cheap dekes

[swampdogg]

got an idea for cheap silhouettes. i think you can get about a dozen from one piece of lauan it's mouisture resistant 1/4 in think so it should be pretty lite. first cut out the shape, then cut 2 little grooves in the bottom that is for the stake which will be 1/2 in electrical conduit. the grooves need to be wide enough for the emt to slide in and then the tang will stick in the pipe itself. rough guess 4 dozen dekes for around $80 that includes all the paint you should need. i didn't want to use wooden stakes because they wouldn't lay perfectly flat and would make them harder to transport. and i hunt public land, i walk along way to get away from other hunters. what do ya think i kind of like it. and you can make them what ever you want snows, canadians, or ducks.

[justwannano]

You can sometimes get your plywood for free by asking a roofer for his scrap.
Its cdx so not waterproof so you'll have to do that yourself with paint etc.
There are always wierd shaped pieces that nobody (here is where you come in)
wants.
So hows that for cheap?

[skeet]

After hunting with silhouettes for more than 40 yrs.. There are a few things I can say on this. The Lauan really won't hold up too well. Hunting in any kind of weather they way you have to for waterfowl will be a bit hard on them. We used tempered hardboard for most of ours but it is heavier. Also.. If you can find another way to put a stake on them. With lauan being so light and flimsy the tang will break on them pretty easily. I have been playing with the idea of the plastic sheets that are made somewhat like cardboard. Should hold up in any weather. We used flat metal stakes on our silhouettes. Drilled a hole in the decoy and the stake and used brass rivets. The darn things will really lay flat that way......and for when the ground may be hard(frozen?) make a tool to punch a hole through the crust with an old piece of steel like an axle from some light farm equipment or something. Mine is about 4 ft long and sharpened on one end in a wedge shape. Works good. You're gonna love hunting over silhouettes. You can carry quite a few and they work really well. Paint them a bit darker than regular geese for canadas. For some reason they work better. with the right materials a couple of guys can carry over a hundred for quite a way. We even made some V boards(actually made like a Y. They work really well on ponds and even in small creeks and rivers. Hard to deal with putting out and taking up though. Luck hunting