How to make motorized duck decoys.

bernie · September 16, 2000, 04:46 PM

Does anyone have the knowhow to tell a non-electrician how to make a decoy with rotating wings. I just can't bring myself to pay $150 for a store bought one. However, I don't want it to look cobbled together, to be made of hard to find parts, be extremely loud, or to use car batteries (let's face it, they are not portable). Thanks for any help you can offer.

BadMedicine · September 19, 2000, 02:39 AM

This will take some enginuety(sp?), and some work, but I think it might work. I would go to radio-shack(they've got answers

), and buy the cheapest, wireless remote control car you can, probably about $20-$30. Then take a decoy, that lookes like he's flying, maybe one of those plastic duck-dumbies that you use to train a dog to fetch with, that has the stretched neck like it's flying, but the wings to it's side like it dead. You know the ones? anyways. Take that RC car and tear the back axle of with the engine and battery pack.Take out everything that makes it tick, and then drop kick the rest of it(I just made up that last part, it isn't important to the operation of your decoy

). (or return it to radio shack and claim that "it don't work"

) Then take the wheels off of the back axle, and bore some holes in the sides of the decoy, where the wings should be, just big enough to get the motor in. Make you a couple of wings, I'd use like 1/8 inch masonite board, and use car-intertube rubber to make like flexible-feathers to hang off of them. Affix the "wings" to the axle, and maybe paint some white or brown coloring on them. Attach about a 4-5' dowel in the bottom to hold it up, or longer even if it's going to be above water. Then you have a remote control that regulates when the wings flap, so they ain't out there spinnin' when there aren't any birds in the sky

This whole setup oughtta cost you $40-$50. and probably only about 50 man-hours to get it working how you like. But you better hurry, they're thinking about outlawing them in a few states because PETA says they "hypnotise" those poor birdies. Lemme know how it goes, or if you think this is just a plain dumb idea

bernie · September 19, 2000, 09:19 PM

Actually, this is a solution that works fairly well. I have a good friend that did this almost exactly like you described, almost. I live in the Mississippi delta of arkansas so we have a few ducks in the winter. This buddy of mine took a remote control car, put wings in place of the wheels, glued a decoy head on the trunk, and painted the car with the markings of a duck. As crazy as it looked it really works well. Like they say, "if it's a dumb idea and works, it's not a dumb idea."

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September 16, 2000, 04:46 PM	#1
bernie Senior Member Join Date: September 12, 2000 Posts: 145	Does anyone have the knowhow to tell a non-electrician how to make a decoy with rotating wings. I just can't bring myself to pay $150 for a store bought one. However, I don't want it to look cobbled together, to be made of hard to find parts, be extremely loud, or to use car batteries (let's face it, they are not portable). Thanks for any help you can offer.

September 19, 2000, 02:39 AM	#2
BadMedicine Junior member Join Date: July 7, 2000 Location: Anchorage Posts: 863	This will take some enginuety(sp?), and some work, but I think it might work. I would go to radio-shack(they've got answers ), and buy the cheapest, wireless remote control car you can, probably about $20-$30. Then take a decoy, that lookes like he's flying, maybe one of those plastic duck-dumbies that you use to train a dog to fetch with, that has the stretched neck like it's flying, but the wings to it's side like it dead. You know the ones? anyways. Take that RC car and tear the back axle of with the engine and battery pack.Take out everything that makes it tick, and then drop kick the rest of it(I just made up that last part, it isn't important to the operation of your decoy ). (or return it to radio shack and claim that "it don't work" ) Then take the wheels off of the back axle, and bore some holes in the sides of the decoy, where the wings should be, just big enough to get the motor in. Make you a couple of wings, I'd use like 1/8 inch masonite board, and use car-intertube rubber to make like flexible-feathers to hang off of them. Affix the "wings" to the axle, and maybe paint some white or brown coloring on them. Attach about a 4-5' dowel in the bottom to hold it up, or longer even if it's going to be above water. Then you have a remote control that regulates when the wings flap, so they ain't out there spinnin' when there aren't any birds in the sky This whole setup oughtta cost you $40-$50. and probably only about 50 man-hours to get it working how you like. But you better hurry, they're thinking about outlawing them in a few states because PETA says they "hypnotise" those poor birdies. Lemme know how it goes, or if you think this is just a plain dumb idea

September 19, 2000, 09:19 PM	#3
bernie Senior Member Join Date: September 12, 2000 Posts: 145	Actually, this is a solution that works fairly well. I have a good friend that did this almost exactly like you described, almost. I live in the Mississippi delta of arkansas so we have a few ducks in the winter. This buddy of mine took a remote control car, put wings in place of the wheels, glued a decoy head on the trunk, and painted the car with the markings of a duck. As crazy as it looked it really works well. Like they say, "if it's a dumb idea and works, it's not a dumb idea."