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Used to walk in hunt a lot. Was looking at my oldest decoys and for some reason a little voice in my head asked "how far do you think you've carried those suckers?". So I had to think. No way can I give an exact number of miles but yeah it's in miles.
So I had to consider the magnitude.
1,10,100, 1000 or what?

I'm willing to go out on a limb and say I've carried my old Flambeau decoys on my back at least 100 miles over the past 40 years. I think it's possible that I hit 1000. 40 years times 25 miles a year is 1000 miles.
As an example it's about 1.6 miles from the parking lot to #16 and back. Could easily rack up 25 miles on that one hole alone in a season.
If I count boat ride miles I can rack up 1000's of miles easily.

You?

Bet you were glad that those old Flambeaus were water keel instead of weighted keel AB!!!! I still have some of them too, as they were the first decoys I bought, as a freshman in high school in 1971. I have since repainted them as Gadwalls, still shoot ducks over them, and they have outlasted several brands of decoys that I've bought over the years. The silhouette of those decoys are about as realistic as they get, with the butt of the decoy riding high, as it should, a detail left out of some of the newer brands.

Deltaman wrote:Bet you were glad that those old Flambeaus were water keel instead of weighted keel AB!!!! I still have some of them too, as they were the first decoys I bought, as a freshman in high school in 1971. I have since repainted them as Gadwalls, still shoot ducks over them, and they have outlasted several brands of decoys that I've bought over the years. The silhouette of those decoys are about as realistic as they get, with the butt of the decoy riding high, as it should, a detail left out of some of the newer brands.

Almost all my decoys are water keels. It took me almost 30 years to get a decent boat.

Have bought or found many Flambeaus. Bought my first dozen decoys around 1985 or 1986? Got a second dozen too.
Not sure but they're the old version like yours. I painted most of the hens to look like bluebills. Was curious about why they sold them puddle packs back then where they had 12 mallard and 12 bluebills. Try it. All of a sudden pintails and divers appeared which is something I never saw until I painted them hens black and white.

Put out some of them bluebill decoys, walk away, look back and they glow. People literally walked around the marsh so they could see wtf I had. VERY visible.

Once I had to replace some that got shot because I left them six decoys on a pond that the county owned. Another hunter shot them. He actually raced up in his truck to tell me about it the day I discovered it. He's lucky I didn't shoot him.

Anyhow I bought some more but they were the newer version sold in the late-80's?
They're much higher in the water and catch way more wind. Once I watched them side by side in a spread I decided I wanted more of the taller decoys. They move much more.
Sure I have a few oddballs in the bag. Have found some nice decoys but usually singles that floated off and nobody saw.
Goose decoys as well. They end up in some weird places and I have an eye for them. At $20 a pop who doesn't?

Just flocked the heads on these.