Anyone have any of these from academy? Just wandering if they are worth the money. I have not tried this brand before and can get them at real good price. But would like to see if rhey are somewhat decent

paint falls off quickly.

Kelly

there not worth a crap

I know I am highly opinionated. I confess this. Save your money and get a dozen of the plane Jane G&H mallard decoys made right in Henrietta, OK. I have a set of the magnums with the swivel heads that have been going since 1997 and they will be used again this year. They cost more but they are worth it. You will LOVE the way they throw and pop right up. It makes it easy to put them out. I like the swivel heads but the plain Jane version is fine.

only after season when you can get a dz of GW for $0.01. i know, ive seen it happen

Game Winner decoys are the worst I have ever used.

Game winner clothing is good if your just looking for cheap camo after the season. wait till Jan/Feb and it's DIRT cheap.

I'd avoid any of their actual gear/calls/decoys outside of that.

i bought 4 dz gw for $45. sold them on ebay for $120

Hmmm... That's all I use and judging by the comments you'd think you couldn't kill ducks over them... Must've been my expert calling... Geez, high dollar hunters must really hate guys like me that use Game Winner (Tanglefree) decoys, cheap calls, a Mossberg 835, and Winchester Xpert steel and still manage to have a good time shooting ducks.

That being said... I can tell you that the cheap decoys function the same as their more expensive cousins. I can tell you that the paint does chip, and they don't stand up to a 3" load of #4 steel. But if ducks are close enough to see the chipped paint, they should be dead already and no one should expect a decoy to be bulletproof. Seriously, if people beef up their spread by using 2 liter bottles painted black or brown or whatever- the cheap decoys are well past that as far as realism. Buy them. I can attest that you won't regret it and you also won't get mad when your buddies hit them trying to finish off a wounded bird.

Well I have heard you call and yes you are good. I also shoot an 835 and now own 2 dozen of these deeks for less than I would pay for a dozen of the better ones. I use homemade calls since I don't want to pay high dollars for stuff made in Japan or China and I also use winchester xpert loads (wich tend to be the cheapest). I go duck hunting to spend time with my son and friends not just to kill thing that is just a bonus. If I go out and don't shoot 1 shell I still got to spend time in the field and got away from the hassle's of everyday living.

Thanks fo rthe info guy's BTW.
Scooter pm me if you want me to get you some more.

I think for many situations, those cheap academy decoys work just fine for the budget conscious person, but I would say only for the “weighted” ones where you can chunk them and they always land right side up, I would not mess with the other ones. I love the cheap mallard hens, they work just fine for gadwalls and teal if that is what you expect to shoot. And early morning, any decoy works pretty well even on shy birds, especially with movement in your spread, the critical success factors are being where the ducks want to land, good blind/cover, and not missing shots.

I have a bunch of those cheap hen decoys I have texas rigged, and I leave them outside all season all rigged up in 3 or 4 different spots on my lease where I have blinds set-up,I get to the blind, grab them, chunk them, they work great for that and doing that with expensive deeks would not make much sense.



But nice decoys for blue bird late morning/late season migratory mallards on public, nice deeks pay. So just depends on the situation, but cheap deeks have their place.

Yea Guy they are weighted keel and they look pretty good. And I pretty much hunt private now also Guy ( 99% of the time) so the public hunting factor not matter to me

I have some of the game winners, if you are trying to impress humans they dont work as well, but if your strictly trying to decoy birds, they'll get the job done.

The man who taught me how to duck hunt, a coonass from Monroe, has the worst decoys I have ever seen. Literally a collection that he has found over the years. We'll just leave it at the greenheads arent so green anymore. He harvests plenty of birds, and hes that guy that will only shoot green.

Bottom line, use what YOUR confident in. They all work.

Saw a dozen of the Remington decoys that come with decoy cord, a bag, and weights for $9.88. Normally $50. Heck just a decoy bag or weights will cost $10 bucks

work fine when I use them... just take care of them

I have been using the teal for years. I even have some of the butts.

you get what you pay for...I would rather spend some extra money on good decoys instead of having to re-paint or replace cheap decoys every couple of years. After hunting over and handling 10 year old G&H deeks last season that still looked great I was sold.

I hunted over Scooters cheapo deks before...the teal had orange paint coloring on them! LOL Probably the worst decoys I've ever laid eyes on. With that said we still killed ducks. There are so many factors in duck hunting that it's hard to pin down what is the make or break factor.

sure those werent mine??