Looking Ahead to 2018-2019...

[Rick]

If we're listening to the same thing in the swimming video, I think of that as a "worried whine:" something they do when they're wound up over intrusion. The sharp, for lack of a better term, single notes I'm referencing on the sound-only video are an appreciably different thing to my ear - again, assuming that we're speaking of the same sounds and given my tin ears.

[DComeaux]

If we're listening to the same thing in the swimming video, I think of that as a "worried whine:" something they do when they're wound up over intrusion. The sharp, for lack of a better term, single notes I'm referencing on the sound-only video are an appreciably different thing to my ear - again, assuming that we're speaking of the same sounds and given my tin ears.

We're on the same page. It's just hard to describe the sounds in writing, and you did a good job.

[Rick]

The only thing I see,without a doubt,along with others that run a big white spread like me---the specks finish over the blues like 9 times out of 10---but we may be the odd situations...

I found that interesting, and the difference could very well be your full-bodies vs my rags and socks. But during my virtually daily white-spreading years, we had much better luck getting birds over guns 10yds inside the downwind edge of 1,000 piece or better spreads by setting satellite groups of G&H speck shells outside the white (and brown) spread on either side of us. Could, of course, kill specks without them, but most wanted to work the outside edges of the spread, and the increased ease of getting them to cross over us while checking out those satellites was well worth the trouble of hauling, assembling and deploying them.

(Also felt putting a few of the better-looking-than-rags-and-socks shells well downwind of us helped tame approaching birds. (Though that, too, may very well have been of much greater benefit than if our main spread were FBs.)

[aunt betty]

From what I saw you put the specks on one side of the road with the rest on the other. Crane Farm Road...you know the big pond with the giant keep out signs.
The geese around there segregate big time.

[Rick]

And in other news...

I appear (pound timber) to be nearing the end of The Great Speck Paint Search of 2018, which has been quite the challenge for an inartistic soul with a "can't do" attitude. Way too many variables for my barely-paint-by-numbers self.

Pre-color-mixed paint I tried first (Lock, Stock and Barrel's "flat marine enamel") shined like crazy where scratched or burned, so I switched to the oft-recommended Ronan's "Japan Super Fine Paint," which only comes in what I gather are the "standard" art colors and know require mixing. Alas, either the standard isn't so standard or Bruce Burk lied about his mixing schedules in the oft recommended Decorative Decoy Carver's Ultimate Painting and Pattern Portfolio. Didn't help that his are also like Grandma's "a lot (whatever that is) of this and a little (whatever that is) of that" cooking recipes. And I quickly learned that I couldn't just pick out the color I wanted on one of the pictured decoys and achieve it by following the given mix as best I could. Not even close.

So I broke out an 1/8th teaspoon measure and started mixing and testing known and recorded amounts of this and that: 16 combinations (to date).

Then factor in the vagaries of airbrushing: including set up (needle size, air pressure from the compressor and viscosity of the paint mix), the mechanics of brush operation and how the paint run through it responds to the seemingly infinite application options. Mine is a "two-stage" airbrush, which means one controls the amount of air going through it by pushing down on the control button/lever while at the same time controlling the amount of paint let into that air stream by pulling back on it. (Which is too much like patting one's head while rubbing one's belly for someone just mastering chewing gum while walking.) Long story shortened: the learning curve to translating the shades a color mix is capable of into those shades on a decoy is steep.

Did I mention that how a mix looks on white art board isn't how it will look on a white-primered decoy or that the paint darkens appreciably as it cures?

Anyway, I now have a paint that handles burnishing well and a mix that's as close to the moving target of live specks in varying light as I'm apt to get and will be taking a second look at its two closest variants on a primered test decoy today before closing the books on that part of the puzzle and getting serious about improving my application skills and tackling the nuisance of sandblasting before, hopefully, actually getting underway. We'll see...

[DComeaux]

Man that's sounds way too involved for me. Never really had the inclination to paint decoys, and I'm not much of a finesse type of guy. 2 liter coke bottles, sand paper and a few rattle cans of flat black. Looking forward to seeing your finished product.

