2023-2024 preseason...

[Rick]

Guess I'll test fire this new log space by noting that the rice and water on it on where Marsh and I make our morning exercise rounds have reached the point where they're apparently more attractive to waterfowl than the mostly barren crawfish ponds on the place. And we're finally seeing more summer woodies, mottleds and squealers on our rounds. Nice to be calling ducks again, even if it's just counting coup on squealers tame enough to be whistled on over to a man walking in plain sight with a coyote-looking Chesapeake.

[Rick]

Tough little black-bellies:

[Duck Engr]

Ouch! Kinda like my toddlers. They bounce right up from stuff that’d put me in the hospital for a week!

[Deltaman]

Neat listening to them as well! I've seen some over the years, and know that Rick uses a dog whistle to imitate, but that was the first time I've ever heard what they actually sound like, and agree that Ma Nature built them tough enough to withstand that first drop!!!!!!

[Rick]

Neat listening to them as well! I've seen some over the years, and know that Rick uses a dog whistle to imitate, but that was the first time I've ever heard what they actually sound like, and agree that Ma Nature built them tough enough to withstand that first drop!!!!!!

Darren does a good rendition of that cadence with a Haydel MP(?)90 6-in-1 whistle, and Haydel's SW-92 "Mr. Squirrel" whistle comes as close to spot-on their tone as anything commercial I'm aware of. (Not surprisingly, the South Americans call them with quite similar calls made of bottle caps glued together and drilled.) Rub with the Mr. Squirrel type call being that you suck, rather than blow, air through it, so it can't get very loud.

The herding dog type whistle I favor isn't as exact in tone as the squirrel type but will get much louder and has what I find the great advantage of also chattering like they do when fighting over food. First heard that excited chatter on a recording of a fellow feeding them in a South American park.

[Darren]

Rick, thought of you and your spinner prowess/history yesterday on my drive back home listening to Ramsey talk shop with Mojo's Terry Denmon. Interesting to hear Terry's perspective on some of the missteps they've made over the years in new product development, and also his thoughts on what's most (or not) effective.

You can catch it at link below if you've got any interest sometime:

https://www.getducks.com/duckseasonsome ... ade-right/

[Rick]

Rick, thought of you and your spinner prowess/history yesterday on my drive back home listening to Ramsey talk shop with Mojo's Terry Denmon. Interesting to hear Terry's perspective on some of the missteps they've made over the years in new product development, and also his thoughts on what's most (or not) effective.

You can catch it at link below if you've got any interest sometime:

https://www.getducks.com/duckseasonsome ... ade-right/

Thanks. Not a big fan of Mojo the company and, especially, their product "development," but will check it out.

[Rick]

Lordy, but there's a lot of accent in that podcast.

[Ericdc]

Sometimes it sounds like Ramsey is trying to sound more southern.


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[Rick]

Sometimes it sounds like Ramsey is trying to sound more southern.

I sure didn't remember his accent being that thick. But the last time we met, I had to admit not remembering the first...

[Darren]

Some serious accent going on for sure.

Thought it interesting that Terry (aligning I'm certain with Rick's thoughts) admitted the feather detail on the wings to be one of their biggest mistakes, pointing out instead how sheer contrast of dark/white makes for optimum flash......just how Rick's spinners are "custom" painted.

[PorkChop]

Care to share a picture of the custom paint job?

[Rick]

P1010091a.jpg

P1010093a.jpg

Mine's dark sides aren't painted so much for added contrast as to better match my pond's appearance from above and make the spinners less conspicuous from above when shut off while finishing big ducks that might be put off by them (or teal that have been). Still use the old metal wings, because they can be rigged to stop white down or, at worse, upwind when it's whipping.

But I'm certainly with him on the importance of flash (bigger wings are better) and speed, so my permanent blind spinners are hard-wired through a rheostat (as well as an on/off switch) in the blind that allows them to be slowed down enough for best visibility in the dim light of LST and sped up as the day brightens. Once the light is good, I'll pull a portable spinner before I'll let it run on a low battery, as a slow spin in good light is far, far worse than no spinner.

[PorkChop]

Great info! Probably not necessary up here with our dumb birds but I think I will paint a few of mine just for the heck of it.

[Darren]

They've gone back to the simple paint scheme to optimize flash on the wings, no more feather details, concentric wing shapes made of metal.

The features and overall appearance of it look straight out of a copy of Avian X's mallard spinner that debuted last year which, IMO, is right on brand for Mojo given their "Pro Series" line are direct copies of how Lucky Duck's are built.

Mojo may have been original (I think?) in the concept, but lately seems they're just a year behind someone else's efforts to up the ante and improve the mouse trap.

