed on a beam instead of a regular blade.

For the manufacture of stuffed animals, I used 4 cm thick foam plates. I looked for a thicker one, but did not find it, and it turned out that this is for the best, then you will understand why. However, the stuffed animal, its torso, must be at least 6 cm thick (height). Therefore, it was necessary, as it were, to extend the back of the body with an overlay 2 cm thick. table at a distance of 2 cm from its surface. It is necessary to cut by moving the workpiece along the table. Thickness is perfect. The head of the future stuffed animal is made separately. I also sawed it out of the main workpiece with a string saw. At the same time, a nest is formed for inserting the head of a stuffed animal during transportation or storage. That's what the four-centimeter plates came in handy for.

Transfer the patterns of the future stuffed dive drawn here onto cardboard and cut them out. In nature, the side of the cage is 2 cm. If you want to test stuffed "magnum" type, increase the side of the cage to 3 cm. Take a sheet of foam and place the torso templates on it as economically as possible, applying and circling them with a felt-tip pen (the pencil is not visible well). "Backs" will need half as much, because each will need to be sawn in two. Cut out all the blanks with a saw or jigsaw. Electric, of course, you can work faster. Saw, as mentioned above, the "back" in two.

Transfer the contours of the head from the template (the black contour is the black sea, and the red one is the red-headed pochard) onto the main carcasses and also cut them out. You can start right on the side. This cut is then sealed with putty. Thus, now we have three parts for each stuffed animal: two for the body and one for the head.

We glue the backs to the carcasses, and then, slowly and constantly checking with the template, we cut off everything superfluous with a knife until the outlines of something similar to the body of a duck appear. With the head, the situation is more complicated, although it can also be done. You just need to take a smaller and sharper knife or a scalpel and not be in a hurry. We bring our work to perfection with a rasp (flat, semicircular and round in turn).

Now we need to make a knot for attaching the head to the body. Having fixed the electric drill on the table with a clamp and inserting a drill of sufficient length (about 100 mm) into the chuck, immediately drill both the body (through and through!) And the head pressed against it. If there is a stationary drilling machine, the work is simplified. Then you need to glue a piece of plastic stick into the head. A plastic knitting needle of the same diameter as the drill or 0.1 mm thicker is suitable for this. By inserting the head with a stick into the hole drilled in the body, and carefully fitting the head to the body, we get the complete stuffed animal. In the socket for inserting the head, do not forget to make a recess for this stick.

It remains only to prime the surface of the body and head with putty, let it dry and then clean it with sandpaper.
I talk in such detail about the manufacture of foam plastic decoys, because, using this "method", you can successfully make stuffed not only ducks, but also black grouse, and pigeons, and waders, and even crows.

And finally, the final stage - coloring. Don't think you have to be an artist to do it. You will do an excellent job, because even as a child you held a brush in your hands. You just need to learn how to mix paints correctly, and you can dilute them not only with special solvents and artistic oils, which painters use, but also with ordinary drying oil. Add more siccative to make the paint dry faster and less shiny. Again, I will add that it is better to use acrylic paints, which do not give shine at all.

For scarecrow coloring pages blacks, for example, you only need four colors: black, white, brown, and yellow. It is absolutely not necessary to draw every feather, the main color spots located on the body of the bird are enough. Be guided by the drawings, which in a wide variety can be found in hunting books, guides, and hunting magazines. True, there are virtuosos, real artists who can paint a stuffed animal in such a way that even from 5-7 meters you cannot distinguish it from a living bird. Generally speaking, a large species diversity among the manufactured stuffed animals for hunting is not required. In my opinion, for diving it is a black (crested or sea), red-headed pochard and, maybe, goldeneye, and from river - mallard, wigeon and teal. Moreover, the autumn “clothing” of river ducks does not differ much, and only in late autumn, at the end of October or the beginning of November, do drakes dress in a mating, spring outfit, in which they hibernate.

Start painting the entire batch of stuffed animals at once with any one color. For example, the body and head of the drake of the black sea drake are black. Then the beaks and backs are gray, the sides are white, and at the end of the eyes are yellow. For completeness, do not forget to put a black pupil. Color the duck brown, a little white near the beak, and the beak is like a drake's. By the way, the eyes turn out to be more natural if, before coloring, a place is pressed for them with some kind of round object, for example, the head of a bolt.That's all. Let the paint dry, and then wipe the stuffed animals with a cloth soaked in kerosene, if you used oil paints, otherwise they will shine a lot. You can also go over the top with sandpaper. From below, at a distance of 1/3-1/4 of the length of the body from the front edge, glue flushwith a bottom-abdomen a bracket for tying a sinker, preferably from a coloredmetal to prevent rust.I am sure that an experienced duck hunter will be able to color a scarecrow without any color pictures and guides. He just knows for a long time how the color spots are located in one or another type of duck. I would advise a beginner to refer to reference literature as often as possible.

