Floater fix

[303Brit]

So the season is over and you got a couple dekes that rattle. If you water swat or sea duck that odds are high that you have undoubtedly shot at least one deke especially if you shoot from a layout. So what to do with them??? Well if you are handy or cheap or both, this is something that is easy and should prove to be a permanent fix. As it is one thing to have a deke sink on a longline but something completely different to have a single sink. Doesn't cost a lot, about $10 per doz stormfronts. As I am a budget hunter and can't afford nice foamers or carved blocks, I have repainted stormfronts. I use to buy a doz every time they came on sale at CT. As the paint started to rub off or scuff badly I would put them aside, didn't take long for me to have 30 dekes ready to be repainted them as sea ducks.

Here's a few of them pre-hunting them.
AND...

A few post season, I put holes in 10 dekes a couple took more than one pellet.

So what do you do with these??? Well for them to float they need to keep the water out right, so plug the holes and they will float again.
But then I got to thinking, this will happen every year and every year I will have to plug holes. Also plugging the holes only works as for as long as the material holds up or until you rattle the deke again. So I've decided to foam fill the dekes, what's the quickest and easiest way to do that? Well expanding foam, I grabbed the econo can of great stuff the large gap stuff. One can did 10 dekes, with a lil trial and error and some waste. I figure I should be able to do a doz per can. The idea is not to fill it till spills out, but rather provide enough foam inside to float even if rattled. Here' the materials used


So I drilled out the plugs in each deke



303

[303Brit]

I trialed filling from each end, so the a couple dekes that had holes in the front got them enlarged

So you fill away as you draw the fill tube out of the deke when it's about 1" from the end stop filling, and let it sit for about 30-40secs and give it one more quick shot and let it sit again for another 30-40seconds and then pull it out.
I found when I filled from each end your best bet is to tape over the front hole once filled, then any excess will press to the back of the deke and ultimately leak from the plug.


Let it sit for a while and expand and harden, then cut any excess off with an exacto knife.


So that's done, I wanted to make sure that even with a deke mostly full of foam it would still float if I rattled it, so I haven't plugged any holes yet and here is the water test.
filled with water till the bubbles stop


and this is how she floats, a lil heavy but she floats


Next step will be to clean up the holes and seal them with a product called RTV, Room temperature Vulcanizing Silicone. and then they will be ready for paint touch ups



303

[SingleShot]

Great work. Nice to see a guy so ingenious and passionate about his gear.

[d6dan]

Great idea Kiel. Cheap is good.

[nor'wester]

Great idea Kiel. Cheap is good.

Cheaper fix: let your cripples swim out of your dekes before you sluice em and then you don't have any holes to fix in the first place! Not saying I haven't dinged the odd decoy now and again but still.....

[lorneparker1]

Cheaper fix: let your cripples swim out of your dekes before you sluice em and then you don't have any holes to fix in the first place! Not saying I haven't dinged the odd decoy now and again but still.....

Have you ever shot seaducks or divers? if you let every seaduck or diver cripple swim off out of the decoys before shooting you wouldn't have very many in hand. If any of those birds land with there head up you better hurry and put another one in em or you may never see them again.

[f350ps]

Have you ever shot seaducks or divers? if you let every seaduck or diver cripple swim off out of the decoys before shooting you wouldn't have very many in hand. If any of those birds land with there head up you better hurry and put another one in em or you may never see them again.

Ya yer right, you sure wouldn't wanna lose one of them tasty little morsels now would ya, yum, yum!! K

[303Brit]

Ya yer right, you sure wouldn't wanna lose one of them tasty little morsels now would ya, yum, yum!! K

more about not wanting to paddle after swimmers especially the diving kind. I only had 3 swimmers this year seaducking as a resultthe dekes took a beating

303

[303Brit]

Cheaper fix: let your cripples swim out of your dekes before you sluice em and then you don't have any holes to fix in the first place! Not saying I haven't dinged the odd decoy now and again but still.....

Have you ever shot seaducks or divers? if you let every seaduck or diver cripple swim off out of the decoys before shooting you wouldn't have very many in hand. If any of those birds land with there head up you better hurry and put another one in em or you may never see them again.

Along with I shoot my seaducks and divers from a layout rig on the ocean where these things called waves cause dekes to move about and change height. My muzzle is basically 2' above the water so a bird flying to the front of my spread in the waves can and have resulted in dekes in the back possibly being as tall as the lowflyers.


303

[nor'wester]

Along with I shoot my seaducks and divers from a layout rig on the ocean where these things called waves cause dekes to move about and change height. My muzzle is basically 2' above the water so a bird flying to the front of my spread in the waves can and have resulted in dekes in the back possibly being as tall as the lowflyers.


303

Ha ha sorry for offering my two cents!! I've never shot out of a boat in open water so I don't know what it's like...sure looks like fun though! All my duck hunting experience is out of blinds over ponds shooting dabblers, where if cripples dive they can't go far. You guys sure seem to have it all figured out after hunting out of your "layout" boats in the big "waves" for what? a whopping two or three seasons??!! After all I'm pretty jealous that you have the skill to nail those shitty tasting west coast divers. Have fun blowing holes in your decoys!!