Identical look to the Avian X

mallard_5.jpg

The "just in case" feature in the last bullet tells me....it could fail, a lot.

mojo-mallard-schematic.jpg

[Deltaman]

Leave it to Rick to take it to the next level.........a rheostat to control the current/speed.......Brilliant

[Ericdc]

Just don't use the durn things and no worries


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[SpinnerMan]

Just don't use the durn things and no worries

When hunting a dry field with a guy a half mile away with a vortex, a dozen spinners, and way more decoys, if you don't use them there will be no worries as you watch large flocks of mallards pile in to their decoys.

All depends on where you are and what is around you.

But I'm certainly with him on the importance of flash (bigger wings are better) and speed, so my permanent blind spinners are hard-wired through a rheostat (as well as an on/off switch) in the blind that allows them to be slowed down enough for best visibility in the dim light of LST and sped up as the day brightens. Once the light is good,

I've been wanting to do something just like this, but the crappy weather the last few years and terrible timing between me and the ducks. Them being in town for brief periods when I am out of town. I haven't made the time to work on it. I would have used it once last year. The ability to control them with one switch as opposed to scramble to click a bunch of remotes when the geese are in the air and then try to flip them all back on when the ducks are up. One control and one battery would be a nice addition. That and probably quite a few more spinners.

[Rick]

...a rheostat to control the current/speed...

Dash light dimmer control out of a 1976 Dodge truck.

[Rick]

Just don't use the durn things and no worries

Had a doctor and grown son from California bring the first I saw to the camp and wow Gabe in our Thornwell "big blind" (one of the very best ag land blinds in our part of the country) with it, so Doug insisted that I see it, too, and we set them up in a corner of the farm I was hunting that we normally left as refuge for the birds. (Bud, who browses here is one of the very few to have hunted it and can vouch for the location.) The thing did draw a lot of birds, but even then you could see many peeling off short, and both the other guide on the place and I showed our parties better hunts without.

Doug wanted us all to use spinners the next season and even bought a couple for another guide and I who refused to get our own. Was slick as could be for September teal, but with the big ducks of our regular season began a cycle of putting it out for high stuff that was hard to break and picking it up when too many big ducks were pushing off after a single pass and refusing to be brought back around for better shots with it out. Running joke when it got slow was, "Go do something with the spinner." Because my getting out in the flooded field with it seemed the surest way of seeing something move. And never mind that our specks and blues hated them from day one.

Upshot was that my spinner ended its first regular season under the blind bench, and subsequent big duck seasons in the shed until I started hunting my marsh pothole and tired of seeing our better located blinds fill on green-wings while I was pulling but a relative few off their favored flyways for my hunters. And so began the experimentation leading to my current use. (Pun unintended, but still pretty good.)

But, Eric, I'd happily give them up, even for teal, to see a continent wide ban on electricity and, thus, fewer juveniles fall to those in the North.

[Rick]

When hunting a dry field with a guy a half mile away with a vortex, a dozen spinners, and way more decoys, if you don't use them there will be no worries as you watch large flocks of mallards pile in to their decoys.

Aside from occasionally calling ducks to dry field goose rigs, all of my dry field duck hunting was done in the North well prior to the advent of spinners and most successful if only a relative few birds were using the field or if I was dead on the "X" big bunches were using the day before. If a field was heavily used, and I'd not done my homework well enough, it was frustrating as could possibly be trying to pull even the first big bunch to show even a relatively short way off their spot. Worlds tougher than with Canadas.

Spinners apparently changed that.

[Darren]

(Rick, you've of course now got the power to delete all this later to unclog your preseason thread or we can move it elsewhere, but for now it's fun to chat).

In the marsh we'll use them for Sept teal but not once for regular season there. However in the field, seems all the guys I know to be strong hunters with regular success surrounding us continue to not leave the camp without at least a spinner or two. Our experimenting with pulling them last season there showed no discernible change in the birds' willingness to finish for us, none. Remote reliability let us kill our specks so long as I remembered to turn off spinner when the first birds locked for the call.

Next season planning to maybe give sunny conditions a bit more focus in the field than in the past to see if there's merit to what some of those referenced other nearby hunters have been preaching about "sunglasses weather," a condition in which the spinner (literally) shines. Always fun to try new things anyway with hopes the next tweak will prove the ticket.

[Darren]

On a tech note on the wing shape, Rick, note Terry's other regret on the kind of teardrop shape wings you're still running. His engineering background mentioning it's propensity to cause undue vibration from the uneven shape, thus the latest and greatest edition going back to the more paddle-like shape that he says vibrates less and can be spun faster.

You might be able to track down some old wings of that new-old shape that are even bigger than those you're running, if bigger truly is found to draw better.

[Rick]

(Rick, you've of course now got the power to delete all this later to unclog your preseason thread or we can move it elsewhere, but for now it's fun to chat).

I've no qualms at all about reasonably relevant waterfowl discussion in any of my threads here. On the contrary, I try to encourage it.