If you don’t fix it on a scarecrow sinker, the scarecrow will naturally float away. What hunters just do not use as cargo for a stuffed animal. There are nails, and nuts, and bolts, and all sorts of other pieces of iron. I made a sinker like this. From cable lead, I cut rectangular pieces 3 by 8 cm in size, drilled a hole at one end and tied 3-4 meters of fishing line 0.5-0.6 mm thick, and the other end of the fishing line to a stuffed animal. In the water, it is completely invisible, and therefore the duck is not afraid. I wind the fishing line on the sinker itself as on a reel, and so that it does not unravel, I made a simple fastening - an oblique cut on the sinker on the side. Having unbent the sharp little tongue, I lay the fishing line in the incision and fix it, pressing it with the tongue. And it holds perfectly and it’s easy to take into account the depth of the reservoir - you can wind the fishing line even more. The loops at both ends of the fishing line must be made wider so that it is easier to remove it from both the stuffed animal and the sinker if necessary.

If possible, make scarecrows of at least 20-25 pieces. True, they occupy a decent volume, but I think there will always be a place for such a load in the trunk of your car. This hunt is worth it.

Right put up scarecrows also need to know. Do not put them too close to each other, consider the length of the fishing line for which the scarecrow is tied. From the wind at too long, they swim widely to the left and right and can “stick together”, and the ducks that have merged are a danger signal to others. Throw stuffed mallards and teals in a shallow place, and dives, where it is deeper. Do not mix them in one flock. As a rule, they are kept separately. If the wind is from the side, then the stuffed animals should not be placed directly in front of the ambush, but to the left or right of it. The flock sits down (and takes off too) against the wind and, accelerating, flies over the stuffed animals, facing the hunter. By the way, it’s generally better not to put stuffed animals in front of the ambush, because the ducks will sit on the side. You just need to take into account the strength of the wind and put the stuffed animals further or closer, depending on this. If the wind blows from you to the pond, then place the stuffed animals closer to the ambush, and then the ducks will splash down very close to your shelter. Especially if it is a flock of mallards. They always, like the teal, try to sit in a quiet place. In general, do not expose stuffed animals further than 20-25 meters from the ambush. Otherwise, you will bite your elbows, looking at the resting and diving divers who sat outside the shot. Here, instead of a gun, you only need binoculars. It is useful to place a stuffed (artificial, of course!) seagull or, even better, a crow on a long stick near the ambush. A calmly sitting crow is a sign for all living things that there is no danger near this place. Such stuffed animals can be bought at the store or, just like a stuffed duck, you can make it yourself.

In the autumn duck hunting, the weather is considered to be cloudy with the wind, which spreads the wave, and the duck begins to look for shelter and dangles around the pond from place to place. In such weather, scarecrows work especially well. If there is complete calm, calm, and even warmer, then the duck herds on high water and does not fly at all. How to be? If you are on a boat, but with a friend who also has a boat at his disposal, you can drive the duck. It is necessary to swim away, having swum the flock from the side opposite to your ambush, and slowly push the ducks to the bait, to the hiding place. At first, ducks, especially diving ducks, will simply swim away from an annoying hunter, but then they will begin to take off from the water. If the corral is done correctly, then they will not bypass their rubber and plastic relatives and will definitely sit down to them. You just need to take your time and try to make the ducks fly in small batches. Mallards in most cases are torn off by the whole flock at once.

Having a large number of rubber duck stuffed animals, you need to take care of their safety. After hunting - wipe dry and store straightened, and not folded in half as during transportation. If they are left for the winter in a freezing room (in a barn or on a balcony), then they can crack, become brittle (modern plastic ones are not susceptible to this). Some grades of rubber do not withstand the test of frost. After a couple of winters, such stuffed animals will become unusable. Therefore, they should be kept out of season in a heated room. Although, if there are a lot of stuffed animals, then they take up a lot of space, which complicates their storage. I did this. I bent the hooks from two-millimeter aluminum wire, tied them one by one to the cord, and fastened stuffed animals on the hooks with a garland and hung them in a secluded corner of the house. They take up very little space and don't get in the way.

And one more thing. Making wooden duck decoys for hunting has been practiced for a very long time, all over the world and mainly in places of mass passage of waterfowl, and these are large rivers on flyways, the coasts of large lakes or sea bays. Each hunter has always made these effigies to the best of his ability and, perhaps most importantly, in accordance with local traditions. They made not only for themselves, but also to order, for sale. So craftsmen gradually began to appear, whose stuffed animals were especially valued. Some of them have become so famous that stuffed animals made by them are still very expensive. This is a whole layer, as we say, of hunting culture. When factory-made and in large numbers “as if alive” ducks began to appear, the handicraft industry gradually came to naught.

