full body vs. shells

The shells are cheaper and would probably be easier to stack but the full bodies look more realistic even though I doubt too many ducks could tell a difference from the air. People with experience on either one and brands you would recommend?

Are you asking about ducks or geese? If you mean a set up predominantly one over the other ...

Ducks = Full Body Avery

Honkers = Shells, with spring type motion stakes

Ducks

There's a BIG difference between the two no doubt.I only hunt fulls on land but shells have their purpose too.

Of your hunting standing crop the shells work great. Everything I hunt is flat and shallow water so the full body work better for us.

Full bodies are the only way to go IMO. Although more bulk they are worth it. Ducks/Geese (maybe not snows, and the new sock decoys with flocked heads ain't to shabby either for geese)

I prefer the shells. I like to keep them in slotted bags. Withe shells I can slip a floating mallard decoy into a shell decoy and then they both fit in a slot together and they will not tear up the paint that way. Doing this allows 2 doz per slotted bag. Pretty slick system.

I really don't see the full bodies having any advantage over the shells. set up the fulls and the shells next to them. Then get on top of your houose and look down at the deeks. At the angle the ducks are coming in you would not be able to see the missing underside of the shell.

"It is impossible, with our binocular vision and narrow visual field, to imagine how the world appears to a duck"... - H. Albert Hochbaum

This quote is what I remember every time I buy or set up decoys,brushing in a blind,or buying camo.

We have seen videos that we think are at a birds eye view but truly they are not,we have also elevated ourselves to see if we can see what birds see and it does not even come close.

But without going into the whole monocular,binocular vision thing I will just say that going with the most realistic look with birds is the way to go.

I will agree with you on as realistic as possible. Knowing they can see 10 times better than us is one thing. They can not see any different than us so far as their sight path. All vision is linear, they cant see around corners. Thay cant see the belly of a decoy around the back of the decoy. So if your using shells and the birds are overhead there is no physical way possible for them to distinguish a shell from a full body decoy. I had mine set up on a sand bar in a river this year and some birds dropped in on top, others flew right on the water to get to the bar. Remember your talking to a guy that used to paint Clorox bottles black and brown and use them for decoys. That is an odd thing to say for a man that just ordered a set of GHG pintail feild decoys at $25 per freakin decoy!!!

Hey when you talk about painting bottles for decoys that brings back some old old memories there WAL.
My Granddad did that with jugs and then when Coke started using plastic instead of glass we used them and he called them Tar babies.

But not saying shells aren't good because truth be told its the only way you can make geese look like resters.

I was fortunate a man felt sorry for me and my clorox bottles. He gifted me a bag of flambeau deeks. I still had one of those decoys right up until just a couple years ago. My how things have changed over the years. Fortunately not one bit has changed when I hear that whooshing sound in the morning and ducks are coming in. If that ever does change then there will be one heck of a man garage sale in my yard, I'll sell it all.

Guaranteed.

I bought shells mainly to look like sleepers since they are low to the ground anyway. I like shells cuz I don't have a trailer and you have to have a trailer if you're putting out a good amount of full bodies. I think full bodies are the way to go in shallow water b/c of the reflection off the water underneath the decoys. Even shells now days are getting hella expensive if you buy them new....$150+ for some of the shells is crazy.

I bought some GHG shells with the motion stakes and I really like the way they bounce around on the stakes in the wind. I've been really happy with them this season. To the point if I was looking for more full bodies I would get more of these shells.

The main reason I like'em is they don't take up as much room in storage as true full bodies do.

I ordered a set of these yesterday or the day before. I wish they would come in a shell but I have not found them yet. I ordered a slotted bag as well. Next year I might order another set of these but for now that is it. These things work out to about $25 a decoy. Tanglefree has them for about $12 but I wasn't sure on quality.

These 4 decoys with my mallard shells on a sandbar and floater decoys in the water should make for one killer looking spread. The mallard shells really looked good this year. I found a bar with grass growing on top of it. If you didn't know they were decoys you would definately have to look twice.

looks good!

Good morning Moderno. I couldn't stand it anymore, after seeing the one on the counter down at Larry's place I had to get them. Besides that my wife was headed to Walmart asking me if she could buy an X-box. I asked why she even asked me if she could. Then I turned around and smiled, I said I didn't have to ask her if I wanted to buy decoys. Got her!!!

They should be here Wednesday. I am going to work on putting a shelf system on the wall above the hanging decoys to put slotted bag decoys on, plus all of my other duck gear. I intend to sell a whole lot of goose stuff. I think I have about 1000 snow goose shells. I need to get shed of them. They are cramping up the barn.

So are you up to speed on that X-Box yet????

No I have no idea what an X-box does. I went to bed just after the second half of the game started. When I woke this morning they had it hooked up. What they didn't do was run the wires through the wall. They went straight from the tv across the wall to the other componants. That is irritating!!!

I use 6 Avery full bodied feeders. I want to add some resters to the mix.

Here is a set up i did with 3 dozen GHG shells and 4 1/2 GHG full bodies and about 20 floaters.

Ended up shooting 3 limits of mallards, gads and teal! Great hunt and an epic spread! I have stakes for the shells but hardly ever use them. We just put them on the sand bar and put the full bodies in a little water!

That looks good

That Pic. of Jgrams shows exactly how full bodies show with water under them.Good Pic.