[aunt betty]

Rick I'm sorry but when you wander into the realm of "paint"...omg it's a nightmare.
They have adding "agents" you can add to make it more or less shiny and so on.
I tried to do a decent job on mallard decoys and real quick decided to just flock them.

If you had trained specks that'd just stand there for you do you think it'd be easier?
If so then ask me about Clem's decoys in a pm. His story is a doozie.

[Rick]

The old guy next door to my first and only personal lease used to do fairly well by leading and feeding his domestic yard geese out by his blind. And I allegedly hunted another farm in the "way back when..." with a fellow who had legal/permitted Canadas and specks around his fenced yard pond, which specks would sometimes break down over before being readily tweedle-dee-ed the last few hundred yards to his blind. Neither was exactly like gunning over live decoys, but both close enough...

Re: the decoy painting, I've rattle-canned my share (time and again in some cases) and very much believe that the biggest thing for specks is not running a mixed spread in terms of size or shade. But I also believe some birds, and especially some specks, look at decoys a whole lot harder than others. And I know with absolute certainty that I no longer have speck opportunities to spare and don't wish to lose a single one to poorer than need be decoys. If anything, shame the heck on me for not getting off my ass and trying harder sooner.

One need only see them finishing over the mudhole in the morning sun to know why.

Began with the goal of getting as close to the coloration of these birds in neutral light (reckon I can get the bands and collars on E-bay):



And finally think I've come both pretty darn close with one formula that, in differing thicknesses, covers most of the ton bases I want to hit and another formula that's a bit beyond nearly spot-on one, which I'll more likely go with, in hopes of allowing for whatever fading occurs when they're left out for seasons at a time. (Paint I'm using has long been popular for signs, as well as decoys, so I trust it should hold up to the sun relatively well, but that's another thing in the "we'll see" column...)

Still a long way from the finished working decoys, which will hardly be the works of art I might wish. But I'm a whole lot closer than I was...

[aunt betty]

Made a bunch of silos painted as Canada geese. Luan and builder's stakes. That's easy but you have to pay every special attention to which brand thumb tacks you use for the eyes.

[Rick]

My Ohio Canada field spread was a dozen standard G&H shells, three dozen Carrylite one piece shells, and six dozen homemade Masonite silhouettes, albeit with painted eyes. And I know with near certainty that we killed as many or many more birds over them as anyone around. Had I known E-bay was coming and I could sell them, instead of eventually giving them all to a guy from Memphis, I could have bought a mess of custom full-bodies with the mostly resident bird bands I collected.

Then I moved down here in '83, repainted everything "speckle-belly" and couldn't finish enough birds to make a gumbo over that rig until I'd whittled it down to nothing but the dozen G&Hs that looked a whole lot more like the real deal than the rest of my successful Canada mix. And that was before the 30-day season and 3-bird limit duck crunch era that turned every dedicated Cajun duck hunter and his three cousins into dedicated speck hunters and started the goose gunning arms race that's sprouted a pit with four speck calls in most every forty or fifty acre patch of rice in SWLA.

Having hunted over early Big Foot Canadas on the Eastern Shore, I did a little dance and dinged my credit card to the tune of a until then unheard of $36 per when the first (and last for several years) run of BF specks came out, thinking I had "the bomb". But the specks thought otherwise and wouldn't finish nearly as well to them as to the smaller G&H speck shells that had been our gold standard decoys. Seemed to me and every other serious speck hunter I knew who tried them that it was simply easier for the specks to see that the over-sized full-bodies were manikins. And I'm thinking that was in the late '90s or early 2000s, when pressure was still nothing compared to today's. Dakota's somewhat smaller goose blimps later proved much the same.

No way to really know how much fielding the best decoys I can helps, but it's nice to know they're not running any more than need be off.

