Riflescopes and Scope Accessories

The first record of hunting duck decoys goes back as far as the early as 20^th century. Those records show that 11 hunting duck decoys were found in a cave while mining back in 1911. They were found along with ancient artifacts in a Nevada mountain cave that was used by indigenous Americans for probably nearly 3500 years according to archaeologist.

The hunting duck decoys were made from marsh bulrush mainly but had real duck feathers attached to them. They were dated as being made 200 A.D., and carefully buried in individual wrappings in a pit dug into the floor of the cave. These are still recorded as the oldest known duck decoys in history.

The first decoys to be made in mass quantity came from Salt Lake city, Utah and they were made mainly of rubber although earlier decoys were carved from wood, which was hard to keep a float as they would either tip over or become water logged.  A newer invention for a duck decoy was having them carved from cork, which would float without a problem, and they were lighter to carry out hunting then the traditional wooded decoys. The only problem with cork decoys was that they didn’t last very long. Today some cork decoys are actually worth some money to decoy collectors and antique dealers.

Other types of hunting duck decoys were made of Styrofoam and urethane foam but both were easily damaged, not very durable and did not display very much detail.

With a demand for a lighter more detailed and more realistic looking decoy the next generation had to very durable and mirror waterfowl. Decoys made of high-density polyethylene are blow molded and are made with many different types and styles to choose what works best for you. Variations now include: Motorized decoys, Wind motion decoys, floaters, resters and magnums (Larger then normal) hunting duck decoys that last allot longer then any other decoy in history.

Filed under: Rifles and Shotguns on November 27th, 2009