In the marsh we'll use them for Sept teal but not once for regular season there. However in the field, seems all the guys I know to be strong hunters with regular success surrounding us continue to not leave the camp without at least a spinner or two. Our experimenting with pulling them last season there showed no discernible change in the birds' willingness to finish for us, none. Remote reliability let us kill our specks so long as I remembered to turn off spinner when the first birds locked for the call.

Next season planning to maybe give sunny conditions a bit more focus in the field than in the past to see if there's merit to what some of those referenced other nearby hunters have been preaching about "sunglasses weather," a condition in which the spinner (literally) shines. Always fun to try new things anyway with hopes the next tweak will prove the ticket.

I'd bet something really nice that the overwhelming majority of area waterfowlers run spinners all hunt every hunt, and know many of them who kill a lot of ducks. I'm just doing what my experience suggests best for me and mine.

[Duck Engr]

...a rheostat to control the current/speed...

Dash light dimmer control out of a 1976 Dodge truck.

That’s some “south-of-I-10 ingenuity” right there. That’s awesome.

[Duck Engr]

When hunting a dry field with a guy a half mile away with a vortex, a dozen spinners, and way more decoys, if you don't use them there will be no worries as you watch large flocks of mallards pile in to their decoys.

Aside from occasionally calling ducks to dry field goose rigs, all of my dry field duck hunting was done in the North well prior to the advent of spinners and most successful if only a relative few birds were using the field or if I was dead on the "X" big bunches were using the day before. If a field was heavily used, and I'd not done my homework well enough, it was frustrating as could possibly be trying to pull even the first big bunch to show even a relatively short way off their spot. Worlds tougher than with Canadas.

Spinners apparently changed that.

That’s the big rub I have with them. I have an acquaintance who guides in Canada and over beers after a hunt a couple years ago I asked him which he’d give up in Canada, his calls or his spinners. He didn’t hesitate and reached over into his bag and handed me his call lanyard.

Have also heard of others saying you might’ve broken a 4-6 pack off of a big bunch before spinners up there. Now you can get the whole bunch, bunch after bunch.

[Rick]

On a tech note on the wing shape, Rick, note Terry's other regret on the kind of teardrop shape wings you're still running. His engineering background mentioning it's propensity to cause undue vibration from the uneven shape, thus the latest and greatest edition going back to the more paddle-like shape that he says vibrates less and can be spun faster.

You might be able to track down some old wings of that new-old shape that are even bigger than those you're running, if bigger truly is found to draw better.

My wings are the biggest I've ever seen commercially available, but I suspect he made a good point about not being concentric creating imbalance and noise issues. I mute the noise by buffering the battery flap, which otherwise rattles, with felt furniture pads and better than OEM velcro closure, and that from the body's attachment to the post with garden hose gasket bushings.

Concentric, rather than lobbed, wings might very well be a better idea with regard to vibration and resulting noise, but not having them attached under, rather than at the end of the axle, as in the case of their new wings, means forgoing the propensity to nearly always stop with the same side down. Which is a trade-off I'll not make.

Further, if you look closely at the old metal wings, you'll see there are three holes to allow varying the wing's angle:

b7df07a6-4110-47ff-aeff-d73754281684.jpg

and experimentation seems to have shown that using the above configuration makes the wing most apt to reliably stop with the white side facing upwind (and out of sight of finishing birds) in winds strong enough to stand the wings vertically - another feature I'll not give up.

Which isn't to say I won't experiment with concentric wings (albeit attached under the axle) if I ever get to the point of having to have wings fabricated.

[Rick]

That’s some “south-of-I-10 ingenuity” right there. That’s awesome.

Well, I'd give a nod to my WVa heritage, as well. Not much difference between a hillbilly and a Cajun, 'cept that one short leg.

[Rick]

That’s the big rub I have with them. I have an acquaintance who guides in Canada and over beers after a hunt a couple years ago I asked him which he’d give up in Canada, his calls or his spinners. He didn’t hesitate and reached over into his bag and handed me his call lanyard.

Have also heard of others saying you might’ve broken a 4-6 pack off of a big bunch before spinners up there. Now you can get the whole bunch, bunch after bunch.

Hard for me to think of spinners in Canada without thinking of what one of our guides who made a hunt up there with some of our regulars recounted from the Peace River area. They'd started their mornings with a few early Canadas before ducks started flying, but when that happened, their guide told them to fill their pockets with shells and follow him, as he snatched up a spinner and started wandering around with it held high, while they followed "like the Monty Python crew following the Ark of the Covenant". And when a flight of ducks got to that mess, they'd stop and shoot until eventually filling on mallards.

[Darren]

you'll see there are three holes to allow varying the wing's angle

Sure enough I do see those, and all those others from bird shot! Do love the idea of some custom fabbed wings......good ol SW La engineering.