And yet interest in this case has not faded at all. Today, there are hobbyists and connoisseurs all over the world who pay big money to acquire hand-made stuffed ducks for their collections. Here, for example, is a collection of stuffed North American hunters (photo from the German magazine "Wild und Hund" - in the photo on the left).

Moreover, there are cool craftsmen who make stuffed animals not only and not so much for hunting, but for decorating the interior, hunting room, office. In fact, this is already an animalistic sculpture, in its origin having purely practical, hunting purposes. That is why such works are valued primarily by those who understand a lot about hunting. The cost of such unique works is high. Even competitions and auctions are organized, where the price of a rare effigy made in the old days or by a famous craftsman reaches several thousand, or even tens of thousands of dollars.

Some modern masters replicate their works in small series. Then the cost of these stuffed animals, numbered and signed by the author, is somewhat reduced. The circulation of copyright, as they are called, works can reach a thousand pieces, and the price is two or three hundred dollars.

Watch an interesting video on this topic.

Unfortunately, there is no such practice in our country, although I am sure that there will be not only lovers of collecting hunting rarities in the form of stuffed duck decoys, but also real craftsmen who are able to make them.

Many experienced hunters prefer to use stuffed ducks to attract the bird while hunting. However, they do not have to be bought in the store. You can make a stuffed duck with your own hands, using simple and inexpensive materials.

What are scarecrows for?

Duck stuffed animals are designed to attract the attention of a bird that flies by. It is best to use this method for successful hunting in early spring, when the drake is in search of a female to mate with. You can also use stuffed animals in late autumn, when flocks are formed to fly to warmer climes.

To hunt was productive, adhere to the following rules:

• set the bait in an open area that is free from vegetation so that the ducks can see it well;
• when placing dummies, consider where it is best to fire;
• place stuffed river ducks in shallow water, and diving ducks in deeper parts of the reservoir;
• plant scarecrows in small groups. The optimal distance between them is 2-4 m;
• adjust the landing of the decoys according to the strength and direction of the wind, as this affects where the ducks land.

These simple rules will increase the likelihood of a successful hunt.

Effigies from polystyrene foam boards

What will be needed for this? It is very easy to make a stuffed duck out of foam plastic with your own hands. In this case, you will need inexpensive materials that can be found in almost any hardware store. Making such a model will take you several hours.

For a homemade stuffed animal, you will need the following materials:

• a piece of foam, which must be at least 2 cm thick. Thin and fragile material will not work, because it may crumble or not have sufficient floating properties;
• Super glue. Please note that nitro glue will not work, as it can damage the foam;
• acrylic paints;
• putty.

It is also important to stock up on tools - brushes for painting, a clerical knife, pencil, sandpaper.

Step-by-step instruction:

Scarecrow from polyurethane foam (required materials and tools)

Making stuffed ducks from polyurethane foam with your own hands is very simple and everyone can do it. The layout is made using simple and inexpensive materials, but for everything to work out, you need to follow all the recommendations and use your imagination.

Rubber stuffed mallard duck

Homemade duck stuffed animals are created from the following materials:

• a large shoe box;
• gypsum for construction work;
• mounting foam;
• the cheapest fat cream;
• sandpaper;
• plasticine;
• container for making gypsum dough. Please note that it will then become unusable for further use;
• copper wire;
• acrylic primer and paint;
• finished stuffed rubber.

Making a plaster mold

To make do-it-yourself duck stuffed from polyurethane foam for hunting, you must use a capacious box of any materials. If you put a rubber mock-up in it, then at least 5 mm of free space should remain on the sides. Then the resulting form will be strong and durable.

• Dilute the gypsum in the prepared container to get the consistency of thick sour cream.
• Place the rubber dummy in the box, and pour plaster into the free space. It is best to do this overnight as the mold needs to dry well.

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• When the plaster is hard enough, take the rubber dummy out of the box. Check for voids or other defects on the surface of the mold. Only a perfectly even and smooth plaster model is suitable for making do-it-yourself duck stuffed animals for hunting.
• When one half of the form is ready, put the rubber stuffed animal back into it, while lubricating its end with a fat cream. In this form, install the layout in the box. It should protrude beyond the edges of the plaster mold by 5 mm.
• Pour gypsum into the prepared box. We wait a few hours for the material to become solid enough. After that, we take out the form and, if necessary, eliminate all irregularities with sandpaper, and fill large voids with plasticine.
• In the finished form, make several holes with a diameter of 8-10 mm so that you can control the quality of its filling.

