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Thread: Cabela's Real Image Decoy Review

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Posts
    1,777

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    Just received a dozen Cabela's "Real Image" mallard decoys. For those interested, here are a few comments.

    Preface - Decoys are made for people to buy and enjoy. Ducks usually don't care too much. We all realize that being in the right spot has more to do with hunting success than decoys detailed to the n-th degree or other gadgets. We all know that clorox jugs, milk jugs, and coke bottles also have their place in waterfowling (I used to dumpster dive for em!) and fancy decoys are not a true necessity. Even the Flam-bozo's of yesteryear still work. With that said, comments are below...

    General - A definite step up from the GHG both in construction as well as price.

    Construction - Good thick plastic, hardly flex when squeezed with both hands, but not too rigid. Drake heads go on with a bit of a struggle but once they're in place, they do not come off easily. One of the drakes had a 1/16" overhang where the head meets the breast. Not a biggie.

    Size/Shape/Anatomy - My eye tells me these guys are about 5-10% oversized and they look good in that proportion. Lots of stuff going on anatomy-wise and it's all good. Shape is excellent as well as a lot of small details not found on other decoys including GHG. Each head comes from a separate carving and has its own distinctive look. An absolutely great piece of work, no cookie-cutter looks going on here. They are a real pleasure to look at, no disappointments at all.

    Paint - Paint quality appears to be good - will not flake or scratch off with fingernails. A lot better paint scheme than any other plastic decoys I've seen. There are a few tweaks that could have been made but I haven't seen anything else in plastic that comes close. Heads on the drakes project well from a distance. I'm not that wild about the splashes of orange on the hen breasts used in darkening that area. No biggie though.

    Keels - Keels are weighted but not too heavy. Grooves for line wrapping in the middle of the keel as well as a notch and line hole on the fronts only (no line hole on the rear of the keel). End cap is glued on.

    Floatation - Have not tested them yet. Judging from the amount of surface area under the decoys, they should float very well. It would appear they did not have to alter the wooden original in order to get the plastic version to float right. This happened on the GHG ringnecks which is why they look so funkily out of proportion.

    Final Comments - The Real Image decoys are without a doubt the best looking plastics out there. Will they help us kill more birds than GHG - it's doubtful. However, for walk-in hunters (like me), for folks who are simply enamored by duck decoys (like me), for folks who only need a dozen or two to hunt with here in SC (like me), these decoys might be something to consider.

    I can hear it now - "But GB, you make your own gunners, why the plastics?" Toting self-righting cork birds through the woods a couple of miles is hard on me and hard on the birds, not real practical. These R/I decoys should lighten my load considerably as well as be a pleasure to look at all morning long.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    greenville
    Posts
    1,821

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    a great, well thought out review.
    wherever we go we bring monkey with us

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Lexington County
    Posts
    5,230

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    Excellent review!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    New Bern, NC
    Posts
    97

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    very excellent view on this.

    I used to carry 5 dozen for a 1/2 mile to hunting grounds in WA. I would have liked to carry less but had to compete with a pond up the road.

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