[aunt betty]

I'm the Earl Sheib of duck hunting bro. $2 a piece for them silos.
Left them all over Arkansas with a note that said "Acorn was here".
I have two left. A feeder and a sentry.

AIn't no way I could convince the wife to let me buy and store a trailer-load of fbd's.
She's already got bee hive stuff in the kitchen half the time.

TRAILER is a bad word right now. My father had a freaking fleet of campers and trailers. Several mint AIr Streams, a pair of covered trailers, and a various assortment of yard trailers like you put a mower on.
My mom promised me my choice off the lot then conveniently 'lost' all titles UNTIL AFTER SHE'D SOLD THEM ALL.
Could someone please explain how my mother sold trailers that didn't have her name on the title...without titles?
She's told one hell of a wopper this time.
Hate to admit it but right now it'd feel awful good to have my hands around her throat.

Wanted the landscaping trailer for when the ZTR needs service. So far I fix anything that breaks on it but there's parts I'm clueless about like the hydraulic drive system.

[Rick]

Speaking of Earl Scheib, here's where my speck paint quest to find a single formula that will pretty much hit all the right bases when airbrushed in varying densities has led me. Albeit with the disclaimer that I've been mixing such small quantities (1/8 teaspoon "parts" of colors) that I could barely finish half of a decoy with each and was attempting to see what tones each would produce and more trying to learn about airbrushing, itself, than getting the paint job more than remotely right.

speck decoys 009.JPG

speck decoys 006.JPG

The shades possible with the left side/top photo formula are more true to the birds' gray caste in neutral light, while those from its right side/bottom photo formula might better match the browns that show in bright side-lighting, as well as holding up to fading better.

Flat Krylon clear coat is said to make the colors in the paint I'm using "pop," (and may add a more feather-like sheen?) which could alter my current inclination to go with the second, brighter mix, so that will be my next experiment

[aunt betty]

Don't know nothin about specks but it sort of looks like maybe you're going to eventually hit that magic mixture.
Take notes and keep them secret.

You need an air brush. Just buy one, the nice one , and start practicing on a piece of plywood.
It's kind of fun to play with and you'll get to use it to add that super light flat black layer that takes the sheen off. (but not the colors)
Might just end up using it for that alone.

[Rick]

Don't know nothin about specks but it sort of looks like maybe you're going to eventually hit that magic mixture.
Take notes and keep them secret.

You need an air brush. Just buy one, the nice one , and start practicing on a piece of plywood.
It's kind of fun to play with and you'll get to use it to add that super light flat black layer that takes the sheen off. (but not the colors)
Might just end up using it for that alone.

AB, it's appears you've not only not read the related posts but haven't even looked at pictures. That, or you've been sniffing more than honey.

Been trying to share what little I'm learning along the way and would be happy to share my recipes. (Though precious few others would agree with me on the correctness of the tones they'll produce and fewer still go to the trouble of putting them to use.)

[aunt betty]

May the goose God send many geese your way to where you actually have to start wearing blood-googles like at BB.

[Rick]

Never in our bet days needed blood goggles, but I have seen goose shit splattered glasses. Used to rain the stuff when we'd open up on big bunches from white spreads. Pretty sure those days are behind me.

[Darren]

Only a very slight chance I'd paint on any decoys any time soon, and confident I'd likely never undertake a speck paint project, but I'm enjoying following along, Rick.

Is there any can reduction work to be done in near term or you just waiting for closer to season to hack/poison ?

[aunt betty]

It just occurred to me that I have not read every post on this website and I have not looked at all the pictures either.

Do I HAVE to look at all the Hawaii forum pics too? Including the one of eric's gf with her dick hangin out?

When I get done I'll call you.

[Rick]

Only a very slight chance I'd paint on any decoys any time soon, and confident I'd likely never undertake a speck paint project, but I'm enjoying following along, Rick.

Is there any can reduction work to be done in near term or you just waiting for closer to season to hack/poison ?

Headed to the big city of Jennings for a grandson's Mustange League game this evening and hope to find some "flat" Krylon clearcoat to test for "color pop" while we're there. Anxious to get on with that project before real summer sets in.