Let's start making a scarecrow from polyurethane foam

1. Lubricate the inner surface of the mold with cream. Do not skip any section, because in this case you will not be able to remove the finished product.
2. In order for the stuffed animal to keep its shape well and be stable, place copper wire inside the mold, which will act as stiffeners.
3. Connect the two halves of the mold, then fill them through the prepared holes with mounting foam. At the same time, keep in mind that this material increases in size during the solidification process. Therefore, fill out the form by 80-90%. Also, do not forget to monitor the quality of work through the holes, do not allow the formation of voids.
4. When you're done, place a heavy weight on top of the mold to prevent warping of the layout.
5. When the foam hardens, gently pry the homemade stuffed animal out of the mold with a wide screwdriver.
6. Insert a metal ring into the finished layout to fix it in the right place.
7. Apply acrylic primer to the entire surface, and then proceed to painting. The more natural the scarecrow looks, the more useful it will bring you during the hunt.

Plywood stuffed animals

Homemade duck stuffed plywood are considered the easiest to make. But their main drawback is that they are short-lived, since constant exposure to water leads to their deterioration. When making decoys for hunting, create several profiles that will mimic the different poses of the bird.

The most important points in this case are the realism of the contour and the naturalness of the color. This is the only way to attract a bird.

To make plywood profiles, you will need the following materials:

• cardboard;
• simple pencil;
• plywood sheet;
• fine-toothed hacksaw;
• sandpaper;
• drying oil;
• brushes;
• metal wire;
• wooden peg;
• gasoline or kerosene;
• oil paints.

Step-by-step instructions for making a scarecrow from plywood

1. Draw on the cardboard the required number of profiles of different shapes, and then cut them out. Use ready-made elements as templates.
2. Lay the prepared templates as tightly as possible on a sheet of plywood. Cut out the profile with a narrow, fine-toothed hacksaw. If you don't have one, use a chisel.
3. Carefully sand the edges of the parts with sandpaper.
4. Apply hot drying oil to the surface, let it dry.
5. Color them as realistic as possible with oil paints. Apply it at the same time to all profiles so that they look the same.
6. So that the paint does not shine, after it dries, apply a little gasoline or kerosene to the surface with a dry cloth.
7. Attach a wooden peg 20-22 cm long and 2 cm thick to the profile or a short metal tube into which insert a sharp stick. They can also be made removable, which will facilitate the transportation of stuffed animals. Be sure to paint them the same color as the profiles.
8. To make the profile stable, drill a hole in it and in the peg, then connect them with a wire pin. Make an appropriate cutout on the belly of the stuffed animal.

Making a stuffed duck for hunting on your own is not as difficult as it seems. Therefore, devote a few hours of your time to such an exciting activity. Each of the options will be effective if you follow all the recommendations during the manufacture of bird models.

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Video: Imitation of a duck flock on the water

Hunting for a duck using a stuffed decoy duck, with apparent simplicity, has many of its tricks.. From the hunter, it requires a good knowledge of the behavior, movement and migration of birds. In addition, the choice of stuffed animals, the time and place of their placement, the number of dummies launched into the water affect the success of the hunt.

Having considered all these points separately, you will be ready for duck hunting.

Features of duck hunting with stuffed animals

The most suitable time for hunting ducks with stuffed animals autumn. At this time, birds gather in flocks before a long flight. The number of birds that lived in this area is seriously increasing due to those arriving from the north.

It is them that the hunters are waiting for in their shelters, having launched effigies into the water. Instincts cause ducks to decrease at the sight of relatives to rest, feed and unite before moving on.

The hunter must build yourself a hut on the border of clear water and reed-reed thickets.

Duck models should be placed directly on the water, and not in the thickets, and in the variant of autumn hunting they are installed closer to the hut, so that there are more chances to kill the duck that has worked up fat over the summer and has built up a layer of fluff under the feather.

All layouts need to be divided depending on the breed, you can not lower together the mock-ups of river and diving ducks.

Stuffed ducks are lowered into shallow water, as they feed on plant foods, and diving ducks into high water, at depth, they feed on small river animals.

Effigies lowered one by one can go unnoticed flying birds, while a resting flock is sure to attract attention.

The average flock among hunters is considered to be about twenty individuals., which can be arranged in several groups, so you have to stock up on stuffed animals.

Usually stuffed ducks are hollow, not inflatable, and such a flock will take up quite a lot of space in a backpack.

Let's talk about how to properly arrange stuffed ducks. The flock should look natural and not disturb the birds.. So, if you place stuffed birds too close, they will look like they are huddled together at the moment of danger. Scarecrows scattered all over the lake will look unnatural, since ducks are flocking birds and do not behave like that.

