Cheap Snow Goose Decoys Part 2

If you missed the first part of how we are making our own cheap snow goose decoys, here it is.

Three days of working here and there on our homemade silhouettes and the snow goose decoys are finally done! It didn't take too long to complete, but sub freezing temps and wind made it hard to stay with it for long periods of time. All the decoys were cut and needed to be staked in order to paint. We used 1/8 inch cold rolled steel and 12 inch insulation supports from Lowes. The steel is more expensive and offers a little more stability while the supports are cheaper, but are a little more flimsy. Once the snow goose decoys were staked, the yard was filled! A few strange looks from the neighbors later the decoys were finished!

The printed side of the sign was painted with gray primer. It took a couple coats to get it completely covered. After the decoy was covered in gray, it was either a heavy hazing of black for a blue goose decoy, or a couple coats of white for a snow goose decoy. A few were left a smoky gray as a juvenile snow and a few heads were left dark on the blues for juvenile blues.

The progression of primer coats on the printed side of the sign.  You have to be careful not to spray too much on it to prevent it from running.  This will prevent it from being splotchy at the end.

Unpainted, primed, blue goose, and snow goose decoys before adding feather detail.

We didn't paint it completely black, but more of a heavy hazing to leave a little gray through it for blue goose decoys.  Then, paint the head and belly/chest area white and let the white blend into the dark colorings.  We cut a stencil out of leftover corrugated plastic for feather detail.  Using separate stencils on snow geese and blue geese

The finished product!  In total they run about $6.50 a dozen with the insulation supports as stakes.  Around $9.00 with the cold rolled steel cut as stakes.  I'm sure these prices would be less with better spray painting conditions, but those prices aren't bad compared to $30+ a dozen for other decoys.  Granted, these will only be good for drawing flocks from a distance, but it'll at least grab their attention and get some flocks to us.  We'll soon find out if the time, money and effort was worth it when we roll out the snow goose decoy spread!