Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

I got started on my divers yesterday. Fairly nice weather for it, as long as you can paint out of the direct sun.
I like getting my done early so that the paint has a good long time to cure and harden before actual use.

How often do you paint? I've never even thought about painting mine.

I paint the white on my geese every couple of years, most important part is the butt. Next time you got some goose floaters out motor a couple hundred yards away and look at them, the white butts bobbing up and down is all you can see. The rest of my decoys I hose off and armoral every year, if you can find low shine armoral that's best, if not use the normal stuff and throw some dirt on them to dull the shine. That stuff brings back the paint like you wouldn't believe. I use 15 year old duck decoys that I've never repainted, looks great after armoraling them.

StuStiltman wrote:I paint the white on my geese every couple of years, most important part is the butt. Next time you got some goose floaters out motor a couple hundred yards away and look at them, the white butts bobbing up and down is all you can see. The rest of my decoys I hose off and armoral every year, if you can find low shine armoral that's best, if not use the normal stuff and throw some dirt on them to dull the shine. That stuff brings back the paint like you wouldn't believe. I use 15 year old duck decoys that I've never repainted, looks great after armoraling them.

If you were flying above them you would probably say the black is the most important.

I paint the white on my divers every other year. I did it last year.

Trigger wrote:

StuStiltman wrote:I paint the white on my geese every couple of years, most important part is the butt. Next time you got some goose floaters out motor a couple hundred yards away and look at them, the white butts bobbing up and down is all you can see. The rest of my decoys I hose off and armoral every year, if you can find low shine armoral that's best, if not use the normal stuff and throw some dirt on them to dull the shine. That stuff brings back the paint like you wouldn't believe. I use 15 year old duck decoys that I've never repainted, looks great after armoraling them.

If you were flying above them you would probably say the black is the most important.

Yep, from above black is more noticeable. On the water white is, on big lakes geese will fly low over the water sometimes, flashing white is extremely visible from a distance. Look at your old faded decoys, are they darker or lighter than they were when new? Mine tend to darken, touching up the white seems to be more important.

triplecurler wrote:How often do you paint? I've never even thought about painting mine.

I paint my dekes every couple of years, depending upon usage. I also just picked up a bunch of diver dekes at the Wanamingo Swap meet that need some serious attention.

Last year I tried the U.V. paint kit for Mallards. The white and black were okay, but the factory gray really sucked. I'll be redoing some of those dekes as well.

I'm on year 3 of not getting a full Herter's 72 diver spread refurbed. The plan is GREAT.... execution, meh.

The only repaint I've ever done was a quickie job on old flambeau mallards to make a quick diver set. It worked for the trip I needed it to.

Other than that, have never painted a plastic decoy.

So if I was bored this winter and decided to paint some floaters and shells;

What kind of paint are you using?
Clear coat at end?
Colors?
Where'd you get it?

I just use G&H decoys, so need to repaint as the paint does not fall off.

Once in a while soak them upside down for a few minutes and use a scrub brush to remove any dirt/grime.