The optimal distance between them is three meters, and it is better to arrange them in the form of the English letter J or V.

Stuffed birds should be fastened with steel wire, not rope, then they will not get mixed up with each other. In addition, to make the stuffed animals look more natural in the water, a weight is attached to the wire.

Types of duck stuffed animals

They can divided according to breed: mallards, teals, diving, goldeneyes and others.

In most reservoirs, the following picture is observed: almost all species sit down on stuffed mallards, while mallards do not react to other stuffed animals.

There is also "size range" stuffed animals: regular, large and extra large.

Also different poses of ducks captured during the manufacture of stuffed animals. It is a sleeping or resting duck, diving or feeding.

Stuffed animals are made from different materials. Rubber stuffed ducks are the most convenient for hunting in terms of transportation, but they also have their drawbacks. They are light and will look unnatural on the waves. If you hit such a stuffed animal with a gun, you will disable it until the end of the hunt (at least).

With improper staining, stuffed animals shine and this scares away the ducks. In addition, the paint peels off them very quickly. Experts suggest painting models with oil paint, adding rubber glue to it. After staining, the scarecrow is wiped with paraffin to get rid of the shine.

Besides, stuffed animals are wooden or foam, as well as plastic. New products on the market - mechanical scarecrows flapping wings.

Features of choosing stuffed ducks for hunting

When choosing stuffed animals for future hunting, you need to know the specifics of the local reservoirs, and variety of duck species that live here or fly by during winter or spring migration. This will help to choose stuffed animals of the same breeds.

The season also plays a role., so in the spring time it is worth giving preference to a stuffed female.

For a variety of flocks, so that it looks natural and does not alert the birds, stuffed birds of different sizes and in different poses should be used.

Estimate how you will get to the hunting place, how many comrades will accompany you, the capacity of your backpacks, and based on this, decide on the number of stuffed animals used and the material from which they are made.

Features of buying stuffed animals

Today there are no problems with buying duck stuffed animals, just decide on a convenient way to buy: go to a store specializing in hunting goods or go to the website of the corresponding online store.

The stores carry a full range of stuffed animals, and you can easily choose a flock of natural looking birds.

Necessary pay attention to the seasonal coloring of stuffed birds.

There are sets of stuffed animals painted to look like a summer feather (for example, GreenheadGear, 6 stuffed animals, resting or awake, your choice). The same company presents a set of three effigies, painted like a winter feather, with large sizes and an enlarged keel to keep well on the water in a strong wind.

Such a kit will suit a novice hunter, will allow you to try hunting under different seasonal and weather conditions.

DIY stuffed ducks

At home, wooden stuffed animals are most often made.. For their manufacture, small, twenty centimeters in diameter, wooden chocks are used (linden is taken in the original). They should be dried without removing the bark during the winter. When the log has dried out, it is split into two parts. Each half will make a stuffed animal.

Then make a template: from a piece of cardboard, blanks are made of the carcass view from the front, bottom and side, as well as the head, side and front. The templates are transferred to a wooden blank, after which it is necessary to remove all unnecessary. The head is made from another piece of wood.

When both the body and the head are ready, they are connected with a stick, having drilled holes in both parts. Now almost finished scarecrow go through sandpaper and polish.

it's coming time for the exterior. All irregularities are rubbed with putty and covered with drying oil and allowed to dry.

Then follows water surface test. The scarecrow should not lean in any direction. If this happens, then it is balanced with metal plates, or shots, which are driven into the right places. At the same stage, a loop is attached to tie a rope with a load.

Final stage- This painting with oil paints. Now the scarecrow will take its rightful place in your arsenal.

Another option - making a scarecrow from ordinary polyurethane foam.

From one cylinder we can make up to five mallards.

We need a shape: any plastic duck. We will simply paste over it with paper using the papier-mâché technique. It will take a lot of paper and glue, as well as time.

The very first layers it is good to make from soft toilet paper or napkins, simply by winding and soaking with glue, subsequent layers are made of thicker paper.

When the number of layers of paper reaches ten, you can finish the job. Leave our duck to dry well, you can wait a week to be sure.

By cutting the paper layout in half horizontally, we we get two blanks, which (previously lubricated with paraffin or greasy cream) will be filled with foam. At the bottom you need to put something heavy, for example, a nut. After the foam dries, we take out both halves, fasten them and proceed to the exterior finish.

Mounting foam is not very strong and can absorb water, so the outer layer should be as moisture resistant as possible. Putty and drying oil, oil paint and varnish. Choose the composition that you think best meets this requirement.

Summing up, we can say that stuffed duck hunting can be used in spring and autumn, on all reservoirs. Their use makes hunting more effective.