Re: the canes, I did some perhaps too early, perhaps just right testing when we were out there with farm releases and expect to check on that and likely hit it again sometime in the next few weeks. Hope to knock the heck out of them before they get tall and in time for low stuff to green up again.

[Rick]

It just occurred to me that I have not read every post on this website and I have not looked at all the pictures either.

Pretty sure you can continue talking to yourself without going to that trouble. But would think you're more apt to be included in conversations you've followed.

"Just a thot..."

[Darren]

Anxious to get on with that project before real summer sets in.

Starting to feel it setting in this week, have been also hoping to make one more trip to the ag land for our to-do list before the real deal sets in. Said list also includes troubleshooting a wall-mounted A/C unit who's operation or lack-of could make or break some future trips to do interior work. Last time plugged in sounded like something had made a home inside of it preventing the fan from turning.

Thankful to have no to-do's down on the coastal stomping grounds (for now, knock wood re: storms), but likely will be spending more available time that way soon chasing those freckled sea trouts.

[Rick]

Grrr... No more Krylon flat clear at Wally World or Steins - or, it turns out, being produced, as the mfg no longer lists it. Can still be found online, but review warnings about applying it in high humidity have me nervous. "if it ain't one thing..."

[Rick]

Have been experimenting with the "matte" Krylon Wally World does still carry and didn't find "shine" any problem at all, but it definitely doesn't like our humidity and developed a milky haze, not just in the higher humidity of early (cooler) morning but even at early afternoon's low point (44% in this case).

Testor's Dullcote also warns against humidity but passed both tests - not that I'll be chancing it in particularly high humidity when clear-coating my finished decoys. And despite it's name, the Dullcote didn't just add the touch of real feather-like sheen I want but may have even made the color "pop" a bit. Rub being that it's relatively expensive, but I'll live with that.

[aunt betty]

Nice. When I transferred the boat title from my dad to myself took 9 months.
That's a big deal because the state only gives you a six-month waiver to get it straight.
You carry around a piece of paper.

I bitched up a storm when I realized that I'd be taking an unregistered/registered boat out of state.
Asked the Illinois DNR to call the AGFC and explain to them why my boat sticker was expired.

The real answer is insane.
Illinois only has a staff of four untrained people running the IDNR boat part. They send all the forms to Tennessee and pay their people to do the paperwork then send it back.
Listening to the woman I called literally bawl over the phone about her IDNR troubles was weird.
Should have sent the state a bill for counseling.

[Rick]

Good luck with the painting. Our club tried to paint decoys and it was a fiasco - finally painted them all black for coot decoys.

In your picture of the trial decoy painting I noticed your boat registration was 06, you might want to update your registration

Past fiascos of my own are what's made me put off redoing some of my specks for over a decade. Most everything I've done without serious prep work didn't just look like crap but was slipping paint in no time. Only work-flow I've found worth a flip has been pressure-washing, sand-blasting, acetone wipe-down, good plastic primer and finally paint. And if I'm going to go to all that trouble, I want the finished product to be something I don't mind looking at.

Re: the registration, that was the year the camp bought the boat from Big Ed, God rest his wonderful soul, and it hasn't seen public water since. I thought the world of Big Ed and took him hunting at every chance, no one ever loved or appreciated waterfowling more:

IMG_3659a.jpg

IMG_3721a.jpg

I like to think it would please Ed to know I'm still using his boat. And caring for it much better than most of my own equipment because it was his.

[aunt betty]

Feelin' froggy?
Thanks for bringing that up. Frog-whacking season starts June 1.
I whack em with a canoe paddle and rarely miss. They don't get away they just lay there stunned.
Oh yeah some barbequed frog legs sound fantastic.
They make me feel hoppy.

[Rick]

You know,,, I thought our marsh was not considered public either, it’s not landlocked but it sure ain’t public and the GW let know about it in a form of a citation...

In that case: boat? What boat?