We also bring to your attention an interesting video clip about the autumn duck hunting with stuffed animals:

Homemade stuffed decoy ducks: manufacturing secrets

Hunting for waterfowl is perhaps the most popular and massive. It is more accessible than others, since reservoirs - lakes, rivers, swamps - are everywhere. Yes, and in terms of the number of trophies, hunting for waterfowl will give odds to any other species. This is especially true for wild ducks. Shooting a weighty mallard, a nimble teal, a slender pintail or a swift goldeneye is within the power of not only an experienced hunter, but also a beginner. It’s just that it’s not so easy to attract such birds and make them sit on the water, and shooting at them in flight is not always effective.

That is why most hunters use a stuffed decoy duck in this case. It is installed on the water, and they themselves hide nearby. Ducks flying over a pond notice their "relatives" and often sit next to them. This is where the real hunting begins. And in order to feel all her excitement and replenish your collection with another trophy, it is not necessary to buy a figurine of a bird, you can make a stuffed duck yourself.

How many and what

It is not difficult. The main thing is that the model should look natural, be made in the pose of a resting or feeding duck and have a color close to natural. A scarecrow with an unnaturally planted head, tensely frozen on the water, or very vaguely resembling the bird that should be portrayed, is unsuitable. It will only scare away the "relatives" flying by.

As for the size of the stuffed duck, here the opinions of many hunters differ. Some believe that it is preferable if the model is 1.5-2 times larger than the original.

Interesting. Due to the peculiarities of their eyesight, these birds cannot assess the conformity of the size of the stuffed animal to true live ducks. But such dummies will be more noticeable to a flying flock. As practice shows, ducks sit down to them more often and more willingly.

On the other hand, carrying a huge bag stuffed with stuffed animals for hunting is not very convenient. However, there should be a lot of them, because the number of decoys is even more important than their size. Experienced waterfowl hunters claim that the more “species” are planted, the higher the probability of successful hunting, because numerous flocks very rarely sit down to 2-3 birds swimming alone in the reservoir. But you shouldn't take too many stuffed animals with you. Otherwise, landing and collecting them will take more time than hunting itself. "Flocks" of 10-15 ducks will be enough.

Important! They should be planted at a distance of at least half a meter from each other, since closely sitting birds are evidence that they are alarmed and about to take off.

With a large number of dummies, the following sizes will be optimal in all respects:

• length - 27 cm;
• width - 14 cm;
• back height - 7 cm;
• tail length - 4.5 cm;
• head height - 6.5 cm;
• neck width - 4 cm;
• head thickness - about 3 cm;
• beak length - 3.5 cm.

The stuffed female will be slightly smaller. Its length is 24 cm, width - 12-13 cm, all other sizes decrease in the same proportion.

What kind of stuffed duck breeds do you need to have? If you go hunting in autumn, then all those that nest and stop on this reservoir. In the spring, there is no need for a large number of ducks. A variety of “cavaliers” are well attached to the decoy mallard, so a pair of stuffed teals will be enough for her “society”. For more information on where and how you can hunt in our region, see.

What can stuffed animals be made from?

You can make a stuffed duck for hunting from many different materials, including from:

• polystyrene boards;
• penoplex;
• plywood;
• tree;
• mounting foam.

Each of these dummies will have its own manufacturing features, advantages and disadvantages.

Making a stuffed decoy duck out of polystyrene foam board is very simple. Sometimes for these purposes they take ordinary foam, which is also made on the basis of polystyrene. Both types of material can be easily found in the store. Making such a model will take only a few hours.

For this you will need:

• foam sheet with a thickness of at least 2 cm;
• Super glue;
• acrylic paints;
• putty.

In addition, you will need paint brushes, a clerical knife, a pencil, and sandpaper for work.

First you need to find a suitable image of a duck, print it and cut out the template. In the process of work, the whole bird should be transferred to the cardboard first, then only its wing. Using the patterns obtained, you need to cut out the required parts from polystyrene foam or polystyrene, 2 pieces each. The elements of the body should be glued together to get a three-dimensional figure of a bird, and put it under the press.

After the workpiece dries, it should be given the desired shape, add some done to make it more similar to the original. You can achieve the desired result with the help of a regular clerical knife.

It is mandatory to attach a keel to the bottom of the workpiece, which will allow you to install a small load and give the stuffed animal stability in strong currents. For this, a piece of plastic pipe is quite suitable.

All irregularities on the scarecrow can be eliminated with sandpaper. To get the perfect surface, you should putty all the joints and wait until the figure is completely dry, and you can proceed to painting. For this purpose, it is desirable to use colors characteristic of those ducks that are to be hunted.

Penoplex (a kind of extruded polystyrene foam with a characteristic brick color) can also be used as the basis for a dummy. It is produced in the form of sheets with a thickness of 3 and 5 cm. This material has a higher density and strength, therefore, in order to cut blanks from it and give them the desired shape, some effort will be required.

The sequence of actions in the manufacture of a stuffed duck from foam will be almost the same. On a sheet of material, by hand or using a cardboard pattern, the torso and head are drawn and then cut out. Depending on which scarecrow you want to get at the exit, you can use pieces of different thicknesses. For example, to make the body of a female, one sheet of 5 cm will be enough. The stuffed animal of the male is larger, so it is cut out of two parts. One of them will serve as the base, so it is made thicker and larger in area. The second, thinner, is glued on top.

Further, with the help of a knife, the body and head are given the desired shape. All roughness and irregularities are removed with sandpaper - first coarse-grained, then fine. You can't really do that with a knife.

The head and torso are connected with a self-tapping screw. After that, the bird figurine will only need to be painted and equipped with a load.

The easiest to manufacture is considered to be a stuffed plywood duck. However, it should be remembered that this material is short-lived, under the influence of water it quickly becomes unusable.

The most important point in the manufacture of stuffed plywood is the realism of the profile and natural coloring. This is the only way to attract "relatives" flying by. From one sheet of material, you can cut out several bird profiles that will imitate different poses. The edges of the parts should be carefully sanded, and then hot drying oil should be applied to the entire surface of the workpiece. This will save the figure from quick soaking and allow the mixture to lie down more evenly.

You can paint stuffed animals using ordinary oil paints. So that the surface does not shine after drying, you can apply a little gasoline on it and wipe it with a dry cloth.

At the end of the work, duck profiles are placed on small boards 20-25 cm long and up to 2 cm thick. In this form, they are put on the water, having previously been provided with a load.

Wooden stuffed ducks are recommended to be made from linden. It is light, easy to process, practically does not give chips. It is better to prepare logs for figurines in advance and let them dry well. The optimal length of such a blank is 30-35 cm, diameter - 18-20 cm. It should be cleaned of bark and split in half, one stuffed carcass will be obtained from each part.

First you need to make templates, transfer the outlines to the workpiece and remove the extra tree with a chisel or knife. Then cut out the head of the bird, make a hole from the bottom and insert a small stick into it, previously lubricated with glue. It should protrude outward a few centimeters. A similar hole should be drilled in the neck on the body, insert this stick there and connect the two parts.

Having done this, you can proceed to the final finishing of the stuffed decoy duck. All irregularities should be removed with a rasp and sandpaper, putty, coat the surface of the workpiece with hot drying oil and dry. At the bottom of the blank, closer to the front edge, you need to drive a metal loop in order to be able to anchor the stuffed animal anywhere.

After that, the bird figurine will only have to be painted, choosing the most suitable colors and shades.

These figures look very realistic. Making a stuffed duck out of polyurethane foam is quite simple, it is enough to follow certain recommendations, which should be discussed in more detail.

• How to arrange stuffed decoy ducks for hunting

Materials and tools

To work, you will need very inexpensive materials:

• boards or fiberboard;
• a piece of foam;
• building plaster or alabaster;
• mounting foam;
• plastic bag;
• hammer, saw.

Important! One bottle of foam with a volume of 750 ml is enough on average to make five stuffed ducks. It is best, of course, to calculate in such a way as to use it to the end. If you're lucky, you can use the cylinder left at hand after the repair and construction work carried out the day before. Otherwise, you will have to buy professional foam and a gun for it, since it is impossible to reuse the usual “rigging”. The unused bottle will only be thrown away.

You need to start with a mold for casting. To do this, you need a box and a duck figurine. If you wish, you can do without the first one, adapting any dense box for these purposes.

You can make a box yourself, using boards or fiberboard for this.

A duck figurine can be cut out of foam. An easier option is to use a ready-made stuffed animal, for example, made of rubber.

The size of the box or crate should be slightly larger than the bird figurine, otherwise the mold will require too much plaster. It is also not worth taking a very close one, otherwise the design will turn out to be fragile and short-lived.

Now you can proceed to the manufacture of the form. To do this, you need to take gypsum or alabaster, add water to it and mix well until a homogeneous mass is formed. The duck figurine should be smeared with graphite or any other lubricant, greasy cream or vegetable oil so that the gypsum does not stick to the surface.

The working solution must be poured into a prepared box or box, and so that it does not leak out, put a plastic bag on the bottom. Duck should be half-drowned in plaster, hold a little until the mixture hardens a little, then remove. After complete hardening, you can also take out the gypsum with an impression from the box, and in the same way make the second half-mould.

It is imperative to check if there are any defects on the surface, and if there are any, eliminate them using sandpaper or plasticine.

The form is ready, you need to lubricate its halves with the same lubricant so that the mounting foam does not stick, and you can cast a figure of a decoy duck. To make it more durable, you need to make an additional wire profile. You can also attach a weight to it.

Both forms are filled with foam (80-90%), the wire is also laid there. Until the mass begins to solidify, the two halves must be connected, put a load on them and leave for a while, for example, overnight.

Then the excess foam is cut off, and the workpiece is removed from the mold. Now the stuffed duck should be finalized, give it smooth lines and a certain smoothness. You may have to use the mounting foam again to fill the formed shells.

Oil paint should be used for painting as it does not destroy the foam. Its only drawback is the long drying time. You can paint at your discretion, but if you approach this work with imagination, you can make an excellent stuffed animal, which is almost impossible to distinguish from a live duck.

A few words about the stability of homemade stuffed animals

The natural appearance of the bird is wonderful. But a decoy duck should resemble a living one and by its behavior - this is an indispensable condition for a successful hunt. To do this, it must properly float on the water, not fall sideways in strong winds or waves, and not bury its beak in the water.

This is easy to achieve, you just need to know how. You can, for example, make a scarecrow a wider underwater part. Its stability with a slight wave will increase significantly, but with a strong wind the bird will fall early.

To solve the problem, you need to make a scarecrow ballast, which will help to stay on the water. It can be permanent and removable, lead and water.

Permanent ballast is made from two small pieces of lead weighing 50-100 g and a wire bent at an angle. The design looks very simple. Pieces of lead are attached to the top of the wire, and its ends to the bottom of the stuffed animal. The design will move freely along and thus will not allow the duck to fall sideways. True, pitching cannot be eliminated in this way, and the bird can easily fall forward or fall back.

Temporary ballast is done a little differently. A threaded plate is attached to the bottom of the stuffed animal, into which, before landing on the water, a copper wire with two pieces of lead is screwed. This design will not allow the figure to swing in any direction. There is one inconvenience - the ballast will have to be removed, then hung again. Yes, and at a shallow depth it will not work to use it - the minimum wire length is 15 cm.

For these purposes, a water balance is suitable, which is a small open box that is attached to the bottom of the stuffed animal. The design has several holes through which water is drawn in and poured out. This is an almost perfect balance, it solves the problem with pitching by 100%, but slightly increases the size of the stuffed animal.

Of the simpler devices that allow you to keep the bird in the right position, you can use a sinker tied to the bottom, a tightly closed bottle, a sealed tin can with an attached eye.

The stuffed ducks discussed above are one of the simplest designs. At the same time, more complex and interesting models can be found in stores, including mechanical ones that can move and create the illusion of the presence of a real bird. They are sometimes pretty decent, so not everyone agrees to buy them. In fact, there is nothing complicated about them. It is enough to show a little imagination, and everyone can make something similar, for example, a stuffed duck with wings flapping in the wind.

As a manufacturing material, you can take the same foam. The torso, head, paws and tail of the duck must first be drawn on paper. Those who want to make it easier for themselves can take measurements from the stuffed animals available from fellow hunters or in the catalog of the online store. The drawing is transferred to the penoplex, individual elements are cut out with a jigsaw.

Parts consisting of two parts (for example, the body) are glued together, as in the case of making a simpler model, they are protected with a clerical knife, and then with sandpaper for painting.

Then the fun part begins - assembly. There are a lot of secret "chips" here. For example, to attach the head to the body, you can use a regular pen with a cap. A hole is drilled in the body of the duck, and a cap is glued there. Part of the sawn off handle is attached to the head in the same way. Outside, only the area that will be closed to the caps should remain. Holds perfect!

The paws can be fixed with toothpicks, the tail can be inserted into a specially made incision. To install the wings across the body, you will need to drill a hole and insert an aluminum tube into it. It will protect the foam from rapid wear. The wings themselves are cut out of ordinary cardboard. Then “cocktail tubes” are sewn to them, and the threads are glued with superglue. To give the wings a smooth bend, cardboard blanks are wound onto the pipe. You can put them on an ordinary steel rod, installing small furniture plugs along the edges.

It remains to paint, and a homemade stuffed duck with flapping wings is ready.

Another "secret": when making a scarecrow in the lower part of the bird's body, you need to drill a hole and insert a small piece of plastic pipe. It is there that the pole will be attached, on which the duck will “sit”.

Proven in practice! Such a miracle bird is taken for its own not only by its "relatives". Even hunters, coming out of the reeds, raise their guns, thinking that they have frightened off a live duck!

In a word, making a scarecrow with your own hands is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. This exciting activity is worth devoting a few hours to it. If you follow all the recommendations, any of the options proposed above will be successful and effective.

Video about how many decoys are needed for duck hunting:

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